Another Itoigawa

Brian Van Fleet · May 11, 2019

Adair M said:
Brian, I love your tree. I saw it at the Nationals a couple years ago. So, I’m familiar with the styling, and spoke with Bjorn about it.

But, today’s image, while much softer than when it had been recently styled, seems a bit unbalanced. Maybe it’s the “camera effect” and it doesn’t do this in person, but it seems to me to be “off balance”.

At the Nationals, you and Bjorn had worked on getting the pads horizontal. Today, they’ve relaxed. I like the softness. But, for some reason, it appears to be falling to the left. I drew a line under the lower pads (with my finger on my iPhone, so it’s crude) but that diagonal, with the bottom of the left lower pads dropping left, and the bottom of the right lower pads rising, well, it just seems like the tree is in the process of falling to the left! Especially since the visual weight of the foliage is on the left.

I think if you were to make minor adjustments to both those pads to bring them both more horizontal, balance would be restored.

I would love to come see the show, but Young Chou will be at Atlanta Bonsai Society, and I need help with accent plants, too!

Good luck at the show!

View attachment 241932

Thanks, but it looks exactly how I intended it, so it won’t require any adjusting.

Adair M · May 11, 2019

Brian Van Fleet said:
Thanks, but it looks exactly how I intended it, so it won’t require any adjusting.

Ok, cool!

Brian Van Fleet · Sep 2, 2020

With no shows and life being busy, I’ve kind of let trees grow this year. This one got bushy during the summer:

In August I pruned it back to open it up. I also noticed the trunk was getting smooth on the left side. it is old Shari, but always had some texture. Looking at the photo, I noticed how the lime sulfur is ground off on that left side. We have lots of red wasps in our yard that must have been working on the tree. It’s oddly smooth now.

Fresh cesh coat of lime sulfur, and a few weeks later. Not show-ready, but still looking pretty ok.