It's no secret that I have a lot of beginner stock. One of the things I most enjoy about bonsai is growing the trees I have and basically watching them "grow up". Here is a picture of a small juniper I got back in July 2004 from Grove Way in Hayward.
It's a starter, no doubt about it, and as I was just confident enough at the time to do some minor pruning and shaping.
Now THAT is a lesson learned. Evidently, I was happy with the trunk, taper, and movement of the tree (yes, I'm smiling to myself as I type this). One of the great things about working with Boon is that he's up front with me about my trees. Yesterday, during the beginning of workshop, I had another Shimpaku up on the stand all ready to go. Maybe some refining wiring, some pruning...Boon just looks at me and tells me the tree has no future. And I appreciate that so much, that honesty. No more time wasted on that one, other than keeping it healthy until it can be sold off to someone who might want it at a club sale. Or maybe my brother might want it...(it's free for him). Anyhow, moving on in the workshop, I got up, took the tree over to where the others were that I was going to work on that day, and brought another over. Now this is the tree above, the trunk lacks lots of movement (which the last tree had none of) and trunk movement is kinda key, but it has some...and more moving of it might happen in the future, but it's a bad time of year to bend shimpaku as the cambium might separate. I had previously put more bend in the trunk in 2005, using lots of raffia, and bending it at the right time of the year. I did some thinning, and picked up on another wiring tip that really helped me with relation to putting too much wire on one branch. So here is the tree now...oh, also jinned 3 branches in the process. I will be finishing the wiring on this one today, and through the week. It really has come a long way since that one gallon can it was in.
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