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Revisiting a Unique Rocky Mountain Juniper—Seasonal work

July 29, 2011 by crataegus

This is an intriguing tree. I could look at it all day. It was styled last year with the other side as the front. Then the lower branch died, which is a hard thing to prevent in a juniper if it’s got that idea going. About that time I was strongly considering this new front, which worked OK without the lower branch. It seemed quieter on this side and had a bit more subtlety, more harmony in the twists of the trunk and the branch possibilities. It is not often you find a Rocky Mountain juniper with this amount of live vein activity and twisting.

My Seasonal students took several looks at this over the last couple years. We discussed the front possibilities, which were several. Including cascading options. It had a full range of offerings and led to some lively discussions.

One of the fronts we considered in a Seasonal class in 2010 that ended up as the current front.

John Conn and Ram Lukas considering inclination options in a Seasonal class, when the tree was still in a wooden box.

Some of the features of the trunk.

29" from top to bottom jin. It is as yet an unrefined tree, and I have let it grow with some abandon following a later repotting than usual (cool spring) and loss of the lower trunk. Perhaps next year it will be ready to refine a bit more to clarify the foliage pads.

Posted in Development | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Developing an Unpromising Sierra Juniper Bunjin–student work from Seasonal

July 29, 2011 by crataegus

This is a product of my Seasonal sessions. A few years ago I bought this weedy looking Sierra juniper, removed the field soil and repotted it into a pumice/akadama mix in a plastic nursery pot with help from Seasonal students in 2009, and styled it with a Seasonal group in 2010.

It really did look unpromising at first, but I’m proud of my student’s work. They made a significant bend in the main trunk in hard dead wood—which originally was as straight as an arrow—and wired the top branches. Then this spring we repotted it into the bonsai container it is shown in. We tried a few display options and possible companion plants in our summer Seasonal last week (July 2011), which included several of the students who had seen it through from the beginning.

It was a lovely transformation, this tree, my student’s efforts. They brought what was nothing much to something of note. Rilke says something appropriate in his Letters to a Young Poet:

“If you will love what seems to be insignificant and will in an unassuming manner, as a servant, seek to win the confidence of what seems poor, then everything will become easier, more harmonious, and somehow more conciliatory, not for your intellect—that will likely remain behind, astonished—but for your innermost consciousness, your awakeness, and your inner knowing.”

The Sierra juniper at it's first styling, just after making a bend in the trunk. May 2010. The long jin on top was later removed.

25" high. July 2011. Tricky to get the lighting right in a photo that will express the back and forth movement of the simple trunk. I've never been satisfied with images of bunjin, which require the viewer's presence for a sense of scale, subtleties of movement, and evocativeness. To critique this, I think the apex could be smaller and more compact, it seems a bit loose and rangy for the thin trunk.

Posted in Before and after, Development | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments »

Adjusting and Maintaining a Large Cryptomeria–

July 18, 2011 by crataegus

This cryptomeria was one of the standout trees in Boon’s backyard when I studied with him ten years ago. He’s been maintaining it for years. It was originally styled by Mitsuya during one of his visits to the states in the early ’90′s, and is the most significant cryptomeria I’ve seen in the United States. It’s about a meter tall, and has been developing as a bonsai for about twenty years.

One of my clients currently owns this tree and we agreed it was time to wire it again for a bit of reworking. On an established tree like this, such work is done infrequently, while the main yearly task is cutting back the growing shoots. The metabolism of this tree is slower due to its long establishment and so cutting the shoots is only about once a year, as opposed to a younger tree where pinching and cutting might be done several times over a growing season. And also debris, such as dead shoots and the like, are removed from the interior of the foliage pads at the time of shoot cutting, giving it an airy feel after the work is completed.

It is noteworthy American tree with a quiet dignity.

The Before and After photos here are rather subtle, as is commonly the case with such an established tree.

Some of the branch ends were brought down with wire, that was the main work. The wiring just allowed the form and branch structure to be crystalized a bit. In five years, this will have to be done again. And the apex needs to fill out a bit for some density on top.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 4 Comments »

Shohin Itoigawa juniper—

June 20, 2011 by crataegus

This little juniper was imported some years back through Brussel’s Bonsai. Itoigawa can grow for years with juvenile foliage before gaining the metabolic confidence to grow scale foliage again. Don’t cut too hard on them! And always leave lots of tip growth.

This client’s tree was fun to work on. Hope you enjoy the photos—

About 8" high before work began

View of the trunk. This tree was grown from a cutting and the trunk was wired when very young

After work. The shari was cleaned and a lime sulfur / water solution of 1:5 was applied. I like weaker dilutions for old shari so it does not look so harshly white.

Posted in Before and after | Tagged , , , , , , , | 10 Comments »

Documentary Film of Bonsai Apprenticeship—

June 16, 2011 by crataegus

In early 2004, when my apprenticeship with Shinji Suzuki was only four months gone, a TV crew came to make a documentary on apprenticing in bonsai. They focused on the gaijin, me, and after a couple days of filming came up with this eight minute piece that ran on a local channel. Afterwards, quite a few people I had never met before came up and said ‘Hi Michael!’, which was disorienting to say the least.

The film gives glimpses of what an apprenticeship is like; and yet a few parts are endearingly inaccurate— such as me leaving the studio after work to go to a restaurant, which happened only rarely. I think they wanted to give the feeling that apprenticing is relatively human, which it is not, really.

It is mostly in Japanese, except for some short bits where I speak English. And then there are parts where I speak some Japanese, and, well, I had only just gotten there and wince when I hear myself using the wrong words, if with the right intention… It’s also really weird to see yourself on film.

I hope you enjoy it–

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg10J1-fXIs

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments »

New Flowering Companion Plants…

May 30, 2011 by crataegus

The words ‘companion’ and ‘accent’ are used interchangeably to indicate a plant or object used in bonsai display. Last year I made a post of several in my backyard… http://crataegus.com/2010/05/13/accents/

…and here are a few more.

I have been heavily focused on Northwest native perennials since moving to Portland, Oregon. Part of the reason is that many of the nursery offerings seem a bit gaudy to me, not quite the austere, honest look we try to find in all our bonsai and in their accessories. (I made one exception here with a purple columbine, a genus which I have a weakness for… my purple one is a double-flowered variety, and doubtless the result of some savvy breeding.)

Some months of the year I’m as easily excited about accents as the bonsai. One of the curiosities of accents is that depending on how the perennial grows that year, or is trimmed, or simply flowers that week, the front of it changes.

Hawkweed is an easily-flowered, all too easily propagated plant. It seeds in pots so readily that one has to be very careful to pluck off the flowers when finished blooming or it will take over quite happily in pots where it is not wanted. This species of hawkweed is not native to the Northwest, but it has a nice, freely flowering yellow bloom. This one is joined with a small red columbine which blooms in summer. The hexagonal pot is from my days as a potter.

An evergreen penstemon from Washington, planted on chunk of lava.

This saxifrage came along as an unseen small plant when I lifted a patch of moss and licorice fern. It was the fern I was after. Two years later the saxifrage has taken over and the fern diminished to tiny little leaves. Sometimes it's not worth fighting success. The pot is a metal half-sphere with no drainage holes. A case could be made that I have no idea what I'm doing.

This composition is, like a few of my favorites, not composed by me. I took a chunk of bark that had moss and hints of several other things growing on it, and potted it up. The next spring I discovered False Solomon's Seal (left), Miner's Lettuce (white flower), and two species of fern growing in the moss. I like letting it grow with some abandon.

Double-flowered purple columbine, from seed. I prefer the natives for display as they are less showy, but this is hard to resist having on the benches... Another of my pots. The leaves have reduced by half in three years.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Youtube Styling of a Large Juniper

May 23, 2011 by crataegus

Although it was a few years back (2007), I just uploaded this video to Youtube. In a post long ago I shared before and after photos of a juniper I wired at Miami Tropical, and here’s the video of it… hope you like Stan Getz.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSh_g-njlwU

Posted in Before and after, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

White Pine: Revisited

May 10, 2011 by crataegus

This white pine might be familiar to some… it was featured in a post from April 2, 2010. On that day I styled the tree by turning the front 180 degrees… with my client’s approval!

See the original post: http://crataegus.com/2010/04/02/white-pine-styling/

Some of the bottom branches appear to be strengthening, and that was good to see. I shifted the front slightly to the left on this second pass. It grew strongly this past year, and the second photo shows it after a recent retouch. I only get to see it once a year or so. My client has done a wonderful job caring for this tree, don’t you think?

Initial styling in spring 2010.

After a year of growth and some adjustments. Pot is next... this one might be best in a fairly simple pot, like a round, as the roots are so visually active.

Posted in Development, Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

‘Post-Dated’: translated!

May 5, 2011 by crataegus

Last year my book Post-Dated: The Schooling of an Irreverent Bonsai Monk was translated and featured in the German bonsai magazine, Bonsai Art. Bonsai Art is similar to Bonsai Focus. The book was translated by Heike van Gunst and serialized in the magazine over eight installments in 2010.

I’ve discovered that many ‘books’ used to be serialized first in magazines, before making a real book of the manuscript. Most of the Dickens novels were serialized, with chapters published weekly. Anyway, it seems I’ve done this backwards… but it was great fun and I thank Heike for her translation, and Bonsai Art head editor Ivo Druge for his support of the project.

In more recent news, there are Portuguese and Spanish book versions in the works.

If you’re unfamiliar with my book, check out the Book: Post-Dated page.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments »

Portland’s Version of Omiya Bonsai Village…

April 27, 2011 by crataegus

Something I’m very excited about these days is the beginning of a fledgling professional bonsai community here in Portland, Oregon, which is just stretching its wings. In addition to myself we have Ryan Neil who came back from Japan in 2010 and has already made a spectacular start with headlining at the Noelanders event in Belgium, has taught in Italy, and—I’m happy to report—has settled in the Portland area. When we were apprentices in Japan we joked one night on the phone about creating an Omiya village in Portland, after our terms of indentured servitude were finished. I think after talking we both pondered that a bit, and found it to be not such a dumb idea.

And it appears to be happening: Matt Reel will also be joining us in a year or so, following his almost 5 years now with Shinji Suzuki. We will have several bonsai artists in one city who’ve done significant time in Japan under a couple of its finest masters, Masahiko Kimura and Shinji Suzuki, working together to create a viable professional community and outreach. We hope you’ll stay tuned for the events we will have in the near future! It’s going to be an exciting future here in Portland… and we hope you’ll come visit, and return—

Below are some photos of our ‘traveling’ version of the Portland Bonsai Village… I think Ryan and I figured out that the next three years has us headlining at a convention together at least once a year. Next one: PNBA in Seattle this September!

Left to Right: Peter Warren (our English bloke), Ryan Neil, and Michael Hagedorn at GSBF 2010.

GSBF 2010: Ryan Neil demonstrating on a Rocky Mountain juniper; Michael Hagedorn assisted by Peter Tea on an Ezo spruce.

Posted in Shows, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments »

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