pandacular
Masterpiece
This tree was originally collected by Anton Nijhuis on Vancouver Island. It came into my collection this time last year, and I repotted it out of its collection soil last spring.
I had intended to do a top-down half bareroot, but the roots looked so nice that I basically treated it like a repot of an established tree rather than a first repot out of collection. It was planted in a pot that we cut down to about 4.5” tall and then nestled into another pot for stability.
My records show I repotted this on the first weekend of April last year, at my friends garden.
Then, I let it recover all year. It grew very very well, and it tested my patience many times, as I wanted to crack into it! Fortunately, they announced this club workshop, and I didn’t have many good trees that were unstyled, so I set this one aside.
At this workshop, I was lucky enough to be assigned to work with Dave de Groot, a club officer and curator emeritus of the Pacific Bonsai Museum. Dave is a wonderful bonsai artist and an even better man.
In the image below, the branch with the towel was one that Dave suggested I remove. I wasn’t certain, so I left it on—later when finishing the detail wiring, I moved this branch into the back to add more depth, and give it some space to perhaps differentiate itself.
Two trees that I am using as design inspiration due to their similar trunk forms.
Nick Lenz larch at the PBM
Japanese white pine, Kokufu 61, page 48
There seems to be a decent bit of deadwood on this trunk going up the left side, as evidenced by the bark starting to flake ofd heavily. I haven’t cleaned deadwood on a hemlock, but that’s likely the next piece of work to do on this plant. For now, it’s chilling in my greenhouse, awaiting spring.
I had intended to do a top-down half bareroot, but the roots looked so nice that I basically treated it like a repot of an established tree rather than a first repot out of collection. It was planted in a pot that we cut down to about 4.5” tall and then nestled into another pot for stability.
My records show I repotted this on the first weekend of April last year, at my friends garden.
Then, I let it recover all year. It grew very very well, and it tested my patience many times, as I wanted to crack into it! Fortunately, they announced this club workshop, and I didn’t have many good trees that were unstyled, so I set this one aside.
At this workshop, I was lucky enough to be assigned to work with Dave de Groot, a club officer and curator emeritus of the Pacific Bonsai Museum. Dave is a wonderful bonsai artist and an even better man.
In the image below, the branch with the towel was one that Dave suggested I remove. I wasn’t certain, so I left it on—later when finishing the detail wiring, I moved this branch into the back to add more depth, and give it some space to perhaps differentiate itself.
Two trees that I am using as design inspiration due to their similar trunk forms.
Nick Lenz larch at the PBM
Japanese white pine, Kokufu 61, page 48
There seems to be a decent bit of deadwood on this trunk going up the left side, as evidenced by the bark starting to flake ofd heavily. I haven’t cleaned deadwood on a hemlock, but that’s likely the next piece of work to do on this plant. For now, it’s chilling in my greenhouse, awaiting spring.
