The Bonsai Blog of Peter Evans

European Beech,  fagus slyvatica.

                                                  As collected.

   Two years later     The tree was growing well but I was beguining to think that the top 1/3 was to straight and would have to be removed.

I planned to chop the trunk and then use a steel bar and wire to pull a branch up to form the new appex.    This was done at the next re-pot and I pulled the branch up to its new position over a 6 week period              The tree responded well and finnished up at 24″ high .

                                                   3 Years later.

Mike’s Mugo Pine.

The story of this tree begins in 1978.

That is when the owner planted it in his garden.          15 years later,and now a Bonsai enthusiast, the tree was lifted from the garden and planted in a box in preparation for training.  ( 36″x24″ )

          After recovery,the owner decided to style it as a cascade image.

Eventually,it was potted into a suitable container, and with good care and maintenance it back budded well to become very dense.      

Training continued,but lacked a definite plan,and at some stage the owner decided to cut off the cascade branch,which he considered to be too long and straight and also without taper.

The tree was entrusted to me in the winter of 2002, with an open plan to turn it into a “Bonsai”.                           

After studying the tree for a few day’s a plan began to form on a design to change the tree into a Han-Kengi or semi-cascade.

I began by removing the old needles.   

This opening up of the tree revealed the next problem – what to do with the octopus type roots ?

I decided to remove the rock from the left hand side so that the roots on that side could be tucked back to the trunk line.       The rock would then be placed under the right hand roots, thereby emphasising the trunk.

The tree was removed from the pot and the stone removed. The roots were found to be compact,so no trimming was carried out.A more suitable pot was found and the tree was transplanted.

The final problem was then to be resolved !.

The very long left hand branch was wired with 3mm wire and then slowly turned through 180` to bring the foliage closer to the trunk.    Being a Mugo Pine,the branches are very felexable,and this process was achieved easily.  The branch was tied to a jin to hold it in position.

                   This operation gave me the final ingredients to form a Bonsai from this tree _ foliage close to the trunk and on three sides.

All that was required was a detailed wiring to complete the image.

3 mths later.                              

4 Years later the tree returned.

                                  

Healthy,but disorganized!.

                             

                                    

          

After 4 years a re-wire was in order and also a possable re-pot.

                                               

           After considering the options the shallow pot was chosen.

                                            

         The final planting was 11″ high including the pot.  A nice Shohin.  

 The BURRATOR HAWTHORN

This tree was collected in Sept’1994

I had been looking for a heavy trunk tree for a while and found it with this one. The original tree was 10 feet tall. I reduced it to 6 feet before lifting. It came out with a nice compact root system so all looked well for its survival. 

                                                      Feb 95.

The tree recovered well and one year later I carried out the first styling. I further reduced the height to 30″ and then carved the stump to give the impression of lightening damage.

                     sept 95                    feb 96

 The tree continued to grow well and after a few years the image was coming along.

                   96                              97

In 1998 I read about the “Ginkgo” awards. This is a major exhibition held in Belgium every two years. I submitted a photo of this tree to the selectors which to my delight they accepted, so in 1999 we traveled to Europe for the show.

                  offering pic’                Ginkgo 99

 The tree continued to grow and become better . The ramification was improving all the time. In 2002 while doing normal maintainace I noticed a possable different front. So at the next re-potting I changed the front to show an Informal Upright image. It was potted into a smaller pot by Gordon Duffett.

                 Poss’                   May 03

This phase only lasted for two years then it was returned to its original front but keeping the smaller pot.

                  05                             06

The tree has never been shown again but sits happily on its stand matureing.

                                      These are the latest photos.  

                    front                      back  

                     left                                    right  

                                                        top   

  GARDEN JUNIPER.

  This piece was entrusted to me in 2002 to turn into a bonsai.

                                               

The owner had given me a free reign in the design so having looked at it for a couple of weeks I deceided to try and make a “Cascade” style from the plant.  

I re-potted the tree into a suitable pot in preperation for the tranformation. 

                        side a.   

                                                                             side b.

Having finished the re-pot I then looked through at least 80 editions of Bonsai Today magazines looking for similar images.

It became obvious that the Japanese do not use tall pots for cascade style trees,so the final design was left to me.

I deceided to keep the foliage above the bottom of the pot as this would aid the management.  

                                                       styled.

  The tree recovered well from the styling and began to fill out nicely.

                      12 mths later.