An open window into the comings and goings of students and their trees attending our regular weekend and midweek bonsai classes under the ever watchful eyes of John Hanby.
Classroom Corner – Midweek Class October 2013
Some interesting styling options emerged in our recent midweek class.
Kevin’s Larch had some heavy branches but the main problem was the two trunks in the centre fighting to become the apex. A decision had to be made and the one with the heavy scarring had to go.
Heavy branches were removed or reduced in length and the whole tree was then wired.
The resulting image now has great potential and most of the problems have been overcome. The long lower jin will need to be shortened to a smaller straight stub.
Alan’s small Juniper Ittogawa was ready for styling and he decided to go for a small upright tree rather than the cascade style. He had already pre-wired the tree but we removed many branches and needed to create a shari.
Alan kindly removed the wire and then totally rewired the tree so the remaining branches could then be placed. With the removal of so much foliage it is important to leave the remaining growing tips long to maintain the health and vigour of the tree.
Stan’s Taxus Cuspidata has amazing tight curves in the trunk but there is a long straight section in the apex. This needed some heavy wire and careful bending to introduce some movement. With this new apex the tree now has a better front slightly to the left which also highlights the movement in the trunk.
Dave’s garden Juniper has only been out of the ground 2 years but is already showing great promise. It was already wired and now needed some thinning out and branch positioning. The lower branch was pulled outwards more for both aesthetic and health reasons. As the tree defines it’s live veins there will be more shari in the trunk which may result in having to rethink the front of the tree at some time in the future.
These were just a few of the trees brought to this class and it made for an interesting problem-solving session. This is a really good example of how students can learn so much form each other and from each others trees…….and is undoubtedly why these regular workshops continue to be so popular.