Bonsai tree: Another Yamadori Rocky Mtn. Juniper–

This juniper has been growing in my backyard for a year. It’s a client tree, another of the great native yamadori that was collected by Randy Knight of Oregon Bonsai.

Junipers don’t like to be repotted very early, they do better when repotted in late spring when it’s warmer. So this tree, which is in a box, needed a prop of a wooden block that could support it for a few months, at which time it would be potted in a bonsai container. I also cut the box with a circular saw and leveled the soil surface at the new inclination so watering would be easier.

It’s a fun tree, dynamic, and I liked the tensions between the jin to the left and the foliage to the right. I get into arguments with people about which way the foliage should go when there is jin or shari present in a forceful way. The jin or shari, in the presumed environment of the tree, are a great hint: Where the storms are coming from, prevailing winds, etc. If a jin is pointing in one direction, the living part of tree should be styled in the other direction. I see even professionals doing very strange things with jin, as an indicator of wind direction. Only several trees ‘flag’ in the wind, spruce being one of them. Juniper is not one of them. Go into the mountains and the dead limbs are facing the environment. Check out the Monterey cypresses; same story.

To critique my own work , I think the apex should be about three inches to the left. That would bring it closer to the base and more stable. Something for the next reworking…

(I’ve noticed an acute lack of dissension on this blog… the folks who are thinking, ‘You’re a flake, Hagedorn, and don’t know what you’re doing,’ are not writing. Please write your real thoughts!)

Before work

After bending the large branches

Reworking the wooden box

After styling

Read more!

Bonsai tree: Another Yamadori Rocky Mtn. Juniper–

This juniper has been growing in my backyard for a year. It’s a client tree, another of the great native yamadori that was collected by Randy Knight of Oregon Bonsai.

Junipers don’t like to be repotted very early, they do better when repotted in late spring when it’s warmer. So this tree, which is in a box, needed a prop of a wooden block that could support it for a few months, at which time it would be potted in a bonsai container. I also cut the box with a circular saw and leveled the soil surface at the new inclination so watering would be easier.

It’s a fun tree, dynamic, and I liked the tensions between the jin to the left and the foliage to the right. I get into arguments with people about which way the foliage should go when there is jin or shari present in a forceful way. The jin or shari, in the presumed environment of the tree, are a great hint: Where the storms are coming from, prevailing winds, etc. If a jin is pointing in one direction, the living part of tree should be styled in the other direction. I see even professionals doing very strange things with jin, as an indicator of wind direction. Only several trees ‘flag’ in the wind, spruce being one of them. Juniper is not one of them. Go into the mountains and the dead limbs are facing the environment. Check out the Monterey cypresses; same story.

To critique my own work , I think the apex should be about three inches to the left. That would bring it closer to the base and more stable. Something for the next reworking…

(I’ve noticed an acute lack of dissension on this blog… the folks who are thinking, ‘You’re a flake, Hagedorn, and don’t know what you’re doing,’ are not writing. Please write your real thoughts!)

Before work

After bending the large branches

Reworking the wooden box

After styling

Read more!

Bonsai tree: Grafting Results

Some of you have asked to see results of the grafting done this spring. Here are a few photos to share:

This is a Red pine graft on Ponderosa. The Red pine is the bright green foliage in the center. There are only two grafts, and I've weakened the Ponderosa shoots somewhat. Perhaps by the end of next year I'll be able to take off all the Ponderosa, and then we'll have a Red pine.

The second graft on the same tree. Although the foliage is as long as the Ponderosa right now, it will reduce considerably in a smaller pot with less fertilizer. And then there is always the possibility of using the standard Black pine technique of cutting the candles, and then we have needles as short as we like.

A Rocky Mountain juniper grafted with Chinese juniper. The grafted foliage is the tight mass in the center, and the Rocky Mountain is the droopy foliage on the bottom. This was a cleft graft, with two scions. Approach grafting is also very common and actually easier for juniper.

Read more!

Bonsai tree: Unusual Rocky Mountain Juniper Styling

This tree has been sitting on my benches for about three years. It has some interesting twists, and some very challenging angles in old wood that made it a compromising puzzle to find the best front and inclination.
The first year it was planted any which way—which happened to be upright—in a box of pumice to get the roots growing again. It had just been collected. The next year I put it in a box as a cascade to let it grow strength and to look at it that way. Well, eventually I disagreed with myself and potted it up this spring as an upright again. I imagine the tree is getting dizzy.
This is a photo essay of the styling of it—

The Rocky Mountain juniper before styling.

One of the best features of the tree, a very old cascading, twisting branch.

The large right upper branch was stripped and carved.

Final photo. Tree is 32" from apex to bottom of the cascade. The lower branch in particular needs growth to fill out and balance the lower cascade. Also the training pot is too big to be a final pot. So there is still development to be done with this one, as ever. Whenever was a bonsai done in a day?

I enjoyed working on this tree. The rigidity of the basic structure—the old branches—did not allow the usual harmonies to be imposed on them. And so I left the tree pretty much as it was. I think in the future a very interesting tumbling pattern of foliage pads could develop, almost like water coming down a waterfall over an erratic pattern of rocks. Read more!

Bonsai tree: Coming Soon: North American Bonsai at the International Bonsai Symposium

This splendid Japanese maple by Bill Valavanis is from the cover of International Bonsai’s special Maple Issue.
Larch, cedar, bald cypress, buttonwood, Rocky mountain juniper will be all featured September 10-12 in Rochester NY. Meet some excellent bonsai artists and teachers, take a couple workshops and go home happy (visit International Bonsai for details).
…the gallery book North American Bonsai is now double discounted at Stone Lantern. So is The 1st U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition Album.

Source: Bonsai Bark Read more!