Yamadori style alberta spruce

[jedge76]

Believe it or not, it is snowing here today...but really grey outside...maybe I'll snap a pic with some May snow covering the spruce!

--Joe

 

[jedge76]

Like I mentioned earlier, I have been hesitant to post this tree to this point as it is pretty well a carbon copy of what you did. Being new to this, I wanted to see if it would survive and work on heavy bending with wire and raffia which I had really never done before. So I left the creativity part of it to your work Rob. The 1st pic is right after I completed the work and the others are from today. It's hard to tell with the poor light and snow, but it is shooting new growth on every branch already...some of it has extended a couple of inches or more. I plan on trying another Alberta as they seem pretty tolerant of the bipolar weather we can have here and they are downright fun and beautiful trees to work on, albeit promisingly difficult in some regards.

 

[barrosinc]

I've gotta say... I must be as eager as you to see it without the wire!!

 

[jedge76]

Absolutely barros...I think 2 years is the minimum I am going to keep the wire on the main trunk. Not sure about Rob's intentions, but I started this last Fall and see Fall of 2016 as a potential time to see if it holds shape or not!

 

[october]

Like I mentioned earlier, I have been hesitant to post this tree to this point as it is pretty well a carbon copy of what you did. Being new to this, I wanted to see if it would survive and work on heavy bending with wire and raffia which I had really never done before. So I left the creativity part of it to your work Rob. The 1st pic is right after I completed the work and the others are from today. It's hard to tell with the poor light and snow, but it is shooting new growth on every branch already...some of it has extended a couple of inches or more. I plan on trying another Alberta as they seem pretty tolerant of the bipolar weather we can have here and they are downright fun and beautiful trees to work on, albeit promisingly difficult in some regards. View attachment 73797 View attachment 73798 View attachment 73799

I really like it!. Is pic 2 the front? It looks like it might make a great front. Also, never hesitate to post something. One of the main reasons I did this is to see if we could maybe get something yamadori like, credible and nice without spending a fortune.

Rob

 

[jedge76]

Thanks Rob, I really appreciate your comments. Yea, after looking at this tree a lot over the winter I think pic 2 is pretty close to my proposed front at this point. The tilt I put on it in that pic was done pretty hastily with all that wet snow falling on me and my camera! But more less that'll be the look I am going after. I figure I will prune and wire some more this Fall and then let the trunk sit like it is for another year or so after that...maybe a Spring repot next year, too. We'll see! Again, thanks a lot.

 

[bonsaiBlake]

I really like it!. Is pic 2 the front? It looks like it might make a great front. Also, never hesitate to post something. One of the main reasons I did this is to see if we could maybe get something yamadori like, credible and nice without spending a fortune.

Rob

Goal acheived. I think it really is a underutilized species in bonsai. I mean look at how well it does in 3 completely different corners of the country. I think it time for some Canadian influence in our American bonsai.

 

[RNbonsai]

How is this one coming along? That bend is just wild!

 

[Maloghurst]

Very well. I removed the wire from the top half of the tree, but the bottom half is still wired. There is some deep scaring from the wire on the top half of the tree. I did not raffia the top half when I initially wired it. However, the scaring has thickened up the trunk super fast. Like when they wrap wire around the trunks of grafted white pines to fatten them up quicker. Anyway, the scaring is not visible from the front. I was going to repot it this year, but the buds broke and it is now too late. Which is fine because it is all about keeping the tree happy so it can make it through it's training.

Rob

This is brilliant because the very top of most nursery dwarf spruce is the only part close enough to trunk to use. Does not back bud either. So great use of this tree.

 

[Soldano666]

Any update in this one @october ... I hope it's going well. Here is one from last winter. I removed the wire and raffia a couple months ago, then re-torqued the Bend and brought it over to the side about 2 weeks ago. Seems like the don't miss a beat once spring rolls around. I have several more I'll be stressing out this winter.

 

[Josh Barg]

Any update on this tree? This thread has inspired me to give one of these trees a try.
This was more of a learning/experimenting effort. I realize I removed quite a lot of foliage and may have stressed the tree too much too fast. Hopefully it survives. Either way it was a $5 practice tree.

 

[M. Frary]

October quit posting a while ago.

 

[Josh Barg]

October quit posting a while ago.

Bummer.

 

[sorce]

practice tree

Not a bummer!

That's dope!

Sorce

 

[Josh Barg]

Not a bummer!

That's dope!

Sorce

Thank you!

 

[just.wing.it]

Looks like last time October was here was on 4/20 this year......
Hmm...

 

[just.wing.it]

Any update on this tree? This thread has inspired me to give one of these trees a try. View attachment 164982
This was more of a learning/experimenting effort. I realize I removed quite a lot of foliage and may have stressed the tree too much too fast. Hopefully it survives. Either way it was a $5 practice tree. View attachment 164983

Nice, and worth the $5, for the wiring practice anyway...
Hope it survives, your wiring looks good from here!
Wouldn't mind some more pics of that one!

 

[JudyB]

I miss Rob...

 

[M. Frary]

I miss Rob...

Yep.
Bigger Godzilla fan than me.
Great trees.
Great advice.
Great attitude.
Great guy.

 

[Josh Barg]

Nice, and worth the $5, for the wiring practice anyway...
Hope it survives, your wiring looks good from here!
Wouldn't mind some more pics of that one!

One thing I learned is that I should have wired every branch before the guy wires. I didn't do that so the wiring is pretty questionable in most areas.