Category: MY WORK

During my last week’s search through, thousands of photos I came across some forgotten foto I made of the first styling of a Yamadori Juniperus sabina I did way back in 2004. This tree was a gift from my old Bonsai friend and highly regarded college Serge Clement from Switzerland. He gave it to me right after that year’s Noelanders Trophy and it was if I remember it well used as a demo tree by one of the other demonstrators that year?!

Below: At home the next day I removed all the copper wire and then this Sabina is basically needly cleaned virgin material again! It now was pretty basic material with a nice Shari running along its trunk.

Below: The biggest problem that I faced was that the long base of the tree that was growing from the front of this container to the back of the container where it finally decided to grow upwards, but still away from us, and it would take some heavy bending to make it more compact and interesting! Basically, that top needs to be placed above that section where the trunk appears from the soil!

First, the whole top was tightly wrapped with a layer of water-soaked Raffia and then lengths of aluminium wire were placed lengthwise on the outside to make the heavy bend. Then the other layer of wet raffia was applied over it all and only then was I able to slowly and safely but with great force bring the whole top section into its new place!

Now fast-forward some 8 years to the year 2012 at the last edition of dear friend Tony Tickles famous/infamous Burrs Bonsai weekend experience where I was once again one of the lucky teachers. My friend Mickey from the UK who the year before became the new caretaker of this tree was also there and had brought along the Sabina of this story to further improve it. A college teacher had told the disappointed owner Mickey (below) that it would be difficult to bend the thick and old trunk that far. So really motivated we first tightly applied a layer of water-soaked Raffia and then a few lengthwise placed 4 mm copper wires on the outsides of the curve and then another layer of Raffia and then normal wiring on top of that. And then we together slowly bent the whole top section from the back side (see picture) to the front side of that trunk without any trouble. Micky had the time of his life! 😊 I wonder how they both are doing and I hope fine and healthy! 👍😊

Above: before bending with owner Micky. I am so excited!!!😬😁

Above: Success! The whole top is completely on this (front) side of the trunk now! But because of all the heavy bending, the fine wiring would be done later when the tree shows she is healthy and without any ill effects or weakness from what we have done! Patience is an important basic tool we all need in this hobby/art form! The deadwood was treated with Lime Sulfur to bleach it and protect it. 

Cheers and stay healthy,

Hans van Meer.

The main reason in my opinion why the large wound treatment that I now and then use is not so popular is that it has just a very small percentage of success and that is perfectly understandable! But remember that it is used in situations where otherwise large branches or roots would have been completely cut off leaving large wounds on our Bonsai, that in most cases never heal leaving ugly large scars…so what is there to lose?! And if those work…well then there is everything to gain! But judge for yourself!

This little Hawthorn was collected by me during a collecting trip in Wales way back in ’98 or ’99 with Tony Tickle and Terry Foster. During collecting this beauty, I had to cut through a massive root to be able to collect it!

Below: Just a few years later during its first repotting, I saw that lots of tinny new roots were growing from everywhere including the sides of that thick and massive root so I decided to shorten it even further to stimulate new roots to grow even closer to the trunk!

And another few years later when enough healthy side roots were growing from closer to the trunkline that still massive root was shortened even more and with my Dremel I carved coming in from the cut side a wedge shape out off over the length of that root making sure not to wound the bark! And then I carefully folded the saved bark back over the V-shaped wood and secured them in place with some pines. Cracked bark on the newly created (now) two roots were protected with Cutpaste. I figured out that nothing was lost trying this and if it would not work…well then I could always cut it off and live with another large wound on such a small tree?!

Below: Skip over to November 2012 and this is how those now 2 roots look! The bark has already aged a lot and is growing in almost all places needly around the created root shape!

Below: And then skip forward some 8 years to see how those roots look today! Still alive and looking pretty convincing in my humble opinion! Only the right one has a tinny strip of deadwood on the inside..but that makes it only more convincing and in style with the image of this battered old Lil tree! And be honest, this looks so much better than another gaping big scare on such a little tree?! So when possible give it a try…you never know?! And you can always cut it off later!
Cheers and stay safe,
Hans van Meer.

In the early 50 of the last century, growers in the little famous village “Boskoop” in Holland started to grow on a larch scale among others Chamaecyparis obtusa nana gracilis or Hinoki cypress. This species proved to be very hard to grow from cuttings so they started to graft them onto the much stronger and faster-growing Chamaecyparis lawsoniana. The survival rate was much higher and the plant has a higher survival rate. But because of that, the bottom root section/base of this new plant grew much faster than the top section and that is why we now still will almost always find older Chamaecyparis with overly large ugly bulging root bases! A second big problem with Chamaecyparis lawsoniana as a root base is that it is highly susceptible to the Phytophthora cinnamomi mould (root rot) and many invested fields needed to be destroyed because of this! But I am digressing! Anyhow…somewhere in the middle nighties I was visiting one of the literally hundreds of growers smack right in the middle of famous Boskoop. Where I started a conversation with the grower after he had been watching me for a while on my knees in the dirt looking under the bottom branches of a mighty original Chamaecyparis obtusa nana gracilis. He asked me why I was so interested in just this field full of old Hinoki’s? I explained enthusiastically just why I loved them and why I wanted to use them if I had one! And then he told me the story of how he as a jong boy in the 50ties had planted this, then much larger field, together with his father! And that since then over the last 40+ years literary thousand cuttings were taken from these so-called “Mother” plants and grafted onto stronger roots to be later shipped all over the world! I was over the moon that I was exclusively allowed to dig up 3 of these ungrafted and on their own original root base old beauties! And because all those constant cuttings were taken/cut off for so many years, all the foliage was growing still relatively close to the trunks and very usable for my future styling plans.

Below: And this is number one of those three Hinoki’s that I would collect that happy day! This one is about 110 cm high in this photo that was made when I proudly showed it in the 2009 prestigious Noelanders Trophy X. I sold it some two years ago to my student and dear friend Diederick who is now proudly the new caretaker and artist to take care of it.

The second one I collected that day in Boskoop, I later styled for the first time during my second demonstration ever at my then Bonsai club “KOYA” in Rijswijk (Holland). Later I entered the photos of this first styling into the national Bonsai styling competition to decide who would enter the Europian jong Bonsai talent competition that year. But I was excluded because they wrongly accused me of being a professional?! Many many years later it was sold to old student Ed van der Reek who brought this Hinoki to great heights and even won a nomination with it in the Noelanders Trophy!

Below: Oktober 2006 and still in my garden. It always was a special tree!

And this is the story of the third and biggest Hinoki that I collected that day.

In 1998 I was invited to demonstrate at the 1999 E.B.A convention in Stratford Upon Avon and I immediately thought of my number 3 Chamaecyparis for my demo tree! It would be a big job to finish it in time, but I just had to try to style this so unique tree! Luckily my old friend Carlos van der Vaart helpt me (in amazing hot temperatures) to wire all those branches! My other old friend inventor of the “SAMURAI” carving tool William Vlaanderen was so kind as to bring this large tree with him on his bus. He had wrapped it tightly with plastic foil for the trip, but it had been so hot during his long trip that the poor tree had started evaporating enormously! So much so that all small branches had turned brittle and breakable! So extra care was necessary…but I made it in time!

Below: Carlos and I sweating away for many hours! 🥵😅

And because of this amazing tree, I had the privilege to meet two big names in the world of Bonsai: the very friendly Hinoki lovers Chase Rosade and his lovely late wife Solita from the USA! And they were really impressed with my Hinoki and the story behind it! Both are a bit of an expert in this field and had never seen anything like mine! And that made me even more proud of this tree and his legacy!😊

Below: And after a lot of hard work a warm but very proud me with the final result.

Note: the top of the foliage ends in this 1999 picture about 30 cm/12 inches under that Jin top! When I started to work on it again just a few weeks ago the top was 25 cm/10 inches cm above that same Jin! That is more or less 55cm/22 inches of growth in 20 years!!! And the trunk base has almost doubled in size without (of course) any swelling!

Back at home, it was planted with no problems in a large proper pot! This was as expected because the groundwater level in Boskoop is very high all year round and rootballs are ones every year cut to size with a spade and are because of that always compact and never thirsty! Since then it has been repotted only once into a new better brown-coloured pot and it is still very happy in that one today!

Below: Last year I shorted two thick branches that were growing at the top and just last month I cut off about half of all the too-long branches to open up the inner part of the smaller branches and foliage to re-direct sunlight so that they could gain in strength! Backbudding is always an issue with Hinoki’s and it is a constant struggle to not lose growing power on the inner parts of the tree! Light is a must and cutting back new growth with fine and sharp scissors (never pinch!!!) is a very important task! New growth on older branches is very rare so you don’t want to loos what you got!!!

Below: The amazing flakey trunk base with an old root Jin. Perimeter: 56cm / 22inch.

Below: Finally, the whole beautiful old trunk line can be seen again! And when it is recovered well from this whole operation then it will be wired again and repotted with new soil into this same pot again!

The backside of this tree was always facing the wall so always in the shadow side and that meant that this Jin was always longer wet on the backside for 2 decades-long and that means that the front sunny side is still as it was when it was just stript off its bark…but the backside was so rotten on the outside that I could shape it with my bare fingers and a steel brush. Peeling it away until the stunning natural-looking unrotten wood was revealed! Looks better than any power or hand tool could ever do! 😍 So from now on the front side of this Jin will be kept moist as much as possible to create the same stunning effect on the frontside deadwood as on the backside!

Below: All needly trimmed and opened up and now fingers crossed for lots of back budding and inner growth.

I hope you all enjoyed this short story about these 3 amazing old Dutch Urban Yamadori Hinoki?!
Cheers and stay safe,
Hans van Meer.