Professional Bonsai and Suiseki

Professional bonsai and suiseki from Peter Warren. Japanese bonsai educated by well known bonsai master Kunio Kobayashi.

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One for the Future p4

Page 4

Wiring and branch placement

This is the easiest part of the styling, the few major branches I have left are wired loosely to push them in the directions I want them to grow. As the tree stands now, the foliage is still much too far away from the trunk, we need to have the foliage tight, compact into the trunk like this little beauty. A little bit of work is needed before we get out foliage that compact but given the amount that we have cut off, there will be a lot of new foliage springing out all over, particularly from the branch nodes. What type of foliage will this be? Many people have a problem with juvenile foliage when working on junipers, a problem which is dependent on many factors, one of the most important being the balance between root mass and foliage.

If you look at the difference between the start point and the end point then you can see that it would be no exaggeration to say that I have cut off 95% of the foliage on top. If I left the roots as they started, roots which developed the capacity to support all the initial foliage, then the remaining 5% will get a massive increase in water and nutrients, in fact there wil lbe a surplus of energy in the tree and that will be bursting to get out somewhere, anywhere and it will result in juvenile foliage sprouting out like crazy from every single node, making a mess of the design and ruining the tree. How do we prevent this? Simple, we cut off a large part of the roots; we repot and reduce the root mass considerably.

Here you can see the tree without its pot, the roots are dense and well developed. It has clearly been in this pot for many years, and if left as it is, will cause us endless problems. To reduce the mass initially I just cut off the bottom third with a saw. This is not advisable for established trees or for anything that has delicate roots. In this case, the severity of pruning on top and the vigour of the tree will allow me to be equally as severe on the roots without risk of damage. The remaining soil was then removed using a claw, the strongest roots trimmed back slightly until there was a root ball that was about 15% of the initial. I decided to put it back in the same growing pot rather than a “bonsai” pot, one for displaying because it needs to grow again, it will help it to develop quicker if it has space to grow.

The soil mix was 50% Akadama, 50% Kyodama. Well draining soil is very important for Junipers, they like it on the slightly dry side, and they need air in their roots. Kyodama isfinished a very good product, hard, durable and creates a brilliant mix for the English weather. For junipers it is important to use a fine grade of soil as the roots themselves are fine.

Another reason for repotting was to change the angle slightly, leaning it to the left to really accentuate the curves in the trunk.

Here is the finished result of the first styling.....>

The future of this tree

Assuming that it recovers from this, the most serious of stylings, then it will be left to grow on a little unchecked, then selective pruning will take place and wiring, restyling, wiring restyling until the silhouette looks something like this… please excuse the appalling photoshoppery, I am quite computer illiterate nowadays. Anyway, you get the idea, compact foliage, close to the trunk is what we are aiming for. I will do a follow up article on the next stage in the development of this tree.

 This kind of work is easy enough to do, the techniques are pretty basic and anyone wth a little bonsai experience can have a go. It took me about an hour of work to get from start to finish. This kind of thing is ideal for a beginners level workshop, something which I am looking for opportunities to teach...nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more.

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