Bonsai

Another on-going project here has been Tom's Bonsai collection.  He finally had the time to get to his trees and do some serious refurbishing.

There is root pruning and re-potting, top pruning and reshaping, wiring and wrapping.  Each tree gets its own special treatment based on its needs. 

All but one of Tom's current bonsai trees were started by him from nursery stock over a period of about ten years beginning in 1983.  That makes them 20 to 30 years old in training. Over the years there have been other trees, some that didn't make the grade, some experiments with native material that didn't take to being tortured, and some that just up and died, as plants will do. These are the survivors.

 This is a Trident maple over rock - heavy!

 Quite a mass of roots in that old, too small pot.

The maple just needed light pruning on the top to keep it in shape.

                                                  Happy in its new pot.

                                          Here it is today.

This cascading style Japanese Black Pine needed to be restyled, given a new pot, and trimmed top and bottom.

 Here is is, redesigned with less cascading, dramatically needle thinned, and wrapped and wired for shape training.

 This black Pine needed root pruning and a serious haircut.

New pot, needle thinned, and wired.

                          Here's what came off.

The grove of Zelkova just got some top pruning.

 This Shimpaku Juniper was completely restyled, reduced by two thirds, and needs to grow now and branch back before further shaping can take place.  

The black pine got branches removed, needles thinned and branches wired and reshaped, roots pruned and a new pot. 

 The cork bark black pine just got needle thinning and a light pruning.

But then the Bonsai bench needed some work too.  One of the supports had rotted out. Tom built new benches last year, but now it had to come down and get new posts.

       Moving in day. Tom says it should read "Moving ON day". 

                      "Hurry and get your shot.  This is heavy!"

 We didn't get any photos of this big project.  This is a raft style Shimpaku Juniper on a 40 inch long slab of field stone.  Tom had to rebuild the rock surround that holds the soil onto the slab. He top pruned and wired the branches.  

This raft is too heavy for me to help lift any more, so it awaits help from a neighbor to lift it on to the bench.

There are a few more trees, like this Hino Crimson Azalea, currently being displayed on the patio table as it begins to bloom.

This miniature crab apple will soon have a few blooms,

                             and then a few tiny apples.

Eventually some of these trees will be moved to the garden deck. 

But the garden deck is another on-going project, for a future post.