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Archive for the ‘Before and after’ Category

Vine Maple… Tower… Experiment?

Posted in Before and after, tagged , , , on April 1, 2013 | 21 Comments »

I had no idea how to title this one. Just as I had no idea, really, what exactly I was doing with my March Seasonal students the day we put this thing together. Which must instill a lot of confidence in my students. Seasonal veterans are familiar with me taking a left turn sometimes. But this time I was more than a bit uncertain about their reaction when I started our morning with, ‘I’ve this idea, but not the faintest clue how we’re going to do it.’ So with that, we did… it. Whatever ‘it’ is, I hope the photos will describe better than I-

The vine maple for our experiment. Vine maple, Acer circinatum, is a Northwest native which typically grows as a multiple-trunk understory tree. They are similar to Japanese maple. I collected this one in the Cascades.

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Preparing the roots-

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Ya, I know, now it gets weird. What the heck are they doing? Tom and Ed are monkeying around with a plastic cutting board…

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More monkeying around… Thanks to my students this thing was really well built. They were superb engineers.

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Now the cat’s out of the bag. This plastic internal support was intended to loft a cascading deciduous tree.

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Our bronze mascot crab makes another sneaky appearance.

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I had to include this photo, as you’d never guess bonsai had anything to do with what these four are engaged with-

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It did rather look like a guitar…

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Tom

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John

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Howard

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John and Florentina scoping out the positioning.

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After some revision, our final support structure-

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Tying the maple to the support- which in itself took some weird engineering.

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We used sphagnum moss (‘orchid moss’) as our substrate. No muck this time.

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Wrapping the sphagnum with cheesecloth, just to clarify the form a bit.

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32″ H. After adding a few projections and licorice ferns with moss… there is some moss sprinkled on the sphagnum, too, so I hope the whole thing will be green in several months. In any event, (hopefully) it will shortly look less like a mangy dog that’s been mummified, but this is where it is now. Little leaves are now popping all over the branches. It’s in a greenhouse under a misting system and I’ll give you some updates on it in the future! For now, I’m thinking this is an ‘Ode to the Northwest’—full of spindly deciduous plants growing near rotting logs and more moss and ferns than you can shake a moldy stick at.

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Rocky Mountain juniper cascade styling–

Posted in Before and after, tagged , , , on September 15, 2012 | 25 Comments »

I had a comment on another juniper post this month that the finished tree looked like a pronghorn antelope… which was pretty apt I thought, and yet that name could well go for this one, too. It’s a Rocky Mountain juniper collected a few years ago by Randy Knight and purchased from Ryan Neil, and my apprentice Konnor and I styled it a couple weeks ago here in Portland, Oregon, USA.

Although I assisted in choosing the inclination, front, and setting the branches, most of the work including the wiring was done by Konnor. Much fun and some late evenings later, we ended up with this styling. Please let us know what you think!

As the tree was before we began tinkering with it…

We don’t incline trees just to make life difficult, really, although it must appear that way sometimes. I hope the root system does not have us do any really freaky bending techniques next spring to get it in a bonsai pot.

Konnor and I wiring the tree. Photo by Troy Cardoza on one of his impromptu and much enjoyed visits to the garden.

Here’s the final image. I forgot to measure the tree, but as you can see from the previous photo it’s a fairly modest sized large tree. Crazy old, that deadwood is fantastic. Please do let us know what you think of this. Actually just as I’m writing this it looks a bit like a scorpion… what do you think, Konnor? Did we make an arachnid?

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Special Rocky Mountain Juniper Styling-

Posted in Before and after, tagged , on September 4, 2012 | 18 Comments »

This tree is special for two reasons. The first is because my friend Troy Cardoza collected it. I like having trees that link me to other people. And it’s also special because it’s quite small for its age, with some great sinuous lines.

Troy collected this Rocky Mountain juniper early last year, and it grew so well both last year and this year that I thought we’d just style it before it becomes a complete mop of foliage. It was potted in pumice and only fertilized with moderate amounts of organic pellets. Lovely raw tree. I completely enjoyed the styling session. Had a couple friends drop in while I was working on it and threw a camera at them, so there is some documentation that this transformation was not done in a disembodied sort of way. There was a person in the background somewhere…

I have a nice pot for this tree and will offer updates on its progress in the future. At the moment it is sitting in a greenhouse under shade cloth. The big bends that were needed are stressful on the tree and when it is given protection from wind and strong sun there are usually no problems. You will notice that I left many long growing tips on it, which will help it recover from the bending, and also many of the branches are a bit short and need lengthening.

One of the things that make this a rare tree to work with is that only minor carving was needed, essentially just shortening some long, thin jins. And the rest of the deadwood is completely natural on this moderately sized—truly ‘bonsai sized’—tree, at 24″ high.

The juniper before any work began.

The front and inclination I preferred for this tree. There were several possibilities, and other artists might have chosen otherwise.

I considered leaving the bark on as it was so wonderfully shreddy and thick. But decided to take it off as is customary on junipers to determine the path of the live vein and for the visual dynamic between that and the deadwood.

Two of the branches needed significant bends to use the foliage in the design.

Finished tree. Or as my friends remind me, ‘No, not finished, that’s a dead tree!’ It’s quite alive. The tree is 24″ high, 31″ wide. The left lower branch is the key branch so it will need to grow out a bit. Left flow. In fact all the branches need length, as it looks like a small tree on top of a large base. I hope I’ve set things approximately right so there will be little need for major adjustment to compensate for that expected growth. With time the future image will show more integration of foliage and the rest of the tree.

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Cryptomeria and Foemina Juniper—Year Two

Posted in Before and after, Development, tagged , , on July 22, 2012 | 6 Comments »

Since a few of you seemed interested in the work going on at a client’s place with these two well-known trees, I thought an update on them might be fun. We start with the first cryptomeria photo from 1 1/2 years ago:

This is how the tree looked before we began wiring, adjusting, and trimming

Cryptomeria as it looks now, in July 2012 after 1 1/2 years of work and growth. The tree was recently repotted, and we shifted it to the right slightly so that the forward facing root was less ‘in our face’. Although not so visible in the photo, the apex area needs still to fill out a bit, but that should happen within the next year. This is a big tree, about a yard tall.

And now the Foemina juniper. Here’s a progression of photos showing how that one has changed in the last two years:

Photo of Foemina juniper from a show a few years ago, in the original design.

After the initial December 2011 styling. This styling resulted in the post ‘Tar and Feathering?’ which inspired some interesting commentary from readers. Here you have yet another opportunity for throwing rotten vegetables and used computers… once again please comment/fling freely! Apple products preferred.

Foemina juniper as it looked in July 2012. Notice that the top foliage pads are not yet fully defined, and the bottom ones are beginning to come sharply into focus. This is only possible through scissor work. Pinching any of the needle type junipers—J. rigida, J. communis, or Foemina—results in weak trees that do not have clear pad definition. The reasons for this are worthy of another post… but in short, don’t pinch any juniper—the needle junipers in particular need to grow out and extend several inches to build energy before you cut with a scissors, otherwise you’ll have a panicked and distressed tree. (Scale juniper work is totally different.) This Foemina has regained some of its natural vigor with scissor training. The lower right jin still needs reduction, and please ignore the ugly wire holding the tree into the pot, it’s temporary…

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Mountain Hemlock On Levitated Nylon Board

Posted in Before and after, tagged , , , , on March 31, 2012 | 30 Comments »

Yes, that is the correct headline… bonsai on plastic. I wasn’t too sure of it myself.

In the late summer of 2010 I collected this Mountain Hemlock, Tsuga mertensiana, with my friend Anton Nijhuis in Canada, and potted it in a strange box that was sort of cantilevered up because the tree had been prostrate, growing through the mosses on bedrock. Digging through the moss uncovered a rather curious twin-trunk base that seemed like it would have to be styled in an unorthodox way, so naturally I wanted it. A year and a half later the box was full of roots, and the time seemed right to complete this weird idea of mine.

I’ve always wondered about alternatives to stone and prefab slabs. They tend to crack or break just when a show is just being set up; their timing is truly impeccable. Also, a bit ironic given that I used to be a potter, I’ve been drawn to the idea of making nearly invisible platforms, in place of a ceramic container. In other words, something supporting the tree that is really not an element in its presentation. So the idea of an inconspicuous, impervious, strong support had me pondering for a while.

Like many of my creative endeavors, I quiz everyone I know. ‘So, I have this idea… how would you do this if you wanted to do that?’ And you end up with a collage of ideas that you edit and orchestrate into a complete vision, sort of like an orchestra conductor or movie director must do I suppose. With an assortment of weird tools, bolts and ideas the March Seasonal students and I spent more than a day cobbling the thing together, and it was great fun—- Thanks Roger, Gary, John and Konnor!

Mountain Hemlock before styling.

Styled, but before the potting experiment...

Right side view---tree swoops far to the rear before coming forward.

A full box of roots in 100% pumice, one and a half years from collection.

Tree out of the box in position on the nylon board, with a sketch of the platform design in ink. The fragile rootball is held together with cheesecloth. Lots of moving around at this point with an unwrapped rootball would have destroyed it. Gary or Roger's legs, I think... sorry guys, I am not attentive enough to identify your boots or belts. Thanks to both of you, though! There was a fair bit of holding things in position that day.

Konnor Jenson, my intrepid periodic apprentice, filing the edges of the board. Sporting a knit hat, he looks like a diehard Portlander!

The plan to hold the leaning muck wall in place. We did not take a shot of the twine that we wove between the chopsticks, offering a bit more support. The bolt heads you see are the top side of our levitation idea, with round end caps underneath serving as inset 'legs'.

Mossing the surface; disembodied nose courtesy John Kahlie. He passed the mossing test with flying colors and will be relieved to move on to lichen in the next Seasonal... Just kidding, John!

The final design. The small accent plants near the base are heather and a curious evergreen penstemon, for those interested in the smaller elements. The moss may eventually grow over the edge of the platform, hiding it, at least that is the hope. This tree had an odd bend in the right smaller trunk, and I thought the addition of a cantilevered wall on the right side would marry well with that, sort of like a second bad note hit in a jazz piece that you think, 'Huh, that guy must have intended that, so maybe it works.' Opinions? Please let me know. In any event, this tree needs filling out a bit. The buds are swelling well in my greenhouse and it will be in there another month under a misting apparatus. Just like it got naturally on Vancouver Island...

Also, take a look at what Jonas is doing with another hemlock at:

http://bonsaitonight.com/2012/04/03/mountain-hemlock/

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Burning Bush—Seasonal Styling and Potting

Posted in Before and after, Development, tagged , , , , , on March 18, 2012 | 6 Comments »

This tree was originally collected by Kevin Yates from a park in Eugene. Apparently it had been kept stunted by the nutria that lived in a pond nearby. When Kevin saw this post he recognized his tree and corrected me on several points on its origin- Thanks!

Euonymus is a popular genus for bonsai. The burning bush, Euonymus alata, is not a commonly used species, however, and I was excited to give it a whirl. This photo essay was taken in the creation of this bonsai during the Winter Seasonal of 2012, in February.

The Euonymus after growing in an Anderson Flat for a few years. This photo was taken the day of styling, in February 2012.

The stalwart Howard Griesler of Chicago working with the flex-shaft grinder to bring down the large pruning cuts. (Howard is a foodie and loves our eclectic Portland restaurants...)

The redoubtable John Denny from Iowa working on the rootball. (John is a master brewer, and typically makes sage comments about the local micros).

Both gentlemen washing the rootball of some mucky old soil. I stood far away.

The prepared rootball drying a bit before potting.

Pot prepared... for this tree we used a simple mix of 50% akadama/50% pumice. This is not a perfect pot for the tree, but at least it fits. I'm sure there is a colorful glazed pot in its future, perhaps a dark blue or green.

Right about this time Howard's glasses broke. This was our solution---toothpicks from the kitchen deftly wired into place. It is rare to find an opportunity to wire outside of bonsai! One must take them eagerly whenever they arise.

The final result. It needs a stupendous amount of development, but it's an unusual species for bonsai and I'm curious to see where it goes. Certainly it will give the Japanese maples a run for their money in the fall with its vermillion foliage.

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Tar and Feathering? Changing a Famous Juniper…

Posted in Before and after, Development, tagged , , , , on December 14, 2011 | 28 Comments »

No matter how assured you are, changing the design of a famous tree is done with a deep intake of breath. One takes precautions. Like boarding up windows and doors, in premonition of a rowdy gang of tree maniacs in green cloaks with picks and axes and rolls of wire for who knows what horrible use, in the street outside your house. And you imagine thinking, as you stand quietly looking out at growing chaos and red torch fire, with chants like ‘Let’s redesign HIM!’, that a bonsai-free life in Acapulco sounds nice. But at this point it’s too late. The deed is done. My only advantage is that few of you know where I live…

Many of you may remember this Foemina juniper from old photos of California bonsai shows, or even last year’s Bonsai Statements magazine. It has a thirty-year history as a bonsai, created in California by the eminent Shig Miya from an air layer. Mr. Miya grafted the only branch at the top of the tree.

Deciding on this aesthetic shift for Mr. Miya’s tree was derived from a simple conversation about its possibilities with my client, who had purchased the tree several years ago. We were both eager to try a new form. My client is very interested in preserving old bonsai created in the States, but he also likes adding new twists to old things. I think bonsai develop an indefinable flavor when they’ve been worked on by multiple artists.

I am not a proponent of keeping bonsai as they are, indefinitely, in perpetuity, as a form or creative idea that was locked into place by the first artist. Bonsai are BONSAI precisely because many people, hopefully, lend their artistic stamp to it, and the bonsai change and morph over the decades. This is what makes a bonsai different from a novel or a painting. I know this is an issue of some contention particularly in public bonsai collections, where, understandably, there is an effort to retain bonsai looking like they did when donated. This presents great difficulties, however. It seems to me that if a bonsai were, to use an extreme example, to lose an important branch, then to have it remain locked in its old form even though visual balance has been lost would be to allow it to devolve into bad bonsai. And bonsai change without asking for our approval, too.

I think the only rule is to be continually seeking to find balance within the tree, within the design. And everyone’s sense of balance will be, naturally, a bit different.

The Foemina juniper on the Sept/Oct 2010 cover of Bonsai Statements.

Photo of the Foemina juniper from a show a few years ago, in the original design.

Current design, fall 2011. The lower right jin may be shortened in the future. My feeling was the apex should be lower than the top of the trunk, and that the cascading branch was too long. I hoped these changes would highlight the massive, straight trunk. And I wanted to see more integration of foliage and trunk, so that it appeared more as one unit. It needs perhaps a bit more growth to complete that last goal. Please comment freely and honestly!

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Old White Pine Rewiring

Posted in Before and after, tagged , , , , on December 8, 2011 | 5 Comments »

Not something we see every day in the United States… a meter-high seedling white pine. Meaning, a white pine on it’s own roots, not grafted onto black pine. Originally imported from Brussell’s Bonsai, this pine has been gaining strength and balance every year. I think I first styled it in 2008.

One of it’s few defects is a strong root on the right. I’ll have to discuss this with my client, but I may split it and lower it, at the same time raising the entire tree by half an inch next time it’s repotted. That way I hope to expose some of the other nebari roots and make them all at about the same level. Did that make any sense? Splitting the root will make two roots…and easier to lower.

Anyhow, here’s the tree as it looks this fall:

Seedling Japanese white pine, shikoku variety, before rewiring in fall 2011.

After wiring. The shoots still show quite a bit of strength so it will not be repotted for another year.

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Bunjin Ponderosa Pine Styling

Posted in Before and after, tagged , , , , on November 25, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

This was a demo tree at a convention a few years ago. My client has been keeping it healthy and it’s been budding back quite well, and we decided it was ready for a rewiring.

I’ve been surprised how well Ponderosa develops here in the Northwest. When I first moved here in 2006 I assumed there would not be enough sun to really get the budding and shorter needle growth on these pines, but having worked on a few now over a few years I have another opinion. This one will need only another three years or so of growth before it feels settled into this new styling.

Ponderosa pine before wiring

And after styling. Tree is tilted to the left to prevent vertical/horizontal sections of the trunk, and to create better drama in the flow to the right. Apex needs several years of growth to fill in.

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Revisting a 2009 Ezo Spruce

Posted in Before and after, Development, tagged , , , on October 10, 2011 | 10 Comments »

Spruce bonsai have been ‘in the news’ this past year or two. I’ve posted one spruce already this fall… and I thought, why not continue the trend? So here’s another one. Some of you might remember this four-trunk Ezo spruce clump from an earlier post. It was styled in 2009 and left rather leggy as we can’t always cut to where we’d like the first time around. The recent rewiring allowed me to take the branches back to about where the profile should be.

Spruce is a very popular tree for bonsai in Japan. The vigor and tenacity as a potted tree is equaled by few genera, and the serene, quiet feeling of it is greatly appreciated over the water.

As the tree looked after initial styling and 'potting' in 2009. Stubs were left on cut branches to control some bleeding of the sap.

In September 2011 before rewiring. In 2010 I planted some 'Kokinsai' azalea to the rear, which is a dwarf azalea.

As it looks now following rewiring. There are still thin areas, particularly in the apexes. Spruce develops rather rapidly, however, and I think in about three years this should look more mature. It's starting to look 'quiet'. Halfway there! Although we could argue whether there is ever a 'there' in bonsai.

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