BonsaiNurseryman

REBS 2008 California Juniper #3

Juniperus californica

Another collected Californica juniper. As you can see, collected Junipers are a big deal for our club and indeed for most of California clubs. This one is a bit unusual in that it actually has very nice buttressing which often is absent on collected trees. It also has that odd piece of base deadwood which is almost too phallic. I can't make up my mind if this is advantageous or not. If it hides a defect in the buttress, then sure, keep it. The thing that makes this artifact 'work' is that it reinforces the slanting flow and repeats the jin at the top. I haven't talked about this  yet, but it often very good to mimic or repeat a feature when possible, this can be a jin, a hollow, a branch apex, or any feature. The repetition can even occur more than once. This creates more of a 'feel', a reinforcement of the story of the feature.

The deadwood is really not all that extensive in this tree, but the total trunk is very impressive, with excellent taper, buttressing and nice 'legs' of live wood extending down into the soil. There is a really beautifully complex deadwood feature in the shari near the top which is not very clear in this photo, a bit of a hollow with a lot of wood grain around it.

Once again, we see no well defined foliage pads, although the outline is a bit too regular for my taste. Excellent branch placement keeping the foliage in tight to accentuate the trunk, good back branching, fullness, but there is still a perfect view of all the branch elements. This tree is not quite as austere as some of the others, but that's appropriate given that this tree has a large live vein and the live trunk is as much a feature as the shari.

REBS 2008 Cedar of Lebanon

Cedrus libani

Nice twin tree composition. I took this angle shot because I thought the front wasn't right. Jinning the first branch of the left tree is an excellent move resulting in an uneven base to the scalene triangle outline. The top foliage areas are a little dense; it would be nice to see into the tree and discover the fine branching in this area.

I thought this photo below shows the best front. The nebari is better, there is better separation at the top. Of course the larger tree is leaning so the planting angle would have to be changed to make it upright with the shorter tree leaning away.

Forum Links

In view of my last post in which I recommended at least lurking on the forums in order to spot the truly good stuff that occasionally comes along, I will start citing the links to threads that I consider worthy. This may help those of you who just can't stand cruising the forums, but would still benefit from such threads.

The first thread is from BonsaiTalk by Al Keppler. This is an interesting thread on the use of Humic acid substances as an adjunct to fertilizers. Although Al seems to be claiming a first here, no one is remembering past threads by Michael Persiano on superfeeding and his use of Roots 2, which contains humic acid as its active ingredient. Although I had reservations about superfeeding and over nitrolizing plants, I took a pass on the Roots 2 debate since I had read some interesting bits on the value of humic acid. Unfortunately, I never tried the product or followed up. Al has done so (with other sources of humic acid) and has provided anecdotal evidence in this thread. Of course the thread has now degenerated into the typical ego battle, but it is still worth reading. Hopefully Milehigh will follow up, as his interest has been piqued and he does have the scientific background to do a good non subjective analysis:

READY TO SPILL THE BEANS

The ever popular topic of the rules of bonsai cropped up again, this time on BonsaiSite. Since this is basically a beginners site, this thread will probably show a healthy dose of rebellion. Rebellion is always fine of course, but it does help to know what you are rebelling against. Hopefully Grouper will add some more intelligent comments here.

BONSAI RULES, ARE THEY EVER MEANT TO BE BROKEN?

Finding Your Path

Here's an interesting email from someone without a lot of resources to call upon. Undoubtedly, many of you are in this same situation.

From BC:

I would like to start by saying that I hope it is not to presumptuous of me to hope you have time to read and maybe even respond to my letter?

I have been visiting and reading your site for several years now.  I think I have read just about everything though I am not sure very much has stuck.

I wanted to write as there are now just so may reasons to do so.  First I would like to thank you for your renewed efforts on your blog.  There are only a couple web sites I visit and as bonsai is a slow process the updated are often sparse. I wanted to tell you I appreciate you making the time to try and help people like myself.

 

Second I wanted commiserate in your disappointment of the bonsai forums.  When I first discovered them I thought it was going to be great get ideas and feed back.

As it turned out any postings I had were largely ignored when you're not a mover or shaker on the site and trying to sift through all the nonsense was very time consuming.I finally quit bonsai chat a couple years back over the Will Heath debacle.  I found him a little abrasive but he actually had REAL stuff to say.  I couldn't abide the inability of the site to accept criticism. 

These forums could be so great!!  I have recently joined bonsai talk largely because you talked about it but I still haven't mustered the courage to try again to be part of the solution rather than withdrawing completely.

 

Which brings me to my final and main reason for writing.  My desire to continue to learn!  I have been doing bonsai for about 6 years and have been lucky to have a bonsai master running a club a couple hours away.  I have learned a reasonable amount and have at least gotten past the stick in a pot phase.  My problem is my club only meets about 8 times per year and the focus in these tends to be geared toward the endless steam of beginners.  I have tried to arrange private lessons or other arrangements, but after several years of trying different approaches with the instructor, nothing has come of my requests.  I was hoping you could give me some feedback?  I feel my progress is going to slow and I want to get to the next level.  Am I being too impatient?  Will I improve if I just keep going? Any advice you have for me in the absence of a willing instructor would be appreciated!

 

Thank you again for your efforts and down to earth sensibilities.

To which I replied:

First of all, thank you for your kind comments. It is rewarding to get feedback on my efforts to help educate and enlighten folks in this wonderful art.

As for the forums, it does look pretty much hopeless right now, but things do change. My advice for you is to continue to scan through all the new posts every day, even if you only lurk. I have gotten so good at spotting good posts just from the title and author that I rarely ever even open an uninteresting one. Even if I don't reply to the ones that I do read, it is good for me to keep track of what is going on out there, and I think you should do the same. There will always be these little gems several times a month. So, you can join them all (BT, BS, BN, and BC) and not participate, but joining allows you to use the 'new posts' option that greatly speeds up  the review process in your search for decent threads.

Getting meaningful instruction may be a tough one. I couldn't find where you live from your email, but I assume that finding some good instruction is going to involve traveling. This does not necessarily involve traveling very often. It is amazing how much you can learn in a just a few hours with the right person. Unfortunately, most of the really talented artists are not very good at communicating how they achieve their art. But there are a few. My two current favorites are Walter Pall and Marco Invernizzi. These two are especially good at communicating which is amazing for both of them since English is a second language. Walter is better at communicating the path toward good bonsai design. His critiques are remarkable, and this is what you really should witness. He can go through fifty to a hundred trees in just a couple of hours and give a fairly complete artistic analysis of each one that will blow your socks off.

Marco is also very good at analysis and verbalizing it, but his really strong suit is technique, that is how to achieve the vision. Incidentally, these two have worked together often and think highly of each other. Marco calls Walter 'Grandpa'. So, I would recommend traveling to see either of them no matter how far you have to go and how much you have to pay, at least once. Both of them travel all over the US, so you shouldn't have to go all that far.

Other than getting good instruction, the other forum for stretching your abilities is join or form a study group. In your case, it probably means starting one. Study groups are different from clubs. Membership is limited to serious aficionados; there are no beginners. All members have to have serious material, if not finished trees. Each person brings several pieces to each meeting and every tree brought is analyzed and discussed by the whole group. Everyone must participate. It helps to have a close knit group of friends, but it's not necessary. However, there must not be any open hostility or ego battles like on the forums. So be prepared to deal with that. In our group, new people are invited on a trial basis, and those that don't fit or have a serious interest are simply not invited back. The ideal size seems to be about six to eight people. That number will keep the discussion lively. A group must have at least one fairly knowledgeable leading member or it will just be the blind leading the blind. This person does not need to be a master (probably better if not a master). Our group has two such members. Having two often leads to conflict, but where it doesn't, as in our group, having two people politely disagree makes for a great learning experience. The idea is have everyone participate at least at some level. The minimum is the introduction of their trees with the story of its history, care, and their vision for it.

One other thing you should probably do is to make a trip to see a major collection such as the National collection in DC,  Wyerhauser, a major convention or really big club show. Seeing world class trees in person is so different than seeing images of them.

I think that's about all I can recommend at the moment. Good luck at making your bonsai connections.

Brent

REBS 2008 Nire Elm #2

Ulmus parvifolia

Interesting tree, and a good solution to a difficult problem. Once again (how many times have I said it so far?), the trunk is everything. This is a very old hollow trunk with some nice features, but also some problems. First, it has a bulbous base and almost no nebari, but even though some nebari would have made it a better tree, it isn't distracting. The shortness and stumpiness of the top present some difficulties and have been successfully overcome by a strong left to right flow of the foliage, taking the eye away from the top of the trunk. Many people probably would have gone with the short leader right at the top of the trunk as the apex, but using the right branch to extend the line and form the basis of the apex is a much better solution. Once again, as with  the Nire elm #1, we get a strong Chinese flavor here.

The thick first branch is not too fat, but it should taper more in those first three inches. I can't understand why this wasn't done since the lower part of this thick section really serves no purpose. With a bit of carving, this branch would be wonderfully improved instead of being clunky. The apex is in the right position, the use of the straight vertical section without taper (and without any small branches) should have been replaced with a succession of smaller leaders via clip and trim. This is very easy to do with Chinese elms, and the top would be greatly improved with this treatment.  The other branching is good, but not quite right. Some small adjustments are in order. Some branches need to come down a bit and the upper most tuft of foliage on the far left needs to be wired back more to give greater depth, and to break up that almost straight line extending from the apex.

It will be interesting to see this tree develop over the years. The branches aren't really showing a lot of ramification or refinement at this stage, and once that is done, this will be a magnificent and unique tree.

REBS 2008 California Juniper #2

Juniperus californica

Unfortunately, the first thing that got my attention in this tree is the odd positioning on the stand. This happened because it's in the wrong pot! This is very distracting. It needs to be in a deep rectangular pot to 'catch' the overhang of the foliage on the right. Then the pot could have been more or less centered on the stand.

I apologize for the poor photo which is slightly out of focus, but there are some things that I want to talk about in this tree so I included it anyway. Once again, the trunk is the main feature, as in nearly all cases of collected trees. The shari on the front and the two big jins at the base give the appearance of two ribbons of live wood. Even though there is no twist to the ribbons, the entire trunk compositions is very good, including the extended arm of jin at the very top that gives it an even stronger right hand flow.

The jin ends need some work. Contrast the very nice natural deadwood of the base jin on the right with the one on the left which clearly shows the hand of man. More natural breaks showing grain or a hollow would be much better. This fault extends to several of the smaller jin ends higher in the tree.

I'm sounding like a broken record, but once again note the departure from defined foliage pads in favor of austere 'see through' foliage. This gives it a natural beauty of delicate foliage accenting the rugged trunk. In this case, as in most collected trees, the small thin branches is a necessity and not distracting  since the foliage needs to be lean. Another recurring theme has been how regular to make the foliage outline and I have been coming down on the side of favoring less regular outlines. In this case, I think it is a bit too irregular and I find the tuft of foliage sticking out on the right about halfway up the tree distracting, and I think it would be much improved without it.

Lastly, a bit of discussion on flow is order for this tree. It has a fairly strong right hand flow set by the lean of the trunk. Is this angle of the trunk necessary or desirable? I considered this and I believe it is. The problem with making the trunk more upright is that the first branch (the big branch on the right) would also become more upright and more of a subtrunk rather than a branch. This would quickly destroy the unity of the image that the tree now has. The apex is a bit odd in that all the live growth comes from the single rather large upright branch near the top which goes strongly left. The tree cannot finish in this direction, and the branches are deftly wired to bring the apex back to the right to confirm and finish the flow.

REBS 2008 Nire Elm

Ulmus parvifolia

This is a huge Chinese elm that stands about two feet tall. And there's something about this elm this elm that made me keep coming back to it. At first it almost looked grotesque with the huge bulbous base, but it has such a nice natural sweep of the trunk and excellent taper. The stark almost white trunk almost made it glow. It has a very Chinese flavor to it.

It may be a little too tall. I have been playing around with it, cutting out sections of the apex and there are easily two shorter trees in there, but they have a quite different feel to them and they lose the grace and elegance that this tree has. The trunk is so big that shorter trees start looking very sumo, but for fun, try covering up  portions of the apex and see what you think.

It would have been very easy to make this tree a cliche (cookie cutter) by making the pads more defined and traditional (pine tree). Once again, we see that pads are not well defined and the result is a nice natural feel. The somewhat irregular outline is also a nice touch, keeping the tree more informal.

Branch placement is excellent and the branches are old, very tapered, and ramified. The leaf reduction is marvelous. One very obvious and unfortunate fault is the crossing root right in the front, ruining what should have been an excellent nebari. A tree like this really needs a foundation, strong clawing roots to support that trunk. That top root should have been removed years ago. Doing so now would leave a nasty channel in the bottom root. More surface rooting would have been nice, but even without any other roots, the nebari would have been perfectly acceptable and pleasing without the crossed roots.

This is one of those trees that 'dances'.

REBS 2008 Pyracantha

Pyracantha sp?

Once again, the main feature of this tree is the trunk. Pyracantha often grow naturally like this in the West where the hot dry climate will preserve dead hollow trunks for years. In this case you can see that the trunk is rotted all the way through. Unfortunately, there were no berries on the tree this year.

Although this is an excellent composition, nicely balanced and proportioned, there are a couple of things about it that disturb me. As long as I just 'look' at it and don't try to analyze it, it 'works' as a piece of art, that is, it moves me into its reality, but it has trouble holding me there. The biggest thing is probably the tidiness of the foliage and outline relative to the massive and weather beaten trunk. Fortunately, it is not a layered green pine tree look, but it still has that feel to it. The almost equilateral triangle of foliage is just a bit contrived. Making an uneven base to the foliage could help here. A bit more elevation (thickness of small branching) of the first branch would help, and perhaps a bit more definition of the branch work in the top could help as well.

I keep seeing a second tree in the tree, and my eye keeps going to this. If you look at the very top triangle of wood in the trunk, there is small mound of foliage that appears to be an apex if you don't allow your eye to go farther up the small leader to the right. I suppose this would be a valid smaller tree, but I don't think  it would be better than what we see here. Still, I would try to break up this look to improve the flow.

REBS 2008 Azalea

Rhododendron indicum

I won't torture you with an analysis of this one since I know zip about Azaleas anyhow. Notice the nice root over rock base.

REBS 2008 Black Pine No. 2

Pinus thunbergii

This tree has most of the qualities that I am personally looking for in my own trees these days. Predominately, I mean highly asymmetrical outlines with strongly moving trunks. These two things give you strong visual movement and interest. The scalene triangle formed by the foliage here has a very inclined visual base line connecting the two lower apexes (funny, my spell checker doesn't like the actual correct term: apices). Even though this outline is a fairly rigid classical form, the strong movement of the branches and the lack of clear pad structure keeps it from being a 'green donut' cliche.

Notice that the branching begins not quite two thirds up the trunk, or the reverse of the 'normal' one third, but the first branch is pulled down dramatically into the 'correct' position. Walter Pall does this and talks about it in his wonderful tree critiques. It doesn't always matter where the branching starts as long as it ends up in the right place. In this example, it works because the very nature or story of the tree is revealed in the shari of the trunk, an epic struggle. Such a tree would not have a low branch. Often, however, this technique does not work and the origin of the branches can be distracting, no matter how good the placement of the foliage. Many of Kimura's demonstration junipers do this to me. At first glance, they are wonderful creations because he is a magician with foliage placement and outline, but the more you look, the more unsettling the image becomes. Now, obviously he has little choice when he is doing a demo with material over which he has had no control, and the point is make a good show.

Also note that all the live branching on this tree is relatively young and thin. But this makes absolutely no difference because this tree is not about foliage, it's about the shari and shape of the shape of the trunk. The foliage is just window dressing or a frame. Would it be better with gnarly old ramified branches? Absolutely, but this tree 'works' well without it. Also notice that the shari in not carved. This is another feature that fascinates me because I have many trees with natural jins and shari. Sure, this happened because I neglected them for many years, but none the less, it has worked wonders on many trees. You simply can't get this kind of deadwood artificially. Most people are not used to seeing wood like this and it may take some getting used to, but I love it.

Finally, since this tree is really a literati, albeit an unusual one, the use of the bunjin pot and the round stand are a really nice and appropriate touch.

REBS 2008 Monterey Pine

Pinus radiata

Other than the striking image, the most remarkable thing about this pine is that it is a Monterey pine. Either this is a collected tree (unlikely) or it is a very old tree with decades of development. Notice the mature bark and profuse ramified branching. I wish I knew more about the history of this tree. Monterey pine typically has needles about six inches long, so the reduction seen here is nothing short of amazing.

As far as the composition goes, this is a nice informal trunk with multiple soft graceful curves. It has no boring sections and the taper is well developed and suitable for an informal upright. The only flaw, and it is a minor one, is the thickness at the very top where it branches out into the apex. There are some overly thick branches in the top that are discretely hidden in the foliage. The branches are well tapered and well ramified, revealing that this tree has had many years of patient detailed wiring and care.

This tree is at its peak of perfection vis a vis the branching and foliage. Note that the smallest branches are starting to get 'long in the tooth' with the only foliage at the tips. This is one of the things that happens to all pines and must be planned for. It will soon have to be rejuvenated and back budding encouraged to replace the longest of the fine branching with new, shorter branches from buds simulated farther back. The longer you wait, the more difficult this is to achieve.

Another thing to notice is that this tree does not have traditional pine tree layered branching, and  you can see every bit of the tree. Once again, let me point out that this is the latest trend in styling, extending to even a traditional subject like an informal upright pine (albeit not a Japanese black pine).
The branches themselves, as well as the trunk, evoke a rugged ancient air, and yet the soft regular outline gives it a bit of feminine quality to create a very nice visual balance.

A very handsome tree indeed.

REBS 2008 Japanese Black Pine

Pinus thunbergii

What can I say? This is one of those 'to die for' Japanese black pines. Clearly, the strongest feature of this tree is the trunk, both massive and moving with excellent taper and gorgeous mature bark scales. Count the trunk chops in this trunk. I get four major chops before the trunk is obscured by the apex. It takes decades of skilled work to achieve this. I keep harping on sacrifice branch and leader growing for JBP, and here is a breathtaking example of what you get if you follow this procedure.

The chops are not text book. The first chop is the low chop, quite common on JBP. Typically, this first trunk section does not carry a branch. The first low turn is to create dynamic counter movement, but in this case, since we have a slant form, it does not go against the flow but rather establishes it. However, the next trunk section (topped by chop #2) is a short section that does go against the follow, albeit not radically. It is this section that is a bit unusual in its shortness before turning into the third trunk section which restores the flow to the right. This second trunk section also does not carry a branch. This gives us a compound base that is very interesting and again, dynamic and powerful. And yet the tree is still remarkably compact even with this compound base section(s).

The third trunk section carries the first branch. And since this branch is on the opposite side of the heavy visual weight of the base, it gives a very strong pull in the direction of the flow (right).Now the tree has to counter the overbalanced right pull, and it does this very nicely with the fourth trunk section and its attendant branches moving to the left in fairly strong, but not radical fashion. This restores the dynamic balance and creates tension as well. The apex restores the flow to the right, as it should, although I wish that the apex were more defined. Undoubtedly this will occur as the branches are more refined and ramified.

This tree will need a lot of small branch wiring in future years, and continued attention to proper candling and plucking, but what a beauty. One minor detail that may be hard to correct is the poorly placed  root that goes from right to left and finishes right in the center of the nebari. This should have been corrected twenty years ago. It may still be possible to remove this root, but I would have to examine it more closely. It's such a shame to have a tree with this much going right for it, and then to have a stupid mistake like this detract even a little bit from it. It also points out just how difficult it is to get that perfect tree.

REBS 2008 Utah Juniper

Juniperus osteosperma

This species is a bit unusual for bonsai. Mostly you see California juniper and Desert or Western juniper. The foliage is a silver green, quite lovely but rather coarse like all these collected junipers of the West (with the exception of Rocky Mountain Juniper).

The split in the nebari almost makes it 'walk' or 'dance'. As in all collected material, you get what you get when it comes to nebari, but at least in this case, there is an appearance of buttressing even if it is hollow. The common very narrow nebari that is often seen is somewhat disconcerting to me no matter how wonderful the tree.

The deadwood is wonderful with just a ribbon of live wood winding up the trunk, and the use of small jins in the very top of the tree is a nice touch. It would be too tame and manicured without these.

Once again, there is the austere, loosely defined pad formation that I have been harping on, but in this case there is more classical foliage placement than in the others that we saw earlier. I am not sure that is an entirely good thing. Although this is a quite lovely tree, it does have a very regular outline for a wild collected tree. I would have to study it more to suggest improvements, but I do think that if the low right hand branch were brought down even lower, that would help break up the symmetry a bit. I would also give thought to shortening the lowest left branch to help achieve the same thing.  These two changes would also help to bring the foliage in even more and thus further accentuate the trunk. They would also give it a 'wilder' look.

REBS 2008 Fig

Ficus carrica

This fig is a good example of what you can do with non traditional material. I believe in previous years it was adorned with fig fruit, but alas, none this year. It is a very old tree with a lot of character. Notice the hole all the way through the trunk near the top and the hollow that extends nearly all the way down.

The trunk is everything on a tree like this. It doesn't matter that it has large leaves that don't reduce much, or even that it doesn't have fruit. The story is of an ancient tree past the prime of its life, healthy but struggling for a few more years of life on earth.

The leaves have been kept closely cropped to accentuate the trunk. Even so, it would have been nice to have the foliage just a little wider at the bottom to establish a bit of asymmetrical  triangle. That would have  also reduced the top heaviness.

The pot and stand are perfect for the tree, the green glaze contrasting nicely with the light gray trunk.

You probably wouldn't want a lot of these trees in your collection, but  one or two are a wonderful addition.

Bonsai Forums Self Destruct

For those of us that just can't turn our eyes away from car wrecks, we are sure getting an eyeful at BonsaiTalk, and even more so at BonsaiNut, where the nuts are truly running the show. It's amazing how just a few aggressive personalities can hijack a forum. You don't need talent, skill, writing ability, or even know anything about bonsai or horticulture to be a star. You just need the juevos to attack someone in public. The nice thing is that no one gets bloody in these duels, but that's also the bad thing. If you said these kinds of things in a bar, there would be bloody noses for sure.

Now, I don't really mind these flame wars per se. Often it's the only good entertainment your can get if you don't have cable. The problem is the chilling effect it has on intelligent discussion and debate. Most knowledgeable people with a modicum of self respect decency wouldn't be caught dead near one of these battles. Sadly, there are few knowledgeable people who are sucked in and their public, if not their own image suffers for it.

I'm not sure what it is that won't allow someone to let an insult pass. I have the same problem with tailgaters when driving. It has taken an enormous mental effort for me to just pull over and let them fly by. I try all sorts of remedies like saying "Just thank god they are ahead of me and not behind me when they self destruct", and "I'm so glad that I'm not in that mind frame anymore". It doesn't really work, but I am getting better at it anyhow. Clearly, the forums are populated with a huge number of tailgaters as well as annoyed slowpokes.

I guess you just have to have an enormous amount of self confidence of let an insult pass. Either that or such an enormous amount of ego, that it just runs off like summer rain on duck feathers. I don't really get the feeling that the players really enjoy the verbal dueling. I know that the few times that I 'lost it' on the forums, I felt miserable about it. It makes you kind of nutz and you start obsessing about what your next line of attack will be. It's not really a battle of wits, or not often at least, because most of the players are half wits. It's just that once they bite you in the butt, they metaphorically won't let go. Either responding, or not responding, they have their teeth sunk in your dignity.

The answer of course is simple, although the execution is well nigh impossible. And that is not to play the game. Like tic tac toe, every game is a draw, no one ever really wins. The only way to win is not to play the game. People push your buttons? Well, they are your buttons. Take responsibility for your buttons and pull the wires if you don't want the lights flashing. It's not someone else's fault that you have buttons, it's yours.

In a sense this is a cultural problem. The culture of the internet is still in its very early days. This is a whole new form of communication, a wonderful and yet evil way of getting your voice out to the entire world, literally. This has never happened before. We are limited by only the force of intellect and cleverness. Any Joe Blow can be read by thousands, if not millions, if he is clever enough to package an irresistible message. This has  mostly been manifested through the blogosphere. That's what you are doing right now-  reading my ramblings on a blog, albeit a diminutive effort read by only about 150 folks a day.

So, how do we put some civility in the internet culture? It's pretty clear in the barroom culture, that if you mouth off, you get your nuts cracked. But that doesn't work here. Will the ultimate nature of the internet be uncivil simply because there isn't any corporal punishment? Is banning the trolls and flame throwers the answer? I don't know. I don't like banning people. Some of the very best bonsai and horticultural stuff on the forums has come from 'heated' debates, mostly early in the cycle, which then quickly degrades into useless flame wars.

Another old saying, but not as difficult to execute is "What you feed, grows". Now this is something that might truly become part of the internet awareness without too much difficulty. It would work like this. Granted, we can't avert our eyes from the wreck, fine, but we don't need to stand around getting in the cop's way, trying to separate the parties, etc. Instead we just watch. Once the thread disintegrates into pointless flame throwing, everyone just steps back and watches, no one other than the perps participates. Yes, there is still an audience, but without additional fuel, or fresh meat, they just knock themselves out. We may watch, but we really don't care, and after awhile we will even tire of watching. Of course, this won't happen just because it's a good idea. But it may happen as the internet audience gets more 'mature'. That is, after watching so many flame wars and realizing the ultimate end is always going to be ashes, not knowledge, we just cut and run, show over.

Meanwhile, if any of the perps are reading this, I hope  you get the idea that a good deal of introspection is called for. And if you are just an innocent bystander, please consider just driving on next time you encounter a wreck.

REBS 2008 California Juniper #1

I wish I had taken notes about this juniper. This may be a grafted 'Shimpaku' (California juniper collected understock), or perhaps even a tanuki. The mystery certainly adds interest to the tree. Unfortunately, I cut off the identification in the original photo so that's no help either. I will try to find out the history and get back to you on this. My friend Jeff certainly will know the owner and the history.  For now it will be fun to speculate.

There are many things to talk about in this tree, but first let's take up the graft/tanuki issue. If you look at the very top of the deadwood, you will see the live ribbon wrap around this section. The turn of the live ribbon appears to follow the grain of the deadwood, just as a tanuki graft should. Making a tanuki by carving a channel that does not follow the grain is a dead giveaway, and should never be done in my opinion. But now look at the deadwood jin just above this ribbon. It appears to wrap around a section of straight grained wood. Now junipers sometimes do this; a section will weaken and a lower branch will actually creep upwards and over the wood of the weaker section underneath. This often happens as a twist around  and over the underlying wood. When the weaker section finally dies it makes a platform for the overlying ribbon which thickens and becomes prominent as seen here. It helps to think about 'water lines' when contemplating this.

The base of the trunk also has this single ribbon of live wood visible, but here it does appear to follow the grain of the underlying shari. The roots of the live ribbon are hidden behind the shari, so no clues there. If this is a tanuki, it is by far the best I have ever seen.

As to the foliage, it appears to be 'Shimpaku', but that is very difficult to tell from the photo, and I just don't remember if it is or not. It is possible that it is not a tanuki, but rather a grafted tree where only the branches are 'Shimpaku', having been grafted onto the live ribbon of California juniper. Again, the speculation is fun and instructive. What leads me to believe that at least the branches are 'Shimpaku' are their size and shape. When making a graft of this sort, one is working with an ancient trunk and the jins will be thick and old. However, the live branches, having been grafted, will be long and thin as seen here. This is because, it would take ten to twenty years to develop branches of similar caliper and character as the jins. And even then, it would difficult to perform since the techniques of keeping the deadwood alive and intact may not be conducive to the fast growth needed for branch thickening. In my experience, and having seen hundreds of trees worked on by Kathy Shaner (more below), most grafted trees and recently collected trees will have the branches wired early into final shape with thickening occurring later.

Kathy Shaner most likely has had a hand in the development of this tree (I will try to acertain that for sure too), since she is our club sensei and has a major role in the development of REBS show trees. Indeed, the level of quality of the trees has skyrocketed since she took over. The club runs continuous workshops in which member trees are worked on year round to prepare them for the show. As a result, many of the best trees at the show have Kathy's signature characteristics. One of these is how she treats branches. Although she certainly isn't the only artist to do this, her wiring of young thin branches is instantly recognizable, at least to me. Another one of her signature techniques is keep the foliage quite austere avoiding solid pad formation. Again, this is a technique now practiced by several of the current leading artist (see REBS 2007 Show blog for details).

I view the new austere pruning technique, and the move from defined pads as one of the great movements in classical Japanese bonsai styling (although it is not limited to just this style but applies also to the Modern or Impressionistic styles as well as the Naturalistic style). This has moved us from the tight layered and rigidly defined pads of the pine tree form (school of green donuts) to a much more natural and expansive look in which the possibilities are endless. Kathy excels in this as does Jim Gremel and Boon.

However, I find the wiring of young non tapered branches, as evidenced in this tree, to be disturbing. It certainly 'works' in the sense that it puts the foliage in exactly the right places. Indeed, achieving this is a snap working with such young material (assuming you know where the right place is!). On big old junipers like this, it doesn't bother me as much as on species like collected redwoods, Sequoia sempervirens.  Redwood lack the fineness of foliage that can soften the appearance of the 'wiggles' created by the wiring in this manner. It is difficult to impossible to put the kind of turns in the bends of the wood with wire that you can do with clip and trim. Furthermore, clip and trim gives you a bit of taper addition with each cut. Wiring these young branches is taperless and the curves are softer and more rounded. To me this looks contrived. But it does give you a finished tree years, if not decades sooner that you could get with clip and trim. So, while I can appreciate the overall image of these wonderful trees, such as above, I have to partly suspend my disbelief when it comes to how we get there.