Shohin Mugo Pine

Here is a little mugo pine that I got in on a trade. At first I was a little excited about it...did some minor pruning then lost interest in it. It was very root bound so last summer I repotted it and put it in good soil, pumice/lava mix. It has almost been 2 yrs since I got it and figured now was the time to do something with it or trash it.

I brought it in to give it a once over and see if I found a renewed interest in it. Once I put it on my turn table and started looking at it from all angles I thought it was possible to salvage a bonsai out of it.

At the base the trunk is 2 1/4" thick and is 11" tall.

Before any work. Front.

Back

Needle prunned and jin work done.

Here every branch gets wired. Through all this normal work I make the old "back" of the tree the new "front". The new front has a more dynamic trunk and while it leans away near the top I was able to fix that with guy wires.

Here is the tree after the 1st styling. It is now under 12" tall from the rim of the pot so it should be a shohin. In 2 years I will reduce the pot size and make it even smaller. For now though it didn't turn out too bad. Not a bad way to spend an hour or so... :)

Bluish background

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.....