Rudd’s Pseudo-Apprenticeship at Bonsai Jidai

[Ruddigger]

It belongs to Sensei Nguy.

I want to go back and finish up the refinement on it now. It probably only needs like 10 more minutes of work. I shouldnt have let the heat get to me.

 

[Ruddigger]

Here’s another one from Page 1. This was the first California I worked at Bonsai Jidai.

It started off like this:


And ended up like this:


At the time I was asked to wire and arrange the branches, even all the crotch growth. This time around I was allowed more freedom.

Here is the tree after 2 years of unchecked growth and some recent heat damage:


Angle change:


Started wiring, @ZombieNick for scale:


Finished wiring, but needs some adjustment. Especially on the apex:


And after adjustment and removal of several more branches:


Quite a change from 2 years ago.

 

[Scriv]

Damn dude... absolute

 

[Ruddigger]

Damn dude... absolute

Thanks brother. Are you going to PBE?

 

[Scriv]

Thanks brother. Are you going to PBE?

I am. Did your CJ ending up making the exhibition?

 

[Ruddigger]

Nope. It made it on the alternate list, but guess it wasnt needed.

 

[Scriv]

Nope. It made it on the alternate list, but guess it wasnt needed.

Bastards. I’m sure there are politics involved in choosing who is or isn’t selected.

 

[Ruddigger]

Bastards. I’m sure there are politics involved in choosing who is or isn’t selected.

Lol, it’s fine. But the California Juniper that IS in the show better be good.

 

[Ruddigger]

Weather is cooling down, time to start repotting Junipers.

First one is this super funky California. It was a Harry Hirao tree that Sensei David purchased last year from someone in the Bay area. We turned it on its side and planted it in a square pot on the diagonal to accentuate its odd nature.


Then some more standard stuff. Downsized the pots on these considerably.


This one just needed a new angle. Every year we repot this one and change the angle, and every year he’s not happy with it and we do it again.


And here’s a personal tree that I repotted at home.

 

[DonielDoom]

Some seriously inspiring stuff here. Thanks for sharing. The effort and hard work shows!

 

[Ruddigger]

Been a minute. Haven’t done much worth showing, just some massive repots and traveling doing demos and workshops with Sensei Nguy.

There’s an event at the garden next weekend, so I spent the day cleaning up trees to make them presentable. Got through 3 trees, but I only got a picture of this one. The “before” shot is actually halfway through the work, but I wanted to cut off the whole left side of the tree, which reminded me to take a picture.

 

[pandacular]

Suuuuuch a nice cut, wow. Cali junipers seem like a dream to make nice deadwood on.

Was the tree fully detail wired or just as needed?

 

[Ruddigger]

Suuuuuch a nice cut, wow. Cali junipers seem like a dream to make nice deadwood on.

Was the tree fully detail wired or just as needed?

It’s fully wired

 

[Ruddigger]

Quick clean up the Ben Oki tree.

 

[Ruddigger]

Better shot of the Ben Oki tree.


Here’s a pomegranate that has been nothing but a bush of suckers for at least the last 3 years. I cleaned it all up, basically have to start the thing over again because it was neglected for so long. Paging @chantat



This is a kind of a triple trunk bunjin jbp. I removed a lot of branching from the low trunk.