Wired in 2019, repotted in March 2020, candle-pruned in July 2020. Here is how it looked in December 2020:
Time to clean up moss from the soil and lower trunk as well.
After pulling old needles, balancing strength by also pulling some new needles, and reducing shoots down to evenly-sized pairs. Upper part complete:
Lower branches complete:
Needle pulling and balancing complete, and moss cleaned up:
Night shot shows the profile nicely:
Since it had grown considerably after it was wired last, it was time to remove the wires and prepare it to wire again. Wires removed, and soil top-dressed:
Now the tree is ready for a new round of wiring…which was done by Bjorn at Eisei-en in early February. Here is the result of this round:
The plan is to allow the lower branches to continue extending to accent the trunk:
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.
View all posts by Brian VF
outstanding, as usual.
Awesome, Brian.
Very helpful, Brian and reblogged over on Books & Bonsai…
So elegant. Love this tree.