Improving exposed root pine bonsai with a single bend

As a number of you noticed in the last post, using a straight cylinder for creating exposed root pine bonsai can lead to a fairly uninteresting trunk line. This can be fixed easily – here’s how.

Below is a photo of a 12 year-old pine trained in the exposed root style. There is a nice curve to the exposed roots, but the spread out form of the branches creates somewhat of a “T”-shaped tree.

12 year-old exposed root black pine

Daisaku Nomoto suggested compacting the tree by bending the roots and holding them in place with a guy wire. The idea sounded great to me so he bent away. Here’s what the tree looked like after the bend, some basic wiring and repotting.

12 year-old pine after bending the roots

A couple of things stand out to me. For starters, the tree looks quite different considering that the front has remained the same. The other item of note is that the first branch has become the new apex and the apex has become the first branch. It will take a couple of years for the overall form of the tree to fill in, but I like the new direction. I plan to do similar bends on the pines in the previous posts as I prefer the curved forms to the current, straight form the roots take.

Bay Island Bonsai 18th Annual Exhibit this Weekend!

BIB’s annual exhibit is fast approaching. The exhibit will fill both rooms at the Lake Merritt Garden Center in Oakland, California, and Saturday will feature an auction of bonsai trees and pots. I’ll be vending with an assortment of trees, pots tools and supplies, plus I’ll enter a number of trees and pots in Saturday’s auction.

I’ll also be selling a number of young black and red pines in training. They’ll look something like the trees below.

Young black pines

Black pines in 6″ colanders

For more information about the exhibit, visit the BIB website here.