Styling – Expressions of Grace Bonsai

Time to prune that Scots Pine

Xavier Martinez — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 15:30:33 +0000

In early 2017 I decided to purchase a batch of 20 Scots Pine two-year-old saplings from eBay. They arrived bare-rooted and at the time I had no true understanding of the necessity of mycorrhizal fungi. I potted them up in a standard garden centre mix and left them to ‘thrive’. The short story is that they didn’t! Of the original twenty, only three managed to establish a healthy roots system by 2019.

When I examined the ‘deaduns’ it was clear that no beneficial fungus had developed whereas in the three healthy plants there were obvious signs of the white ‘powdery like’ mycorrhizal fungi in the soil. I did a lot more research and am now looking to purchase some for my next set of bare-rooted saplings.

This is a classic example of ‘on the job’ learning. Looking back I wish I had understood the requirements for succesful potting of a bare rooted pine. Perhaps then, I would now be dealing with twenty thriving potensai subjects

What I also learnt was how difficult it was to identify that the young saplings were struggling for those years. Yet, if I had considered their progress, I would have identified that the majority were not producing new healthy candles – as they should AND this would have told me their was probably a root issue.

So hopefully, if you are new to pines, you will take this crucial bit of knowledge and use it wisely. Key point for pines – do not bare root them. You want to keep a good amount of that beneficial fungus from the old soil to keep the exchange of nutrients process going.

Early summer pruning:

Around this period of summer it is a good time to start looking at your Scots Pines. This is when we can clearly see all of the new growth and make decisions on what to keep and what to lose. As with all pruning we must ask ourselves what stage the tree is at and what we wish to achieve. This is explained in greater detail in the first series of ‘pruning’ posts started June 2021.

In this case, I have three four-year-old potensai that have had wire applied to them in 2020 and are now ready for further styling and development. I will only be using one of the three for this post and I apologise now if some of the information is a little repeitive.

In this image I have tried to capture several of the branches each showing numerous new healthy shoots. Our first task is to reduce any groups of shoots to just ‘two’. This ensures we reduce the risk of unwanted swelling and also allows us to establish directionality to our design.

If their are any yellowing needles then these can be removed

You are able to see that near the tip there are three shoots growing from one junction – one of these must be removed.

As an observation, I also notice that lower down the branch there are smaller single shoots growing. This is great news because it means I may eventually be able to cut back to this growth in the future.

There are no hard and fast rules about which candle you should remove in this trio. However it does help to have a design idea already in mind. This way you can easily identify which of the shoots is growing in the wrong direction.

Generally it is best practice to maintain acute angles (less than 90 degrees)

I always cut right back to the junction to leave a flush transition to the remaining shoots. In my experience it has not been necessary to seal these size wounds with cut paste.

This operation should be repeated across the entirity of the tree – even on branches you wish to grow out. (We must always be careful of junctions swelling)

We then shorten candles as shown in the image. This should encourage back budding from the site of the cut and also further down the branch. Hence we aim to achieve 2 new shoots at each cut site and thereby establish ramification for next years growth.

These pines are classified as ‘single flush’ which means what we do now sets up the growth for next spring.

This is the branch after pruning is completed. I have two growing tips at the end which will produce further buds for next year.

I also have two weaker juvenile buds pushing out further back down the branch. These are key for my design and I am hoping that next year I can chose to either cut completely back to these OR remove the one on the inside and leave the outside one to develop the pad.

I do also wire my pines at this time and will generally leave this in position for up to 9 months. I have set a reminder on my phone for 6 months to check for wire bite. It is important to already know where and in which direction you are going to be wiring your branches before pruning.

I have included one of my latest Scots Pines Collaboration videos. This was a very difficult young tree that had been growing in my nursery bed for several years. A fellow YouTuber (Kennet de Bonde) suggested a completely radical over haul…

It is really worth taking the time to look back over some of his earlier videos – he is extremely clear in his explanations and visually makes it much easier to know what ‘you’ should be doing next.

It is also fun to see the various ways his hair is styled

Be ready for my shop page to appear soon(ish) – it will still be centred on ‘collections only’ but I am now able to take card payments.

Keep smiling…

Autumnal Pruning and Wiring

Xavier Martinez — Fri, 29 Oct 2021 11:28:56 +0000

Well…it has been a long time since I last posted and for that I apologise. The last few months have seen me busy with my secondary occupation and thankfully, the bonsai have thrived without much intervention. In truth, I find that Sept-Oct can be a period for rest and reflection. The last of the fertiliser has been applied at the commencement of Autumn along with a final bug spray. Though – the apples have really been attacked this year and have needed constant attention!!

I also had a visit from my favorite potter in September and she had some beautiful work for me to purchase. A separate post will follow with pictures and details soon. If you are unable to wait then have a look for Deiceramics on Facebook and Instagram. I have also done a little bit of work on two nursery plant projects which I can share with you now.

I found this dwarf Azalea struggling in the corner of a local garden center. Like many of my projects this one cost very little but has seen several ‘do-overs’ during the last few years.

Unfortunately, I have no earlier images to show how far it has evolved. I have wired and pruned it to maximise the flowering opportunities. I removed a lot of additional buds to ensure next years flush is at its best.

This Buddleia was another garden centre cast-off which I planted into a growing bed several years ago. It has been heavily pruned up to 4 times / year and was then transplanted this March.

The trunk has majestic movement and with a little more branch reduction in 2022 this specimen should make a promising bonsai.

I will repot this into a ceramic next year.

Decidious pruning & Wiring

We have now reached the time for pruning and wiring of some of our decidious trees. The optimal time is just as the leaves have browned off and begum to fall. We normally have about 2 weeks to wire and prune whilst the tree can still allocate resources. Any later than this and I find that work can be detrimental to the health of the bonsai.

So…right now two of my favorite species are dropping their leaves: The Linden (Small leaf Lime) and The Red Oak. The Linden is a relatively robust tree that has soft bark. Care needs to be taken when wiring but with patience you can obtain fantastic results. The Red Oak are much smaller examples and the wood is a lot harder to bend.

If your tree is still in development then I would advise you to prune only those buds where you are already happy with the branch girth. I find it better to wire out the long shoots into shorter and more interesting shapes. Invariably, these get pruned back heavily a year or two later…

This Linden was purchased from a local hedging supplier in 2017. I removed the top 4ft and left the tree to recover for 2 years in a grow-pot.

It had been pruned twice / year and fed heavily. The roots are still a mess beneath the soil line and I have yet to decide how many of the visible ones will be kept.

I have wired the secondary branches ‘out’ to optimise space for next years shoots. I reduced the ‘visual’ length of the shoots by wiring in bends at appropriate bud sites.

This still requires the removal of one of the lower branches to avoid inverse taper developing.

Some of the wiring has been done with the knowledge that I shall be removing the upper third of the trunk. This will be achieved by applying an air-layer in late May. The site of this is shown by the two black lines. I have traced in white what will hopefully become a new potensai.

The reason for this operation is to eradicate the ugly stright trunk and allow a new ‘tapered’ apex to be developed from the existing lower branch.

It will be frustrating having to wait another year for the air layer removal to take place but I am looking forward to seeing how this looks in 2023.

Red Oak - Pre and Post Autumnal Work

I purchased 10 x 2-year-old whips in 2015 and left them to grow in plastric pots till 2019. They were very slow to grow and I had no clear plan for their development. In the end, I decided to treat them all as Mame projects and secured them in small ceramics. These have large leaves so I tend to remove at least 65% of the growth to give an ‘impression’ of leaf pads.

The leaves turned a brilliant red in late September and then dried out by last week. I removed the final few leaves yesterday by carefully peeling them away from the new bud growth. I removed unsightly stubs and rubbed off the buds I did not need. I then wired a few of the branches out to optimise next year’s shoot growth. The branches can be quite hard so be careful with your bending!

Japanese maple - Autumnal Pruning

The one tree that must be watched for leaf-drop is your Japanese Maples. Due to the amount of water movement they have in Spring I always do my pruning work around this time. At the moment the leaves are about 50% still green so I shall wait another week before I commence pruning and wiring them.

Off all of the decidious varieties the Japanese Maple benefits most from having its development work done at leaf drop. The process is no different from what I have described above but i am sure i will add a few pictures of me carrying out this work in a later post.

This is a ‘must-do’ activity. if you forget, then your next safe opportunity for pruning will be in late May 2022.

Happy Bonsaing

My Chinese Juniper Project

Xavier Martinez — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 19:34:33 +0000

Two or three times a year I pay a visit to my favourite stock supplier – Savin Nurseries. It is a massive garden centre hidden in the rural(ish) village of Lower Stondon and can cater for any of your vegetative delights. It is also well known amongst bonsai suppliers for a broad range of premium and budget trees. So this May I visited to find some low-cost starter trees such as Fuji Cherry, Yew or any other deciduous bargains hidden in the corners…

Little did I expect to settle on a four-foot monster Juniperous Davuricus – better known as Chinese Juniper. Most of you know already just how much I hate working with Junipers but I am still a sucker for challenges if they are at the right price. Twenty pounds later and a squashed ride back in my Kangoo found me wondering what on earth I was going to do with it???

It was too late to do an initial repot and as I had no idea how to style it with all of the multiple trunks I put it in the corner of the garden and ignored it. I have found over the years that it is always best to ‘leave a tree alone’ when you really have no idea what to do with it. Then out of the blue, just a few days ago, I started ‘fiddling’ with the trunks and clearing out the lower debris

Junipers are extremely popular for bonsai styling and are generally very forgiving. They are best worked on in the spring or mid to late summer and the main rule is to never remove all of the foliage from a branch – if you want it to live.

Once I had cleared away all of the moss and dead twigs I could start to get an idea of which trunks I wanted to keep. At this stage I recognised that their was no obvious primary trunk or front so I started to look for anything that had promising secondary branch structure or would be easier to bend once wired.

I hate Juniper for two reasons. The first is that the juvenile growth is prickly and the second is that they generally require a lot of wire work. As my wiring skills have improved my desire to overcome this genus has grown stronger. Just be aware that you need different guages of wire and that the bark can be delicate.

Over the next two days I started to apply different guages of wire. I tended to work on a trunk by trunk basis and then ‘hopped between’ interesting branches as I felt the artistic creativity direct. With this sized project it is important to be prudent with how much of the foliage you decide to prune – it is far too easy to remove a branch that you later realise is pivotal to the final design.

This is an example of one of many of the branches that had to be wired and bends applied. There are two gauges of wire used in this example and it is crucial to be very careful with your application. The bark can come away very easily and that will lead to branch dieback in many cases. I learnt how to wire by practising on branches already removed. Bonsai Mirai do an excellent video class on this technique.

I am now at the stage where it is just the apical regions to sort out. As this is the first styling of a complicated clump I have left a lot more branches than the final design will require. All I am looking at now is to resolve any obvious flaws in the primary structure.

After about 5 hours work and £12 of different guage wire I am finished. This is the front that I have chosen for now and I may tilt the tree forwards when I do the repot next spring. The wire will be checked in about 9 months time though I expect it to remain in place for at least a year. Several of the cut trunks and branches will be turned into deadwood and shari later in the summer.

I am really happy how this has turned out and I am quietly optimistic for its future development. I am expecting some of the secondary branches to die as a result of clumsy wiring – but it happens! I ended up removing around 60% of the original foliage so I will keep it in a shady spot and give it time to recover. If all goes well I would hope to see new growth later in the year. I will dump a load of fertiliser on it once the summer is coming to an end.

So I hope this has peaked your interest in Juniper as a bonsai subject. They are easy to find and pretty cheap so all you need to invest in is the wire.

Happy bonsaing

Making a Bonsai from Garden Centre Stock

Xavier Martinez — Tue, 13 Jul 2021 16:49:40 +0000

Last year my daughter bought me a conifer from the local garden centre for Father’s Day. I took it with great joy and then left it in the corner of the nursery until I felt the time was right to fiddle with it. The last time I attempted to make a bonsai from this sort of material I made a horrendous error but more on that later. I have no idea what the genus for this conifer is but it looks healthy and ready for pruning

Before going into this project I will show you a few pictures of one of my Satsuki Azalea in full bloom. It does look fantastic but requires a repot before the winter as the soil has completely broken down. I have removed flowers regularly to try and conserve energy and I have also done some light wiring to try and turn the flowers to the front. I will probably do the repot in a couple of weeks once the bloom has fallen.

Making my garden centre bonsai

This tree cost about ten pounds and has no obvious ‘bonsai-like’ features to work with. This is why it has sat about in the nursery for a year. Now is not the time to consider repotting!!

First job is to clean away as much juvenile growth as you can so it is easier to identify branches you wish to use in your design. Having an idea how tall you wish the tree to be also helps because you might as well reduce the height at a location where you have suitable upwards pointing growth.

I noticed that this material had a low thinner upward pointing branch that could be used as a potential second trunk.

I then removed all of the crotch growth and anything growing close to the trunk line of any branches I chose to keep. My approach was to pick alternatively growing branches that reduced in thickness the higher up the trunk I went.

Don’t worry too much about your choices – just make sure you remove any opposing branches in your design.

I have used a wooden block to open up the secondary trunk to facilitate easier branch pruning and selection. I will remove the block at the end when I am ready to apply some heavy-guage aluminum wire.

As I work up the tree my selections are based on achieving optimum numbers of branches from front, back and sides. I have also trimmed off growing tips to encourage some new growth where I want it.

I am now looking at making decisions for the apical region.

As I have worked my way up the trunk the length of each succesive branch has been reduced to produce something akin to what you may see in the mountain regions where they typically grow.

The apical region has been thinned out but no firm decisions on which shoots will be kept as part of the apex. The overall design has sufficient structure to give a pleasing look and I am hopeful that with heavy fertilisation it will flourish.

The second trunk has been wired and some movement applied. I have put a reminder on my phone for 9 months time for removal.

The big thing to watch out for is removing too much growth. This is the error I made in 2015 and the tree eventually died. I will now feed this and leave it in a shady part of the nursery to recover for a few weeks.

I will then give it more sun and let it grow unchecked for at least one year. The branches you have kept now need a chance to establish themselves and start putting on new growth.

Despite all of the rain I have been slowly working my way around some of the yamadori Hornbeam and Beech that I dug up in 2018/19. All are looking in good health athough the greenfly have definitely been active. I have been spraying everything that is ‘green’ and decidious with a general purpose bug solution.

I also removed the wire from all of the younger potensai I worked on in March. The timing was pretty good and only a few of the branches showed any scars. I am fairly confident that these will grow out through the autumn.

Today I also pruned back my Trident Maples with the specific aim of finding some decent cuttings. We are fast approaching the height of summer so be aware many of our trees will be heading into a dormant period. I do not feed anything at this time – next opportunity will be as we head into Autumn.

So I encourage you to scour your local garden centres for something to ‘play’ with over the next few weeks. My next blog will be all about taking cuttings and dealing with death…of our much loved bonsai

Keep on spraying…