My “Peter Tea” tree

[Adair M]

Here’s a tree I bought from Plant City many years ago. They bought from a vendor at the California Shohin Convention, and that vendor had said Peter Tea had styled it. So, when I bought it, it had Peter’s cut paste all over the apex area. (Peter used Japanese wall paper paste as cut paste!). Unfortunately, it didn’t work, and the apex died out, so in later years, I’ve completely restyled the tree using a different front.

The pot is an antique Chinese pot that I purchased from Peter right after he returned from Japan after his apprentiship. So… I call it my “Peter Tea” tree, even though Peter did not make the pot, he did not put this this in this pot, and I have completely restyled it! Lol!!!




I had fun wiring. I did about half of it yesterday, and finished it up today.

This tree has unfortunate reverse taper right at the nebari soil line. This is common with these JWP grafts on JBP stock where they left the wire on to get embedded. The best I can do is build up some moss around the base when I want to show it.

 

[Colorado]

Wow, beautiful tree! How long have you been working on it?

I love the container. I would be interested to hear your thought process on why/how you chose this container for this tree. It looks great to my simpleton eye

 

[Adair M]

I don’t remember exactly how long, but it’s been maybe 8 years.

I bought the tree with no pot. When Plant City bought it, they bought it without the pot. It was in a pot, but they were afraid it would get broken in shipment, so they asked if it could be taken out of the pot, wrapped in cellophane and shipped that way. So, that was the way it was when I bought it. Not bare root, just wrapped with no pot.

So, it was in February when I bought it, so since I was at Plant City, I figured I’d buy a pot from them, and pot it up. So, I started working the root ball once I had removed the cellophane. What I found was it had been “up potted” several times, and the roots had not been properly worked. As I loosened the compacted soil off the bottom, I found 3 layers where the tree had simply been taken out of the existing pot, and put into a slightly larger pot with new soil on the bottom. How did I kniw? I found three layers of screens that used to cover the drain holes!

When I removed all those compacted layers, I found the real root ball to be much smaller than I was expecting based upon the original root mass. And, it dawned upon me that the antique Chinese pot might work! It was at my home about 30 minutes away. I stopped working the roots, covered them up, drove home, retrieved the pot, and returned to Plant City to finish the repotting. I had purchased the pot without a particular tree in mind, knowing it was a good pot!

Steve Cratty, the owner of Plant City, was amazed I could do the amount of root work I did. He had never really seen anyone do a professional repotting before! Lol!!!

Anyway, that’s how the “marriage” came to be! I think the pot is perfect for the tree. At the next repotting, I’m going to tilt the tree back a bit. It leans forward just a bit too much.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Has a very early-1990s Bonsai Today gallery feel to it. I like it.
You’re working with some stout branches.

 

[Adair M]

Has a very early-1990s Bonsai Today gallery feel to it. I like it.
You’re working with some stout branches.

Yeah, it’s old. Rough bark on the trunk, even on the JWP portion all the way up to the apex, and some of the branches. Which means they’re at least 30 years old. Probably closer to 50.

 

[luvinthemountains]

Yeah, it’s old. Rough bark on the trunk, even on the JWP portion all the way up to the apex, and some of the branches. Which means they’re at least 30 years old. Probably closer to 50.

This has to be one of the greatest merits of buying a "finished" tree. Starting from young stock (I am coming to realize), one will probably have to wait years before seeing bark and structure like this, if ever in a single lifetime. Clearly you have put a lot of work into getting the tree to where it is today. You didn't really buy a "finished" tree; you bought a "developed" tree and reaped the benefits of decades of work. Seems simple to me.

 

[Adair M]

This has to be one of the greatest merits of buying a "finished" tree. Starting from young stock (I am coming to realize), one will probably have to wait years before seeing bark and structure like this, if ever in a single lifetime. Clearly you have put a lot of work into getting the tree to where it is today. You didn't really buy a "finished" tree; you bought a "developed" tree and reaped the benefits of decades of work. Seems simple to me.

Some species of trees develop bark earlier than others. So, “It depends”. Bark is one of those things that does just time time for it to develop. You can’t really ”force” it. Doing things like intentional scaring, or leaving wire on to embed, or hammering the trunk all yield unsatisfactory long term results.

 

[Shima]

Here’s a tree I bought from Plant City many years ago. They bought from a vendor at the California Shohin Convention, and that vendor had said Peter Tea had styled it. So, when I bought it, it had Peter’s cut paste all over the apex area. (Peter used Japanese wall paper paste as cut paste!). Unfortunately, it didn’t work, and the apex died out, so in later years, I’ve completely restyled the tree using a different front.

The pot is an antique Chinese pot that I purchased from Peter right after he returned from Japan after his apprentiship. So… I call it my “Peter Tea” tree, even though Peter did not make the pot, he did not put this this in this pot, and I have completely restyled it! Lol!!!

View attachment 406095


I had fun wiring. I did about half of it yesterday, and finished it up today.

This tree has unfortunate reverse taper right at the nebari soil line. This is common with these JWP grafts on JBP stock where they left the wire on to get embedded. The best I can do is build up some moss around the base when I want to show it.

The reverse taper doesn't bother me one bit what with the surface roots and lichen. It's a unique, smashing tree fairly reeking with mochikomi.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

I really like it. The apex looks a little heavy to me, but easy enough to adjust.

I wish we would see more JWP on their own roots. As soon as the JBP understock starts to plate up, I think there is too much contrast between the two bark types. Not as much with this tree, but a general comment.

 

[Adair M]

I really like it. The apex looks a little heavy to me, but easy enough to adjust.

I wish we would see more JWP on their own roots. As soon as the JBP understock starts to plate up, I think there is too much contrast between the two bark types. Not as much with this tree, but a general comment.

The problem with that is most seedling JWP have poor foliage. The nice tight tufts of foliage we all love are the “dwarf” sports of the species, and seed from those trees don’t pass on the characteristics. So, grafting is how they are propogated. Also, being “dwarf” varieties, they grow very slowly. So, it takes even longer to get workable stock to turn into bonsai.

JBP, as you know, develops trunk girth faster, and rough bark faster than JWP, so to create bonsai in a reasonable time that are commercially viable, they grafted the dwarf JWP onto JBP stock, by the thousands, and then culled them after field growing them for a decade.

JWP on their own roots do exist, but they are very rare and very expensive.

 

[Adair M]

I really like it. The apex looks a little heavy to me, but easy enough to adjust.

Uh, not so easy to adjust! LOL!!!

The original apex died out after Peter Tea’s styling. I had to completely redevelop it. And those old branches? They were leggy. Which means that there isn’t much foliage up close to the trunk. So… I had to get quite creative to make it appear that there is foliage ‘in all the right places’ when there’s not! Kinda like doing a comb over of a bald head! LOL!!! I’ll take it as a complement that you can’t tell! If you ever get the chance to see it up close and personal, you’ll see i had to spin quite a few branches all around to fill bald spots.



I don’t know if you can tell anything from these photos, but i had to pull branches around to place foliage here and there.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

JWP on their own roots do exist, but they are very rare and very expensive.

Only to be seen on the pages of bonsai magazines, LOL!

 

[Adair M]

Only to be seen on the pages of bonsai magazines, LOL!

Almost!

I have a couple… but I can assure you they were expensive!

I have one that‘s a seedling, an exposed root semi-cascade. I bought it from Doug Paul. But, the foliage is sub-standard. The needles have a twist to them, and they don’t make the really tight tufts. Even so, it was still “not cheap”.

There are two varieties that can be propagated via layering: Kokonoe and Zuisho. Even so, most are grafted. I have a couple of each on their own roots. If you can find one on it’s own roots, buy it.