Alpineart's Blog

This is 1 of 4 Elms i have trimmed and re-carved after slip potting them a month or so ago .They have undergone a change from the basic carving i do initially so as to get the best from the trunk at the time . The carving was done with the aid of 4″/100mm angle grinder fitted with a tungsten tipped blade and and finished off with a dremel type mini die grinder  This is still the interim stage of the carving and will undergo another finer detail at a later stage  I will defoliate both trees 1 & 2 to begin the ramification process .I have finally identified these as Elmus Glabra “Lutecens” or Golden Wych Elm . Now not all of these are actually the Golden colour as the damaged done by the Bobcat excavator when they were ripped out of the ground has damaged the graft so 50 % are actually the green form which is the root stock used for all the grafts .I have a good supply of these in both Green and Golden forms and a couple of which are bi- colour . .

Cheers Alpineart

This is one of the few i have worked on over the past week. They were basically shaped in the trunk by winding them around a bamboo stake 2 years ago , then allowed the grow on for that season and the stake removed . This sets the movement into the trunk without damaging the bark as in most cases with wire as they can thicken very quickly being a younger tree .Still basically at the pot plant stage i trimmed off the access foliage/branches  in order to open up the tree and expose the trunk line . From there i removed the needles to assist in the wiring process .With all the unwanted needles out of the way i tip pruned the branches and begin to wire them into position . Because the trunk was pre shaped there is no need to re-wire the trunk . The new apex requires wiring and shaping . This plant is about 5 years old and has been a pot plant from day one . No root work has taken place , so come Winter it will be worked and re-potted into a bonsai pot .This will no doubt slow down the growth to a more compact shoot  and needle length , This plant has been trimmed only from a basic trunk to a shaped trainer , no wire will be placed onto this specimen . I will allow it to run free for another season to thicken up the trunk and branches .Both these plants are typical of nursery stock without the trunk movement allowing a low cost entry level into a quality trainer with a little bit of training and styling .They are basic trainers and one must start somewhere . I intend to do a few experiments with this plant , straightening the trunk into a formal upright  for one  and possibly slashing to trunk to see if the results turn out to be that of an aged Cedar . Can’t hurt but try these things , i don’t plan to kill it just pre age the trunk itself .  . With all these tasks done its onto the next 2 Cedar’s .

Cheers Alpineart

This is one of numerous Cedars that will go from pot plant trainers  to pre styled bonsai trainers trainers over the coming weeks .These were a free gift from a friend who actually received them free from another  friend .What goes around comes around .I actually gave some of them away to my friends , with the six i kept i managed to train them basically into different styles . This is an untrained specimen that was forgotten , i  basically slip potted all these cedars yesterday in anticipation of the work to be done over the coming days .It will be designed on the Cerdus Lebiani natural shape which i find the two species very close in features the Cedrus Deodara having the longer needle and a slightly more weeping habit  .I removed 3 of the unwanted lower bar branches then wired all of them with black electrical cable  into an upright position to represent the new multi   trunks . With the trunks set into there respective positions i then trimmed of the unwanted  foliage and removed all the needles above and below the new shoots which will now become the new branches . I then secured the trunk to the pot to ensure the re-potted tree didn’t become loose during its transition With the trimming complete the new branches were then wired in white electrical cable , this helps define the trunks and foliage when it comes to the final shaping . The apexes were too thin so fine cooper wire has been used to create the new apexes . With the tree finally wired off and shaped it will go back onto the grow bench under a watchful eye . Using coated wire does alleviated most of the bark damage on most tree’s , cedars damage very easy and the wire mark enhance over the years never to be completely concealed .Another project completed .

Cheers Alpineart