bwaynef's brimming-backyard barrage of burgeoning bonsai

[bwaynef]

Here’s a shohin (in the right pot, mame?) Taiwanese boxwood (I think that’s the common name) or Buxus harlandii. It has some potential eventually but this is after its second hard cutback in as many years. I’d like to get some more interior growth before doing much more than clipping it every year.

Also whoever can guess the potter gets a shiny “You win” that can be spent wherever your opinion is cherished. (Seriously, while maybe not expensive or sought after, this pot is pretty rare.)

 

[LeftHandLuke]

I'll offer a big shiny "Atta boy!" to anyone who rotates a photo correctly before posting it.

 

[bwaynef]

I couldn’t make it to Rochester so I figured I’d do something bonsai-related. Unwiring is way less fun than wiring.

 

[Katie0317]

That is awesome.

This wasn’t in the backyard, but it is my babiest girl.

She wanted to help me with a trident I was cutting back and while I was figuring out how to let her help me, she picked up a piece I’d cut off and a piece of wire and asked how to wire. I started telling her, then figured I’d set her up as best I could.

Showed her figure 15 (a different one than this one that’s been colored so she can see which wire is what), told her to use one wire for two branches, keep even coil spacing, and coil the wire and not the branching. Then I went to the store. The final pic is her work.

Oh, I beg you to frame her note with the photo of her and keep it in your bonsai workspace! Time flies so fast and it will get lost in the shuffle of life and seeing it will be incredibly uplifting for decades to come. Precious.

Opps...Just saw this got posted in the wrong place but I don't know how to move it. Put you know the note I mean.

 

[bwaynef]

Oh, I beg you to frame her note with the photo of her and keep it in your bonsai workspace!

Its on the cabinet above where I make my coffee each morning.

 

[bwaynef]

Here’s Stewie after a little touch up. I ended up having to remove a branch I’d rather not have had to remove, but it didn’t taper and had a long bare spot. Other than that, just a “little off the top”. (It was managed pretty often thru the year with trimmings and partial defoliations.)

Also possible new front was identified. (180 degrees from it looks fairly good too, once I manage to edit the nebari.) Hopefully this spring I can get it into the shallower cream oval (Reiho? I’ll have to check.) I’d hoped it would fit into this past spring.

 

[JudyB]

They do pretty well with root disturbance from my experience, so hope you can get it into your Reiho pot. That will be nice.

 

[bwaynef]

They do pretty well with root disturbance from my experience, so hope you can get it into your Reiho pot. That will be nice.

It came out of a nursery can into this one this past spring. It might take another year before I can flatten it sufficiently, but I guess I'll see.

 

[bwaynef]

Finally getting around to some fall work. I didn’t get a before, and I haven’t started wiring things into place on my twisty shimpaku, but the first picture is indicative of what I was able to do. Several of the lower branches were too leggy so I had to/got to cut them back tonight. It’s still a bit leggy but this is the next step in tightening things up.

The next is a before and after on a shohin shimp. The top died on it shortly after I bought it so I stuck it in an oversized pot and left it to grow. Tonight was its first step towards being reined in. It’ll be going into a smaller pot this spring to keep things in check a little more.

 

[bwaynef]

1st Snowpocalypse of ‘22.

 

[bwaynef]

As a follow up to that last post, I just came here to declare Lime Sulfur is pretty stinky stuff! I hope it has tangible obvious benefits or I'm not sure I can muster the resolve to do that too often.

I noticed a lot less disease on my trees last year, particularly on my maples and elms. Begrudgingly, I just gave this year's dose of rotten eggs. I'm not quite brave enough to chalk the improvement up to better light/exposure. I'll say that it wasn't as bad as I remembered it.

 

[bwaynef]

I received this tree as a triple trunk but shortly after the center trunk died off. It had experienced several days of no water and sun and a bit of heat prior to me picking it up I’d find out later.

That first year it didn’t grow well. Last year I let it grow wild and it did. But only from the two outer trunks. I cleaned up the center trunk and all the growth drove some healing.

Today I added some epoxy on the dead areas, added some thread grafts, and repotted the tree. I *may* have broken one of the grafts while handling it during the repot. It should be better than it was. We’ll see.

 

[bwaynef]

A friend needed to sell this tree so I bought it. It was pretty full and needed to be cleaned up before I can really get a plan together for which direction to go. Right now, it’s really healthy and vigorous with an above average base.
Now that I can see in there maybe I can get some idea of where to head with this tree. First move will probably be this late-summer or fall.

 

[bwaynef]

An Ume I’ve been working on for a while. It got repotted to this angle this spring. While working on it, I’m not sure it doesn’t need to have another angle adjustment.

There seem to be several schools of thought on defoliating and cutback on Ume. I’ve read Michael Persiano’s superfeeding defoliation approach in BonsaiToday. I’ve read Jonas’ escapades where he defoliates, doesn’t defoliate, and just cuts to 2-3 nodes. His take was instructive in that he wasn’t satisfied with the vigor after defoliation. Also, watched Bjorn’s video on defoliating. (That seemed to have been informative of one of Jonas’ approaches.)

Keeping the interior buds strong seems to be universal so I kept the first 4 leaves (not including the susoba). To maintain vigor in the branches, I kept the last 3-4 leaves at the tip. I removed the middle leaves.

Then I tried to sort the branches out and add a bit of movement. It’s not a show stopper but it’s the best it’s looked so far and seems to clearly have a future. (Also, Ume are snappy but I didn’t have to move many thick branches. Only snapped one and only about 20% of the branch was alive.)

 

[misfit11]

An Ume I’ve been working on for a while. It got repotted to this angle this spring. While working on it, I’m not sure it doesn’t need to have another angle adjustment.

There seem to be several schools of thought on defoliating and cutback on Ume. I’ve read Michael Persiano’s superfeeding defoliation approach in BonsaiToday. I’ve read Jonas’ escapades where he defoliates, doesn’t defoliate, and just cuts to 2-3 nodes. His take was instructive in that he wasn’t satisfied with the vigor after defoliation. Also, watched Bjorn’s video on defoliating. (That seemed to have been informative of one of Jonas’ approaches.)

Keeping the interior buds strong seems to be universal so I kept the first 4 leaves (not including the susoba). To maintain vigor in the branches, I kept the last 3-4 leaves at the tip. I removed the middle leaves.

Then I tried to sort the branches out and add a bit of movement. It’s not a show stopper but it’s the best it’s looked so far and seems to clearly have a future. (Also, Ume are snappy but I didn’t have to move many thick branches. Only snapped one and only about 20% of the branch was alive.)

Nice. It looks like this will be a nice tree in the future. Was this originally grown in the ground or has it always been in a pot?

 

[bwaynef]

Its always been in a pot since I've had it. I don't know much about it before as it came to me through unfortunate circumstances.

 

[bwaynef]

Here’s a chinzan Satsuki azalea. I think I grew this one from a nursery plant. This is its second wiring and it’s got the structure in place after this. Obviously letting the top run to thicken a bit but also have a bit extra on the bottom for thickening. A few small clips and a pretty impressive taper is revealed in the trunk, but I’m going to let them grow as sacrifices since this one’s got a little while to show ready: might as well have it as thick as possible.

 

[bwaynef]

I don’t remember if I’ve posted this one or not. I cut off two big branches off halfway hoping to expedite the healing. (I’ll have to go exploring to find pics to make that make sense.). It worked on one branch and the other it wasn’t healing as well. When I went exploring I noticed a borer had dug into the fat callus that had developed, preventing the healing from actually closing the wound.

I used a couple guy wires in the intervening year but did very little else. I’ve got some decisions to make in the apex but I think leaving options now will speed up the healing I’m hoping for.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

A friend needed to sell this tree so I bought it. It was pretty full and needed to be cleaned up before I can really get a plan together for which direction to go. Right now, it’s really healthy and vigorous with an above average base.
Now that I can see in there maybe I can get some idea of where to head with this tree. First move will probably be this late-summer or fall.

I need friends like yours

 

[bwaynef]

I don’t remember if I’ve posted this one or not.

I have. https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/building-a-trident.44976/