Some notes on wiring I prepared for a recent presentation.

Left to right: too small, too heavy, just right:

With aluminum wire (use on deciduous trees and azaleas), use a wire that is 1/3-1/2 the diameter of the target branch.

Left to right: too tightly-coiled, too-loosely coiled, just right:

When wiring a branch, 60-degree angle is the generally accepted, correct wiring spacing. Too tight, and the holding power is reduced, wire is wasted, and scarring is increased. Too loose, and the holding power is reduced, and branches tend to break with the diminished support provided by the wire. Just right, and the bend should hold. Added considerations to proper wiring include planing the wiring route so wire will be on the outside of bends, opposite side of buds, and always routed to pass consistently under or above secondary branches…more on that shortly.

Two techniques, and how to use them together:

The Ueno Green Club is the headquarters for the Nippon Bonsai Cooperative a long time professional bonsai organization organized in 1931. The organization is a business corporation and members must be approved and pay a hefty entry fee, plus annual dues. Twenty one years ago there were over 500 members. Today the membership is approximately 250.

Nippon BonaI Association Building

Nippon Satsuki Association Office

Twenty one years ago the Nippon Bonsai Cooperative built a three story building in the center area and removed the long buildings. Then a more modern building was constructed on the left side. The building is owned by the Nippon Bonsai Cooperative, but the land is leased. There is a close relationship with the Nippon Bonsai Association, a non-profit organization established in the early 1960s which was first established as the Kokufu Bonsai Society in 1934. Their headquarter building is located diagonally across the street from the Ueno Green Club. About a…

Each of our exciting bonsai tours to Japan includes a private tour to S-Cube, Masahiko Kimura’s studio, Omiya Bonsai Art Museum and the bonsai gardens in Omiya Bonsai Village. There are always new bonsai and other interesting things to see and study.

Mnsei-en Bonsai Garden

Hatsuji & Takahiro Kato

Omiya Bonsai Village

  

Shunka-en Bonsai Museum in Tokyo is the home of Kunio Kobayashi who is one of the top bonsai artists in Japan and the world. His garden is a mecca for many, including me because of the high quality bonsai and especially his distinctive formal bonsai displays.

Winter flowering cherry, Prunus campanulata

Japanese five-needle pine, Pinus parviflora

Chinese quince, Pseudocydonia sinensis

Apprentice Jin explaining the magnificent display of a Japanese black pine

Japanese flowering apricot, Prunus mume

Japanese black pine, Pinus thunbergii

This tree has developed quite a bit in the last few years. The exposed roots have grown in size, and the development of the branches made our re-tweaking a bit more complete.

Konnor is a client who tosses a few trees in a car and drives across several state lines to spend a few days in my studio. I always look forward to his visits.

Enjoy our re-tweaking…!

This was the original front in 2006…

…and here’s the other side, also in 2006, beginning to toy with it as a new front.

This is in January 2015, before we did anything.

After branch-shortening pruning and needle thinning.

Konnor sporting a ‘Telperion Farms’ sweatshirt…

This pine was grown in a tub of pumice surrounding the akadama/pumice rootball for a couple of years, to give the tree a bit of ‘umph’.

With the branches nearly set…only a few at the apex left…

This white cedar has a long history, from it’s collection in Northern Ontario, to becoming a Marc Nolanders demo in 1997, and beyond. It passed from there to Rainer Gobel, to Chase Rosade, to Bill Valavanis, and today it was the object of Peter Warren’s entertaining, if not lightning-fast demo, assisted by Marc Arpag.

As always, Peter adds nuggets of wisdom; here discussing the importance of leaving growing tips rather than “mowing” off all growing tips.

Thinning the dense tree, keeping this philosophy of trimming back, and not pinching, as evidenced by the size of each shoot removed and laying on the stage:

From on high, to achieve a broader crown present in old trees:

Nearly through trimming back:

And somewhere between thinning out and finishing the wiring, the resident auctioneer runs up to a “sold” to a lucky Michael L. with a big van and northern climate:

And here…

This was a nursery that has been top of my list to visit for some time, and it did not disappoint.

This juniper I first saw in Peter Warrens blog last year, and in the flesh it did not disappoint.

This large Hinoki Sekka that Owen styled a while back was good to meet as I have some of the cuttings he struck from what was removed in the styling.

Chatting with Bjorn about this prunus he said it was struggling due to its age so 4 years ago it was grafted with new foliage and the old all removed. This means everything other than the main trunk is only 4 years old. The tree now grows like a teenager again.

Where as this maple is on a slow decline to the end of its life, it’s already lost a major branch half way up.

Watering in winter is relatively…

After a most successful Joy of Bonsai convention, organizer Louise Leister and Mike Rogers, President of the Kawa Bonsai Society, sponsor of the event, took Diane and me to a special visit to see ancient Bald cypress. The location is out in the wilds, where “men are men and sheep are weary” on Lake Disston. Designated as an “Outstanding Florida Water” by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection Agency, Lake Disston is in its natural state, leaving the land surrounding the lake sparsely populated of homes and with very few boats on the waterway.

We took three kayaks on the lake which was smooth glass. The weather was a warm 70F with a clear blue sky and no wind, a bit different than the -10F weather we left in Rochester, and will return to tomorrow. The calm water provided for some interesting reflections.

These ancient Bald cypress trees had tremendous character…