The Tree Thread

[leatherback]

Cleaned up a Sabina yamadori I got last Feb at the Trophy. Yin fluid on the deadwood. Removes moss and algea throughout, and adjusted a few roots.

Getting stronger every day, and will be ready for a bit of tweaking this spring.

 

[n8]

Japanese beech: day

 

[badatusernames]

working on a shimpaku

 

[Forsoothe!]

working on a shimpaku

With about 12 hours of fine wiring you'll have a fine tree!

 

[badatusernames]

With about 12 hours of fine wiring you'll have a fine tree!

hah, yeah

 

[Forsoothe!]

hah, yeah

Do you doubt that? All those small twiggy branches with clumps of foliage at the ends can and should be arranged into more or less flat, horizontal clouds, radiating sideways from and in-parallel with major branches. That alone will make a tree. New foliage grows up, towards the sun, so we arrange foliage sideways and a new crown grows up from that. The existing twigs are un-arranged and helter-skelter and you will not just cut back and get anything else other than skinny twigs with less foliage than they have now, still un-arranged and helter-skelter. Period. The only difference between that tree and a nice tree is that it is not styled, it is merely alive and growing, even if it is plenty healthy. It may, or may not have ever been styled, but if it has been styled it has been unattended for so long that all the previous work has been undone.

The wages of sin are branches and twigs growing too long and foliage growing too far out on the skinny twigs and branches. Undoing that is work. About 12 hours of fine wiring as I see it.

If you have lots of trees already and don't need the positive feedback of being able to look at a nice tree now, then by all means take on a five or ten year recombobulation. But if you're a new kid and have nothing but five or ten year project trees, you might get tired of bonsai and disenchanted with waiting forever for something you can beam about. There's a tree in there, now.

 

[badatusernames]

Do you doubt that? All those small twiggy branches with clumps of foliage at the ends can and should be arranged into more or less flat, horizontal clouds, radiating sideways from and in-parallel with major branches. That alone will make a tree. New foliage grows up, towards the sun, so we arrange foliage sideways and a new crown grows up from that. The existing twigs are un-arranged and helter-skelter and you will not just cut back and get anything else other than skinny twigs with less foliage than they have now, still un-arranged and helter-skelter. Period. The only difference between that tree and a nice tree is that it is not styled, it is merely alive and growing, even if it is plenty healthy. It may, or may not have ever been styled, but if it has been styled it has been unattended for so long that all the previous work has been undone.

The wages of sin are branches and twigs growing too long and foliage growing too far out on the skinny twigs and branches. Undoing that is work. About 12 hours of fine wiring as I see it.

If you have lots of trees already and don't need the positive feedback of being able to look at a nice tree now, then by all means take on a five or ten year recombobulation. But if you're a new kid and have nothing but five or ten year project trees, you might get tired of bonsai and disenchanted with waiting forever for something you can beam about. There's a tree in there, now.

no, I do not doubt that there is a lot of time that could be put into this tree, that's why I said yeah

I'm hoping to save it to bring it to a club or class if we can ever do something like that again this year

I actually don't know how I feel about bringing it into a warm house for long enough to style further during January, figured that wouldn't be a great idea.

 

[Forsoothe!]

I'm hoping to save it to bring it to a club or class if we can ever do something like that again this year

I wouldn't hold my breath...

 

[SeanS]

With about 12 hours of fine wiring you'll have a fine tree!

no, I do not doubt that there is a lot of time that could be put into this tree, that's why I said yeah

I'm hoping to save it to bring it to a club or class if we can ever do something like that again this year

I actually don't know how I feel about bringing it into a warm house for long enough to style further during January, figured that wouldn't be a great idea.

I wouldn't hold my breath...

Rules of The Tree Thread are to post a photo of a tree with every reply...

Nursery stock trident, roots to be explored in spring when I plant it in my grow bed. Nebari looks pretty promising from first observations. 3" base at the soil line and 2.25” at the chop.

 

[Forsoothe!]

no, I do not doubt that there is a lot of time that could be put into this tree, that's why I said yeah

I'm hoping to save it to bring it to a club or class if we can ever do something like that again this year

I actually don't know how I feel about bringing it into a warm house for long enough to style further during January, figured that wouldn't be a great idea.

I missed your last line. Don't bring it in out of the cold now or anytime before real spring arrives. But don't wait for a club meeting either, that's what I meant not holding your breath. The sooner your apply wire, the sooner you get close to a finished tree.

 

[leatherback]

I missed your last line. Don't bring it in out of the cold now or anytime before real spring arrives. But don't wait for a club meeting either, that's what I meant not holding your breath. The sooner your apply wire, the sooner you get close to a finished tree.

How hard is it to just post a tree when you write in this thread??

shimpaku

One of mine, I worked almost 2 years ago:

 

[leatherback]

I'm hoping to save it to bring it to a club or class if we can ever do something like that again this year

I actually don't know how I feel about bringing it into a warm house for long enough to style further during January, figured that wouldn't be a great idea

It is not much of an issue. A day inside is no big deal to work it. Or do like I do.. Work in a shed outside. Build character. And frozen fingers!

The tree you have can very quickly be nice. As indicated above, adding wire will greatly improve your tree. If you start a thread on it, people can more easily make recommendations.
A tree like the one you have there does not need to take 12 hours to work into a nice setup. This is what I did in 3 hours with the tree above, as part of a styling competition (Checked, it was October 2019):



Let it grow for a year, and this is how it went to bed in december 2020, ready for unwiring, cleanup and rewire before we hit spring:

 

[badatusernames]

It is not much of an issue. A day inside is no big deal to work it. Or do like I do.. Work in a shed outside. Build character. And frozen fingers!

The tree you have can very quickly be nice. As indicated above, adding wire will greatly improve your tree. If you start a thread on it, people can more easily make recommendations.
A tree like the one you have there does not need to take 12 hours to work into a nice setup. This is what I did in 3 hours with the tree above, as part of a styling competition (Checked, it was October 2019):

View attachment 348644

Let it grow for a year, and this is how it went to bed in december 2020, ready for unwiring, cleanup and rewire before we hit spring:
View attachment 348645

that’s very helpful. this is only my second juniper, the first being the first tree i ever repotted. still trying to figure out what to do with that one but waited too long to clean it up - now i know about the dying inner needles and such at least.

i thought the trunk on the one i posted was good enough to get while the getting was good

perhaps i’ll just wire it up and give it a whirl. i’d say all of my bonsai need work... here’s a natal plum i got later last year. i’ve wired down some of the new growth but am still figuring out what to do with a cascade, especially one that seems to grow this quickly

the trunk has a pretty straight line after the strong bend near the base, but it seems like a decent plant to screw around with

 

[Colorado]

I headed up into the mountains this weekend to celebrate my 29th birthday on my skis. This is a Chinese Elm pre-bonsai I purchased from Bonsai Creations Colorado on my drive up from Denver.

Future bunjin!

Here’s the tree, just leafing out, enjoying the sunrise near Keystone, Colorado.

 

[TomB]

Hawthorn with Prunus mume clump.

 

[coachspinks]

I headed up into the mountains this weekend to celebrate my 29th birthday on my skis. This is a Chinese Elm pre-bonsai I purchased from Bonsai Creations Colorado on my drive up from Denver.

Future bunjin!

Here’s the tree, just leafing out, enjoying the sunrise near Keystone, Colorado.
View attachment 348677
View attachment 348678

My daughter and her husband moved to Denver about a year ago. They love it. Snowboarding is their every weekend thing. We hope to visit in April. To stay with the rules of the thread, here is one of my small boxwoods. It is the first tree I bought 4 years ago when I started back in Bonsai.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Ume getting close to blooming.

 

[TomB]

Looking good. This clump is slightly further ahead.

 

[LanceMac10]

I headed up into the mountains this weekend to celebrate my 29th birthday on my skis. This is a Chinese Elm pre-bonsai I purchased from Bonsai Creations Colorado on my drive up from Denver.

Future bunjin!

Here’s the tree, just leafing out, enjoying the sunrise near Keystone, Colorado.
View attachment 348677
View attachment 348678

Lived out there in 89-92....Keystone allow snowboarding yet? Didn't allow it then, but Arapahoe Basin is just up the street...
Went to Breckenridge couple years ago. Lift ticket price was crazy!!! "Let's just sit on the deck, eat and drink all day" $150 or so? Yikes!! I saved money!!


BRT to cut back this week...be a bush in three weeks......

 

[Moridin]

On my last visit to the nursery I saw this hornbeam and I should have got it then. Today me and my daughter went and and brought it home today.