Rich's Ponderosa

A few years ago Rich got this ponderosa from Oregon Bonsai because it some very cool deadood sub trunks that are no longer part of the tree. He had us over for a bbq yesterday and worked on this tree. Once we started looking at it and noticing that most of the front of the trunk was dead. So we pulled out the pcoket knives and started looking for the live vien, pictures show that most of the inner side is alive, everything else is dead! Cool!

Initially we wanted to pt a few bends into the trunk....however since we found all the deadwood we had to re-evalute the plan of attack. Here is what we came up with.....

Using the branch bender we would just squeeze this section together and go from there. I wanted to seperate the live vien from the deadwood all along but Rich wanted to go the safe route is possible...

Above you can see the deadwood starting to split from the pressure of the bender....it sounded like "Snap, Crackle and Pop"!!

Below, Rich using a cheater bar to keep turning!

After Rich added this last turn I looked and seen that it would be real simple to seperate the live from the dead and continue like I originally wanted to do. Picture below shows after we seperated by hand...

Adding some wire....then raffia and more wire.

Final images for now. Next year when the rafia and wife come off Rich will be able to clean the deadwood that is under the rafia to make it look a bit better. He may also pot it in a round pot or more suitable pot at that time. The trunk is pretty straight and kind of boring so we wanted to hang the foliage in front of the trunk to make a smaller tree and use it to distract from the tall straight trunk. For an initial styling it isn't too shabby!

Virtual Potting of the killer RMJ

Walter Pall was kind enough to do 3 virtuals of the tree in the post below. Here he put the tree in 3 different pots....kinda cool to see what the future looks like.....
I am a year or 2 away from potting so I have time to find the right one....I will start buying a few pots of this size asap so I have a few to try on for size when it comes time to pot this tree.
Which one do you like best?

Pot 2, my choice so far....

Ofcourse my favorite picture of the weekend....My wonderful wife and child!!

Walter Pall's Visit

A few times per year we here in NW Oregon are lucky enough to have Walter Pall come for a visit. Most of the time it is very casual, I will set up some workshops to offset his travel cost's then the rest of the time is working on trees, eating good food and drinking good adult beverages! But mostly, it is working on trees in my back yard while Walter looks on to make sure we are doing the right thing!
For these 2 days I had Randy Knight and Rich List over for some good ol' tree work. Each of them brought quite a few trees to work on, and I had this big monster juniper to play around with.
Rich and Walter look at my project tree....

Walter looking at how healthy this juniper is. Also wondering why he didn't buy it for himself :)

Going over last years carving. I now have the right tools, the right bits and better know how to get it done. Walter did one branch and I tried to do the rest.



After carving with the die grinder and then fine tuning with the dremel it was time to fire the wood.... one can tell that is was burnt very much then lightly brushed.

The next few shots show thinning of the foliage.....



The apex and right side of the tree are thinned and starting to come together

I think he likes what he sees!!

Now the overall image is starting to come together....never mind "Muscles of spun steel" in the background!!! haha

Back side of the tree as is for now.....

Front side for now

Possible 2nd front????

Deadwood final and right side of tree.

Me and my Baby!

While this tree just had its initial styling it still has a long ways to go. It does have a good start to what is considered by many in the know to be one of the best Junipers around. Once in a pot and the rest of the styling is complete it will be a tough tree to beat. I look forward with great anticipation to continue to develop this tree and see it to be the best it can be.
To see more pictures please visit Walter Palls blog http://walter-pall-travelogues.blogspot.com/

Here are some random photos of trees that I cut the 1st flush of new growth back on.



Japanese Maple, the long shoots that I left are actully thread grafts that I am letting grow out to thicken and join with the new locations.

Japanese Maple....starting to look pretty good.

European Hornbeam
intially styled this past winter.

Walter Pall Workshops!

Walter Pall will be back in the Portland area for a workshop on Monday the 30th of June 2008. There are still a few spots available. Email me for details....
The workshop will be held at Tsugawas Nursery in Woodland Washington. They have a very nice nursery and a great palce to hold workshops. http://www.tsugawanursery.com/index.html

Hans Mt. Hemlock

Well, Hans van Meer has come and gone from my house. Let me tell you, he is one of the nicest, funniest people I have ever met!! I had such a great time with him and I am honored to have been the one to get him to the states for his first visit. Hopefully this will be the first of many trips to come.

We had a great time working on trees, drinking beer, shooting pool and working on trees, haha! He is a very talented artist and I am sure will be come one of the best in all of Europe very soon. Here is a tree that we worked on together in my yard.

It is a Mt. Hemlock, has about a 6"+ trunk and stands about 30" tall. It is an amazing tree.....one local bonsai master told me it was a junk tree.....I collected it because I saw this tree in it. My original vision had a different apex, I like the one Hans designed better!!

It was fun working with Hans, and I was able to learn from him. A good time was had by all.... Hans loved this tree.....

Before any work

Hans working away!

Finished for now..

Hans is done for the day!

This Mt Hemlock has amazing bark, a killer deadwood top that is older than I am and now a wonderful shape to it. This tree just goes to prove that sometimes "Masters" are even wrong! Better pictures of this tree will be posted in the coming weeks....

Fat Little Ponderosa Pine

Here is a nice little ponderosa pine that I have been working on for about 3 years now. Trunk at the soil line is about 6" and the tree is about 22" tall.

As collected in 2005

Oct. 2006 I did the intial styling... still in big mica pot. This image is my avatar on a few bonsai forums...I just liked the sky in the background... looks kinda cool.

This brings us to today, April 2008.... time for some more work. With the beverage of choice for scale. In a Chinese pot, potted in early 2007.

Back

Some branch bending, with some really cool branch benders. I love it when one can employ tools!

Close up of the rock that the tree has grown over.... natural root over rock.

After a complete re-style... A new front was choosen that would show the best trunk movement. This meant all branching had to me moved and complete re-style. In the end it will make for a much better tree. Over the next few years I will focus on backbudding and getting it into a new pot.

Old front after restyle.

New front after restyle.

I lost a little bit of the trunk girth at the soil line with this new front but now the trunk leans to the viewer and the movement is 10X better than before. Once in a new pot it will be even better. I am thinking that the back branch will be trimmed up getting rid of the foliage on the bottom right that you see now.

Literati Ponderosa Pine

Here is a little Ponderosa collected in cascades last year. It has excellent root growth and the buds look phenominal so it is ok to work on it now.....
Here it is after collection....

Something had to be done with the bottom 1/3 of the trunk. It is far to straight and I think a change in the planting angle is in order...
After work has been done.



What I like as the new front.....

The trunk goes away from you at the bottom but then comes back to the viewer at the top.
This angle also shows the best trunk movement, lichens and excellent bark. The foliage goes away from the viewer which I actully kinda like. Some branches will be cut off in time, but for now I decided to keep them until I put the tree in a nice pot.
About 36 inhes tall.