Alpineart's Blog

This was a stock tree purchased from a market and placed into a purpose dug hole in the garden , I had plans to use this for a bonsai but it was pencil thin and about 500mm so ground grow was the alternative . It spent 3 years in the ground from memory at left to its own device . I trimmed it back from 1.5m to 1.3m while still in the ground and reduced the branches back somewhat . I decided to remove it and slip pot it from ground into a pot , this was easily achieved because of the purpose dug hole , in which the roots didn’t breach  . With the tree potted it sat for a couple of months and with new growth appearing i decided to give it its initial style . I gave it a trim of the lower branches back to long stubs again for future use as jin’s I have used slings and wires to create the bends/ movement in the trunk and wired the top 200mm with heavy wire . The branches were then wired ready for there positioning . I decided on the front and using blocks and tiles to stabilize the pot at the correct angle before setting about positioning the branches to suit the final design . With the branches set its off  to the benches to grow on an this angle .I will locate another suitable pot then slip it into its new home permanently . Another small trim of the untidy foliage and  the finished trainer is 1100mm high with a 50mm base .This will take at least 5 years to develop into a nice large  Bonsai .

Cheers Alpineart

This is a Callitris Enlicheri -Black Cypress Pine also known as the Australian Pine . I collected quite a few of these however most were neglected during a recovery from an accident and sadly were lost . This specimen was of very poor quality however with a little bit of imagination and manipulation they have both turned out to be nice pre bonsai trainers . I bare rooted tree 1 as it was still in the collected soil and being solid as a rock had to be removed . It also had a dead center up the length of the tree from which the Wallabies has removed the bark many years earlier . This was thinned out to allow me to bend and manipulate the trunk without the possibility of snapping it in half . This will be a natural featured shari with a little human intervention .Every faults a feature in bonsai , many wouldn’t agree with that statement , but each to his own on this matter . Mother Nature doesn’t create faultless works of art only humans create such works or attempt too and most don’t look natural as seen in the wild . The second tree had a little less foliage going for it due to major die back lower down the trunk . I simply removed the dead branches back to long stubs for future jin’s . For the purpose of bending this trunk i have placed shade cloth slings and hook and hold wires to aid in bending the thick trunk these can be wound down or bigger blocks can be used to increase the bends . With the movement set i wired the branches in readiness for the initial style . A trim of the foliage and shaping of the branches the new trainer is ready for the re-pot into a carved pot that was purchase with a Norway Spruce growing in it . Rather than smash the pot i simple cut it off at around 45 degree and salvaged the bottom section . It came in handy to hold this tree and allow it to grow on into the next phase of recovery . however i was inspired by a collection of Big Bonsai recently seen so i have designed these next few tree’s along these lines . The will be free form slanting styles and while some may frown upon this style for this particular pine ,i think it works well  , again each to his own . .

This was removed from the garden after 6 months of trimming and pinching the new growth , the wire netting fence served its purpose by keeping the kangaroo’s away while developing the new branches and shootsI did manage to loose a few new shoots during the brief wiring  as they dislodge very easy . It took all of 10 minutes to remove ,  it was one of my first Bonsai trainers that i didn’t bother with .The root pruning and removal of the tap root made for the ease of removal as the root ball was a mere 150mm- 200mm thick . I removed the clay from around the roots , then trimmed the root ball, then hose all the soil off to expose the roots in order to place then in the desired position and to trim the larger stay roots back to fit into the pot   and potted it into this large bonsai dish to help with root run and to save on a re-pot next season . The plan is to slip it into a 500mm x 400mm deep bonsai pot , this dish is 750mm x 450mm x 90mm and as heavy as a horse making for a two man tree. Ready to be wired and then a close eye will be kept on this particular trainer over the coming years so i doesn’t get out of control and leggy in the branches . Constant tip pruning will take place or a basic pinch and grow method employed . The base at ground level is 180mm x200mm and its current height is 650mm , making for a very nice Sumo Lilly Pilly . Cheers Alpineart