This hawthorn was trunk-chopped in ’99, and collected in ’00. Every branch has been grown over the last 14 years. As bonsai start to mature, it becomes necessary to refine areas that have already been refined. This can be difficult because of the sweat equity already invested, but trees continue to grow, and these tasks become necessary to keep the bonsai improving.
The tree is basically a broom style, and as the apex gets stronger, replacing thick branches with thinner branches in the crown will improve the grace and appearance of age. Notice the thick branch in the center of the apex? It kind of stands out:
Even though the silhouette works, the coarseness needs to be addressed, which is really the last (and perpetual) phase of developing a bonsai, refinement.
Here is a closer shot of that apex:
And the thick shoot to remove:
Make a nice, clean cut, and use a gouge to smooth out the edges:
I have been studying bonsai since 1994, in an ever-increasing obsessive fashion. In our last 5 years prior to moving from Iowa to Alabama pursuing a career in the foodservice industry, my bonsai collection was limited to a few varieties that could survive brutal winters outside, or winters under dim light in the dank basement of our humble duplex...my wife puts up with a lot. Including the trailer hitch I put on our brown 1983 Chrysler New Yorker to pull a U-Haul full of trees to Nashville for a 3-month stop along the career path that led us to Alabama. 12 years later, we no longer have the New Yorker; and not a single one of those trees remain on my bench, having given the last holdout to a new club member this summer. I prefer collecting native trees and buying the classical species used in Japan, feeding organic, and reading everything I can get my hands on.
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lookin-good. When you coming to work on mine?
Getting sweeter every year! Great job Brian!
Wood
Unbelievable flare on that one. The fluting in the trunk portrays great age.
Al