Memory Lane – Heathrow Bonsai Event November 2012 (Part One)

Nothing too taxing to launch a new feature on a new website……don’t have to dig too deep into the memory cells!!!

A big thanks to Mark and Ming Moreland for inviting me to demonstrate at their annual bonsai event. Credit to everyone involved that despite attrocious weather the many visitors who braved the rain were treated to some excellent displays of trees.

This account relates to my morning demonstration of a rather large somewhat overgrown   Juniper Pfitzeriana

The first task was to remove all unnecessary foliage and branches.

There was an obvious cascading branch option but it lacked movement and taper. A more compact upright image had much greater possibilities and potential.

I had tried to anticipate which branches I might use and pre-wired them to save time as this was to be a relatively short demo. Initially some of the unused branches were stripped of bark and retained as potential jins.

It was now time to start positioning the branches and hope that my earlier design theories would come good.

At last pleasing triangular canopies are beginning to emerge using the main trunk and the very substantial retained lower branch. The jinned branches were shortened and shari’s were created in the trunk to link the deadwood and provide an interesting flowing spiral movement.

I am pleased with the result. The tree is a good medium size bonsai, and has potential to be refined into a strong Japanese bonsai image.

I would like to thank Iqbal Khan who was taking pictures throughout the day and kindly agreed to send me some copies to support this article.