A regular update on the life and times of John Hanby’s Newstead Bonsai Centre……..
Topical Times – Matthews Juniper Ittogawa
Matthew brought this Juniper to a recent open workshop. It was the first time I had seen this tree.
The tree had some good foliage clouds and a very interesting trunk with excellent movement, good taper and an established shari. The problem was with the branches!
The existing foliage canopy was too big and too wide for the trunk. The best feature of the tree was it’s trunk and this was hidden. Some of the branches were simply too heavy and so set/straight that they could not be realistically moved.
I explained to Matthew why drastic action was required in the removal of many branches to expose the trunk line and create an impressive literati style bonsai. He asked me if I could draw something on the whiteboard to give him some idea of how the tree would look.
He decided to go for it! The main feature of the tree…..it’s meandering trunk is now clear for all to see. The foliage clouds will be made more compact and it is likely that some further branches will be removed in due course.
