Well well well… here we are again.. My yearly topic, that no one asked for or cares about, but screw you, I'm going to continue doing it anyway.
I feel like my approach to bonsai and my techniques have changed a lot in the last year. I have looked back at trees, especially my Pear tree and thought: "What the hell was I thinking"?
I suddenly look at it and I see mistakes... problems... unsightly bits.. That tree is currently my Everest. I have other trees that I have worked and corrected their mistakes (mistakes by my definition).. but that Pear.. I am scared to cut it! I'm a fool.
It needs heavy work, one of its trunks reduced, larger branches removed... same old reason for being scared.. some parts have older bark which I don't want to make a mistake a lose. Branches with development which I don't want to waste.. but I can counter all of that. This tree grows well, really well. So anything I do will be fixed in a few years and be better for it cos I worked it! Also needs a repot this Spring too.
Something I have learnt about that species, it does not ramify well. To be clear, I don't just mean ramification as in the final stage of development. I mean getting secondary and tertiary branching. I find the internodes to be long, so by allowing 2 or 3 branches, you end up with a LONG branch. It needs to be grown and cut back hard to induce back budding, for better branching. Anyways, I digress.
Same old, fear of failure. I need to get over this and anyone else feeling similar, I suggest you do the same. Get over it. Work the tree. Learn. Growing is not just for the tree, its for you as a Bonsai artist too.
I have the same trees as I did last year, I am happy with most of them and have my own house now and place to work them comfortably and look at them more. I have a lot of repoting to do and I plan to simply study them more, learn more from them than from other sources.
I am sorting the garden then I plan to buy 10 hornbeams and 10 beech to plant, some on a tile, some not, all in the ground. Get some years of growth and give myself a load of material. Should be fine. Made myself my first wooden box, plan to build another this week when weather is better, plant a few big trees in them. Got my first mallsai elm, that I received exactly 5 years ago today, air layered, top half been growing in to a monster in the ground.. about to be dug up, chopped and planted in a box. That should be really cool in time.
I think its a positive thing that I am seeing mistakes on my trees, and correcting them. Or at least, things I consider to be mistakes. I want my trees to be mine. Not the tree in a Japanese picture book, not a tree that adheres to all rules known to man.. my tree. Otherwise, what's the point of it all?
I feel like I have nothing exciting to say, but I am still here. Still plenty of trees, work to do, things to learn, plans to be enacted.
My 2 fav trees at the moment are these. I have a few other favs too but I enjoy these quite a lot.
Happy Bonsai'ing!
I feel like my approach to bonsai and my techniques have changed a lot in the last year. I have looked back at trees, especially my Pear tree and thought: "What the hell was I thinking"?
I suddenly look at it and I see mistakes... problems... unsightly bits.. That tree is currently my Everest. I have other trees that I have worked and corrected their mistakes (mistakes by my definition).. but that Pear.. I am scared to cut it! I'm a fool.
It needs heavy work, one of its trunks reduced, larger branches removed... same old reason for being scared.. some parts have older bark which I don't want to make a mistake a lose. Branches with development which I don't want to waste.. but I can counter all of that. This tree grows well, really well. So anything I do will be fixed in a few years and be better for it cos I worked it! Also needs a repot this Spring too.
Something I have learnt about that species, it does not ramify well. To be clear, I don't just mean ramification as in the final stage of development. I mean getting secondary and tertiary branching. I find the internodes to be long, so by allowing 2 or 3 branches, you end up with a LONG branch. It needs to be grown and cut back hard to induce back budding, for better branching. Anyways, I digress.
Same old, fear of failure. I need to get over this and anyone else feeling similar, I suggest you do the same. Get over it. Work the tree. Learn. Growing is not just for the tree, its for you as a Bonsai artist too.
I have the same trees as I did last year, I am happy with most of them and have my own house now and place to work them comfortably and look at them more. I have a lot of repoting to do and I plan to simply study them more, learn more from them than from other sources.
I am sorting the garden then I plan to buy 10 hornbeams and 10 beech to plant, some on a tile, some not, all in the ground. Get some years of growth and give myself a load of material. Should be fine. Made myself my first wooden box, plan to build another this week when weather is better, plant a few big trees in them. Got my first mallsai elm, that I received exactly 5 years ago today, air layered, top half been growing in to a monster in the ground.. about to be dug up, chopped and planted in a box. That should be really cool in time.
I think its a positive thing that I am seeing mistakes on my trees, and correcting them. Or at least, things I consider to be mistakes. I want my trees to be mine. Not the tree in a Japanese picture book, not a tree that adheres to all rules known to man.. my tree. Otherwise, what's the point of it all?
I feel like I have nothing exciting to say, but I am still here. Still plenty of trees, work to do, things to learn, plans to be enacted.
My 2 fav trees at the moment are these. I have a few other favs too but I enjoy these quite a lot.
Happy Bonsai'ing!
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