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:
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.