11th floor trees, works & talks

[petegreg]

I'd like to create this thread to track my trees that haven't been threaded yet, under the word works, please do not expect anything like works of art, but I DO WORK on my trees and I wish you feel free to help, teach or criticize, I'm just a self educated hobbyist.

... something like an interactive blog.

Starting with this red pine...
https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/the-what-the-heck-should-i-do-with-it-thread.27027/post-482046 and more pictures posted here https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/the-what-the-heck-should-i-do-with-it-thread.27027/post-482873

Today I took her on my table to remove old needles and after few months of looking at her I made some changes.
I picked this front,


then the trunk was bandaged in raffia in order to allow me to wire it and twist and bend CCW. Here's the result, I think I'll twist more in a few weeks.


... and now I have two pines dancing boogie ?, scots on the right.

 

[petegreg]

Yesterday I had two raw nursery mugo pines on a table. Both come from the arboretum for 8,50-15 €.
This was a wrestling with a smaller one.
... before

... and after


The second one is for something new to me. Who says we always have to reduce number of trunks and branches? ?... Joking, of course.

 

[petegreg]

Some young scale junipers
Spent two evenings thinning, pruning and wiring these.

Starting with a small shimpaku. This little pseudo-cascade starter was acquired last year.

This is how it looks like after repotting and two seasons of growing. Former cascading portion is a sacrifice growth for now.

It came with wire already cutting in so I'm trying to use it to create spiraling shari, in stages. First time it was cut in spring but callus rolled so quickly I had to re-cut and make shari broader.

I'll continue creating lower part of shari after the wire has its job done.

 

[petegreg]

Then there're these two young Itoigawa junipers.
Acquired two years ago, looked like these...

They were offered as cutting grown, but I received two grafted trees which disables me to bend them low harder. Last spring they were HBR repotted, bandaged and bent...

They grew so good I was able to remove wires this summer. Still growing with SBs. They were getting too dense so I cut the runners from SBs and removed all weak growth with yellowing tips and growth that didn't ramify.

No. 2

I've got two options where to go with this one... I'll see.


No.1
This one had a sacrifice growth taking over and I dealt with spider mites... and style-wise it's getting to a dead lock. I'll keep it healthy and growing and some idea might come...

 

[petegreg]

And here're these two different.
... young Sabina juniper


... and this nursery creeping juniper bought last year.

or this way, I'll see...

But they need a lot of time to become something.

 

[petegreg]

And this Blaauw juniper, two seasons in making.

 

[petegreg]

Back to my JRP and pine pruning generally, I would have a question. The forks have been cleaned for years, shoots reduced to two. But there are few places where new buds or branches are present again very close to the cleaned places. Please, look at the picture...

Some of my friends say remove them, some do say grow it and make another "cloud level" or storey out of it. What do you suggest?

 

[LanceMac10]

Shoot on top of the "y".....that's what you cut back to. Depends on your design goals, however.

You got some "drop branch" future-vision-goggles? @sorce brand?, then I would maybe remove it, might shade out growth below.

 

[sorce]

Shoot on top of the "y".....that's what you cut back to. Depends on your design goals, however

I agree...but I feel any longer of a wait and cutting to there will be ugly.

Either way...I feel you should act now.
Cut to...or cut off.

I wouldn't leave it.

S

 

[petegreg]

Thank you, guys. From the front this looked so, so... but when I looked from above there were really 3 branches coming from one node, same opinion, cut.

 

[petegreg]

Today I rewarded myself. 5 weeks of being smoke free payed the price of this wild olive.
I've got some experiences with olives, but wanted to work with some better material.
Here's a picture from the web shop with added notes, but they measured the entire hight of tree and pot. Unpacking it I was like wow... the hight from the rim of the pot to the top is 24 cm.
Here's the new addition and a pictures of old olives I'd like to follow. Some work and more pictures tomorrow.

 

[0soyoung]

5 weeks of being smoke free

Congratulations to you !! ?

 

[petegreg]

Thanks, I played with this idea last 30 years. ?

 

[Carol 83]

Congratulations to you !! ?

I second that!!

 

[petegreg]

Today I did some initial works to open the canopy and broaden the silhouette, Cleaned some dry stem remnants from forks. The tree is potted in organic soil, inorganic is only top dressing. If everything goes well it'll be repotted next summer.
... front and the second possible front?


There’s two more things to deal with next year. These wounds will not heal, so Dremel needs to be deployed to clean it and make come holes / cavities.
But not so bad for the price.

 

[petegreg]

Another thing I had to deal with...
I found some pine scales on my tripple trunk mugo. Only one (rear branch not for final design) was affected.


I think it's a result of letting the branch be so plugged all old needles and scratched the white stuff from needles. I'll check it next year when the crawlers should be active and employ heavier artillery if needed.

It was a good opportunity to compare these two tweezers... Angled for needle pulling vs. Straight forged tweezers, both by Kaneshin. Both did its job well, but the new straight forged are so versatile, easy to use and grasp whatever without need to press it harder, scratched the scales with it... a real winner.



And few pics how the tree has changed just in two-three years.

... and a picture taken slightly from above...

 

[Anthony]

All very beautiful.
Thank you for showing.
Good Day
Anthony

 

[petegreg]

All very beautiful.
Thank you for showing.
Good Day
Anthony

Thanks for your kind words, my friend. I'll try to do my best, my friends best and this forum best to improve my trees.