Many thanks to Sean Hayes of ABBA for his help and his photographic skills. To see the full gallery on Picasa plesae click here
I
stumbled across a cache of these trees
hidden away in deepest darkest Cheshire, quite a long way away from the
Itoigawa valley which has become incredibly famous in the bonsai world
for
producing a strain of juniper with particularly beautiful and compact
lush
green foliage, perfect for bonsai, especially shohin sized
trees. Junipers are easily
propagated by taking
cuttings and will grow very strongly.
This tree, one of many created in the same way is
approximately ten
years old. For a
comprehensive article
on shohin creation in general refer to Bonsai Europe issue 82 for an
article by
Urushibata, one of Japans premier shohin bonsai artists.
Without wishing to degrade this material it is quite common to find “farmed” trees like this. Mass produced, all very similar and without incredible natural character, but, and this is a big and important but, very cheap and perfect as starter material. Given the proper care and attention a tree like this could become a very presentable shohin tree within five years. It will never replace the beauty of a yamadori juniper with gnarled and aged deadwood but it isn’t trying to. This is the kind of material that you can learn with and perfect the basic techniques, getting a good grip of the principles of bonsai before moving up a level and investing large amounts of time, money and commitment into a “real” tree.
Of
course within a group of 50 mass
produced
trees, 10 will be absolutely impossible to turn into anything good, 20
will be
difficult, 10 will be relatively easy and the best ten will be the ones
that I
have hand picked before anyone else!
Choosing your starter material is the first and arguably
the most
important step on the road to creating beautiful bonsai. Not even the exalted
masters of
How to choose a good piece of material.
The
most important thing for a tree of this
type is the line of the trunk. This
is
the one thing that we cannot change.
Juniper do not and should not have massive nebari, they
should not have roots spreading out
radially like a maple, but the line and direction of the trunk as it
exits the soil is
important, this sets the initial direction of the tree and starts the
motion of the
eye, which should be able to then follow the line of the trunk easily
as it
twists around and up into the crown.
One
of the most important features of junipers in the wild is the twisting
of the
life line, spiralling around the deadwood.
With farmed trees that have not been subjected to the
snow, wind and
extreme mountain conditions, the lifeline generally grows straight and
true as water will always take
the easiest path up or
down, unless forced otherwise. Thankfully
this particular tree has been
made skilfully and was wired
and twisted around at an early stage in its development (see Urushibata
article). However
these twists and turns can be too
violent and as the life line grows and thicken, they can grow into one
another,
creating a massive lump where two parts of the trunk have fused
together. This
must be avoided at all costs. When
this
happens it is impossible to tell where the water is going and
subsequently
where you can carve away safely. It
also
makes for an aesthetically unappealing tree, with a grotesque lumpy
trunk,
bulging and ungraceful. With our bonsai we want to
conveniently ignore the ugly side of nature and
show only the beauty that can be created by such conditions, or in this
case,
attempt to replicate this and create it by hand.
In short, choose a tree where you can see the line of the trunk easily and it moves with some interesting twisting movement.
Do not worry unduly about branch placement at this stage, with junipers and particularly shohin trees it is possible to bend and grow branches into the places where you want foliage. Coniferous Shohin trees are all about the beauty of the line of the trunk, the silhouette and in some cases nebari but not the branching structure. Obviously the best trees have a perfect branching structure but when working in such limited time and space, shortcuts can be made, and are, even in the greatest of trees.
