Tuesday 20 March 2007

The Swiss Juniper





This Common Juniper was collected from the Swiss Alps by pius Notter's son,approx 4yrs ago.I "acquired it"about 2yrs ago,because i love this species,but unfortunately they are almost impossible to collect in the uk.I loved the twist in the deadwood and decided straight away this must somehow become the focal point of the tree.
So after patiently waiting for 18 months,i decided to go ahead with the first styling at Tony Tickle's excellent Burrs bash last November.I'd been pruning the tree during the time i had it to produce a more fibrous root system,i will discover later if this worked in sept this year.
I already pretty much new what i wanted to do,the tree threw up 3 different option's,but only one of these highlighted the beautifully twisted jin,so after discussing it with Terry Foster i went ahead with my plan.
It went along quite easily,and 6 months later is budding up beautifully,so hopefully in a few years i can show this lovely little tree,now i've got to get my head around a pot design,any ideas?

Friday 16 March 2007

The Spanish Juniper





This chuhin Sabina Juniper was bought as rough stock from dai~ishi bonsai in a half price sale 4yrs ago not long after i became "obsessed" with the bonsai bug.I changed the front,carved it a little and re~worked the foliage,i thought it looked great!
Quickly i realised although other people were quite impressed,it was nothing like the image i wanted and began a very intense fertilizer regime consisting of balance 6'6'6 on the soil surface and fish emulsion on the foliage,this along with regular pinching helped it bloom into something much more beautiful.
All this meant the wire dug in,and as a consequence it has needed re~wiring every 6months since.Now the heavy feeding is coming to a end,the tree is starting to resemble the image i wanted,and is set to be a decent image.More carving and branch removal has followed,and last year(2006) it recieved a honourable mention in the wbff photo competition,not bad for a bit of tat!
1st pic show 2004
2nd pic before club show 2005
3rd pic wbff pic 2006
4th pic shohin bonsai show 2007