• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Bonsai Tonight

An educational website about bonsai development

  • Blog
    • How-to Guides
  • Podcast
  • Shop
    • Bonsai
    • Books
    • Soil
    • Soil (wholesale)
    • Supplies
    • Tools
    • Video Consulting
    • Northern California Bonsai Resources
  • About
    • Workshops

Witnessed in a recent workshop – grafting follow-up and junipers

July 29, 2011 by Jonas Dupuich

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 - July 2011

Ume – before cutback

Ume - after 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.

New graft

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.

New graft

Scion on left, original branches on right

New graft

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.

Big juniper

Getting the tree into place

Juniper

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

Shimpaku

Shari

Shari – note how the curves exaggerate the natural flow of the trunk

Branch pad

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.

A bubble of sap after decandling on a warm day

Sap bubble

Subscribe to Bonsai Tonight

New Posts Delivered Every Tuesday and Friday

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by Kit

Filed Under: Bonsai Care Tagged With: BIB, juniper, Ume

Previous Post: « Summer at the Lake Merritt Bonsai Garden
Next Post: Big cut – crape myrtle »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Daniel Dolan says

    July 29, 2011 at 7:12 am

    Jonas:

    Thanks for this most interesting post. Would love to know where you acquired your Ume. Having visited 30 Bonsai Nurseries in the past 3 years I have never even seen one in person.

    In the photo with the sap bubble….what accounts for the brown tips on the needles?

    Best regards,

    D/D

  2. Fr. Tom Davis, OSA says

    July 29, 2011 at 10:52 am

    Jonas,
    Very nice post! Thanks for sharing.
    I would love to learn how to make those twisted trunks on Shimpakus.
    Any suggestions as to where I can find some instruction regarding this process.

    Peace,

    Fr. Tom

    • xwires says

      July 30, 2011 at 1:26 pm

      Hi Fr. Tom – Creating twisty shimpaku from scratch isn’t tricky: take young junipers, wire them for a year to give them some shape, then plant them in the ground until they reach the desired size. I don’t know about any articles with actual details about the process – someone else may have a suggestion.

  3. xwires says

    July 29, 2011 at 12:53 pm

    I acquired this ume as part of a workshop many years ago. I believe the tree came from Muranaka Bonsai Nursery in Nipomo, CA.

    The brown tips on the pine needles are evidence of cut needles. This tree was likely shown at an exhibit in the past year and the long needles were trimmed to improve its appearance.

  4. Rusty says

    July 31, 2011 at 3:00 pm

    Jonas, I got an Ume from one of the Florida nurseries this spring. It is probably the most vigorous tree I have ever seen – I took it back to 4 inch shoots 3 times this year and each time it pushed 18 inches more in a matter of a month or two. It must have been on steroids.
    Rusty

  5. Albert W. says

    July 31, 2011 at 5:37 pm

    another great post jonas. I was going to ask if you got it from muranaka bonsai. But you already answerd..im hoping by next year to tag a nice field ume.
    Lucky for me I live less then 10 miles away! By the way, have any other nice short, n fat shohins to post?

Footer

Follow Bonsai Tonight

Subscribe

Instagram ● Facebook ● Twitter
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Shop
  • About

P.O. Box 6560, Alameda, CA 94501 · 510-915-2025 · jonas (at) bonsaitonight (dot) com

© Copyright 2009-2025 Bonsai Tonight · All rights reserved · Privacy · Log in

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. You can opt-out if you wish. Accept Decline Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT