grouper52
Masterpiece
Well, finally my computer was returned to me, "repaired" I suppose, but missing lots of key software and such, and I spent about a week getting it back - only doing so after taking names as a preliminary to filing a police report, and then the last 2 1/2 days getting it semi-functional with almost constant communication via chat and phone with apple support geeks. The story is too traumatic to retell in detail, but the soothing balm in all this is that I can process and post photos of all the new trees I've been working on since I last was able to do so. And ... I'll start off with this one!
It's called a Taiwan or Taiwanese something-or-other, and at first I felt a bit silly to have forgotten, or never really gotten the name, even though I have another of this sort I got earlier as well and will post later. But I have a number of trees now where I don't really know their names, and I find I don't really care at all. The tree speaks for itself. We'll call it "Ed" from Taiwan, if that's a better way to proceed ...
Anyway, I found it in the rain one day six weeks ago, jammed in amongst a hundred lesser but more obviously appealing trees in the large, overgrown stall of one of the dozen residents of the "Bonsai Society" commune of artists/collectors/hucksters/odd-balls living together with their fighting cocks, cats and dogs and kids (human and goat) in a loosely knit community of stranglings near the Diliman campus of the University of the Philippines in Metro Manila. The owner of the stall/lot where this tree was sitting is a friendly, smiling little man somewhere in the second half of his life. He seemed pleased that I saw past the apparently poor condition this tree seemed to present, and chose it over several hundred more compellingly standard "bonsai" that had more foliage and less black-mildew-covered deadwood. I/we had no room for it in the car that day, but I paid him the equivalent of about $150 in pesos (!) and said I'd be back for it some other time. When my Mac crashed, and the only Mac-sanctioned repair shop was in Manila, I used that trip to pick it up in a monsoon-like tropical storm.
But enough travelogue and back-story. Got it home, and got to work on the initial phases of cleaning, wire brushing/etc and first-coat lime sulphuring the extensive deadwood, after taking off several branches which were too-long neglected to keep and which mostly distracted from the central image anyway. It sat low in the pot, held in with lots of the rope you'll see on it now in lesser quantity, which had been left on so long as to mar the beautiful bark, so I repotted into much better pumice soil - setting it much higher so the long low jin didn't touch the pot or the soil, and securing it with a much lighter touch with the rope an a wee bit of wire. The tree had come with the usual heavy, copious, ponderously and viciously over-applied wrapped wire, which fortunately had not yet been left on for years so as to kill or disfigure unnaturally and unattractively the unfortunate bark and branches it tortured, and put on instead a few simple and harmless guy wires, while starting the Lignan-style "clip-and-grow" styling to improve the natural look of the cascade over time.
Refining, in a natural way, the cascade branching and foliage, while preserving the already damaged and vulnerable deadwood, which is certainly the true focal point of this tree - these are the long-term tasks ahead for this Taiwanese beauty - one of the finest trees I've ever had under my tutelage. Stands about 2 1/2 feet tall.
Enjoy!
It's called a Taiwan or Taiwanese something-or-other, and at first I felt a bit silly to have forgotten, or never really gotten the name, even though I have another of this sort I got earlier as well and will post later. But I have a number of trees now where I don't really know their names, and I find I don't really care at all. The tree speaks for itself. We'll call it "Ed" from Taiwan, if that's a better way to proceed ...
Anyway, I found it in the rain one day six weeks ago, jammed in amongst a hundred lesser but more obviously appealing trees in the large, overgrown stall of one of the dozen residents of the "Bonsai Society" commune of artists/collectors/hucksters/odd-balls living together with their fighting cocks, cats and dogs and kids (human and goat) in a loosely knit community of stranglings near the Diliman campus of the University of the Philippines in Metro Manila. The owner of the stall/lot where this tree was sitting is a friendly, smiling little man somewhere in the second half of his life. He seemed pleased that I saw past the apparently poor condition this tree seemed to present, and chose it over several hundred more compellingly standard "bonsai" that had more foliage and less black-mildew-covered deadwood. I/we had no room for it in the car that day, but I paid him the equivalent of about $150 in pesos (!) and said I'd be back for it some other time. When my Mac crashed, and the only Mac-sanctioned repair shop was in Manila, I used that trip to pick it up in a monsoon-like tropical storm.
But enough travelogue and back-story. Got it home, and got to work on the initial phases of cleaning, wire brushing/etc and first-coat lime sulphuring the extensive deadwood, after taking off several branches which were too-long neglected to keep and which mostly distracted from the central image anyway. It sat low in the pot, held in with lots of the rope you'll see on it now in lesser quantity, which had been left on so long as to mar the beautiful bark, so I repotted into much better pumice soil - setting it much higher so the long low jin didn't touch the pot or the soil, and securing it with a much lighter touch with the rope an a wee bit of wire. The tree had come with the usual heavy, copious, ponderously and viciously over-applied wrapped wire, which fortunately had not yet been left on for years so as to kill or disfigure unnaturally and unattractively the unfortunate bark and branches it tortured, and put on instead a few simple and harmless guy wires, while starting the Lignan-style "clip-and-grow" styling to improve the natural look of the cascade over time.
Refining, in a natural way, the cascade branching and foliage, while preserving the already damaged and vulnerable deadwood, which is certainly the true focal point of this tree - these are the long-term tasks ahead for this Taiwanese beauty - one of the finest trees I've ever had under my tutelage. Stands about 2 1/2 feet tall.
Enjoy!
