The Japanese black pine below was one of the many great trees I saw in the workshop during my visit to Aichi-en last fall. I caught Peter Tea cleaning it up for the sales area at Gomangoku. You can see a before photo on Peter’s blog.

What made the tree stand out to me? The fullness, the health, and the density of shoots were impressive, and the bark and roots were also very good, but above all, I appreciated the silhouette of the tree. Solid blocks of foliage can do a great job defining a tree’s character.

Good balance between the left and right sides of the tree, a clearly defined key branch – the lowest branch on the left –  and a window in the foliage that reveals the trunk are all conventional markers of good pine bonsai.

Japanese black pine – front

When we look at the tree from the side, we can see that it “leans” strongly forward. Put another way, the apex lies in front of the center of the pot by a significant margin. This feature is common among pines in Central Japan, but I don’t see it as much on pines, or other trees for that matter, in Northern California.

Right side

Left side

The foliage in the back of the tree was solid and dense.

Back

Despite the tree’s beauty in this state, it was only intended to look this good for a short time. Normally, far more needles are removed in winter. Last I heard, the tree sold at the show but remains in the care of Aichi-en where it will continue to develop.

Bay Island Bonsai’s 13th Annual Exhibit!

If you are planning to be in Northern California this weekend, I strongly encourage you to head over to Bay Island Bonsai’s 13th Annual Exhibit at the Lakeside Garden Center in Oakland, CA. The event promises to be a good time. It’s our first exhibit in the location and we’re really looking forward to it – come join us!

Every once in a while I see interesting bonsai with extra-interesting features. One of the more common is the extra-long branch. A white pine that fits this description caught my attention at last year’s Taikan-ten.

White pine – 2011 Taikan-ten

The first branch shoots straight out and then rises up, providing the tree’s primary point of interest. At the photo shoot for the 2012 Meifu-ten, trees with similar features caught my attention.

Satsuki azalea – 2012 Meifu-ten

White pine – 2012 Meifu-ten

Not long after noting the white pine above, Peter Tea and I turned around and spotted the pines below.

Garden pines

Clearly, something’s up here. The question in my head today – what role do extra-ordinary branches play in bonsai? Do they add spice to bland exhibits – or are trees better off without them? Peter does a good job plumbing the issue in his recent post on The Strange Trident Maple.

I was on the fence about whether or not to call  attention to the primary branch on the pine below until I realized it pretty much emerges below the start of the nebari at a bold 90 degree angle. More food for thought.

White pine – 2012 Meifu-ten – what would you do with this tree?

The first tree I worked on at Aichi-en was somewhat unusual. The second tree I worked on made the first tree look easy. From a distance, the white pine looked unremarkable.

Japanese five-needle pine – front

The tree’s exposed roots were covered by foliage in the front, but easy to see from the back.

Japanese fine-needle pine – back

After looking closer, I realized that the foliage hid the tree’s true form. The trunk had been bent down until it crossed itself.

The tree’s apex crossing the trunk just above the roots

I didn’t have a clear idea what I’d do with the tree. “Very unusual tree,” Mr. Tanaka said with a big grin. I smiled and thought, “great.” As I did with the first tree I worked on, I began by removing the old needles. This gave me a chance to size up the tree and make a plan. Here it is after I removed the old needles.

After removing the old needles

Before I started wiring, I made a case for shortening the apex where it crossed the middle of the trunk. Mr. Tanaka said to go ahead and cut it. Next came the wire.

For the first bend, I placed a screw directly into the trunk near the top of the tree and pulled it down using stainless steel wire. This made the tree more compact. I then wired the remaining branches, making a few cuts along the way. Here’s the tree after the initial wiring.

First pass – wiring complete

I wanted to make the apex smaller and I wasn’t sure about the lowest branch on the right, but I kept it to see what Mr. Tanaka thought. I had bent the branches enough that I didn’t want to tweak the tree anymore and I passed it to Mr. Tanaka for final adjustments. He removed two of the branches, one near the apex and the lower right branch, and then reset the rest, keeping the silhouette and basic style roughly the same.

I picked up a styling tip by watching Tanaka set the branches. He tended to bend the main branches way down, and the smaller branches out a bit. This made the tree a bit more compact while keeping nice branch pads. Here is the tree after Tanaka made these changes.

Styling complete

Because the tree is so unusual, I’d be curious to see how it looks several years from now. If it’s still at Aichi-en, I’ll be sure to get pictures.

The back pine below appeared on the turntable and I was asked to make the tree “more beautiful.” What an unusual tree!

Twisted pine

Before looking very closely, I immediately got to work plucking old needles. That gave me a chance to study the tree and let me put off figuring out what to do with it. Once the tree was clean, Oyakata – Mr. Tanaka of Aichi-en – asked what I wanted to do with the tree. I said I wanted to make it more compact and wanted a tiny bit of foliage to poke out on the right side. I thought about doing that by bending the top part of the trunk to the right. That would have the effect of undoing the final curve in the trunk. Tanaka suggested that I think about bending the trunk even further to the left. If the tree is funky, go with it, he said. Sounded great to me. I haven’t done a lot of heavy bends on black pines so I had fun wrestling branches with bare hands and jacks to get it into shape.

Stainless steel guy wire

This opened up quite a few cracks along the branches. I was told they’d heal just fine, so I added cut paste and moved on to the next bend.

Openings in the bark after making a severe bend

Before long, the branches were covered with screws and wires.

The result of bending the trunk 4″

Guy wire with screws

Jin

Branches wired

When I finished positioning the branches, Tanaka spent a few minutes pointing the branches upwards and moving them closer to the trunk. I had positioned the braches farther apart and pointed the buds outward. Why make the change? Mostly to improve the tree’s silhouette.

Wiring complete

It was 10:30 p.m. when I finished working on the tree – about 12 hours in the workshop. What a fun way to start a bonsai vacation!

Here are some shots of the tree from different angeles to offer a better idea of how twisted the thing is.

Front – before	Front – after
Right – before	Right – after
Left side – before	Left side – after
Back – before	Back – after

I’ll be curious to see how the branches withstand the big bends. I’ll ask Peter Tea for a photo if the tree’s still around next year.

I brought my hinoki to a Bay Island Bonsai workshop last weekend. It was the first time I’d thought much about the tree since I worked on it last year. It had filled in quite a bit and I wanted to give it some attention. I also had yet to decide what tree I’d be showing at BIB’s upcoming exhibit in January. Boon and I looked at the tree briefly and figured it was close enough to ready for exhibit. As is so often the case, I’d prefer wait a few more years before showing the tree again, but decided, ultimately, that it would be fun to show it at next year’s exhibit and then again in two years when it’s further along.

I first showed the tree at BIB’s inaugural exhibit in 2000. Every few years I remove the lowest branches and re-style the remaining foliage. Between exhibits, the tree has a chance to fill in a bit. To keep the tree full for next January’s exhibit, I don’t want to remove much foliage. For this workshop, I simply removed the yellow and brown foliage and started thinking about the tree’s silhouette.

Hinoki (12″/30.5cm) – summer 2011

Old and new foliage

Old foliage removed

Cleaning up the old foliage made it clear that the tree was full enough to show. But what struck me, is the direction of the tree.

I asked others in the workshop what they thought. Some suggested the tree points to the right. I think the lowest branch on the right does point to the right, and I desire for the tree to point right. I’d argue, however, that the apex points decidedly to the left. To create balance, the key branch must point in the same direction as the apex. This tree is close to balanced, but not quite there yet.

Hinoki – which way does it go?

I noticed, as I looked closely at the tree, that as I rotate it to the right, the direction of the apex shifts from left to right.

Apex left, key branch right

Neutral

Apex beginning to point to the right

Although the tree’s silhouette looks pretty good from this angle, it’s not a suitable front for the tree as the key branch points away from the viewer. The photo is useful, however, because it suggests to me how to style the branches and apex to create balance.

Do all of these shots look the same? Are some angles more interesting than others? Am I being picky? Good questions! I’m hoping to re-set the branches before exhibit to improve the tree’s balance. Not all of the tree’s branches are long enough for me to create the silhouette I’m looking for, but I can get closer to my ideal ahead of the exhibit. Time for more wiring!

8/29/2011 update – see virtual by Michael Pollock on Flickr.

This month’s Bay Island Bonsai meeting was devoted to a bonsai critique by Akio Kondo. Kondo discussed the good and bad points of each tree, making suggestions for improvement and answering questions along the way. Occasionally – to our general encouragement – he pulled out scissors and made a few cuts. Here are some of the trees he looked at.

Japanese maple

Kondo thought this Japanese maple is well on its way. The tree has good roots thanks to an air layer. Kondo suggested that the best time to layer maples is right before new leaves open in spring.

Japanese maple – uniform roots are a sign of layering

Jim Gremel brought a San Jose juniper with kishu shimpaku foliage. We talked about the pot. The ideal pot would be somewhat smaller, maybe with scalloped edges.

Shimpaku

Shimpaku – trunk detail

Kondo also suggested making a small jin. After cutting away the foliage, Kondo recommended filling the gap with a small branch.

New jin – look beneath the apex on the left

Filling the gap

Kondo next commented on a California juniper with shimpaku foliage.

Sizing up a California juniper

He made basic recommendations for the main branches. He wanted the first branch on the right to be larger and a little lower; the left branch could be lowered; and the top right and left branches at the base of the apex could also be lowered.

Kondo indicating future branch positions

Another California juniper proved tricky. The narrow trunk emerged vertically before expanding and teetering off to one side like a wave. To improve the taper of the tree, Kondo recommended changing the soil line.

California juniper – trunk detail

Suggested soil line

Planting the tree deeper and changing the angle at which it is planted would widen the base of the trunk and make the tree appear more powerful.

California juinper – right side

Kondo’s advice for a cork elm was simple – all of the main branches needed to be lower. He suggested using guy wires and doing the work incrementally to avoid stressing or breaking important branches. He thought a “white” pot – what we would consider to be dirty white or even yellowish – or blue pot, oval in shape, would make a good container for exhibit.

Cork oak

A third California juniper elicited a term from Kondo with which none of us were familiar. He said the tree could be an example of the kawarigi style, a style in which all of the branches emerge from roughly the same spot. I’m not confident that we fully understood what he was trying to convey about the style. We were clear, however, when he mentioned refining the jin at the tree’s apex and suggested a front for the tree that made good use of the deadwood along the trunk.

California juniper

A prostrata juniper proved a good exercise in selecting the front of a tree. Here’s the tree from the current front.

Prostrata juniper – current front

Kondo suggested tilting the tree slightly to give it better movement.

Prostrata juniper – new front

He then pointed out the good deadwood on the other side of the trunk. This, he suggested, would make an even better front.

Trunk detail with deadwood

Kondo thought the front without deadwood would make a good front maybe three years from now, and that the alternative front would make a good front roughly 10 years from now.

Future front

Using this front would take longer because the branches needed to complete this front need more time to develop. For both fronts, Kondo recommended making the silhouette much smaller to improve the balance between foliage and trunk. He also suggested grafting two new branches in the tree’s interior to fill some open areas.

I’ve always liked the idea of taking advantage of different “fronts” over time. In the case of this prostrata, the owner can show the tree sooner rather than later and still have a somewhat “new” tree to show down the road.

As we prepared to begin a judging exercise at this month’s Bay Island Bonsai meeting, Morten asked a good question. It was something to the effect of, “Is the highest scoring tree the most valuable tree?” I knew the two were closely related, but had to think for a moment before coming to a conclusion. The trees to be judged included three shimpaku, an azalea, and a stewartia.

Tree #1 – shimpaku

Tree #1 – trunk detail

Tree #2 – azalea

Tree #2 – trunk detail

Tree #3 – shimpaku

Tree #3 – trunk detail

Tree #4 – stewartia

Tree #4 – root detail

Tree #5 – shimpaku

Tree #5 – trunk detail

The BIB judging categories include (see “Evaluating Bonsai at BIB Meeting” for details): trunk (1-10); branches (1-5); rootage (1-5); pot selection (1-5); aesthetics (1-5). After members completed their judging forms, we reviewed our scores together. The sums of the scores were 25, 22, 18, 16, and 15. Can you guess which trees earned which scores?

These scores, it turns out, were a pretty good indicator of the relative worth of these trees. What the scores don’t account for is potential. If a great tree has rangy branches and an inappropriate pot, it will score poorly. That may, in some cases, indicate a good buying opportunity. I reflected, at this point, about my own criteria for buying bonsai. I typically ask two questions of the trees I consider buying:

How good is the trunk?

Can I fix the defects?

Healthy trees with great branches and great roots, even when potted in great pots, aren’t worth much if the trunk lacks age, character, and beauty. These are hard characteristics to fix, and hard characteristics to fake.

After the judging exercise, we set up sample bonsai displays. We had trouble finding the perfect stand for the pine below. In character, the slab on which the pine sits is a great match, but it’s thickness was a bit much for some members.

Shohin black pine

We tried pairing the pine with a star magnolia.

Star magnolia

Star magnolia – trunk detail

The magnolia is very full this time of year – so much so that it took a while for us to figure out which side was the front. That the rootbase was so good from both front and back is a clue that the mighty magnolia will look great when it loses its leaves this winter.

Last fall, two bonsai students from the Southern United States visited Northern California for an extended bonsai study with Boon Manakitivipart. Tim and Tyler became fixtures at Bay Island Bonsai workshops where they worked on their technique in advance of trips to Japan.

Tyler is from Hickory, North Carolina. He’s been studying bonsai for two years and has learned quickly. Much of this study has taken place in Boon’s workshop where he’s completed four bonsai intensives. After a visit to Japan to see this year’s Kokufu exhibit, Tyler secured an apprenticeship with Shinji Suzuki in Obuse, Japan, which he hopes to begin before long. Although he likes all varieties, he is particularly looking forward to working on great pomegranate and white pine bonsai.

Tyler wiring a white pine

First trunk completed

Tim, visiting from Charlotte, North Carolina, has also completed four bonsai intensives. He’s been studying bonsai for three years and is aiming for a visit to Japan to study with Nobiuchi Urushibata at Taisho-en in Shizuoka. While in California, Tim worked on a large California juniper. The tree has been trained with the front pictured below.

Tim and large California juniper

The back of this tree boasts great deadwood. To take better advantage of this feature, Tim is working on making the back of the tree the new front.

Deadwood detail

The new front lends itself to a shorter apex, indicated by Tim’s hand below.

New front

To give an idea of what the tree will look like when the styling is complete, Tim covered the foliage to be removed with a white towel. The photo below suggests the new silhouette.

California juniper with towel covering foliage to be removed

When the work was completed, the tree was show ready. Here it is as shown at Bay Island Bonsai’s 12th annual exhibit.

California juniper

The new front does a much better job of showing off the tree’s best feature – its deadwood. In time the branch pads will fill in and create a striking silhouette.

A number of readers provided suggestions for Jeff’s Japanese black pine this week. Front #1 is the closest to the current front. It’s a great selection based on the current style – one that features balanced branches on both sides of the trunk. The second and third options were both popular, possibly because they present more dramatic curves. We came to no conclusions at the workshop, and I think it will be a while before the tree completes a radical transformation. When it does, I’ll be sure to get photos.

That same afternoon, a small, bunjin red pine was in the workshop. It’s a really neat tree with many alternative fronts.

Bunjin red pine – current front

The trunk line from this side would make a challenging front.

Another possible “front”

And another – currently the back of the tree

The view from the current left side of the tree

Planting angle is an important consideration for trees with such great trunk-lines. A subtle tilt one way or the other can have a big impact.

A bit to the right

Today’s level

A bit to the left

Even more to the left

I’m not sure if I have favorites among the above alternatives. What I like is that the tree has great character – and great possibilities if one tires of the current configuration.

Both trees were exhibited at the 2009 Bay Island Bonsai Exhibit – have a look!

The Japanese black pine pictured below hasn’t been re-styled in a long time. It’s healthy now, and ready for a change.

Currently, the foliage is heavy on both the left and right sides. The owner is hoping to emphasize one side over the other. The two outstanding questions: which front is the most effective? and in which direction should the tree flow – left or right?

Front #1

Front #2

Front #3

The tree’s biggest obstacle is found at the base of the trunk. The tree has three main roots that emerge from the trunk before they spread out into finer roots. This potting position makes it look like the tree is balancing on two legs and a tail. The new potting angle will very likely minimize this effect.

Base of the trunk from the front

Detail – base of the trunk

The tree’s greatest asset is its age. This is best appreciated in the flakey bark along the trunk. The small aluminum wires are keeping the plates in place – they will be removed when the tree is next shown.

Trunk detail – great bark

Trunk detail – bark

Any suggestions?