Projects from TJ’s Backyard

[Cajunrider]

Earlier this week, Bjorn Bjornholm presented a demonstration to the Rocky Mountain Bonsai Society. The topic of the presentation was pyracantha.

Bjorn discussed complete defoliation, followed by structural pruning and wiring.

I was very inspired by Bjorn’s demo. So the next day I took off early from work, and it was off to the nursery for me, in search of pyracantha. They had just a couple ‘Yukon Belle’ pyracantha left. Very humble material, but something to work with for my little project.

After a couple hours of pruning and wiring my hands looked like…well…next time I will wear gloves for those thorns! however, I really enjoyed working with the species for its flexible branches, short internodes, small leaves…and the prospect of beautiful flowers and berries.

Before:
View attachment 434835

After:
View attachment 434836

Nice!

 

[Shogun610]

Earlier this week, Bjorn Bjornholm presented a demonstration to the Rocky Mountain Bonsai Society. The topic of the presentation was pyracantha.

Bjorn discussed complete defoliation, followed by structural pruning and wiring.

I was very inspired by Bjorn’s demo. So the next day I took off early from work, and it was off to the nursery for me, in search of pyracantha. They had just a couple ‘Yukon Belle’ pyracantha left. Very humble material, but something to work with for my little project.

After a couple hours of pruning and wiring my hands looked like…well…next time I will wear gloves for those thorns! however, I really enjoyed working with the species for its flexible branches, short internodes, small leaves…and the prospect of beautiful flowers and berries.

Before:
View attachment 434835

After:
View attachment 434836

Cool find, they flush you all summer long when extending. Best to cut back hard then wire out smaller branches like you did to set direction.

 

[Carol 83]

Earlier this week, Bjorn Bjornholm presented a demonstration to the Rocky Mountain Bonsai Society. The topic of the presentation was pyracantha.

Bjorn discussed complete defoliation, followed by structural pruning and wiring.

I was very inspired by Bjorn’s demo. So the next day I took off early from work, and it was off to the nursery for me, in search of pyracantha. They had just a couple ‘Yukon Belle’ pyracantha left. Very humble material, but something to work with for my little project.

After a couple hours of pruning and wiring my hands looked like…well…next time I will wear gloves for those thorns! however, I really enjoyed working with the species for its flexible branches, short internodes, small leaves…and the prospect of beautiful flowers and berries.

Before:
View attachment 434835

After:
View attachment 434836

Nice job, hope you had some band-aids!

 

[rollwithak]

Acer glabrum. Rocky Mountain Maple. This is a project from my back yard that I am very excited about!

I have not seen Rocky Mountain Maple used much for bonsai. But I believe the species to have great potential. I find a. glabrum to be very similar in many ways to a. palmatum, Japanese maple.

Here’s a photo of the mature, hardened off leaves from two japenese maples and two Rocky Mountain maples, all four trees with distinct genetics. You can see that the largest leaves from the glabrums are quite a bit smaller than the largest leaves from the palmatums:

View attachment 380445

Now, I am not yet ready to declare that we can achieve smaller leaves with glabrum than with palmatum. These are just a couple data points. But the Rocky Mountain maple is certainly capable of nice-sized leaves for bonsai.

Here’s a Rocky Mountain Maple that I am working on propagating. Today’s project is a simple air layer. My main goal is just to acquire more plant material of this species since they’re pretty rare to come across in nurseries around here, but you can find them if you look!

View attachment 380446
View attachment 380447View attachment 380448

I threw a container on there...and now we wait.

This is definitely a species that I will continue to explore

Oooooo I like that box design. You make?

 

[Colorado]

Oooooo I like that box design. You make?

Yes!

 

[Colorado]

Rocky Mountain Maple, literati style, from a few weeks ago in winter silhouette



Now it is flowering!

 

[Colorado]

Japanese White Birch

 

[Colorado]

I mounted these itoigawa cuttings onto this ceramic “stone” earlier this spring for a fun little mame composition. Lighter from the casino for scale

 

[Colorado]

Little variegated hosta that my dad’s girlfriend dig up from her garden because she thought I might like to have one - I thought that was pretty thoughtful. Makes a nice little accent in a @sorce container!

 

[Colorado]

Bristlecone Pine

This is a very long term project. It is worth the time and effort to me because you don’t see that many bristlecone pine bonsai. I came across this seedling at a local nursery and have now been growing it for a couple years. Right now I am just focusing on increasing trunk girth.

As you can see the tree is vigorous. It is back budding prolifically up and down the trunk. It also has very short needles. They are a beautiful blue-green. High degree of cold tolerance and also heat/sun tolerance. For these reasons I believe the species has tremendous potential as a bonsai subject!

 

[Colorado]

Shohin exposed root mountain mahogany

 

[Colorado]

Shohin cascade mugo pine. This will need a detail wire later this summer. And into a bonsai pot next spring!


Side view

 

[Colorado]

Pyracantha is settling in!

 

[Colorado]

This Colorado Blue Spruce responded exceptionally well to its initial repot. Very strong flush this spring. I am looking forward to styling this tree next spring. I love the Shari on the trunk!

 

[Hartinez]

This Colorado Blue Spruce responded exceptionally well to its initial repot. Very strong flush this spring. I am looking forward to styling this tree next spring. I love the Shari on the trunk!
View attachment 441336

It’s such an excellent little tree TJ!

 

[Colorado]

It’s such an excellent little tree TJ!

Thanks man! This tree seems to WANT to be a bonsai

 

[LanceMac10]

Cheat a little....slid a rock under that root in the back?

That's a healthy and happy lil' bush!

 

[Colorado]

I’ve had this Rocky Mountain Juniper sitting around my garden for a couple years now. It’s just a humble piece of nursery material. It is the ‘Witchita Blue’ cultivar. Great compact blue foliage.

Never really knew what to do with it. I contemplated making it a multi trunk piece for awhile. Lost interest in that. Today I was puttering around the garden and decided to just pick a single trunk line and proceed with an initial styling.

Before the work


Initial style


I will let it recover for the rest of the year, fertilize heavily, and maybe put it in a pot next spring. The deadwood needs lots of work, that will be a fun project for another time.

 

[Cajunrider]

I’ve had this Rocky Mountain Juniper sitting around my garden for a couple years now. It’s just a humble piece of nursery material. It is the ‘Witchita Blue’ cultivar. Great compact blue foliage.

Never really knew what to do with it. I contemplated making it a multi trunk piece for awhile. Lost interest in that. Today I was puttering around the garden and decided to just pick a single trunk line and proceed with an initial styling.

Before the work
View attachment 442483

Initial style
View attachment 442484

I will let it recover for the rest of the year, fertilize heavily, and maybe put it in a pot next spring.

Nice!

 

[Crazy Diamond]

Looking very nice, I love blue foliage Junipers!!