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.....