Weekend at Bjorn’s

[PeaceLoveBonsai]

I’m a part of Bjorn’s Conifer group C, we met this past weekend. Here’s snapshot of what I worked on.

First up was a Blue Spruce that I repotted in the spring of this year.

I decided to do a rough first styling of the tree.


I’m not 100% in love with the direction, but I know there is a lot of growing and back-budding still to come. After working this species for a little while, I have a new respect for truly great blue spruces. Like the ones Todd Schlafer has created and shown at the national show. These are not instant bonsai. Hats off to him or anyone making killer blue spruce, it ain’t easy!

 

[PeaceLoveBonsai]

Next up is a Hinoki. Hinoki is one of those trees that got me hooked on bonsai 4 years ago. I’ve since killed several. When Bjorn told us that he was bringing in a bunch of raw Hinoki material, I knew I was gonna have to buy one. To have a good piece of stock and Bjorn’s expertise to teach me was priceless to me. Here’s How it looked in the spring.

I sort of slip potted into a large plastic container so I could fit it into my car. It grew very well this year, so decided to have a go at styling the tree. I’m super pleased with how it turned out.



I’ll look to get it into a smaller container in the spring of 2021, if I can keep it alive!

 

[PeaceLoveBonsai]

Finally, I worked on a ponderous pine. I recently took a trip out to Colorado. After hiking Pikes Peak, I have a new appreciation for these awesome trees.

Here’s the before.



And the after.


I wish I could say that this was 100% me, Bjorn definitely helped. But, not as much as he did a year ago! I have along way to go, I have to continually ask him to repeat himself b/c he talks so damn fast, but I am getting better, slowly but surely. And doing more and more on my own.

My weekends at Bjorn’s are absolutely the highlight of my year!

 

[Smoke]

That is a nice pine. Has any talk been done on removing the whole middle trunk, the one that makes your apex? The left trunk and the right trunk talk to each other wonderfully. The middle one looks like it does not belong there. The bend helped but that odd angle just ruins the fluid flow of the other two trunks.

 

[PeaceLoveBonsai]

That is a nice pine. Has any talk been done on removing the whole middle trunk, the one that makes your apex? The left trunk and the right trunk talk to each other wonderfully. The middle one looks like it does not belong there. The bend helped but that odd angle just ruins the fluid flow of the other two trunks.

That’s funny you said that b/c we both thought the same thing. But we felt that keeping it initially seems to make sense. Can always cut it off later.

 

[j evans]

Really like the second two. Good work looking forward to seeing the progress.

 

[Smoke]

If you really want to guild the lily, comtemplate something like this. That main trunk is killer but it is hidden currently. Hi light that puppy

 

[mrcasey]

Can you tell us a little more about the hinoki repot. What were Bjorn's thoughts on changing or not changing out the old soil?
What kind of soil is it in? How did you decide how much of the root system to trim?

 

[cmeg1]

Awesome Pine.I really like the Hinoki.Hope your successful with growing it.The bomb!

 

[Potawatomi13]

The Ponderosa looks GREAT! Gripes about this or that trunk would just ruin what God has created from the beginning. Wonderful wild non traditional styling and basic structure are great.

 

[JudyB]

Great looking work, looks like all 3 are going to be really great. Love the hinoki, want!!!

 

[PeaceLoveBonsai]

Can you tell us a little more about the hinoki repot. What were Bjorn's thoughts on changing or not changing out the old soil?
What kind of soil is it in? How did you decide how much of the root system to trim?

So, it was more of a slip pot than a true a repot. The root ball was big and I couldn't really get it into my car and if I would have showed up back home with that big a root ball, my wife probably would have banned me from Bjorn's! So, there was this large plastic container that worked. (i think it's actually an Anderson flat, just not very flat. The bottom is sort of plastic lattice that drains real well.) I just shaved off a bit of the root ball in every direction, cutting as few roots as possible. Keeping all the original soil, which is a heavy dirt. I squeezed the remaining ball into the container.

My understanding is the best time (at least for us in St. Louis/Nashville) is late spring, April/May to repot the tree.

I'm actually not sure how much of the original soil we will take off at that time.

 

[Atom#28]

ponderous pine

Ponderous, indeed! Such a cool tree. It's hard to tell: does the branch on the far right have any foliage?

 

[PeaceLoveBonsai]

Update for @Smoke

 

[Smoke]

Better, it least it looks to be growing in this picture. This tree has way too many branches, and they are going in ten different directions.

This is a very good tree, and I told you that before. I also said it had too many branches then too. Now it looks even worse. This tree is a prime example of at least three example going on at the same time, and the sooner you pick on, the better you will be. You may be working on this tree with Bjorn and following his guide line, but if you don't tell people where it going with a virt, then it is open for discussion. There three way to take this tree, I'll give you my feeling on each of them.
1. First lets just talk about the virtual I provided some time ago. That is one idea, making an upright tree.

2. Slant tree, a slant tree is a tree in which the trunk moves off at an angle and does not center over the root mass. This tree does that and does no extend below the edge of the pot. All this needs is some wire and some detailing and this could change massively overnight. I could put a canopy on this in about three hours.



3. A semi cascade tree. My favorite style. I think they are marvelous. This would be the same as your slant but tipping it down a little to make sure part of the canopy dipped below the rim of the pot, but not below the bottom of the pot.

I have no idea why some of the branches are being manipulated into to very crazy positions to try and fulfill part of a canopy. I have circled these places in red. In all of my ideas the part in blue is removed, it's just not needed...at all. It is a counterbalance to all that could be great about the tree but that big counterbalance come in and nullifies all that is good. It's just a big blob of green that does nothing for the plant.



Now if for some reason you wish to get rid of the big arm on the left, then maybe working that big blob into the canopy could work, but not as long as you move this tree left.

 

[PeaceLoveBonsai]

An update to the Hinoki. I repotted this spring. Didn’t intend to work on the tree this year and just let it rest, but it was sooo healthy and bushy, I decided to clean it up this weekend. The crown from the original styling died off, so the tree is a wee bit shorter than the original plan, but still a good size, IMHO. So, What do you think?

Before:

After

 

[BobbyLane]

looks good, i like it, very convincing. obviously the jin will be refined.

 

[PeaceLoveBonsai]

looks good, i like it, very convincing. obviously the jin will be refined.

Thanks! That jin might be gone all together, tbh. Still undecided.

 

[Hartinez]

Nice trees Greg especially the hinoki cypress. I feel the same way about Hinoki. It’s been on my must obtain list for sometime. I Found one this year that was B&B from HD. I had thought it was not grafted but once I pulled the burlap back, sure enough, it was. Fortunately the graft isn’t awful and i think its something i can work with. I set as many branches as i could knowing that I’d remove several eventually in favor of Jin features.
How aggressive were you with the most recent repot?

 

[PeaceLoveBonsai]

Nice trees Greg especially the hinoki cypress. I feel the same way about Hinoki. It’s been on my must obtain list for sometime. I Found one this year that was B&B from HD. I had thought it was not grafted but once I pulled the burlap back, sure enough, it was. Fortunately the graft isn’t awful and i think its something i can work with. I set as many branches as i could knowing that I’d remove several eventually in favor of Jin features.
How aggressive were you with the most recent repot?

Thanks! The one you’ve started looks good, progressing well. The drawing looks great! As for this one, the repot was rather aggressive, but this trees comes from a huge batch of hinoki’s that Bjorn brought to his nursery several years ago and they take a good bit of abuse. He and other students have been even more aggressive than I with very good results. See the image below, its from the same batch of hinoki and as you can see, his is in an even more shallow pot than mine and was started on it’s bonsai journey in 2020, whereas mine was started in 2019. So, I’m not sure if it’s the particular cultivar, or if you can be that aggressive on all hinoki. I’m still finding my way with them.