A place to share photo's and discuss your small bonsai or photo's from the shows and other club members trees you appreciate. Share your projects too! Trees don't have to be show ready to offer great discussion and inspiration.
To get us started here are a couple of my photo's from last years show and a small Engelmann spruce that I styled this winter.
Les Siroky's display with evening back-lighting through the shoji screen:
Display by the Colorado Bonsai Project crew:
Engelmann spruce collected by Steve Varland on a trip we took together a few years a go:
Here's another photo of the shohin engelmann spruce, and a couple of old images from before I designed it:
Here's a little sumac I started a few years a go as a root cutting. I just put it into a smaller pot this spring. Time to see if those huge compound leaves will reduce! Even if they don't reduce the fall colors are stunning. :)
Thanks for starting this conversation Dan. One interesting idea before I show and tell my most recent project.
I displayed a tree in the CO Bonsai Project display this year and it was really fun! I got to collaborate with about 4 other artists on a single display. One afternoon while we were working on bonsai, we all talked about how we each had perhaps one or two nice shohin-sized trees, but not enough to fill and entire rack (Les Siroky is the only one I know that has that many show-ready shohin). The idea for the CO Bonsai Project was born. We all evaluated our shohin trees, talked about combinations of display and accent planting. One of the artists created the distinctive
mountain stand. It was a lot of fun!
So if you only have a few shohin trees, ask around to see if others are willing to create a joint display! You won't be disappointed.
Here is my most recent shohin work: I bought this little juniper from long-time RMBS member Charlie Sisk, who had kept the tree for a number of years and it was in bad need of repotting. Charlie says the tree was from legendary mountain man and native tree collector Jerry Morris who had kept it for a number of years. Charlie is not certain of the species, but probably a Colorado native (any ideas?). My best guess is that tree has been a bonsai since the early 2000s. Charlie basically threw it in as a bonus when I purchased a larger San Jose juniper from him.
Here is the tree when I brought it home last summer, following a light haircut.
I like the tree but the pot was not right. Also there is a great curve which was hidden in the current style. Overall the apex of the tree was leaning away and the foliage had become too symmetric for my unrefined taste. Given that the tree had badly lost percolation and needed to be repotted I decided I might as well restyle it as well to emphasize the more attractive features.
Here is the shohin juniper after the restyle about a month ago. Very little root pruning needed to accommodate the new planting angle. Out of an abundance of caution, this tree has been protected from freezing for the rest of the spring.
This tree will be allowed to grow freely for the rest of the year. I foliar feed my junipers with 1/2 strength miracle-grow in a spray bottle (the blue granules that you can mix right into a hose-tip applicator). After hardening off of the growth in the summer I will probably clip back some of the strongest areas of growth to keep the energy balanced.
How often do you foliar feed?
Nicely done Andy!
How is Jerry doing? I wonder if he would remember the type of juniper it is from a photo, or in person after this virus takes a break.
Matt, it really depends on how much I'm home. I try to hit my junipers, firs and spruces and sometimes pines once a day. Many people are convinced this is just voodoo. Jerry Morris and one one my mentors Patrik Decicco were big on foliar feeding in the context of newly collected materials. My observations are that junipers definitely respond well and put on growth, spruces usually respond some and seem to grow more, pines and firs don't seem to do much. I also don't foliar feed deciduous or flowering stuff, it just junks up the leaves. I also spray anything that seems stressed or recently collected or repotted.
I still fertilize throughout the year with organic pellets per the usual schedule. I use Dr. Earth 5-5-5, cheap and easy to find.
Some folks swear by folilar feeds. Other say maybe it helps to moisten the foliage and some of the dilute fertilizer falls down into the pot. All I know is it gives me something to do with the trees daily to have a look at them and check on things. Plenty of RMBS folks grow way better bonsai than me and don't bother with it.
Here's another small bonsai in the making. This is a Rocky Mountain Bristlecone pine (pinus aristata) collected by Todd Schlafer. I designed this one last September and hope to get it into a shohin sized pot this spring. If the roots don't cooperate I may have to get creative... (There have been some amazing artistic pottings/compositions by leading artists around the world lately!)
This tree is technically too tall for the "shohin" category as I understand it, but I've also heard, from people who know a lot more than I do, that slender trunk (or literati) style trees sometimes fit the category anyway if the pot and everything else comply.
After:
Before:
I have a few ideas to keep an eye out for this spring: Rocky Mountain Maple, Aspen, Kinnikinnick, and I know there are plenty of other species, I just need to find the right trees.
Do you know of anyone in the club with native deciduous shohin?
Next up: This is the first shohin sized tree I collected and really started working with. To date it is my only shohin Limber pine (pinus flexilis).
This tree is always the first of my pines to wake up in spring (likely because of it's proximity to a warm sunny window in my cold frame/garage) and often pushes a second set of needles in mid summer. It's like the new buds get so full of energy from waking up early that they can't help but burst open with a few needles. It's not generally more than a few needles in that second growth, but I find it very interesting. -- I asked Ryan Neil about this and he said that he has observed the same in some white pines in Japan.
Dan: I'm afraid Jerry is suffering from pretty advanced dementia, and rarely remembers anything but his close friends and family. He recently needed a brain surgery to remove what sounds like a benign tumor, and has recovered but that didn't help his memory much. As far as I know, he has transitioned all of his containerized trees to Todd. He remains in his usual wonderful spirits.
Love that bristle cone. A lot of character in a little package. RMBS members seems to have some native shohin conifer material, but I've never seen a shohin sized deciduous tree (yet). They may exist, but rare is my guess.
That little limber is one of my favorite trees of yours. It also allows me a glimpse into your kitchen and coffee making apparatus on occasion which is also fun.
That little spruce that Steve styled with Bjorn last year is killer too.
Stay safe, do bonsai
Love this shohin Dan
Thanks Andy,
I'm sorry to hear about Jerry. I heard some from Todd earlier this year but hadn't gotten any updates in several months. It's good to hear that his spirits are still up though. He's an incredible inspiration to so many, myself included even though I never knew him as well as I wish I had.
Maybe I'll have to start a coffee/bonsai related post!
Steve actually just potted that little spruce recently! I haven't taken any photo's of it since so I'll try to get them soon and post here. Here's a shot of the tree from last fall for starters. It's one of my favorites too.. 😉
Shohin Engelmann Spruce
A smallish New Mexico privet. Nursery stock. Repotted last year to remove a large encircling root. Looks like it survived.
Nice little privet David! I've seen these in nurseries and have been super tempted but never pulled the trigger. I need to give them a shot.
These trees are looking amazing! Andy, what a massive change without (hopefully) a massive effort. Really nice work all around
They are fun to work with. In my experience pretty resilient. I did kill one of the three I bought in 2010. Nice small leaves. Not very fast growing in pots. I don't know about in the ground.
Happy Easter everyone! I hope you're all safe and sound. We're missing so much family today but it's definitely worth everyone's safety, and the slow down is not all bad as Easter is generally a big event to put on for my family and church every year.
Here's my oldest with one of his little trees last fall. Virginia Creeper
Here's another one. Steve stumbled on one small boulder with three shohin sized trees on it a few years back (One sub-alpine fir and two engelmann spruce). He collected the two spruce and I dug this fir.
Shohin sub-alpine fir / Abies Lasiocarpa
Lonicera japonica 'Purpurea' Bonsai
Gray Oaks – Quercus Grisea Bonsai just starting to bud out. Colorado native.
That's a shohin oak? It looks huge!
Yes it is a Shohin oak, 7" tall x 8" wide. It has budded out now and the ramification is going to quadruple as there are new branches forming everywhere on it. It even has a couple of oak flowers on it.
Cool Oak
No I did not collect it, it came from Cho's Bonsai. At one time they were on your website. http://www.chobonsaiyamadori.com/yamadori/deciduous
Great tree Mike, let us know if you plan to reduce the leaf size! I always find that challenging with deciduous shohin sized trees...
Actually the leaves are really small/tiny for an oak. There are new leaves sprouting all over the tree, hopefully they will remain small/tiny. My other gray oaks have leaves around 4 times larger then this little guy.