Post by jameshburke on Jul 24, 2012 15:25:42 GMT -5
Hi there fellow bonsai enthusiasts! I would like to share some pictures of what's on my bench and get your feedback, suggestions, comments.
I've been interested in bonsai for many years and dabbled for a year or so back in the dark ages (I have an apron that heralds Atlanta Bonsai Society's 30th year - what anniversary are we up to now?). However, in the interim period I had a VERY busy life and here I am now ready to jump back in. Last year I changed jobs from one that required ALL of my time, to one that is somewhat more reasonable (even though I've just been asked to start working a few more hours, it's still less than before).
So, here we go. Again, any comments or feedback are welcome, but remember that I only started back this year so please be nice. Everything you see here wasn't even a gleem in my eye until Christmas '11 when I got a small leaf pruning tool from my wife (she had NO idea!
).
First up is a Bald Cypress I got from Dudley at his little shindig recently (Thanks, Dudley!). I hope I'm not ruining the poor thing. Here's how it looked just before taking it to be evaluated by the great Suthin Sukosolvisit.
Suthin recommended a new apex and that I do some carving. The next two pictures show where Suthin marked the tree.
As you may be able to tell from the last picture, there was a large scar at the rear of the tree from a previous large cut. It had healed over completely, but was still somewhat unsightly.
Suthin only marked down the front and on the left, where there was a knot that I think he figured distracted from the rest of the tree (2nd picture). As I was working on it, it felt right to continue it back around to disguise the large knot in the back. I think it now looks like maybe it got a lightning strike, a part broke off, and later some bugs started eating on it. I'm not particularly happy with the boring way I did the front part, but I believe the back looks pretty good. As it's my first time carving on a tree ever, I hope I did an ok job and would welcome feedback and thoughts. Oh, the branch to the left, Suthin recommended that I jin, but I haven't gotten around to that just yet.
When I cut the existing apex out of the Bald Cypress, I couldn't bear to part with it, so I stuck it in some soil. The green parts have appeared since then, so I guess it's not dead yet!
Here's the first tree I got this year, a Chinese Elm acquired when we took a trip to the Monastery in January. After Rodney's class, he helped me repot and root prune.
Here are four root cuttings that were taken from the elm. Originally, they just looked like twigs sticking up from the ground!
Here's a closeup of one of the root cuttings. I think it's doing pretty well. Needs a haircut, but I will take care of that later.
Last year, I dug up 5 5 gallon Encore Azaleas that had been in the yard for a couple of years and just weren't thriving. I pruned out the dead wood last fall. Early this spring I separated two of them into several trees each. This is what they started out looking like ...
A compilation picture of most of the trees I got from the 2 azaleas I separated. Some of these I worked on in the Ted Matson workshop, but other than being positive that the one on the far left (semi-cascade, belongs to my daughter ... I was going to throw it away, but she liked it - better taste than me, obviously) was from that workshop I don't remember which is which. Shame on me. ;D
Literati azalea??? Actually, this kind of appeals to me.
Some azalea cuttings. I can't say they seem to be thriving, but they're hanging in there.
A Chinese Elm acquired from Dudley. This is my daughter's bonsai. We'll give it a haircut soon, as it needs it.
A couple of Bloodgood variety Japanese Maples acquired on a trip to Home Depot. I cut the leaves down some to hopefully stimulate more growth. Hope I'm doing the right thing with that. The one on the left I worked on in the Roy Nagatoshi workshop. The one on the right I just hacked up myself. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a picture that really shows the trees off. They're actually quite nice for brand new stock (in my humble, inexperienced, opinion).
A Japanese Forsythia cutting that was donated to me. It seems to be surviving.
Finally, just a shot of my bonsai bench. I didn't have time or energy to build anything. I'm sure this is the height of tacky, but it works. Maybe some day soon I will get around to building something nicer. If you made it this far, thanks for hanging in there! Give me your thoughts and feedback. As you may have noticed, I don't have wire on anything. I know that's not good, but I consider almost everything I have pre-bonsai. I do need to start training with wire. That's the next thing I need to get going, I think.
I've been interested in bonsai for many years and dabbled for a year or so back in the dark ages (I have an apron that heralds Atlanta Bonsai Society's 30th year - what anniversary are we up to now?). However, in the interim period I had a VERY busy life and here I am now ready to jump back in. Last year I changed jobs from one that required ALL of my time, to one that is somewhat more reasonable (even though I've just been asked to start working a few more hours, it's still less than before).
So, here we go. Again, any comments or feedback are welcome, but remember that I only started back this year so please be nice. Everything you see here wasn't even a gleem in my eye until Christmas '11 when I got a small leaf pruning tool from my wife (she had NO idea!
).First up is a Bald Cypress I got from Dudley at his little shindig recently (Thanks, Dudley!). I hope I'm not ruining the poor thing. Here's how it looked just before taking it to be evaluated by the great Suthin Sukosolvisit.
Suthin recommended a new apex and that I do some carving. The next two pictures show where Suthin marked the tree.
As you may be able to tell from the last picture, there was a large scar at the rear of the tree from a previous large cut. It had healed over completely, but was still somewhat unsightly.
Suthin only marked down the front and on the left, where there was a knot that I think he figured distracted from the rest of the tree (2nd picture). As I was working on it, it felt right to continue it back around to disguise the large knot in the back. I think it now looks like maybe it got a lightning strike, a part broke off, and later some bugs started eating on it. I'm not particularly happy with the boring way I did the front part, but I believe the back looks pretty good. As it's my first time carving on a tree ever, I hope I did an ok job and would welcome feedback and thoughts. Oh, the branch to the left, Suthin recommended that I jin, but I haven't gotten around to that just yet.
When I cut the existing apex out of the Bald Cypress, I couldn't bear to part with it, so I stuck it in some soil. The green parts have appeared since then, so I guess it's not dead yet!
Here's the first tree I got this year, a Chinese Elm acquired when we took a trip to the Monastery in January. After Rodney's class, he helped me repot and root prune.
Here are four root cuttings that were taken from the elm. Originally, they just looked like twigs sticking up from the ground!
Here's a closeup of one of the root cuttings. I think it's doing pretty well. Needs a haircut, but I will take care of that later.
Last year, I dug up 5 5 gallon Encore Azaleas that had been in the yard for a couple of years and just weren't thriving. I pruned out the dead wood last fall. Early this spring I separated two of them into several trees each. This is what they started out looking like ...
A compilation picture of most of the trees I got from the 2 azaleas I separated. Some of these I worked on in the Ted Matson workshop, but other than being positive that the one on the far left (semi-cascade, belongs to my daughter ... I was going to throw it away, but she liked it - better taste than me, obviously) was from that workshop I don't remember which is which. Shame on me. ;D
Literati azalea???
Actually, this kind of appeals to me.Some azalea cuttings. I can't say they seem to be thriving, but they're hanging in there.
A Chinese Elm acquired from Dudley. This is my daughter's bonsai. We'll give it a haircut soon, as it needs it.
A couple of Bloodgood variety Japanese Maples acquired on a trip to Home Depot. I cut the leaves down some to hopefully stimulate more growth. Hope I'm doing the right thing with that. The one on the left I worked on in the Roy Nagatoshi workshop. The one on the right I just hacked up myself. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a picture that really shows the trees off. They're actually quite nice for brand new stock (in my humble, inexperienced, opinion).
A Japanese Forsythia cutting that was donated to me. It seems to be surviving.
Finally, just a shot of my bonsai bench. I didn't have time or energy to build anything. I'm sure this is the height of tacky, but it works. Maybe some day soon I will get around to building something nicer. If you made it this far, thanks for hanging in there! Give me your thoughts and feedback. As you may have noticed, I don't have wire on anything. I know that's not good, but I consider almost everything I have pre-bonsai. I do need to start training with wire. That's the next thing I need to get going, I think.