My 20-$25 Shimpaku from NEB 2008

[Japonicus]

@Japonicus

You did an excellent gardening-job on this.
You have got something, wich is very rare in bonsai, and that is patience ...
Don't get me wrong, your tree is perfect!
And the pot is perfect as well.

For my liking the crown is a bit too massiv for the relatily slim trunc.
And i would get rid of two or three of the lower branches ...
You have such an amount of option for the designing, cause there are so much branches.
Here my quick virtual as an draft of my imaginations ...


View attachment 320638

Arnold, buddy You know I love your virts. I've commented on them more than once.
I love how you YOU put the tree in the desired pot that I could not .
Hopefully next potting will get me closer to that pot, but for the time being my Lynns Golden Hinoki is in it.

If I make it back to Bonsai by the Monastery in Conyers, Ga by then and they still carry these, I will get another
or find a different pot for the hinoki.

Yes my trunk lines are thin. Most of my material is garden centre material.
I have seen the tree within, and again your virts are awesome, makes me jealous
but I will probably have a shorter width to the apex than your description.
One thing I dislike, is how many your upper branches description, cascade down
unlike the remainder above and below this feature.
Makes it look like legs and feet under a parade float or jellyfish tentacles hanging down ya know?
Other than that, I really like and appreciate the time and effort you've put into sharing this.

I do have a cascading branch on the left, and will probably remove the lowest of the 3 tiers involved
but was saving that for next year, after I was able to breath a full confident sigh of relief and keeping
energy drivers in the meantime.
I style my trees over the years rather than all at once. Is it lazy, is it I have too many, or is it fear of
loss of branches and juvenile growth that may not revert? Mostly it is I have too many trees for the time
I have to give even the most deserving of them proper care. I hold onto them all as back ups should others die
get stolen or learn a thing or two from them.



Rewind back to Oct 2018 ^ before I wired it some (another task I rarely do 100% in a given year).
The apex or crown is less massive. I think you're just seeing the bushy solar panels I left up.
Right now, I'm on the heels of keeping foliage that I've built up to for strength, to continue the driving force
post potting. Before @Brian Van Fleet recommended to begin carrying out the task of pruning now
I was planning on letting this ride out the remainder of the year with only cleaning and some wire.
I am notorious for getting all bushy now, the year before a repotting, and thinning back down the following year.
Is this counterproductive or just a safe call? I lost a nice EWP pushing too hard at a BNutters recommendation.
I didn't have to, I chose to follow instruction, and this my 1st shimpaku juniper, had been in the nursery pot so long, over 12 years...

A reduction is in the cards, and will take it slow getting there.
Please keep the details and ideas coming, I treasure all the helps I can get.
Now to Brians link...Have a great week Arnold. Thanks again

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Here's my question on that though, ...
this will remove a chunk of runners you're aware. What does this mean for the health of the tree
in particular, 4 months post potting?

It should mean some back-budding, and improved density throughout the tree. I get the one insult rule, but go on a case-by-case basis, and in this case, if it’s on my bench, that tree is plenty healthy to prune back. I’d do it soon so I could get some effects of the pruning still in this growing season. Do what you’re comfortable with of course, but you’ve had the tree long enough now that you should know what you can get away with. If you don’t push them a little, they rarely improve.

 

[Forsoothe!]

IMHO, you need to recombobulate the ratio of foliage to favor the lower parts at the expense of the top, ASAP, to insure the health and density of the lower clouds. The top will grow at the drop of a hat as soon as you stop favoring the other parts. The lower branches are really slow to grow in the best of conditions, but it gets worse as the top gets bigger and thicker, so the top should never be allowed to grow the way nature intended. In nature, the lower branches are shed as soon as the tree doesn't need them anymore. At some point shedding lower branches becomes irreversible.

 

[Japonicus]

...but you’ve had the tree long enough now that you should know what you can get away with.

Oh, but wait. This is the 1st time I've potted it up, so I hadn't a clue. I had a 1 gallon nursery
shimpaku from PCB gave me fits when I potted it up in April, and this one had a few sheds of
foliage I was afraid could go from unremarkable to remarkable at the drop of a hat but it has bounced back since.
So, yesterday as I began the cleaning task, I removed the foliage from one branch to jin.
Funny (or not) you suggested to start at the bottom, when I would have ignorantly gone straight to the top
knowing the apical dominance and balance. Cleaning will take me a couple weeks I'm guessing. I'm pretty slow.
Today I hurt too bad to do simple yard work after 3.5" of rain recently. Maybe tomorrow.

 

[Japonicus]

IMHO, you need to recombobulate the ratio of foliage

Agreed wholeheartedly
Somewhere between these 2 pics is my goal by this time next year but am starting now.

 

[Arnold_K]

One thing I dislike, is how many your upper branches description, cascade down
unlike the remainder above and below this feature.
Makes it look like legs and feet under a parade float or jellyfish tentacles hanging down ya know?

oh, oh ...
think i failed than ...
welcome to bikini bottom

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Oh, but wait.

..is not the way to develop bonsai. They need to be worked on; deliberately and consistently.

Look at the results in 12 years:

By contrast, and I’m not saying mine is great or better, but there is a significant development in 8 years of steady work.

 

[doctorater]

..is not the way to develop bonsai. They need to be worked on; deliberately and consistently.

Look at the results in 12 years:
View attachment 320714View attachment 320715
By contrast, and I’m not saying mine is great or better, but there is a significant development in 8 years of steady work.
View attachment 320717View attachment 320716

That's a beautiful transformation. Love to see a progression of this tree over the course of that 8 years.

 

[Paradox]

..is not the way to develop bonsai. They need to be worked on; deliberately and consistently.

Look at the results in 12 years:
View attachment 320714View attachment 320715
By contrast, and I’m not saying mine is great or better, but there is a significant development in 8 years of steady work.
View attachment 320717View attachment 320716

I agree, Would love to see a progression on that tree @Brian Van Fleet. I know Id learn something from it.

 

[SantaFeBonsai]

June 2017



Sept 2017



Sept 2019



June 2020 (awaiting another styling this fall)

They really respond well to pruning and styling

 

[Squirrel7t7]

Nice..Its got a great shape to it at the base of the trunk. You know how old it is?

 

[Japonicus]

..is not the way to develop bonsai. They need to be worked on; deliberately and consistently.

Look at the results in 12 years:
View attachment 320714View attachment 320715
By contrast, and I’m not saying mine is great or better, but there is a significant development in 8 years of steady work.
View attachment 320717View attachment 320716

Your trees are great Brian. You always post quality material.
Now had I posted all my pics at one time from last year till 2 years out from today
I think the results would be a tad accelerated. I know I know, I'm lazy with a lot of material.
I'm also cautious in a paranoid way. Ya lose a tree here n there and no idea why, I get extremely
paranoid repotting. Nothing can be said to correct that, it's like a germ phobia, thus my gentle approach here.
I'm working on it and appreciate the nudge

So looking at my shimpaku, you are witnessing a change from mostly pinching for 10 years to thinning
and wiring since I've been a BN member. I missed last year repotting, so here I am with a healthy but immature bonsai.
Not that missing a years potting down would have made an impressive mature bonsai, just a fact that here I am with an immature bonsai
that I have not restyled after potting up.

 

[Japonicus]

They really respond well to pruning and styling

That's sharp man! Is this all at your hand? I've never been to a workshop. 2 or 3 years when I retire I'll head back to NEB
for some help with a couple of projects.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

That's a beautiful transformation. Love to see a progression of this tree over the course of that 8 years.

I agree, Would love to see a progression on that tree @Brian Van Fleet. I know Id learn something from it.

Here ya go...8 years ago today!

Itoigawa juniper Stock

Anyone see a bonsai in that bush? Comments, criticisms and virts welcome...

www.bonsainut.com

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Your trees are great Brian. You always post quality material.
Now had I posted all my pics at one time from last year till 2 years out from today
I think the results would be a tad accelerated. I know I know, I'm lazy with a lot of material.
I'm also cautious in a paranoid way. Ya lose a tree here n there and no idea why, I get extremely
paranoid repotting. Nothing can be said to correct that, it's like a germ phobia, thus my gentle approach here.
I'm working on it and appreciate the nudge

So looking at my shimpaku, you are witnessing a change from mostly pinching for 10 years to thinning
and wiring since I've been a BN member. I missed last year repotting, so here I am with a healthy but immature bonsai.
Not that missing a years potting down would have made an impressive mature bonsai, just a fact that here I am with an immature bonsai
that I have not restyled after potting up.

Nudge intended respectfully, of course. Good that you’re turning the corner from pinching to trimming. It makes a difference. Your Shimpaku has a nice trunk line, and as you push the foliage in closer to it, you can really accentuate that line. Right now, it’s almost a tale of 2 trees; nice trunk, and look at all that lush foliage.

 

[Japonicus]

Here ya go...8 years ago today!

Itoigawa juniper Stock

Anyone see a bonsai in that bush? Comments, criticisms and virts welcome...

www.bonsainut.com

Quick update...worked on this with Bjorn a little a few weeks ago

You need to get Bjorn to help me with my trees especially my Hinokis.
This guy is so skilled and you can tell he has his thought processes together.
Would love to train under Bjorn. His videos I feel sometimes like I grasp it
even when I don't because he's just that good.

 

[doctorater]

Here ya go...8 years ago today!

Itoigawa juniper Stock

Anyone see a bonsai in that bush? Comments, criticisms and virts welcome...

www.bonsainut.com

Thanks for directions to that thread. I'm enjoying reading through it.

 

[Japonicus]

I’d start at the bottom...as you work your way up the tree, get more aggressive so the tree ends up balanced in density from bottom to top

Getting started at the bottom...
I maybe went mid tree aggressive to pull off proper balancing, but I'm just getting underway really,
and felt good about what I did remove for the most part
There's deeper growth, often weak, on some of the branches I will cut back to, but left some extra to continue pulling sap more safely.

Here I want to cut this shoot back further, completely back to the inner growth , and I will, but making a safe cut for now.



another. On the left here is an upper growing shoot I'd like to cut back to, but I think I will wire it into place next time
and leave it to be certain it lives, before I remove the exterior portion. Anyway this is the beginning of the lower 2 branches.

 

[leatherback]

I keep enjoying this thread as it progresses. To me it really shows the value of just letting a tree be for a bit as it is being developed. Nice, healthy foliage, big bunches and building muscle.

 

[pandacular]

thanks for sending me to this thread. Do you have any recent pictures of the tree?