Pruning Japanese Maples And Clumps
This specimen offered a couple key points about Japanese Maple pruning, and pruning forests and clumps. Japanese Maple in need of fall pruning. To prevent sap bleeding from cuts, Japanese maple is often best pruned before leaf drop. Another good time to prune it is at repotting time, as repotting will stop bleeding from pruning […]
Recipe: Alcohol / Resin Wood Hardener
Wood hardener lengthens the life of deadwood. It hardens punky wood in danger of eroding away, and likely protects against decomposition by pathogens. Store bought wood hardeners can certainly be used. I’ve tried them, and they seem to apply the resin mostly to the outside layer of wood. I prefer the recipe I learned in […]
Review: Bonsai Empire’s New Kimura Course
Once again the crew of Bonsai Empire returned to Mr. Kimura’s studio to interview and film, turning out Kimura Techniques Masterclass. This course is an intimate and up-close view of Mr. Kimura working on two trees. You get to see him change his mind as he styles, according to what he discovers, and talk through […]
Styling A Snaky Mountain Hemlock: Part II
We left off with this Hemlock mid-stride, asking the question, what would you do? This was the front and inclination Carmen and I chose. Where would you put the branches and the crown? Would you remove any branches? Carmen’s initial styling complete. You could keep it this way, and the design would be balanced and […]
Styling A Snaky Mountain Hemlock: Part I
Carmen Leskoviansky, my apprentice, took on the styling of this Hemlock. Side 1 Side 2 Side 3 Side 4. Which front would you choose? Carmen (and I) chose this one. A few boards on the right side and back corner lend a rakish tilt to the left. Given this front and inclination, where would you […]
Reworking An Old Juniper
Old bonsai get shaggy. The crowns round and loose clarity, the silhouette gets bloated and too big. They resemble a haircut 6 months overdue. Older bonsai require a periodic rework to a profile that balances better with the trunk. Old Juniper bonsai that has outgrown its design, hiding the deadwood. Pushing the reset button on […]
Burning Bush with Thread Grafts
A client brought this tree into the studio. It was one of several Burning Bushes collected near a pond where the nutria that lived there nibbled on the bark and created deadwood. Burning Bush, Euonymus alatus, before fall pruning. Several years ago we noticed a hole in the design of this bonsai, on the right. […]
Climbing Hydrangea As Bonsai
Vines make unusual bonsai. You might not want 20 Hydrangea, but 1 is a conversation piece. With a few exceptions like Bougainvillea, vines tend to have thin trunks and leggy branching. And yet they are easy to grow in a pot, with most responding to lots of water, fertilizer and sun. This Hydrangea fits the […]
Young Juniper Stock: Pt. I, Pre-Styling
What’s pre-styling? That was my sketch for a word I didn’t have. But maybe it’s what you do to a plant before you fully style it. And that’s what Carmen did last week, a partial styling. We grew a bunch of Itoigawa from cuttings about 10 years back, and now, having reached that stage of […]
What Do We Call The Top Of A Bonsai?
The top? Apex? Crown? Canopy? Head? And more importantly—does it matter? The Japanese call the top of a bonsai the “atama”, which is head. As an apprentice, light bulbs went off when I heard them calling the top the head. Decades before I’d been taught it was the “apex”. Oxford Dictionaries defines apex as: “The […]
