I have not written much but that doesn’t mean it has been a quiet time. Along the way there have been many trees re-potted and styled. I have to document some of that journey for the site soon.

This week I am on a very specific journey. I am preparing for a demonstration for SBBK in San Mateo, CA. They requested someone demonstrate the creation of the the Phoenix graft or Tanuki. This is not a demo we see much here. I completed all the researching on past and present philosophy of its creation and whether your are of the school that they are not true bonsai or not some can be created very  convincingly.  I wrote on article on the philosophy in the most recent release of GSBF Golden Statements, Nebari Net, that takes on the controversy.

Marking a clear path to follow for the carving tools. This image shows the termination at the top of the wood.

Marking the entry point of the tree a the base of the wood. This area must be channeled wider to accommodate the trunk of the whip that will be used.

Marking the movement mid-way in on the wood. Here the tree will disappear behind the wood only to reemerge at the top most portion.

Carving begins with a deep channel that the tree will sit inside of; make sure the channel is deep and smooth.

Deadwood is staged in the pot after channel is cut. This deadwood will be placed on a small piece of wood nailed to the bottom to keep it flat to the pot bottom. The bottom structure will then be tied down inside the pot.

I have enjoyed working and styling many of these phoenix graft trees over the years. Some of the most convincing trees start with a trunk with great twisting movement, such as a California Juniper stump, and is designed where you can see the live material originating in the front of the tree. It can then disappear and reappear along the movement of the the tree. Finding the wood is the first effort. Mapping out the path with a sharpie following a natural waterline of the material is second. Using good tools to create a big enough channel for the living material to sit inside of it is most important. A shallow channel or too narrow and the living material will not be as integrated into the deadwood and look nailed-on.

Update: 8/21/2016 –

Today was time to use PC Petrifier to harden the deadwood that is wanted in the final design and at the base. Today We will drill wood blocks to the base for the deadwood so that it will stand higher in the pot. Those blocks will be tied into the pot with copper wire just before the tree is run in the channel. Blocks are drilled into the bottom of the deadwood to complete the standing trunk at the height desired for the design.

Tanuki material is a blue shimpaku whip. This is a view of the completed staging for the demo.

Deadwood is screwed into the block to keep it in place. I am using two wood blocked screwed together to provide the correct height of the piece. The screw heads will be used to help anchor the block to the pot.

Close up of the wood blocks and their placement in the pot. I will use copper wire from under the pot to secure the blocks.

The stump has been treated with PC Petrifier to preserve the deadwood in the final design.

Tools of the trade are often a Dremel. In this case the job is made much more easy by using the high powered Dewalt grinder with various sized grinder bit. My thanks to David M for letting me use his tools. I would have take hours to do the same job with the standard dremel tool set.

Today I needed to be a re-potting crazy man and managed to get all of this year’s re-potting done minus one tree!  I had not re-potted some of the olives for over 5 years as I was more concerned with creating good roots and styling foliage. This could not last another year. With the great temperatures all the olives have been pushing aggressive new growth. Along with the olives I had trees in grow pots or containers that need to move to office bonsai pots, tropical trees that needed refinement before I could to my special exhibit at our club show in May, and some overdue trees. I worked on 2 Schefflera that is coming along nicely, a western fig that received its (every 4 years) hair cut, a dwarf bottle brush that finally need to go into a bonsai grow pot.

Western Fig before trimming.

Bottlebrush after re-potting in bonsai grow pot.

Western Fig after branch reduction.

Bottlebrush staging for tie-down. Chopsticks used to protect roots.

Bottlebrush from nursery. It has been growing a few years to develop branches.

Schefflera branch work. Foliage reduction had gone well.

Another little Schefflera cut back in demonstration last fall is developing nicely.

I then began my work on the olives. Some of the olives required considerable root work. They had developed excellent root and now needed to be lowered down into new pots. Sometimes larger hard wood areas had to be removed and chiseled away. I staged each tree with several new pots to find the ones that will work the best.

Olive clump in new pot. The pot is a Jim Barret award port from GSBF and shows off this tree nicely.

Olive after re-potting. It remained in its original pot. Now it will need to grow and recover some nice foliage.

Staging clump with its new pot.

Olive clump during re-potting.

Olive clump used to be 6 feet tall!. It has reduced this this and is now in a new pot. Time to develop a new canopy.

Staging olive clump in new pot.

Olive clump in original pot. It had been in this pot for 5 years and needed a change.

Olive clump root mass was healthy and tight.

Olive clump after root pruning.

The tall clump required considerable hardwood removal to seat in the pot at the correct height.

Small olive clump after re-potting and branch reduction.

Staging small olive clump with new pot.

Little olive clump had developed great roots over the years.

The little olive clump also required considerable hardwood removal to seat in the pot.

Today I set out to repot a few trees. This year our seasons are advancing very quickly and trees are putting on a great amount of new growth. It has been above 50 degrees at night on my terrace and tropical trees are continuously moving with new buds so I have begun working on Silverberry, creeping figs, boxwood trees and many more standard trees such as junipers. Some trees are moving to new pots because the have been developing much better and can be enjoyed in smaller ornate pots.  The boxwood had not been re-potted for at least 5 years and had developed a very thick root ball. I removed most of that  root ball so I could place it lower in the pot. The juniper re-potting was to move it up in refinement; it had been raw material 3 years ago and it is now in a pot that it can remain in for many years. The Silverberry had been in a development pot for 5 years as well and now get a new home in a Jim Gremel pot that highlights the strength of the tree. The creeping fig has been thickening up the nebari and trunk in and growing as a slant; however, since it has developed some new lower branches, I thought it time to raise it up and redevelop the tree. Tomorrow, I will start on the olives.

The re-potting madness has set in. I am busy cleaning up trees, re-potting and generally getting rid of winter mosses and weeds. This year we have been blessed by rain in California but as I was re-potting trees I was reminded why we must water our plants anyway. Some of the root mass was too dry. These drier roots got a bath of VF-11 and water while they awaited a new pot. I managed to make it through a number of shimpaku that are still somewhat dormant but beginning to green up. Cleaning and taking wire off trees was a big focus. I was surprised to see that my maples are already starting to leaf!  Way to early for those.  One of my Shimpaku trees was a convention tree for GSBF Modesto and was originally style in a workshop with Jim Gremel. Nice to see it flushing.

In my collection of trees I have tropical and subtropical trees along with the standard California mix. The Peruvian Pepper is one of those special trees. I have been working on a little stump I found at the Sumagawa Nursery near Santa Rosa, CA. It was in a large container in a forsaken section of the the nursery grounds. I live around them and was interested in finding a tree I could attempt to train as a bonsai. Over the years I have found that it develops heavy tubular roots with very will on them. So cutting the roots had to be done carefully as to not lose a section of branches in the canopy.

The pepper is re-potted in the summer like most of the rest of the subtropical species I have. Today, was the day. I am always surprised by the amount of roots it creates. There were lots of fine roots this time so I could cut away some of the larger tubular roots. I cut back the foliage and started the process. The trunk itself is very wide but not very tall and this presents a design challenge. I am working to create branch ramification but that is a very slow process. I am having some success. I have left a longer growing apex branch to attempt a stronger central line for the tree. However in a month or so I will reduce it again and try for some branching. I have had to use a great number of sacrifice branches over the years.

Peruvian Pepper bonsai: After re-potting

Peruvian Pepper bonsai: out of the pot.

Peruvian Pepper bonsai: Soil mix contains the deciduous mix.

Peruvian Pepper bonsai: taken out of the pot and beginning root work.

Peruvian Pepper bonsai: tubular root removed now that find roots are developed

Peruvian Pepper bonsai: Root mass of fine roots finally developing.

Today ends my 2 year journey to test the viability of turface as a substitute for akadama growing medium for sample bonsai in my collection. It has been recommended in club meetings and by cost conscious bonsai artists over the past few years as the price of Japanese Akadama has increased. Over the past year I have lost a small pine completely and weakened some tropical trees and young plants.  Today, however, I took the last tree in the experimental mix to check the results. Over the two year period I had noticed the struggling foliage on the juniper procumbins with concern. I had fertilized and watered like all the rest of the juniper but this one was not growing much at all. The mix was 70% turface, 10% pumice, 10% lava, 10% fur bark.  The fur bark had completely decomposed.  I hydrated my trees as usual before the re-potting process.

I found that the turface held a lot of water and the juniper was not draining well. The turface was breaking down into power holding even more water. What was most disturbing was the lack of root growth. Normally when potting a tree after two years I would be cutting off roots. Not in this case. There was evidence of negative root growth so I did not trim roots at all. The juniper is now re-potted in the standard 70% akadama, with mixture of pumice, lava, kiryu. I am looking forward to better root development and thus a better foliage mass.

So my end results are that turface, holds a lot of water, breaks down to powder quickly and fails to hold nutrients that feed the tree. It can discourage root development and weaken the plant. I have also been doing soil temperature testing an found the turface medium had a slower rate of heat retention from the akadama mixes and dissipated heat much faster. After having several species either fail or weaken I will never recommend turface as an akadama replacement. I have read this from many bonsai purists but wanted to test it for myself. Even though turface is an inexpensive medium alternative, akadama proves it offers much better nutrient holding because of its surface structure and inherent nutritional benefits. I would rather pay the extra for healthy plants.

The root mass show negative root development in turface medium.

Tree has weakened substantially.

The turface material has broken down considerably in 2 years.

The foliage mass of the juniper is suffering.

Bonsai show time is a great experience. It is an opportunity to display the results of all the work you put in on your trees.  We spend countless hours every year perfecting the placement of branches, feeding, protecting, watering and then it is story time. Time to tell a story with a tree of hard times or times of plenty. This year I displayed 4 main trees. Three were my own and one juniper not pictured here was from a client whose trees I regularly care for and redesign. I had four other small shohin trees added to the in progress area to inform the pubic of the kinds of things that can be done with tropical bonsai.  The Diamyo Oak is always a crowd favorite because it is not common to see. This years display featured a full tribute to “Boy’s Day” in Japan because of the timing of the show. It consisted of the tree, scroll about the holiday, a warrior doll and even the mochi wrapped in diamyo oak leaves. Yes, you can eat the leaves off my tree, but please don’t🙂

The Olive saikei is another favorite and it has grown well and evolved this year to a better tree. The boxwood was an in progress display because it was inspired by a demonstration this past year where it was wired and shaped as an oak tree. It is far from that at the moment has changed so much since the last time I showed it that it had return for the education of it.

Just because show this show is over it is  not a time of rest. So many more trees need their turn on development.