Shohin Boxwood and another Shohin Privet

1st off is the privet - again one of my 'training' trees, working it into a typical broom style.  The 2nd is a tiny Boxwood that I started work on last year.  Both get defoliated and some direction (boxwood with cutting, privet with wiring).

Should be a quick tree to form; from here forward it's reduction and ramification, and some work on making a nabari appear.    This is another training pot I made in 2008.

Found a better front for it, cleaned up downward branches, and thinned it out so it can 'breathe' better.  The pot is by Sage Smith.   Really like her work I'll be picking up more of her pots soon.

1-2 more weeks and it will be re-potting time for most of my bonsai species.  I'm almost out of deciduous trees to work on, time to move into the junipers.  I want to get most of my bonsai's reduction and basic wiring done before the growth season kicks in strong, which will also be when I strip off any wire that I put on now.

A few shohin privet bonsai of mine

Just some things I'm toying with, that have helped me learn a few techniques.   Before and after shots.  

 Shohin Privet  - future bunjin shohin?  (Is there such a thing?  Does there 'have' to be for it 'to be'?)   

 Another angle, still not sure where 'front' is.   The pot was made by my best friend Aaron, and fired here at home.

Bonsai artist's cheap 'measuring tool' after defoliating and some wiring.

Nothing special, except for this one branch on the side..   :) 

Flipped the 'front' around, just going to see what I can do with it from here.  Pot is one of the first I fired for bonsai in late 2008 I believe.  A bit deep, decent for training shohin though.

Again nothing but a training 'tree' for me, simple pot I made a few years ago.  A bit deep, decent for training shohin.

This one I'm curious about, can't really see here but it's roots, or nabari - are really decent.  (Really loose soil allowing for a great deal of radial root growth).

This was the fun tree.  At it's base, it appears as if the tree began to fall from some past event in it's life but only went so far - and then lived from there on.  It's up to me to figure out what else to do as it's not that great further up.

 Close-up of the trunk.   Need a bit better lighting to really see, it's really interesting as it leads into some deadwood in the crease.

First use of raffia - ran a wire down the back for a 'spine' then wrapped with raffia that I soaked for 30 minutes prior.  Slapped on 2 more wires, gave it a few good bends.   Will see where it leads and wire further after I'm assured it's going to survive the beating I gave it.

All of these will go into more shallow/smaller pots this year as the work into ramification rather than accelerated growth begins.

Spring is really here now, lows in the 40's and high's in the low 70's.  At least for now things are really starting to wake up.   Alot of work ahead of me this weekend as it's time to 'turn the crops'! 

My Shohin Boxwood

Beautiful material from Plant City Bonsai that I picked up recently.  It's very small compared to what I normally play with, but I'm rather pleased with the instant 'bonsai' appeal this has created.  

As you can see with it sitting in the palm of my hand, roots and all after removing from it's starter pot - tiny!

I also picked this little pot up at Plant City, by a local artist I will have to track down her name.  I really admire her mame pots, I will be purchasing more of them my next visit for sure.    Here it is from one possible 'front' view.

And here from another 'front' view.  From this direction it gives the impression of a much wider base, I think this is it.   I will let the tree get settled into the pot and recover from it's root trim, and probably let winter go by and spring begin before I start really working on it.  I want to keep it right at the height it's at, but just reduce and ramify the branch structure a bit more, and try to layer it to have more of a 'cloud' effect, not round but 'puffs' of leaf pads here and there.