grouper52
Masterpiece
Here's a piece of material I purchased in March, 2007. An unlikely looking, unappealing thing, I would have thought years ago. But not now. It's an Alaska Yellow cedar, very old but I don't know how old, that has struggled in an alpine bog on Vancouver Island. Height a little over three feet.
The first season my plan was to air layer the top of the tree between the second and third branches, creating two bonsai. The top branch didn't cooperate: it died. Oh well. I stripped it and overall extended the natural top jin downward into a tall, domineering structure - too much so. After one season since lime sulfur was applied and some initial carving was done on the area below the natural jin, the new and old exposed areas are starting to look at least a tiny bit similar, and that will be a future project as well, to blend the man-made and the natural deadwood.
This spring I transferred the fellow into a smallish grow pot, which went fairly well, with lots of very nice foliage pushing out now. I'll wait until fall to prune that back a bit. It doesn't look like it, but this is a Chamaecyparis, so the foliage trimming is just typical frond work, similar to that used on Hinokis and other such frond-leafed evergreens.
The foliage is so lush right now that I thought it would be a good time to do some wiring to develop the two branches better. Not only does it now have better definition after the wiring, and better light into the interior areas, but the higher foliage now reduces the starkness of the tall jinned top a bit, bringing it into better proportions, IMO.
Much work still to be done. Probably some carving this winter, at least, and foliage refinement. But the path forward now seems clear, and in a few more seasons, with any luck, it should be looking quite impressive, and will go into a more proper pot.
Enjoy.
The first season my plan was to air layer the top of the tree between the second and third branches, creating two bonsai. The top branch didn't cooperate: it died. Oh well. I stripped it and overall extended the natural top jin downward into a tall, domineering structure - too much so. After one season since lime sulfur was applied and some initial carving was done on the area below the natural jin, the new and old exposed areas are starting to look at least a tiny bit similar, and that will be a future project as well, to blend the man-made and the natural deadwood.
This spring I transferred the fellow into a smallish grow pot, which went fairly well, with lots of very nice foliage pushing out now. I'll wait until fall to prune that back a bit. It doesn't look like it, but this is a Chamaecyparis, so the foliage trimming is just typical frond work, similar to that used on Hinokis and other such frond-leafed evergreens.
The foliage is so lush right now that I thought it would be a good time to do some wiring to develop the two branches better. Not only does it now have better definition after the wiring, and better light into the interior areas, but the higher foliage now reduces the starkness of the tall jinned top a bit, bringing it into better proportions, IMO.
Much work still to be done. Probably some carving this winter, at least, and foliage refinement. But the path forward now seems clear, and in a few more seasons, with any luck, it should be looking quite impressive, and will go into a more proper pot.
Enjoy.
