Smoke and Mirrors - 005

Smoke

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Prostrata Juniper

In 2012 the Fresno Bonsai Society had its yearly show. One of its members was moving and had bought this prostrata juniper that was left over from a GSBF convention workshop. He donated it to the club as a silent auction piece and no one wanted it. I placed a bid of 100.00 on it and figured it would be out bid soon and it stayed all day. I took the tree home and since it was already in a pot I just put it on the benches in the back.

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In 2014 the tree had bushed out all over the place and at this point the tree looked silly being so thin and tall. It was a good effort but the wrong style for this trunk.

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Something had to be done. I know...cut off all the branches except at the top and then style it as bunjin?

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Make a few jins...

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Now..I have to deal with this big branch. It needs to be bent down...alot! Si I drill a couple holes in a clamp so I can wire it to the trunk and branch so it won't slip off and start pulling the trigger. I bring it into place and wire it there.

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Smoke

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By Fall of 2014 I took the first picture of the tree in its new pot. A drum pot by Matsumoto Takeshi and snapped a photo.

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In 2017 the tree was in need of some styling again because this was the year my wife died and I was pretty preoccupied with her failing health. Most of my trees were bushes and it would take a lot of work to get many back as well as the sprinkler incident that year which killed some of the trees. This one was spared as it received water from the lawn system but the bonsai system was off for four days in July at 106 degrees.

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I found that I had some loose bark in the trunk on the upper left. I removed it and added the shari there and treated it with lime sulpher

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By the Fall of 2017 I tried connecting all the branches on the right into this cascading water flow of branches. It was not to be. I think BVF mentioned that it had parallel branches. He was right. Some shari was also added low on the right and connected to that on the upper left. I liked the jin peeking out from around the live trunk.

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Spring of 2018 and I decided that the crown was too heavy and needed reducing. I cut off each branch and looked. Making sure I removed the ones I didn't need and retained what I did need. The canopy needed thinning too and this was all done at the same time. My future goal is to add a little more length to the left and keep the right side shorter. Flatten out the apex some, which takes time due to needing the correct branches there, but they will come.

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Lazylightningny

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I assume these have to have a really solid root system established before you can attempt the drastic thinning of foliage that you did?

Keep them coming, Al. This is a great series. I appreciate your effort posting them.
 

amcoffeegirl

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Really nice work. I didn't like the oringal treeclose up, however I kinda like the distance shot on the bench. But much better now :) it's great to see experience via the photos, helps out noobies like me
I agree progression threads are the best.
 

coh

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I like the way this one is turning out.
 
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