Still here - Holiday update

As many of my fellow friends of the bonsai hobby (lifestyle for those of us with too much material!) know; sometimes there are spans of times where a lot is happening and there are endless things to share..  Then there are times where your trees are taking a bit of a rest;  growing out, getting healthy, getting thicker, healing from pot transfers - and the likes.

This spring promises to be a neck reddening time for me.  I have so much material ready for re-potting, so many things ready to go from planters into their first bonsai pot; so many things to transplant from the ground that I've been nursing from seed for the past 3-4 years - into their first planter pots.

It's going to be passion re-ignition all over again.  :)

Happy Holidays to everyone; travel safe, hug your families tight, and I'll see you in a few months!

Jason

Privet Bonsai Spring Maintenance

Haven't had much time to work on bonsai, however this Privet deserved a visit from the scissors.  Going to clean up alot of the free growth, and partially defoliate to reduce leaf size to spur further back-branching and ramification of the crown/apex.

 Before work begins, looking a bit wild.

Trimming and defoliation complete. 

 

View of the hollow I'm working on over time to carve into the main trunk. 

San Jose juniper bonsai - big steps forward

This is a San Jose Juniper; it's nursery stock tree that I've trained since last summer.  This is her first major working since initial reduction and making a few branch decisions; it looks to be going the way of windswept, the branches all have natural movement from left to right.  Difficult to find a path for this one, time will tell (alot of time!) if I'm going the right way or not.

The tree's initial history can be found here.

Here's where things are after a few hours work today.

As always, poor man's measuring stick (lighter).  If you view the tree's history above first - you can see the large amount of new growth it's showing this spring.

 

Some carving to do at the bottom.  I want to save the branch on the right and turn it into a large jin to resemble a 3rd trunk that has 'failed' in the tree's past.

There we go, a little Dremel action.  The dremel is a new toy I got for Christmas, I have a few wood carving bits for it - enough for me to learn the basics then figure out what other bits or tools I may need.

 

Closer view.  Not completely finished, but it's still 'damp'.  I'd like nature to dry things out and do some of the weathering on her own.  It's a good start for me, I think. 

So..  Time to get some motion into these large branches.  Time to bring things closer in!

A few hours later.

Little more of a turn to the left - I think I like this as the front a bit better.  Will have to reduce the right trunk jin a little to accommodate the new front, since it crosses the trunk from this new angle.   Time to let this tree rest until Fall, then do a little adjusting of wire; remove some add more, etc.   Next season if all goes well I will continue working on the 'top' which right now is pretty vacant!    Not too worried about moving this into a pot yet - not until I"m happy with the design, and get a decent apex on there and the pads a bit more appropriate for the size of the tree.

Tree Story: This tree's protective bigger sister succumbed to the strong howling winds of a cliff side where they both perch.  Now with the winds hitting this tree directly through the crumbling remains of it's once protective neighbor, the branches bend, or break away in the tree's struggle not to join it's sibling.

Anyhow, that's the story and I'm sticking to it..  :)