Hi, everybody,
I just uploaded Part III of “The story of XL my Larch Yamadori Bonsai” Part III onto youtube!!! The final Part IV will be uploaded later this day! It was a lot of work making this story and I really hope you like it?! I will be posting pictures of the work that I did during the last weeks later this week here on my blog again! So watch this space!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com
Hi every body,
just to let you all know that Part II of “The Story of XL” my Larch Yamadori Bonsai is on line! And that part III with moving footage of styling, repotting and shows is in the making! So watch this space if you are interested in my work! I hope you like it this far?!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
Hi, everybody,
after a lot of work, I just posted “THE STORY of XL” my Larch Yamadori Bonsai Part I on YOUTUBE!!! This progressive story in words, pictures and film follows this tree from collecting as a Yamadori in Austria in 2004 right up to the present day 2016 as a Bonsai in a major Bonsai show! In short…the life of a tree that becomes a Bonsai in 12 years’ time is told as a story for you all to enjoy…hopefully?! 🙂 Part II will be uploaded soon (I hope ?!)! It is a lot of surging troughs and improving old pictures, text, film and music and then the editing!! Boy o Boy! But seriously I enjoyed doing it and it is fun to see for myself just how much happened in the life of this old tree in all these years! And how amazing that process actually is! So I hope you will enjoy this story as much as I did making it?!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com
Hi everybody,
I am happy to say that the “MOSHI MOSHI” Bonsai video was lost after the Dutch television organisation N.C.R.V. stopped the site that showed all the famous video’s from the Dutch television program “Man bijt Hond” (man bites dog) that was broadcasted for years around dinner time on the Dutch television and showed unique normal Dutch people and made them stars for a few minutes, is found again and translated by me so that I can show it to you all!!! This funny video was shot in 2000 because our then-still Prince Willem Alexander visited Japan because of the 400 years of friendship between Holland and Japan and shows Carlos van der Vaart and myself working in Danny Use his Bonsai museum and his “GINKGO” Bonsai centre in Belgium! Well, you have to see it for yourself and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did making it?!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com
Hi, everybody,
after a lot of hours of editing all the footage I shot last weekend at the “KEI-BONSAI-KAI” exhibition in the famous “GINKGO” Bonsai centre in Laarne Belgium, I finally managed to get the 2 parts onto youtube! It was a disaster to discover after I finally finished the video’s that my old camera used a system (MMP) that was not compatible with youtube! Whatever I tried, I could not get it on there!!!! So I finally managed to convert the videos back onto my computer and from there managed to get them onto youtube! Man, I was relieved that this finally worked! I was so afraid that my hard work was all for nothing! You must understand, that this was the first time I ever posted something on youtube…yes, I know… I am a dinosaur! 😎 Anyway, here are the 2 links to the 2 part video! I hope you enjoy them?!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com
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Hi everybody,
today is the Sunday after my visit to the long-awaited “KEI BONSAI KAI” exhibition that my dear old friends Danny Use his wife Ingrid and their amazing club members staged last Saturday in their famous Bonsai Centre “GINKGO” in Laarne Belgium! Danny staged this unique Bonsai show to commemorate the first friendships that were made when he, almost 20 years ago, staged his now legendary first “Ginkgo award back in 1997! In February this year, some 10 years after the last “GINKGO” Award was staged, friends from these early hours and from all around Europe were called by Danny and were to their surprise invited to exhibit there by now matured work at this “KEI BONSAI KAI” exhibition and one of them was little old me! So I prepared 4 of my show-worthy Bonsai for this one-off show, from which 2 Hawthorns had to be cancelled because they were attacked by insects that caused bums on most of the foliage! But XL my big Yamadori Larch and Wolfie my Mugo Pine were show worthy! On the Friday before the show, both trees, tables and other accessories were carried into my car to arrive some 2 hours later at the “Ginkgo Bonsai centre”! I had not seen Danny and Ingrid for almost 10 years, but was greeted by them as if we had seen each other only yesterday…..that was very heartwarming!!! We have a long and intense history together and it was good to see and feel that nothing has changed since then!!! From all sides, Danny’s helpers jumped out to help me lift the big Larch and heavy table chest onto trolleys and they drove them for me past the hundreds of stunning Bonsai that were already on display…..I was immediately amazed by all their quality!!
Danny had saved a beautiful Tokonoma for my big Larch and it was the first time for me to be able to do that!!! Creating my composition in this special space was a first for me and therefore very exciting and a real honour! As you can see here, I am happy with the way it all looks! And I am especially proud that this is a Bonsai from a tree that I collected myself all those years ago and that almost all branches and the top section were created from nothing! Later that evening my friend Mario Komstra, for who I have the highest regard, discussed with me this tree and he gave me an honour that surpasses for me every award there is to win! He called this old larch a Bonsai and an important European tree! Coming from him, I think this tree and me did all right up to now! But he also pointed out that there are still things that could and should be improved! Like the thickness of some of the branches and the top trunk section and maybe a shallower pot in the future! Points are taken Mario and thanks for the discussion and talk we had…you are an inspiration in many ways my friend and I do hope to visit you sometime, when things are better!!! 😉
This is a picture of the second Bonsai that I brought along with me! This is “Wolfie” the Mugo pine that I swapped so many years ago with another old friend Wolfgang Putz when my dear friend Tony Tickle (UK) and I visit him in his beautiful place in Austria! The beautiful accent stone is yet another gift from another old Bonsai friend from the UK, Terry Foster!
It was very intense and hot work building up my compositions underneath all that glass of the greenhouses that make up a large section of the “GINKGO” Bonsai centre! So I was glad to be able to sit down with my old friend Danny and my new friend, the very talented Frederic Chenal from France! This picture is taken in front of Danny’s unique “Route 66” roadhouse music bar that is built right in the middle of his Bonsai centre! Above the entrance, you can see one of Danny’s many hotrod bikes that he collects along with all kinds of paraphernalia that has to do with it! You got to love this guy!!! 🙂
Across from the roadhouse, above the entrance and the pay desk, there are loads more of Danny’s collected stuff! Ranging from petrol pumps to children’s miniature cars and bikes!
More to the left even more collected stuff! Just underneath this, you can see the entrance to space where Danny’s students made a very inspiring exposition of Bonsai in the dark!
Imagine this composition in complete darkness, which was impossible to capture with my camera, because it kept on using its flashlight! But I hope you get the idea. It was all so inventive and uniquely made, really breathtaking and inspiring!
And here is another picture I made in that dark room! just look at that amazing old wood they used to create that Tokonoma and the contrast it makes with that modern lighted base where the Bonsai stands…great stuff!!!
Lunch among friends during the show on Saturday. Danny is here telling the great story, of how he, me, Ludo and Carlos drove all through the UK to convince and invite artists like Colin Lewis, Harry Tomlinson, Dan Barton, Salvatore, John Hanby and Marco Invernizzi to come to the first “GINKGO AWARDS” in 1997! We drove about twice the distance then was really necessary and the way that happened is a classic story that still makes everybody who hears it laugh! It was good to hear about the adventures Danny and I had all those years ago! I am so glad we got reacquainted again and that nothing has changed, besides the colour of our hair and the shape of our bellies!! 🙂 He and Ingrid are indeed great friends and I am very grateful that I had the chance to spend this wonderful weekend with them again!!! Thanks, Danny, Ingrid and all who made this wonderful show possible…..and I will see you soon!!!
In the next couple of days, I will work on a video that I shot of this great event and of all the wonderful trees on display! This is a first for me so it might take me a while….but watch this space for the link!
I was smiling when writing this! Bonsai, Bonsai friends and everything that’s got to do with it is so special and uplifting! I wish the whole world could do it! Keep them small!!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com
Hi, everybody,
while planning my 2 Bonsai displays for the “KEI BONSAI KAI” exhibition next weekend in Belgium, I was surging through my old pictures of earlier displays to look at the accents, scrolls, Tanzaku’s and Shikishi’s that I have used in the past to accompany my Bonsai in shows where that was allowed. Doing this I rediscovered an early “van Meer” that I would like to re-share with you all….because it made me smile and I hope it will make you smile too?! 🙂
Only 6 more nights to sleep before I have to carry my two (one heavy) Bonsai, tables and other accessories into my car and drive to the “Kei Bonsai Kai” exhibition in Laarne (Belgium)! More than 125 top-class Bonsai will be on display there and I am really proud to be a small part of all that!!! If you want to see lots of pictures of how Danny and an amazing group of volunteers are building and preparing everything for this amazing show go HERE!!!!
When I get back from the show I will post lots of pictures of it all and later on a short film about all the Bonsai and the reunion of old Bonsai friends!!! I hope to see you all there on Saturday the 28th of May from 10h to 18h !!! And remember FREE ENTRANCE !!!!! 🙂
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com
Hi, everybody,
today I would like to share with you the Air Layering or Marcot that I performed yesterday on one of the mine Prunes mahaleb Yamadoris.
Remember this picture? This is the Prunus mahaleb that is about to be air layered. The left (yellow) section needs to be separated from the right (red) section! This beautiful left section, full of age-old death wood, goes to my dear friend Tony Tickle (UK) and the right trunk/tree section stays with me in Holland…if all goes well that is?!
Before I start a little explanation about the different layers that make up a trunk and branch.
Just look at the quick drawing I made to explain. The bark on the outside of the tree protects the living cambium layer that lies under need it. This cambium layer produces the growth rings adding each season new layers of phloem and xylem to the tree. The cambium layer is a very thin living layer that produces phloem towards the outside where it eventually becomes bark and xylem towards the inside where it becomes sapwood. This all-important cambium layer is responsible for the growth of stems and, important for the technique that I am going to use, the roots! The phloem transports all the food and hormones that are produced by the leaves downwards to the roots. The xylem is basically vascular tissue that carries the water and other dissolved nutrients all the way up to the leaves.
So now we know this, how does those air layering work?! Where new roots have wanted a strip of bark is removed with the help of a sharp knife or in my case a small iron saw! After the strip of bark with the phloem is removed with the help of a sharp chisel (this was very easy on this Prunus) the thin layer of cambium is scrapped off with a sharp and clean knife! This is very important to do because if the cambium layer is left intact the tree or branch will not be fooled because the flow is not disrupted and most likely will not produce new roots if only the bark and phloem are removed! A sticky paste is made by adding the rooting hormone to water and that is then applied generously around the edge of the wound (on the side closest to the top of the branch or trunk). Then a thick layer of moist (but not soaking wet) sphagnum moss is applied all around the wound. This all is packed in with a piece of transparent plastic that works as a water barrier and allows the sunlight to come through. Holes can easily be made at the top of this plastic if watering the sphagnum moss is later necessary! When enough roots have grown from the wound, this depends on the species and the vigour of the parent tree, the trunk or stem is removed carefully with a saw from the mother tree and is then planted in a training pot. So now we know how to let us see what I did with this old Prunus yamadori?!
The red arrow shows the point where the air layering needs to be made. This is a thick and old side branch that grows from the lower left side of this massive trunk. This long branch or almost trunk is full of old deadwood and although it those not fit into the design that I have planned for this tree, it would be a shame and almost criminal not to try to save it to become a future Bonsai of its own!!
This is more or less where the air layering will be made! This is the widest part of this trunk and therefore will be the best future root base of the new tree when it is separated! This site consists mostly of deadwood and the 2,5 Inch live fain grows mostly on the other side!
A look at the future air layering from the other side of the trunk. The red arrow points at two branches that need to be removed because they are in the way and because they don’t have a future growing near the future new root base!
With a concave cutter, they are cut flush with the trunk line and sealed with cut paste. I don’t want any change of infections that close to the new roots!
The wound is properly treated and sealed with cut paste! The red arrow points at a Jin that is also in the way of the future marcot and therefore also needs to be removed! Here you can clearly see that this section of the trunk is the widest and there for the logical choice!
Red arrow points at the Jin that is just removed. The old Jin just above it proved to be almost completely rotten and broke off easily when I checked it with my hand! A little stump that still was hard is left for Tony to decide if he wants to use in the future when this trunk is separated and starts its new life in his garden in the UK…if all goes well that is?!
Here that rotted old Jin is removed up to where the hardwood started! The branch growing to the right side of it is left as an engine for the new roots that hopefully will grow below it! It is again up to Tony what to do with this branch in the future?!
A closer look from the other side. That jin stump could be interesting in the future and that branch that is left can be left and used in a design or be transformed into a Jin as well in the future?!
With the use of a wire, the angle of the air layering is checked from both sides until I was satisfied! Red arrow: Then with the help of a thick black marker two lines were drawn, one next to the wire and the other one about 2 Inches further down the trunk.
With the help of a small iron saw, I carefully sawed through the bark! using this saw was an experiment because in the past I had struggled to make a clean cut when I used a sharp knife and I was right…it worked like a charm! Straight lines and a clean cut without the chance of cutting off a finger or damaging the bark! Red arrow points at the bottom cut!
With a just sharpened chisel, the bark was piece by piece carefully removed. At the top of the fresh air layering, you can see where the life section stops and the (brown) deadwood part starts!
With a sharp and clean knife, the cambium layer is carefully scraped away everywhere along the top incision! Making sure that nothing is left so that there will be no cambium flow possible between the top and bottom incision! This now will trigger the tree to make new roots along that top incision….if all goes well that is?! 😉
Then a paste of rooting hormone and water was applied to the top cut and below it. This was left to dry so that it would stick to the surface even when the wet sphagnum moss is applied! This rooting hormone powder (from Bayer) will stimulate and help the production of new roots!
First, a layer of water and rooting hormone-soaked sphagnum moss is applied and held in place by a strain of 1 mm aluminium wire. Then the second layer of in-water-soaked sphagnum is applied on top of the first layer and is also held in place with wire.
Then the sphagnum is completely covered by a double layer of strong transparent plastic that is tightly held in place with aluminium 1mm wire. Both ends of the plastic are tightly taped shut to make sure that nothing will move. In the future when the sphagnum gets too dry, small holes can and will be made at the top of the plastic ball to be able to insert water to wet the sphagnum!
The whole air layering is seen from the front side of this old Prunus. From now on it is fingers crossed and anxious waiting and watching until the first roots appear through the plastic! I forgot to tell you that all the foliage above the air layering is cut back to 2 leaves to minimise the need for water! I will try to keep this heavy monster and its air layering out off too much direct summer sun heat and hope for the best!! 🙂
I will keep you all informed if there is any progress and I hope you enjoyed this little story this far?!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com
Note from Me: this is a reply to the reader of my blog who so kindly posted a comment to point out to me that he or she and I quote: “did not know that there was a Dutch Hawthorn species”. Well, there isn’t! The title of this post “My Dutch Hawthorn In Full Bloom” points to the fact that the Bonsai in this post is a Dutch Yamadori of the Hawthorn kind and not that it is a Dutch Hawthorn species! Now I understand that I maybe could have better titled this post: “My Dutch Yamadori Hawthorn In full Bloom” to prevent all the confusion of this comment poster?! But in my defence, I would like to point out that like I did in Bonsai, I thought myself how to speak and write in the English language for the purpose of being able to write about my Bonsai adventures on bonsai forums, my website and blog! And I do realise that these posts are still full of poor spelling and grammar, believe me I know! But hé…I try as best as I can and 120000+ hits today when you google my name+bonsai must show that most people don’t mind me making all these honest mistakes and enjoy reading about what I am doing! And for all those people I will keep on posting and apologise in advance for all the mistakes that I know I will make in the future!
Hi, everybody, this picture was made a few days ago when the weather was just beautiful sunny and it was 25 degrees! As I write this today, it is only 11 degrees, raining and storming?!
I was in the middle of preparing this Dutch Hawthorn Yamadori (Crataegus monogyna) that I collected many years ago close to where I live, for the exciting “KEI BONSAI KAI” exhibition that is held on Saturday the 28th of May 2016 from 10h-18h in Danny Use famous Bonsai Centre “Ginkgo” in Laarne Belgium (free entrance)! Those unsightly wooden sate sticks around the rim of the pot are there to keep the rock pigeons that visit my garden regularly for free seed and water from sleeping under need the foliage! Otherwise, they would have destroyed the tender new moss and thrown out my topsoil! This those not harm them at all and now they sleep and rest on a large rock that holds down a cascading Mugo pine…you got to love these little creatures! The larger wooden sticks in there are to hold the top and top branch in place, this way I don’t have to use wire every time and it is just as efficient! The Hawthorn has an amazing amount of flowers this year and I was really looking forward to showing it for the very first time to the public ….. but disaster struck once again! About 35% of all the foliage was infected by some sort of insect and left the leaves covered with bums like they have chicken pocks or measles! I had this before on some of my Hawthorns and it is quite harmless…but it looks like shit! I removed most of the infected leaves, but I soon came to realise that it would leave the tree almost bare in some places and that would be unsightly and is not done in such a high-class exhibition! So I sadly had to decide to not show this one and another infected beautiful small Hawthorn that I was planning to show and has the same problem! It is sad and very disappointing….but these things can happen when dealing with living things that are a part of Bonsai if we like it or not! But the picture is beautiful enough to show you all this rare Dutch Yamadori in the “Mother and child” style with all her flowers!! She tried hard enough to be beautiful for this big show, but a small insect destroyed her chance to shine….maybe in the future, she will get another chance?! I will now bring in only 2 of my Bonsai! They will be shown with scrolls and accents and I will post a picture of the whole event (and maybe film?!) as soon as I get home from these exciting reunions of some of the old Ginkgo gang! After all those years it is great to get home to the place where it more or less all started! I hope that you are all coming to watch this great opportunity to see beautiful bonsai and shop around in Danny’s amazing Bonsai Valhalla!! CU is all there!!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com
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Hi, everybody,
here is part II of this Taxus styling story!
The first thing I wanted to do before I started to style the tree, is improving major large Jin on the right of the tree! It needs a whoosh flow to the right without too much visual distraction in a different direction! The especially straight angular movement away from the flow are a no-no and needs to be changed or completely removed! The straight upwards going Jin in the middle of this picture creates an almost perfect angle with the movement of long Jin to the right side and is clearly obstructing and shouting for attention when we follow the visual direction of long Jin! So it needs to be shortened considerably, but it needs to look like a force of nature had broken it off!
With a little-controlled force, the branch is broken off in just the right place leaving a natural-looking small stump that needs little or no more work to look completely natural!
Green arrow points at the stump of the Jin that just is broken off. The red arrow points at an almost straight Jin that distracts the flow and movement of Jin just above and in front of it! So again: it needs to go!
Again this Jin is controlled and broken off by hand and again Jin breaks right off at the desired place! In the background, you can already see just how the movement of that long Jin is now more clear and more visible without any straight lines distracting it like before!
Much better all ready! But the red arrow points at a Jin that also grows upward in an angular fashion and obstructs at the tip of this long branch the eye movement, flow and natural tapering of that long Jin!
So again it is carefully broken off by hand! Leaving a stump that afterwards needs some more work with hand tools to go along even better with that last part of long Jin! That will be done when the major styling is finished!
By now that long Jin looks much better and the eye movement to the right is without any obstructions! it is starting to look like a bolt of lightning! Just like I wanted it to look! It brings visual speed to the tree and that is in my eye very exciting for the future of this tree! the red arrow points at a section on that thicker Jin section that needs improving! It is too long in some parts and there are too many small Jins sticking out from it…like tin fingers! This Jin section is not a part of that long Jin and stands on its one! It goes off in a different and those not obstruct the movement of that long Jin!
Like before the Jin that protruded straight into the air is removed by breaking it carefully off with my hand! Making that whole Jin less crowded and more open!
As you can see in this shot that Jin is now much more open and less busy! In the future when the branches are brought into their desired position and when that large, now still not worked on Shari aria is created, they might be worked on more and or shortened! But those important decisions can only be made when they can be compared with a more finished tree!
OK! Now it is time to make the final branch selections and then wire them and bring them into their desired position! First the left-hanging branch! The green arrow points at the branch that will form the left front branch. The red arrow will become the more left-orientated branch. The blue arrow points at the branch that will become the left backwards orientated branch!
Top view of that left side hanging branch. The left thicker and the one to the right that grows from it are wired in a way that offers the best protection against breaking. Applying the wire like this with room between them covers more of the branch surface than when you apply the wire needle against each other! Although it looks messy, it was precise work to avoid damaging all the buds and young growth! The tinner branches that grow from it on the right lower side are fanned out! know it doesn’t look like much yet, but remember all branches in this first styling are still way too long (some more than 40 cm) and they will be shortened considerably when the now juvenile growth and buds on them have grown sufficiently! This first styling is not to win any beauty contest, but to bring the basic shape and direction into all the branches so that the skeleton to later work from in more detail is solid!
The red arrow points at a branch that is nicely placed but where I am still not sure of if it will be used?! that really all depends on how far the higher placed left side branch will come down?! So I leave it for now! Just above it, you can see a stump from a branch that was the same as the one below it so that could be removed earlier! The two smaller branches below the red arrow are up to now not necessary, but are left just in case! Just see how much new growth is all over them!
The red arrow points at that same branch, It is a nicely placed one, but it is a bit too low on the trunk and too close to the bottom left branch! Imagine it bending down to the left…it would cover that first left branch….but still I keep it just in case! Better safe than sorry!
Close-up of the top branches that were left after removing two others once earlier. The wounds are covered with cut paste to prevent dieback that could harm the 3 branches that are left! The right one of the 3 is the one that might come down far enough to take the place of the one below it in the picture, the one we have just discussed in the picture before this one! The left one in the picture will become the back branch and the one in the middle will become the top.
A layer of in-water-soaked raffia is tightly applied and held in place with little pieces of aluminium wire, this is handy when you are working alone! When this raffia dries it will shrink and protect the branches even more from breaking or cracking!
On the left, the branch below the future top is also covered with a layer of raffia. It is always handy to have enough water-soaked raffia prepared and ready so that you can work on it without having to stop in the middle because you have run out!
Then two wires are placed on top of the raffia that is also held in place with pieces of wire. This wire needs to be placed tightly onto the raffia without any space under need them! These two branches will be bent down so the wire on top will offer protection from breaking where the most stress is occurring! You might have knottiest that the wires are too long and will stick out from under the raffia?! Well, this is on purpose…they are used to wire the rest of the branch! Clever or what!? 🙂
The treetop branches have the second layer of raffia applied to them, to hold the wirer under need it as tight as possible! The red arrow points at the future top branch that will be severely bent up-wards so it needs protection from a wirer under it to protect it! That’s why a U-shaped wire is placed (green arrows) under need that branch, to protect it and the branch below it, which will bend downwards! That branch that goes downwards is here still waiting for its second layer of raffia to hold that U-shaped piece of wire tightly into place!
After that last layer of raffia is applied, and just one single MM aluminium wire is used to cover it! I figured that this is enough to safely bend the branches because strong copper wires will be used to hold them firmly into place! A (too long) iron pipe is inserted into the ground and secured firmly (with pieces of rubber between it) against the trunk with strong copper wire. This iron pipe will be used to bring the future top (on the left) upwards.
Here the future top is already on its way upward towards the iron pipe! This is carefully done in stages…there is no rush when doing these major bends! Especially when working alone, you are short off 2 hands! It takes some force and technique to bend and turn and tighten the wire with a nipper!
The top red arrow points at the future back branch that is brought down and to the left (in this picture) and is held down by a 3 MM copper wire that is attached to two screws that are brought into the Shari (bottom red arrow)! Just look how far it has already come down!
Close-up of the wire that is connected to the screws that hold everything into place.
That is, with intervals, more and more tightened with the help of a short piece of thick wire (like you can see on the right off the top)!
In this way, the branch is slowly and as safe as possible brought into the desired position and at the end hold in its place!
In this shot, you can also see just why in the future the large Jin on the left, where the screws are inserted, needs to be largely removed and then naturally formed! It gives the tree a reverse taper (smaller at the base and wider at the top)! It also hides the view of large Jin at the back!
The red arrow points at the top that is finally into place, just look how far it is bent upwards…amazing! the green arrow point at the top left branch that is about to be carefully bent down into its desired position! Things are so far coming along nicely! I am completely in my element again…I missed that feeling for so long! 🙂
The green arrow points at the new top. The red arrow points at the back branch. The yellow arrow point at the new right hanging branch after it is in stages brought down into its new position! The green arrow points at the top that is even brought more toward the iron pipe!
The yellow arrow point at the top is by now in its desired position, but is here still straight and therefore needs bending to create a more natural movement. The red arrow points at the back branch. the blue arrow points at the new first right side branch that also needs additional bending to create curves and the green arrow points at the left first branch that needs some more downwards bending!
The red arrow points at the first left-side branch that still needs to be brought down a considerable bit! This is done by carefully pushing it down with my left hand, while the right hand tightens the heavy copper wire! You have to be very handy when you work alone! 🙂
The red arrow points at that same left-hand first branch. Just look how far it has come down when you compare it with the picture above! It still amazes me how far you can safely bend stiff branches when you protect them with raffia and wire!
Red arrow points at the branch that is just brought down and held in its new position with the help of 2 strong copper wires! Pieces of aquarium tubs and pieces of pot screens are used to prevent the wires from cutting into the bark of the branches! This is very important and must always be done!!!
Red arrow points at the branch that was kept on with a question mark?! It could be a left branch, but it would hide the branch below it! And now the branch above it, which has just been brought down, has taken over the place of that branch in a better way…so it can be removed as well !!
And this is, for now, the final resold after a day of work! Remember that all the branches are left way too long on purpose to protect the inner buds and small growth! This extra length with all its lush growth will work as a sucking engines to maintain the sap flow and growing power and will only be shortened as soon as I am completely sure that there is enough growth on them closer to the trunk to maintain the branches! The long top will also be shortened in the future and one of its lower-placed small branches will become the new leader and top! But again: only when there is more growth lower to maintain its health! I don’t want to lose any branches, they are all needed and health and growth are much more important now than the wild image of this very old tree!
I made this picture on 5-5-2016 just to show and prove to you what I mend by tons of buds and new growth all over the insides of all the selected branches! This is a close-up of the first hanging branch on the left of the tree! I placed yellow dots next to each bud and new growth to make it more clear for you all to see! When this new growth has grown sufficiently on all the now still way too long branches, they will be all shortened considerably! Some by more than 35 cm!
I hope you enjoyed this story as much as I did making it?! I will keep you all updated on the progress of this future Bonsai and hope you come back for my other Bonsai stories and adventures?!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer
Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com
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The Bonsai Blog of Hans van Meer 