Some recent work......

Just a few things that have been given a little love over the past few weeks....

Large Japanese Maple.

In 5 years it will be a stunner! The front will change from the picture below.

Cutting it back this hard was the right thing to do, infact it should have been

done 3 years ago....instead of wasting the past 3 years on this one. Live and learn.

Ponderoas pine now in a Mike Hagedorn pot. I love this tree and it can only get better

from here. Pot is nice, but not the final pot.

Fatty elm after letting it grow unchecked last year.

Changed the front and did lots of branch work. Give this one a few years then watch out! :)

I know, bad picture quality! This tree was posted on BonsaNut last year....in which some
did virtuals of it in a naturalistic style. I liked what they did but this trunk lends itself to a more
traditional styling. This is what the tree needs and wants, it wants to be short, super fat and powerful. Better pictures to come this spring.

Crabapple with a 4" trunk...bigger than you would think.

Roots......tons of them! Anderson flats and pumice do amazing things, no matter the species of tree

In a large oval pot. Need to work on branch ramification now.

Shohin Ponderosa

Same tree in a clamshell style pot by Sir Knight. One he was going to throw away.

This will look good in summer and next spring when the accents get established and fill in a bit.

But its a start!

Amny more to post later.... But for now here is one that is now in line for some work,

 a rather large pine...... My good buddy Tony there as "bonsai model extrordinare", lol!

Shohin Chinese Elm

This little elm is one of my favorites in the garden. Something about it just really appeals to me. I never liked the oval it was in just because it seemed to be to bulky and masculine of a pot. It really seemed to dominate the tree.  While I was cleaning the moss off the roots and thinning the foliage I thought now is as good a time as any to look at re potting the tree too. So I grabbed this little Erin pot that I thought would work well with the tree. The blues and browns in the pot will really work with the green leaf, the bark and the blues will really accentuate the fall colors. The only issue I had is I wish it had been a tiny bit wider. Oh well, it works just fine I think.

Before any work.

OH NO, NAKED!!! haha Roots just as I pulled it out of the little oval by Erin pottery.

Branches are thinned at this point.

Pots that I think will work. A blue-ish oval, a blue/brown rectangle and the oval it was in.

Root work underway, you can see the can for scale and the huge pile of Akadama, lava and pumice. There were a ton of roots on this little guy.

Soil I used was imported from Japan. It has akadama, lava, pumice and another Japanese clay in there. I use it on a lot of my shohins and accent plants and really like it so far. I got it from John Kirby at Vonsgardens. I don't know the name of it as the package is all in Japanese.

Potted up

In its new pot and lots of guy wires to reposition many of the branches. I think the new pot puts more emphasis on the tree and is less dominating that the previous pot. I think the colors in the pot will work very well and the size is good. The nebari touches all sides of the pot like it grew in it forever. Very, very good nebari. This is one of my favorites. Picture quality is not that great, I will update with better once in leaf. I hope you enjoy as I do.....

Updated Literati Ponderosa

Here is an update on a nice ponderosa that I collected a few years back. It responded well to the initial styling and threw many, many buds that I had to thin quite a bit. I am very confident that in 2 years this will be a very full and killer tree. They bark and trunk line are very nice and elegant while the crown is starting to come along. It too will change quite a bit over the coming years as it fills in and extends. I see the foliage getting tighter and a smaller crown......in time though! Here is is last year http://jasonsbonsai.blogspot.com/2008/04/literati-ponderosa-pine.html

Instead of tearing it up like the wildman I once was on New Years eve I stayed in and cranked out some trees!! No better way to ring in the new year than sap on your hands and copper wire rolls everywhere~!

Before

Old Front

After some thinning and now ready for wire

Done for the time being. The fronts angle change quite a bit to enhance the subtle movement and the abrupt change of direction at the top. While some of the foliage does go away from teh viewer it looks really good in person. This coming Feb. I will be putting it into its new pot and that will take the tree to the next level for sure.

Update on Scotts Pine

Here is an update on this pine. The original post can be seen here... http://jasonsbonsai.blogspot.com/2008/03/scots-pine.html

Just this past Sunday I had my friends Tony and Randy over  to work on trees in the garage. This happened to be one of the trees that I grabbed to work on. Glad I did, it really turned out pretty good for a second styling from a huge bush in 2 years time. It can only get better in the near future. I changed the front a bit this time around and will work on getting it into another pot this spring possibly.

After needle and bud reduction. Started to wire the lower limbs.

Old front

New Front! I am very pleased with the progress of this tree in such a short period of time. In person it is much larger and much better. 2d pictures just don't really do justice to most trees.

And one for the Haters!!!! On some of the forums there are some post's regarding the Ichiban tool. I would say that 99.9% of the people talk smack about it and those same people are the same folks who have never seen one in person and if they have then for sure haven't tried it. I applaud Marco for thinking outside the box and making a tool that actually works. I will admit though that I did trade for mine so I didn't have to fork out the cash ($350) to buy it. But I will say that it is a great tool and will help to improve your game. I am glad to have one and once I get use to it and figure it all out it will be excellent. To learn more go here http://www.marcoinvernizzi.com/ichiban/en/index.html

Collected Vine Maple

I collected this tree a few years ago in the Cascades right before winter. It has since responded well. Many looked right past this ancient tree as it sat on my benches. I guess the trunk was to straight and all the branches were growing straight up or perhaps they didn't see what I was hoping to achieve.

In the wild this tree was growing a very steep hillside and was actually a full cascade. I had to plant it upright to save space and to make sure I had the roots buried in soil. Plus I always saw this tree in it..... even as we dug it off the side of the mt.

This tree has some very cool features to make it a good bonsai. The trunk is very rugged and has many "muscles" throughout, the leaves in fall turn into fire and puts on a wonderful display, the base is huge! Most is buriedi n this grow pot, but the base is a monster, about the diameter of a basketball and very barked up for a maple. I recently read on a forum that native maples can't make good bonsai, leaves are to large and they aren't any good......Wow, glad I am not that lame!
Before any work.....
Front- This is a big tree......

Back

I had an image in my head as to what I wanted to do and what I saw in this tree. It was very fun to work on this tree.

Some progress photos along my journey.

Look at how old this little shoot is....Those are less than 2 inches and have 10+ rings per shoot. Every branch is that way, the longer ones have 40+ rings in 6 inches! This is a gnarly old maple.

Gotta bend this big thick branch...

All business~ Got my Hackin' at the Hilton Bonsai apron, iPod and cold ice-t..... :)

Adding wire while staning on a ladder!

Getting closer..

Apex detail

Fall Color

Finished back

Finished Front

Please view video for 3D images. If for some reason the blooger player doesn't work for you it can also be found on youtube... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5fTbsDVYxE&feature=channel_page

For some reason the video is a bit elongated and kinda adds a little distortion to the tree.

This was by far the funnest time I had working on a tree. I think it was because there was such a transformation. I wired every single little shoot, branch and twig, wow that was a ton of wire! More wire then I have used on any tree before, even my big RMJ. Please keep in mind this is the 1st styling, it can only get better from here~ a nice pot, ramafication...the sky is the limit for this very old, rugged and natural looking vine maple. Thanks for looking.