The Redwood Empire Bonsai Society held their 27th annual show this past weekend in Santa Rosa, California. As always, the large show drew large crowds. Kathy Shaner’s demonstrations highlighted each day’s events, and the club’s large vendor area kept visitors engaged.

A number of new trees made it into the exhibit this year, and particular attention was paid to the display of accent plants – more on that in an upcoming post.

Here is a sampling of the trees that were on display.

Coast redwood

White pine

Japanese maple

Ginkgo

Shimpaku

Pomegranate

Trident maple

Trident maple

Pyracantha

Cork oak

Hawthorne

Pine

White pine

Sonare

Crape myrtle

Japanese black pine

Trident maple

Crape myrtle

Shimpaku

Japanese maple

Trident maple

Coast redwood

Summer is not the most interesting time of year in the bonsai calendar. The trees rarely look their best, and it’s too hot for them to grow much. They do, however, require a lot of water this time of year.

We essentially had our entire summer last week – 4 days over 90° F – and now it’s back to the more typically mild Bay Area weather. The hottest day reached almost 100° F – enough to stress any tree that’s not properly watered. When looking around my garden, I took note of a handful of trees that weren’t getting the water they needed. The solution – soji.

Bonsai apprentices in Japan hear a lot of this term. It refers to cleaning, commonly either the workshop or the surface of the soil. As organic fertilizer and akadama break down, the top layer of bonsai soil can become hard and prevent good drainage. By removing this layer of soil, we can greatly improve the drainage. And good drainage means we can keep trees happy when it gets hot.

Weeds are especially bad for bonsai. In addition to clogging the soil, they take up available water and leave less for the tree. They can also harbor insects. And if they are left to go to seed, you can look forward to never-ending weeding.

Too many weeds – time for soji!

One nice thing about working with such a thick carpet of weeds – they come up in tidy clumps.

Removing a clump of weeds

Beneath the weeds, I found some moss growing on the trunk.

Moss growing on the trunk

There are a number of different kinds of moss. I think of them as falling into two categories when it comes to bonsai – good moss and bad moss. Bad moss grows up the trunk and can ruin bark over time.

Bad moss

Good moss creeps along the surface of the soil but doesn’t typically travel up the trunk. It’s the kind of moss we use for bonsai exhibits.

Good moss

I found some bad moss on these pines – I removed it with bent-nose tweezers.

Removing bad moss

Bad moss removed

The most important part of soji is removing the top layer of bonsai soil. I use bent-nose tweezers and work away from the trunk. After removing the soil, a number of roots are left exposed. These can be removed with root scissors.

Roots exposed after removing soil

After trimming the exposed roots

Knowing that these trees hadn’t been repotted in a while and that the drainage was poor, I created a few holes in the rootball with a chopstick. This will help water get to the center of the rootball and help keep the tree healthy until repotting time.

Using a chopstick to improve drainage

The final step before watering is replacing the old soil with fresh soil. Even if the soil below is hard, dry, and compact, the fresh, top layer allows water to pass through to where it can slowly work its way into the old soil below.

Adding fresh bonsai soil

Tidying up the new soil with a small broom

Of course, I also took some time to consider the trees themselves after finishing the soji. These trees had a number of old needles. I removed these to expose the interior buds to more light and air.

Tree with old needles

After removing old needles

Happy trees

And after a week’s worth of clean up, I now only have a few more to go.

6 year-old Japanese black pines

Once I’m done, it’s back to watering and fertilizing until fall – when the real pine work begins.

Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend a Bay Island Bonsai workshop run by Daisaku Nomoto. I selected a tree I’ve been working on for the past 15 years – a hinoki. The tree improves every year, but slowly, as hinokis are notoriously slow growing. A year and a half ago, Boon and I performed some heavy bending to get the main branches closer to where we wanted them. This year the work really paid off. Here are some before and after pictures:

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

The biggest change came when Nomoto removed the first cluster of branches on the left. We discussed this ahead of the workshop and I assented to the cutting. Here’s the branch as it appeared before the workshop with guy wires holding it in place.

Before – guy-wires are doing most of the work

There were two good reasons for removing these branches. First, they blocked the view of the trunk. Second, by replacing branches that grew low on the trunk with branches that emerged higher up, we could bend these branches at a steeper angle. The idea is that older branches tend to hang lower than younger branches.

Removing the branches – stubs will be used for jins

Nomoto removed enough foliage to make a hinoki fan.

Minor cutback and wiring filled the rest of the day. Nomoto moved between workshop participants, cutting, wiring, and offering advice as appropriate. When he got back to me, he typically set a few branches and told me to continue wiring.

Nomoto setting a branch – note use of pliers

Nomoto applying wire

I occasionally looked up from my work to see what else was going on in the workshop. At one point, Nomoto was performing heavy bending with rebar. With a branch in one hand and pliers in another, he kept the rebar in place with his knee.

Heavy bending – prostrata juniper

Fortunately for me, the hinoki needed far less dramatic work, like the plucking of unnecessary foliage.

After setting a branch, Nomoto took care to remove any downward growing foliage. This creates well-defined pads and reveals the age of the tree by exposing the branches that comprise the pads.

Hinoki branch pad

As is often the case in re-stylings, the trick is getting the apex right. While the current silhouette is close to where I want it, some shoots weren’t long enough to fill in where I need them. It’s easy to see this from above.

Seen from above – after re-styling

I’m really happy with the way the tree turned out. For one, it finally approximates the design I had in mind for it 15 years ago. Even better, I now have a tree I can show in Bay Island Bonsai’s upcoming exhibit next January.

Happy with the results – excess foliage cover the turntable

Now 15 years in, I feel like I’m half-way there, and it’s a great feeling.

Daisaku Nomoto has been busy during his brief summer visit to the Bay Area. Here are some of the trees he’s been working on, beginning with an old prostrata juniper.

Prostrata juniper – before

Prostrata juniper – after

Although I’m familiar with his work, Nomoto continues to surprise me. One of the greatest talents bonsai artists develop is their ability to see what a tree can become. Keeping trees healthy is rarely straightforward, and bonsai techniques can range from non-intuitive to incomprehensible. It’s the artistic vision, however, that I most appreciate.

Shimpaku – before

Shimpaku – after

The work always begins with an evaluation, and often an adjustment, of the front of the tree. From there cutback, wiring and styling follow. One would think that getting the tree in the pot at a satisfactory angle is easy until one notices how much Nomoto’s adjustments improve the line of the trunk and the balance of the tree.

Sometimes the trees get entirely new fronts. The photo of the juniper below is shown from the tree’s original front. To make better use of the shari along the trunk, Nomoto suggested using the other side as the front.

The tree’s orignal front after styling – now the back of the tree

Nomoto describing the benefits of the new front

Turning the tree around and tilting it forward made a striking improvement – I’m hoping to see it displayed at an upcoming exhibit. Here it is from the new front.

Shimpaku – new front after styling

The Sierra juniper below is quickly developing into a great tree. As Nomoto noted at last week’s Bay Island Bonsai meeting, planting the pot an inch or two deeper in the pot will reduce the reverse taper and make the tree appear more powerful.

Sierra juniper – before

Sierra juniper – after

Before letting me take any of these photos, Nomoto was adamant about getting the angle right. After snapping a shot of the shimpaku below, I showed the photo to Nomoto. Wasn’t good enough. Several adjustments and several photos later and he was finally happy.

Finding the front

Shimpaku juniper – after styling

Nomoto suggested shortening the jin on the right side of the tree. We’ll see if the tree’s owner agrees. You can see a shot of the tree before the styling at the end of last week’s post, Daisaku Nomoto bonsai critique. This post, as it happens, was featured last week by WordPress.com – the service I use to host Bonsai Tonight. It sent approximately 4,000 new visitors to the site, giving Nomoto a bit more exposure than he’s used to. He replied to this news with a grin: “Maybe 4,000 new customer?”

It always feels good to be a member of Bay Island Bonsai. This week it feels great. Bonsai professional Daisaku Nomoto of Miyazaki, Japan, provided the program for this month’s meeting. It was a critique – members were invited to bring trees for comment and some minor re-working. Turned out to be a great evening. Here are some of the trees and comments they elicited.

The first tree under consideration was a Japanese black pine. Nomoto wanted the movement of the silhouette to reflect the movement of the trunk, so he suggested some minor cutback. The tree’s owner gave the ok, and Nomoto got to work.

Nomoto demonstrating the tree’s movement

Note the shoot pointing downward in front of the trunk – removing it shifted some emphasis from one side of the tree to the other

Nomoto adjusting branches with pliers and finger

A few more adjustments

The result

The chopstick indicates the relationship between the apex and the center of the trunk. This relationship has a big effect on the tree’s overall balance.

The pinyon pine below was a gift to Boon from Michael Hagedorn. The tree has grown steadily for a number of years and is ready for a styling. Nomoto suggested removing the foliage on the left side of the tree to emphasize the bunjin movement of the trunk. Instead of removing the foliage all at once, he recommended removing it over time to preserve the lifeline defining the shari along the trunk.

Noting the future location of the first branch

This section of the lifeline feeds the foliage to be removed. Removing the foliage over time decreases the odds that the lifeline will die back in the area to which Nomoto is here pointing.

Applying wire

Nomoto was very impressed with the small Olive below. He mentioned several times his desire to take the tree back to Japan. Why? He tells us that small olives with such great trunks are quite rare in Japan, and that this specimen is a great candidate for the Kokufu Exhibit.

Admiring the olive

Nomoto’s one suggestion was to change the angle at which the tree was planted. By tilting it forward, the trunk rose straight into the air rather than leaning back.

The suggested planting angle

Suggested planting angle from the front

I was very impressed by the material that showed up for the meeting. Many of these trees have yet to be shown, however their quality was great. The juniper below has a super trunk and awaits a styling before it’s ready for exhibit. Nomoto’s suggestion was to plant the tree lower in the pot. The relatively narrow base of the tree creates some reverse taper which distracts from the overall power of the trunk. By planting the tree lower, the base of the tree looks larger in relation to the rest of the tree.

Sierra juniper – note subtle reverse taper at base of trunk

Suggested planting depth and pot style. This pot is a bit too small for the tree, but the style and color make a great match

A very mature Sawara cypress elicited a single recommendation. The tree’s current silhouette is quite round. Nomoto suggested a more triangular silhouette.

Sawara cypress and chopsticks

After asking some basic questions about the variety, Nomoto offered to trim a few branch pads on the boxwood below to demonstrate how more, smaller pads can make the tree look older and more developed.

Trimming boxwood foliage to create smaller pads

Another collected juniper elicited some interesting suggestions. For the jin below, Nomoto suggested gouging out the channel just to the left of the old lifeline to create more interest.

Examining the deadwood

He also suggested removing most of the trunk. The pinyon branch stands in for the future key branch.

Juniper with towel and pinyon foliage

The first goal for the very old cedar below is to return it to health. It’s come a long way in the past year, but still has a bit to go before it can withstand significant styling. Nomoto recommended removing the branch that emerges at the first bend in the trunk. His first preference was to leave no jin behind, providing the wound can heal properly, though he thought a small jin could also be appropriate.

Appraising an old cedar

The fantastic juniper below was grown by Jim Gremel. Nomoto wanted to reduce the canopy a bit. To do so, he recommended removing the first branch. This branch grew upwards and formed somewhat of a second trunk. Removing it would leave room for one of the upper branches to fill in and provide a more appropriate silhouette.

Seen from the front – great movement

The foliage at the right emerges from the branch Nomoto suggests removing.

Thanks go to Boon for arranging for Nomoto’s visit. It’s quite a treat to have such talent at a 30-person club meeting, commenting on our trees. I understand what a special occasion this is, and I appreciate it greatly!

Decandling shohin black pine is similar to decandling larger black pine bonsai with one key difference – it’s done later in the season. Just by a few weeks. By giving summer shoots less time to develop, we prevent them from growing too large. As is often the case in bonsai, proportion is far more important that absolute size. “Small needles” are great in the abstract, but on a tree they can look funny if the proportion is off. Larger trees look good with larger needles, shohin look good with small needles. All of which can be produced by careful decandling.

Here’s a 16 year-old shohin black pine, ready for its second or third decandling. It’s rather shaggy.

Shohin Japanese black pine – before decandling

The first step is sizing up the shoots. As expected, I found large shoots near the top of the tree, and smaller shoots on the lower branches.

Vigorous shoot

Less-vigorous shoot

For the most part, new shoots were either somewhat large (the two on the left) or fairly small.

Large, medium-large, and small shoots

Normally I’d like to remove the smallest shoots first, wait 10 days, then remove the larger shoots. But because I decandled this tree a little later than normal this year, I opted to remove all of the spring growth on the same day.

I found, as I worked, several very large shoots.

Two very large shoots with a small shoot for comparison

These were anomales. Each started not near the tree’s apex, but from the center of the tree – the spot where I’d normally expect to find the very weakest shoots. In each case, they sprouted just below large cuts where entire branches were removed the year before. That energy had to go somewhere, and it made it into these shoots.

Because I removed all of the shoots on the same day, I needed a way to slow down the more vigorous areas of the tree to bring the strong and weak areas into balance. To do this, I left stubs – longer in strong areas, shorter in weaker areas – and pulled needles.

Just before getting started, I wondered how I would be able to distinguish the strong areas from the weak after decandling. If I couldn’t tell one from the other, I’d have little guidance when it came time to pull needles. There are two conventional solutions. One is to remove unnecessary needles while decandling, scissors in the left hand, tweezers in the right. This is a great technique – one I would not, however, recommend to anyone without significant pine skills.

For this tree, I opted for the easier alternative – first I cut the spring growth, then I pulled needles. The stubs let me know which shoots were vigorous and which were weak. When I came across a shoot like the one pictured below – large stub, many needles – I’d remove a fair number of needles. When I came across shoots with shorter stubs, I left more needles to help these shoots catch up with their more vigorous neighbors.

Decandled shoot with stub – before removing needles

Decandled shoots

Post decandling is a good time to catch up on wiring. In a few weeks, when the new buds appear, wiring becomes very tricky. Once pines get to this point, it’s best to wait until the summer shoots harden off before wiring. Here’s a picture of the tree after removing the spring growth but before thinning the needles.

After removing spring growth.

And here’s a shot of the tree post decandling and needle thinning.

Japanese black pine: decandled, needles thinned

This young tree has a way to go before it’s first exhibit. Once the summer growth comes in, I’ll give the tree a once over – more needle thinning, cutback, and wiring. That will help – I’m optimistic I can show it within the next five years. To better gauge how the tree is coming along, see the following post (my third ever) from a year ago January: Shohin black pine from scratch.

Finding the front of a bonsai is a great exercise – one of my favorites. Both existing bonsai and newly collected trees make good candidates. The cork bark black pine I’ve been working on for the past 6 years has had the same front for very likely most, if not all, of its life. Here is a photo of the tree from 2004.

Winter – 2004

The tree was very yellow that year as it hadn’t received much water the previos year. That spring, almost all of the needles fell off leaving very little foliage to keep the tree alive. After two significant repottings and several years of attentive care, the tree is back in good health. Which is a good time to consider how it’s styled.

Were I to remove the top quarter of the tree, the bit that protrudes to the right, I’d have a nice ready-made bonsai. Future work would require finding a smaller pot and further developing the existing branches.

Spring – 2010

I’m not convinced, however, that keeping this front will yield the most interesting bonsai. I’ve long considered how I might take advantage of the top part of the trunk and the best I’ve come up with involves selecting a new front for the tree.

This is tricky for existing bonsai. The branches are well distributed for the existing front and the trunk and root-base currently show well. But when I look at the tree from the right side, the trunk gains movement and character. Of course, when viewed from this side the root base narrows – typically a bonsai no-no – and the branch structure falls apart. Were I to make the switch, I’d have to find a way to work with these deficiencies. Here are several views from the right side.

New front #1

New front #2

New front #3

New front #4

It’s not going to be an easy decision. For although I find the possibilities intriguing, they might not yield the effect I’m looking for.

The current front provides a nice, wide root-base and good interest.

Trunk detail – current front

The new front could provide a slightly wider trunk, at the expense of a much narrower root-base. There is great visibility of the trunk, below and above, but at the expense of poor branch structure.

Trunk detail – candidate for new front

The back of the tree offers good view of the trunk and root-base but no branches whatsoever. They can’t all be fronts.

Trunk detail – current back of tree

]]> http://bonsaitonight.com/2010/07/23/cork-bark-japanese-black-pine-finding-the-front/feed/ 4 xwires Cork bark black pine - winter 2004 Corkbark Japanese black pine - after decandling Front #3 http://bonsaitonight.com/2010/07/16/decandling-cork-bark-japanese-black-pine/ http://bonsaitonight.com/2010/07/16/decandling-cork-bark-japanese-black-pine/#comments Fri, 16 Jul 2010 15:00:18 +0000 xwires http://bonsaitonight.com/?p=1215 ]]> Decandling cork bark Japanese black pine

Decandling cork bark Japanese black pines is very similar to decandling the non-cork bark trees. The main difference is that cork bark pines are usually less vigorous. A general rule of thumb is to decandle them every other year, ideally showing them in the years after which they’ve been decandled.

I decandled this tree for the first time in 2009. It came out very strong so I’ve decandled it a second time this year. We’ll see how it comes out in fall.

Before decandling – front

After decandling

Before – back

After decandling – back

I plucked a handful of needles from the strongest areas, mostly near the top of the tree, to help balance the new growth. The lower branches are weaker – I left all of the old needles in these areas.

Decandled shoots

Decandled shoots

Considering the many factors that contribute to successful decandling, I’m leaving the fertilizer in place throughout the decandling season. Normally I’d remove it all when I decandle. But because cork bark is somewhat weaker than pine, I’m giving the tree the slight advantage of getting fertilizer while it forms summer shoots. I’ll add new fertilizer according the to typical decandling calendar – little by little beginning about 4 weeks after decandling – and end up with a lot of fertilizer on the tree by fall. I’ll leave the fertilizer in place until the very end of the year – the mild winters here make the growing season long.

There are many techniques for developing Japanese black pine bonsai: pinching, plucking, and pruning among them. All are necessary, but none do the work of decandling. I’m surprised each year at how well decandling balances vigor, improves ramification, and reduces needle size.

I began caring for a cork bark Japanese black pine in 2004. After several years of restoring the tree’s vigor, it was time to decandle. Just a year and a half later, the tree more than doubled its ramification.

Before decandling – January 2009

18 months later – June 2010

The tree still needs plenty of work, but that’s part of the fun. As long as there is progress, the work is bearable.

You can see the tree with moss at Bay Island Bonsai’s gallery of the 2010 Exhibit.

Remove the new growth from your pine bonsai and you’ve decandled the tree. Within a month or two, new shoots like these will appear:

Summer growth – Japanese black pine

Easy enough. Place another pine on the turntable, pick up the scissors, and get started. How to make that first cut? I typically consider the following:

Tree health

• How healthy is the tree? If the tree is not strong, I’ll try again next year.
• How much fertilizer did the tree receive in spring? I’ll only decandle if the tree has been fed heavily.
• Was the tree decandled last year? If so, did it come out strong? If not, I’ll wait.

Timing

• Large tree? Start decandling sooner.
• Small tree? Decandle later.
• Decandle in one day or over time?  I usually decandle show trees and dramatically unbalanced trees over time.

Relative shoot strength affects my decision of when to cut, whether or not I leave a stub, and how many needles I pull. Along these lines, I ask:

Even if I get everything right, the tree will still be subject to a final, and very important variable that is quite out of my control:

• Warmer summers produce stronger summer shoots.
• Cooler summers produce weaker summer growth.

Together, this great mix of variables contributes to the final result. Sometimes it’s pleasing, other times it’s disappointing. But as long as the tree remains alive, I’ll have another chance to get it right next year.