It’s his first class…treat him gently…..

Derek attended his first bonsai class with us recently so I suppose I should be treating him gently…….nope!!!

A nice broom style Privet with really good base.

That second trunk at the front is just so straight and out of character with the main trunk.

Had to go…. now we can let this callous over and form part of the nebari or carve it out and make a feature of it. The canopy can be reshaped to fit the single trunk.

A Pyracantha purchased maybe with a cascade in mind?…..but it is so long and straight with no taper.

There is a better branch lower down the trunk and lots of useful new buds.

All the energy in the removed branches will transfer to these new shoots which should now explode with growth. The true potential of this material to form a really nice shohin size bonsai has been released.

Perhaps surprisingly I received some really nice comments from Derek after the class. He confirmed that all his trees were now much smaller when he got them home!!! …..This is normal!!!

He did enjoy his time with us and learned a lot from the day….not just from me but also from his fellow students. Sometimes you have to be drastic to get the best out of a tree and when you are doing bonsai on your own often you haven’t the confidence to be this ruthless.

Hopefully we have inspired Derek to greater things and I am sure we will see him again despite me not having “the gentle touch”!