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Juniper from Japan |
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Juniper from Japan. Definitely in need of some help. |
3 hours later! |
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Yamadori Juniper |
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Yamadori juniper established for many years in the pot. |
Much foliage removed. We begin to see the tree. |
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Two days later the tree begins life as bonsai. |
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Large Oleaster |
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Large oleaster arrives for a days work. |
End of the day and the tree is much improved. |
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Jumiperus squamata Meyeri |
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This tree was collected from a local garden in 1997, several
air layers removed from its upper part. Two years later this apparently useless
stump remained with just one tiny live vein feeding its one branch. |
Initial styling work was by Kevin Willson in 1999. I
subsequently carved the trunk, visually lightening it to the limit of its
strucural integrity. This picture shows the tree three years ater the initial
work, following restyling and potting into an Ian Ballie pot. |
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Quercus suber |
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After 2 hours work a bonsai begins to appear. |
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Mugo pumillio |
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Mugo pumillio before work begins |
Demonstration for the R.H.S
"After the demonstration we begin to see the trees future."
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Japanese juniper |
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This Japanese juniper has had mixed fortunes since it's arrival
in the U.K. Now it's ready for some work... |
By the end of the day the tree is much improved. Great care was
taken to remove as little foliage as possible. This helps maintain the vigour of
the tree.
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Olive (olea oleaster) |
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Arrived from Sicily & re-potted in February 07.
Showing strong growth over the summer. (October 07)
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4 hours later we begin to see the tree emerge. |
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An Interesting Little Juniper |
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An interesting little juniper arrives for a days work. |
The work completed. |
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Detail of the deadwood. |
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San Jose Juniper |
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A San Jose juniper with great potential. |
End of the day and a new start for this promising tree. |
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Caledonian Pine |
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I waited patiently for this yamadori pine to grow strongly before
beginning styling work. |
Two seasons later and patience is rewarded. First styling
completed. |
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Cascade Mugo Pine |
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A very healthy happy yamadori mugo pine arrives at the workshop
for first styling. |
3 hours later...Next year the foliage mass will be reduced and
the tree will be moved to a bonsai pot. |
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A Classic Bonsai |
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This Japanese white pine arrived in Spring 06. Very quickly it
became apparent that the long lower branch had a problem. A bit of a mystery
because the rest of the tree was extremely healthy. The new owner of the tree
decided we should go to work..... |
Here you can see areas of the branch dying off.
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After we cut the branch away the problem became more clear.
Here you can see just two small areas of live tissue. |
Too late to turn back now.
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As the carving work began the root of the problem emerged. The
indentation on the bottom of the branch was caused by a very, very tight
tourniquet that had been applied to help pull down the branch above, without
protection, sometime in the past. The effect was to cut off the sap flow
completely apart from two small live veins. |
A couple of hours later we see a much improved Bonsai emerge in a
very classical style.
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MUGO PINE - Beauty in a beast! |
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Despite many folk looking at this brute of a pine, no body wanted
to take it home despite a very low asking price so..... My Italian friend and I
set about doing some initial work on the tree. |
How can you NOT love this!
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Today the plan is to start the deadwood. Styling of branches will
come later in the year. Everything superfluous is removed and carving begins. |
After a couple of hours we begin to see the tree. Excuse the face
but it was raining!
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A Taiwanese shimpaku juniper |
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A Taiwanese shimpaku juniper |
Cleaned, wired and ready for shaping |
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We begin to see the trees future as bonsai |
Close-up of the trunk |
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This tree needs much refinement and a good pot.
That nebari is 2"
across! |
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"An eventful day in the life of a scabby juniper" |
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Urban Yamadori |
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I had my eye on these two yews for several years. Last August I
drove by only to discover that their retaining wall had been removed. A quick
knock at the door secured the trees as well as the raised bed full of junipers.
An hour a piece saw the trees liberated from the bone dry rock hard ground. The
gentleman concerned seemed to think that my offering of a couple of bottles of
wine was generous in the extreme! |
The first tree arrives home. That's my dad wondering how the hell
he got roped into working so hard on a blistering August day. I cut each tree
back hard and dropped them into wooden boxes without disturbing the roots. A
year later and both trees are thriving. Planted as whips in 1955 the trees were
cut back very hard a few years ago. The 14 and 17" trunks display wonderful
fluting with flaky bark. So….. keep your eyes open |
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One of the trees in it's first pot. The old drag racing axiom
springs to mind....'Too much is nearly enough!'
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Big Thorn Pot |
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Don't try this at home!
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Larch |
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This
ancient larch was imported from Italy . Initial carving has revealed
growth rings so close as to be imperceptible to the naked eye, this is a
VERY old tree. However it is not without it's problems. Whilst the
growth is very close in to the main trunk it is going to require some
very sensitive carving work, this will be carried out over the winter of
2003/4. |
Carving work in progress |
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Carving work in progress |
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'Old Gold' Juniper |
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This 'Old Gold' juniper was recently acquired from a local
nursery where, I suspect, the proprietor was glad to see the back of it. I
immediately repotted it and removed several useless trunks leaving just one as
seen here.
Only a complete fruit loop would think he could make a bonsai out of this one!
Fortunately we found this deranged nutter wandering around the yard and put him
to work.
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Carving in progress. The work of a very disturbed person! |
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Two days later.. |
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Stuart's Little Stump |
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"My good friend Stuart bought this tiny juniper to the workshop
recently. For penance I had him help to repot a huge yew before we got to grips
with the tree. What kind of animal does that deadwood look like?"
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"Whilst I like working on big trees I find very small trees to be
a real challenge, the attention to detail required is very demanding.
Obviously the job for the day was to sort that awful 'block' carving. We will
look at the foliage later."
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"Two hours later and the job is done! Stuart will deal with lime
sulphur etc' at a later date. I could get to like these small trees."
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'Tree-beard bites the dust' |
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This ancient war torn English yew was collected 3 seasons ago.
Here in it's first pot. I am grafting foliage of causpidata 'nana' onto the live
vein in six positions. I'm not very good at seeing faces in trees but this one
seemed obvious.....
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BIG Olives |
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I recently stumbled across these three olive trees in a nursery.
We needed a fork lift to load them into the van! |
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