Alpineart's Blog

This is what i think is an American water elm .It was collected about 2 years ago from a swamp that had a bulldozer push a fire break through a plantation test plot along with several other area’s .As the blade cut it path through the tree’s these root clumps were shave off the original matted root mass in the swamp . I just happen to locate the track and collect numerous specimens which were brought home and placed into a garden bed .

The first season was extremely hot and most suffered from die back , last year was quite the opposite being very wet . They all  re-sprouted growing to a height of 1-1.5m , this particular clumping tree was 1.2 m and has been entered and used for the  “Ausbonsai Shohin Competition”  for 2011 . I removed it from the garden bed and cleaned of the mud it was collected in

. With a simple selective trim the clump was planted into a bonsai dish 

then a basic wiring job was done and allowed to grow on for a bit over 2 months .I located it after a working bee

here due to a broken leg and major back injury .

With plenty of fresh growth to work with a basic trim was on the cards

,then the main trunks were wired

using coated electrical wire recycled from renovation sites worked on prior to the injuries .With another day passed its onto the fine tuning of the selected foliage and the wiring  off the branches , the last picture is the chosen front

.From there its a simple matter of styling and shaping the whole forest into what i have here

. The finished dimensions are 440mm wide x 250mm deep x 190mm high .This will now be allowed  to grow on before a defoliation of the foliage takes place after the new growth has hardened off  .I hope to manage several defol’s through out the year . Hope you enjoyed this progression .

Cheers Alpineart

This pot plant has been laying around for about 3 years .Knocked of the rack so many times and left on the ground its a wonder its still alive . As you can see , very poor quality  , die back and very ordinary . It did have some nice movement at the base so it will become an informal upright style . With 3 simple cuts the unwanted branches and apex were removed .An overly thick  mid section side branch had more growth so it will be used as a new leader .No time to waste on this , being a trainer . I have wired the trunk and the 2 lower branches with heavy electrical wire  then set about wiring the finer branches and shoots . There is a small amount of reverse taper below the first bend , so it will be “slip potted” by this i mean removing from its pot ,and teasing the roots out , no trimming of the roots takes place , then  potting up gain into a used plastic meat tray which i now use as trainer trays .Cheap , recyclable and easy to store , forgot to mention unbreakable . No doubt in time the will deteriorate until then i will continue to use them over heavy wooden boxes..This little task took around 1 hour to complete , now it would usually take less time alas i’m not phisically fit with another ruptured disc in my lower back and a broken leg due to a motorcycle accident . It has slowed me down but not completely stopped the work that needs to be done .Cheers Alpineart

This was purchased in August 2010 as a pre -bonsai trainer,

trimmed back hard and the unwanted branches removed, several sacrifice branches were purposefully left to pump the trunk and heal the scars from the removed branches  . 

A single inarch grafted branched was positioned into the mid section void and and then the tree was grown on last season . The home made bonsai mix is soft red scoria and aged composted pine bark sieved and washed . It can be reused indefinitely with the addition of more pine bark on periodic re-pots

Due to a couple of accidents being laid up is no reason to sit idle.I decided to removed about 50 % of the needles and un-wanted shoots and rewire the branches into position .

Due to the fact the roots were a little odd the front of the tree was never chosen until today as i didn’t want to remove too much of the original roots and it fitted into the oval pot as was

.All the branches including the sacrifice branches have been wired into position ,just in case i change my mind as to the new front

After careful consideration this will hope fully be the new front , utilising the movement of the trunk to it best .

The roots have not been disturbed , the front  may alter slightly depending on the narebri .Now this will grow on for a couple of seasons with a re-pot and root prune on the cards . All in all i’m happy with the progression .

Cheers and Happy Bonsai .Alpineart