Well it has been a long time since I’ve worked on my trees, and even longer since my last post. What a crazy year it has been. I can’t believe we are already well into the holiday season. although it is a really good time for me to get caught up and prepare for a busy bonsai time in the coming months.

This weekend I spent some time with Mike Rogers who helped me with a couple of my trees. One was a podocarpus that I had bought from him last year. During the year due to a watering issue I lost the growth on the top of the tree, but left me with tons of deadwood. The problem however was that the deadwood was too long and needed to be reduced. Mike has developed a method to address that.

As you can see there is a long stright section that is rather boring and doesn’t add any interest. I fthe section couldn’t be removed the great spread near the top would have to be removed because the overall tree would be to tall.

Mike’s solution is to cut the section off and drill a 1/2″ hole into the base of the driftwood.  The other end is carved into a peg that slides into the hole. 

The hole is filled with wood glue and the section is held in place for 30 minutes

After the glue dries and the wood is carved you can’t even tell the 4 inch section was even there.  Amazing stuff!

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I have been considering selling this black pine for a while now.  Not that it is a bad tree, but that it is not very big and is kind of a so-so tree.  However the other day I noticed that it may be better if I change it to a semi cascade. 

Once I turned the pot I was amazed how much more interesting this tree could be! I already know that I want to put it in a beautiful (and expensive) crescent bonsai pot, but now I need to figure out which way it needs to be tilted

To the right the bottom branches would have to be removed completely.

To the left (my preferred side) the branching becomes more difficult. I guess I just need to look at the trunkline and pretty much develop this tree all over again. In any case it will be repotted this coming Winter. I can’t wait!

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This weekend I hosted the NoName’ Bonsai Study group at my house, and the visiting artist was Suthin. I, like many, consider him to be the best artist in all of the U.S. and he is absolutely amazing. I had a number of tress that I wanted him to work on while he was here, but one tree that I have had for along time was my first choice. As you have seen on my site since 2002 is a Bujin styled Pond Cypress. It has been displayed at Epcot and at two state BSF conventions.

This tree had been in my collection for so long and had been styled the same way year after year.  It really needed a make over. I asked Suthin if he saw any changes that could be made and he didn’t disappoint.

We had 10 people show up for the event and he worked his magic on all of their trees, one right after the other. Nearly impossible to get him to take a 5 minute break.

To remind you what the tree used to look like, here is the last photo I took prior to the workshop. What a difference!

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The last time I did any work on this tree was January 21, 2007!  

So here we are 3 1/2 years later , and boy has this tree changed.

What happened?  Well I found out that Too Littles not neccesarily like to be bonsai.  Their leaves are small and the trees pop out new growth everywhere.  However their branches have a tendency to continually move upright after the styling wires have been removed. Which meant that it was a high maintenance job keeping the tree styled as I had it. So I took it to a nursery for the past 3 years to let it grow and to thicken up even more.

Another problem with the tree was a very odd one sided surface root, that had always bothered me.

After a bit of thinking and a lot of heavy pruning I began to find a new tree under a mass of branches and leaves. Best of all a maintainable style. I plan to keep the branches short and dense, so I won’t have any problems with branches bending back.  Just look how massive the trunk looks compared to the styling from years ago

My new tree front was the old back, and the long surface root has been reduced and now shows on the right side of the trunk. I am so happy with this tree now, it is quickly becoming one of my favorites!!

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