Summer Doings in the Bonsai Studio

These are some of the projects we’ve had going on in the bonsai studio this month.

A small bunjin Shore Pine in need of a touch up. The needles stopped growing a month ago, and now some older ones may be removed.

After needle pulling and a reset. Some of you may recognize this bunjin from Bonsai Empire’s Bonsai Intermediate Course 2, which I co-taught with Bjorn Bjorholm.

The results of the “fishtail” technique, done right after a Satsuki flowers. Read about how to do it in this azalea post.

Cryptomeria, Needle Juniper (Juniperus rigida), and Foemina Juniper may all be trimmed in summer. To the left, scissor trimmed shoots. To the right, untrimmed shoots. This does cause a brown end on the fat shoots of cryptomeria, but the new growth hides this, and not much of a cut end is visible with needle juniper. It helps to angle the cut so only the shoots are cut, not the needles.

This grafted Juniper has a Rocky Mountain trunk with Shinpaku foliage. I grafted it about 15 years ago. Every year it gets full like this and needs thinning, and then a reset like the Shore Pine.

After thinning and light trim. To learn more about this kind of juniper work, try this post.

Here’s one that hasn’t been on the blog for a while. A Vine Maple with unusual needs. Twice a year the licorice ferns become unruly and I select which ones to leave with a scissors—a kind of reductive vegetative sculpture.

Close-up of the licorice ferns, a native of moist Pacific Northwest forests. The rhizomes taste like licorice.

Now the ferns are a minor part of the composition. An accent to the tree. For the blog post about composing it on the nylon interior frame: Vine Maple Tower.