This is the little Larch recently added to my collection. The rock is soon to go and the pot will be changed. This is the first chance I’ve had to see the structure and I’m delighted with the prospects. Loads of ramification and character to work with.
I have acquired a very nice little Shohin Larch from a friend who is giving up bonsai for personal reasons. This tree was originally planted with this rock to create a nice little landscape. However the tree has developed well over the years and I feel the tree is too good to just be used as part of a landscape and I am therefore potting it up alone in the Spring. The bark on the tree has matured nicely and will be better appreciated when the rock is removed. The rock is also lacks the character that the tree has and I feel that together they are a mismatch. Again, more on this tree in the Spring.
Phil and Stephen were at my place today and one of our tasks was to pick out our trees from last years collected Larches. Yet again I got the short straw and last pick!
Ah well, made for an interesting session watching what other people pick as the best tree.
Stephen as usual drank all my coffee 😉
Phil was trying to count how many trees were on the benches and ran out of fingers 🙂
We also photographed a few trees, more on this in future posts.
This was the back garden as we started out and before the camera went away in the thunderstorm. Four trees each.
This gallery contains 17 photos.
What a difference a week makes. If only our exhibition was a week later, we would have had a little more to work with.
This is my larch at the show.
And today
Our dedicated club treasurer was at my house yesterday and we worked on a few trees, mostly minor tweaks and a little wiring.
This is his Japanese Larch that has thickened a little in a few places and we removed what we could replacing branches with a finer structure.
Before original front
Before slightly different angle
After
After getting my own larch sorted out, attention turned to Stephen’s one.
This is it sitting at Stephen’s house. When we worked it out, it hasn’t been wired in 8 years. The last styling was done by Marco Invernizzi back in 2004.
Photos from then can be viewed here.
It’s a big tree and we wanted to try and complete the wiring in one day. Phil collected the tree in his van and we transported it to my garage for a little space to work in. Stephen’s bonsai studio was only build for hobbits and I’m definitely not that size 🙂 This it is photographed before we started.
About now you are probably having a close look at the base of the tree. Yes, it’s a strange one, it’s hard to see but there is a strong root that runs directly under the trunk lying parallel to the ground. This will be exposed to help show stability. There is another option, but that’s for another day!
The three of us got to work and managed to get the wiring completed.
One area that was a problem was the apex. It had been created from a single branch curled around to make it look fuller at the time. 8 years on this has become a problem. It could have been hidden by placing branches over the offending bits but could not be removed totally and make a convincing apex. We discussed it and Phil was keen to make a change rather that it becoming progressively worse with time. He came up with an option and Stephen decided to go for it.
This is the offending apex.
Branch being reduced.
Keep an eye on him Stephen 🙂
A typical Stephen Coffee break.
Birds eye view.
Final tweaks
The final image. Stephen is considering a change to the top jin, what do you think? Remove, leave, shorten?
The new apex looks a great improvement.
A closer look at the base.
Side view
Back
Before and after side by side.
The 3 amigos for scale, and just for fun.
We did this work without looking back to Marco’s styling in 2004. It was interesting to compare now having looked for the original photo.
I eventually got around to wiring up this larch yesterday. This is it before work.
This tree has fantastic old bark, as good as I’ve seen on a larch. It originated in Scotland and I’ve had it in my collection for many years. It’s not a WOW! tree by any means but I do like the formal image that can be produced from it. It got a year of little or no pruning to allow me to have some extra length to the branches that I could play with to increase the amount of different levels I could create.
In the 18 years that I’ve been playing with bonsai I have been using aluminium wire. This year I’ve gathered up enough copper to give it a go on my conifers. Yesterdays wiring saw me using only copper wire.
The final image saw me adjust the front slightly to the right.
For scale, I added myself to the image.
Side by side
Back in 2002
The bark
2003
Spring 2012
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