Snow Storm!

Here are a few images from our storm we had. At the end of it which I didnt picture we were right at 2 feet of snow. It has been many, many years since the Portland area has seen snow like this.

The snow made everything more festive!

Baby Rayne going for a very cold walk!

You can see many more pictures of the garden on my sub blog "Cool Stuff" located on the right of the page.

Big Juniper

One of the benches full of yamadori

Lots of cool trees under there....

Spruce

Here is a spruce that I found at one of those one in a million nurseries. This spruce is grafted and is over 25 yrs old, all of which were in a container. That has led to good bark and a nice tree. The graft is pretty good, but from what I wanted to be the better front the graft was a little more obvious so I found another view that kept the good trunk line and less noticable graft.

Here is before, as I bought it several months ago.

After some branch selection

Again, midway through thinning and selecting branches for the overall design. Some of the larger branches had to go.

Almost done, the sun is starting to set......

Here is the front after the initial styling. This tree will back bud like crazy and fill in quite a bit this coming year. Next winter it will look 10x better. Next spring I will repot it and start reducing the root mass.

Top view....needs to fill in!

Initial styling done for now.

Next years photos will be much better....

Walter Pall CD and Magazines

A few months back Walter Pall released a much anticipated CD that has over 8,000 images on it! It is an amazing compolation of bonsai and the progress of each of his over 500 world class bonsai.
Through Walter I have over 70 of these cd's in my possesion as well as several autographed copies of Bonsai Today issue #101 that features a gallery of Walters trees.

This is a must have for anyone wanting to enjoy the beauty of bonsai or learn by studying some of the best trees in Europe and the world.

CD is $35.00 + shipping

add the magazine to the CD and the total is $50.00 + $4.00 shipping in the US.

Email me if you are interested. jasongAToregonbonsai.com Remove the AT and replace with @

Fall Color 2

A very old Vine Maple I collected 2 years ago. This tree has to be over 200 yrs old. The trunk is bogger around than a basketball and on the branches you can count about 20 growth rings in about a 1 inch stretch on a branch thinner then a pencil. This is a very old tree. It also have amazing color, almost looks to be onfire!

Trident Maple. This is going to get its first styling this winter and its fist pot this coming spring. Under these yellow leaves is a very nice trunk.

A very good Katsura tree. The trunk has very good movement and lots of deadwood. This isn't a tree that you see everyday in bonsai. I think this tree has a good future.

Leaf close up

European Hornbeam. Coming along nicely

Super fat Wysteria trunk with amazing hallows. I am tree sitting this one with the ability to acquire it for myself. We will see. Trunk is atleast 10".

Some fall color

Here are some shots of trees as they are changing color. This has to be one of my favorite times of the year.

Japanese Maple that is headed to the ground this coming spring.

Little Leaf Linden. Just starting to turn colors. Leaves are now off as this picture is a few weeks old.

Shohin Dwarf Quince. Killer bark.

Front and back of a killer shohin Trident maple.

The long branches are to use for thread grafting this spring. Updates on the work done on this tree will come later this winter. Enjoy the amazing color of fall!

Chinese Elm in an Erin Pot. One of my favorite shohin trees. Under the moss is an amazing nebari.

Recently on BonsaiTalk forums there was a post about apex positioning. Here is proof that apex's can lean over the rim of the pot and not seem out of balance. This is not to say that it will always work, but if can work if done right. This little tree looks excellent in the fall hue's.

A few quick photos of the yard.

One of my favorite accent plants. Really cool fall color!

Rocky Mt Juniper

Here is a RMJ that I got from Walter Pall about 2 years ago. I got it in a trade for a lodgepole pine that he later sold. This juniper is a very tough tree to style because it had a few very good options and that made it very hard to style.
But I have been looking at it on my bench for a few years now and always saw this in the tree. I also want to layer or graft the back branch off in the coming spring. I think that alone will make a killer little tree and I get to practice layering or grafting.

I first started by thinning and cleaning out about 50% of the foliage to get a clear picture of what I wanted to do, once I saw a cleaned out tree I decided that the vision in my head for the past few years was the direction I wanted to go.

Walter commented that he shoudl have never got rid of the tree....he was happy with the work done and now wants it back! haha!!!

Before Pictures. Click to enlarge.

The back branch that will be grafted or layered....it has good deadwood and will make a killer little tree.

Some midway through pictures

Finsished for now. Initial styling is done. I need to glue the deadwood in the front back on and I am looking to slightly edit is to make it shorter.... There is also some tweaking needed on the branches now that I see it in the pictures. This spring I will repot and post updated pictures when done.

Back

Fronts from slightly different angles.....

Itoigawa Juniper

A while back I acquired this imported Itoigawa Shimpaku Juniper. It wasn't the best of trees but I saw a cool tree in there, one that would require some good bending and hallowing out of a main branch or sub trunk. So for a year or so this has been sitting on bench waiting to be worked on, but first I had a ton of other trees to get to....
At first glance the subtrunk, main branch on the left needed to be bent, it is just to straight and will always be a huge flaw. Problem is it is about 3" tall and is over an inch in diameter. A little to short and thick to bend. I hallowed it out with my dremel and put some heavy gauge copper wire inside. Now we were able to bend it and add a bit of movement that mimicked the main trunk a bit
Before photo


After sub trunk on left is wired and bent


Now there is a major void that needs to be filled in the top to the left of the shari in the apex. This will require bending another short and fat branch. This branch will need rafia and lots of copper. It is right on the edge of the shari so I need to make sure it doesn't split from the trunk.
Starting to come around....



Now it is pretty much inplace. I started to thin and remove branches on the lower right and left.... lots of foliage removed!!!

Lower branches wired and starting to get put in place

Now I find that there is a more dynamic front that I prefer better and is better suited for the tree....

With the new front all I have left to do now is thin, wire and set the apex.
Here are 2 photos of the new front with the re-style almost done.


While this tree has seen a pretty good re-styling, I am not finished yet. I will update this when I am finished tweaking. This coming spring we will get a better suited pot for this little juniper.