Kondo critique at Bay Island Bonsai
Kondo critique at Bay Island Bonsai
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.
Witnessed in a recent workshop – grafting follow-up and junipers
Witnessed in a recent workshop – grafting follow-up and junipers
You can’t have too many branches on ume – or at least I can’t. Getting ume to ramify has proved difficult for me. I made several grafts this year and fortunately most of them took. See “Ume – cutback and grafting” for details about the grafting process. My job now is to help the scions develop. To do this, I cut back the branches onto which the scions have been grafted.
Ume – before cutback
Ume – after cutback
I’ve left the grafting tape in place to keep the scions secure while they are fusing. If the branches continue to grow well, I’ll remove the tape in fall.
Grafting tape holding scion in place
The following photos show the new scions and the original branches onto which they have been grafted. The new shoots look a lot like the old shoots – why have I bothered? The new shoots bear fragrant white flowers – the old shoots, double pink.
Scion on left, original branches on right
Original branch on the left, healthy scion on the right
While I worked on the ume, I noticed both large and small junipers taking shape. Jeff brought in the big juniper below for a tune up.
Getting the tree into place
Prostrata juniper
A much smaller juniper was showing some real progress. The shari had been added to make the trunk more interesting and the branch pads were developing well, showing off the shimpaku foliage to great effect.
Shimpaku
Shari – note how the curves exaggerate the natural flow of the trunk
Branch pad showing good ramification
While I was inspecting the shimpaku, Boon called me over to witnes a sap bubble that formed where a shoot was cut on a black pine. Apparently this happens occasionally on hot days.
Sap bubble
Evaluating bonsai at Bay Island Bonsai meeting
Evaluating bonsai at Bay Island Bonsai meeting
Learning to evaluate bonsai is a big part of the Bay Island Bonsai experience. If one doesn’t understand a tree’s good and bad points, it’s hard to improve the tree, and it’s hard to know how much to pay for it.
We’ve been using a simple form designed by Boon for over 10 years. The idea is that it’s easier to evaluate part of a tree than it is to synthesize all of a tree’s good and bad points into a single measure. At our recent May meeting, we looked closely at two trees: a Tsukumo cypress and a Japanese black pine.
Tree #1 – Tsukumo cypress
Tree #2 – Japanese black pine – exposed root style
At a glance, the Tsukumo cypress is the more impressive tree. It is full, healthy, and has a nice silhouette. The pine looks like it has a way to go before we’ll see it in our exhibit. The judging, however, tells a different story. I’ll save you the math and provide averages for the forms that appear below.
Tree #1 – Tsukumo cypress
Trunk 5
Branches 3
Rootage 3
Pot Selection 3
Aesthetics 3
Total 17
Tree #2 – Japanese black pine
Trunk 8
Branches 3
Rootage 4
Pot Selection 4
Aesthetics 3
Total 22
After marking our forms, we reconvene and publicly discuss the results. The corrections on several of the cards below reflect the broader consensus.
Judging form
Judging form
Judging form
Judging form
Judging form
Judging form
New members often have trouble with this atomized approach to evaluating trees. Over time, however, member scores tend to move toward the mean. These evaluation exercices prepare us for our annual exhibit. At the exhibit, members select the best tree in each class. Winning trees receive Members’ Choice Awards. More importantly, the skills we gain from learning to evaluate bonsai help us guide our own trees toward exhibit.
A complementary exercise at BIB meetings involves creating practice displays and bringing trees to share with others in the hopes that we can together determine whether or not a tree is ready for exhibit.
Satsuki azalea
Satsuki azalea blooms
Satsuki azalea blooms
This azalea is planted in what the Japanese often refer to as a “white” pot. Age has darkened the pot to the point that it evokes grey now more than white. It’s a beautiful pot that suits the azalea well.
“White” pot
We were also treated to an attractive hinoki bonsai. I’ve been partial to hinoki bonsai for years. They have wonderfully dark green foliage and their well-composed branch pads can reveal age well.
Hinoki cypress
Hinoki cypress – branch pad detail
I’m still unsure about which of my own trees will make it to exhibit this year. I’m hoping I’ll have a better idea by the end of summer. If I had to decide today – well, it would be a hard decision.
Show trees are full trees
You’ve heard the phrase if you’ve heard Boon talk about show prep. Full trees demonstrate health and maturity. Although there are exceptions, most bonsai look their best when they’re full.
Fullness means different things for different varieties. I consider the deciduous trees below from Bay Island Bonsai’s recent exhibit to be “full.”
Chinese quince ‘Chojubai’
Root over rock Japanese maple
Shohin trident maple
Some of the other deciduous trees in the exhibit are on their way to becoming full. The trident maple below has a wonderful trunk, but the branches aren’t yet as well-developed.
Trident maple
The same could be said of the trident maple below. The primary branches are in place, as are a number of the secondary branches.
Root over rock trident maple
I’m not very familiar with Amur maples. Based, however on the specimen below, I imagine that they will ramify well in time.
Amur maple
Chinese quince grow quickly in hot and humid weather, less so in more temperate climes like Northern California. In time, however, I expect this tree to ramify well.
Chinese quince
The same can be said for bald cypress, a variety that can develop quickly in the right weather.
Bald cypress
Fullness is a different matter for conifers. Shown year-round with their foliage, conifers are often the fullest trees in winter exhibits. I think of the two Japanese black pines below as being “full.”
Japanese black pine
Japanese black pine
I’ll say the same for the following black pine. Bunjin are not typically as full as non-bunjin bonsai. The bunjin pine below, however, has a thick trunk, and can support the additional foliage. By showing the tree unwired, the artist conveys the tree’s age through the foliage as well as the trunk.
Japanese black pine
The following three pines aren’t as full as the above examples. I expect each to be as full as the above examples after a small number of good growing seasons.
Corkbark white pine
Japanese red pine
Japanese black pine
From the beginning, Bay Island Bonsai exhibits have featured trees at a number of stages in their development. And I think this will be the case for the foreseeable future. The trees in my collections are at wildly different stages, as are the collections of most enthusiasts I know – which is fun, as this means we all have plenty to look forward to as our trees and exhibits improve.
Comments Off
1 comment