Alpineart's Blog

This is a collected trunk which was split down to make 2 usable trunks rather than waste the material .I have considered inarch grafting for quite some time . Due to a topic at a club meeting the opportunity to see first hand the results of grafting Shimpaku juniper to Needle juniper . Having an impressive trunk to use was the motivation to go ahead and graft the new foliage . After purchasing some quality Shimpaku  stock i re-potted them in bigger pots to allow root run then they are ready for the project . I have set many inarch grafts on Japanese Black Pines so this would be a walk in the park . I have used some pine timber as supports for the pots to sit on and wired them to the stubs .The pots are the sat on the supports and wired to prevent any chance of being knocked off , i can’t afford to allow the grafted stock to be dislodged over the next 12 months while the inarch grafts fuse to the new host . With the pots secure i set about locating the new branches on the host plant , then with the grafts positioned i then begin to slice the bark down to the cambium on both the Sabina and Shimpaku. I need to make sure the cambium layers line up for a good graft to take . The Graft is embedded into the host plants groove then grafting tape is applied around the area to be fused . This took 2 pair of hand to locate and secure the grafts in the ideal position to ensure a good graft . I continued on setting 6 grafts around the host trunk more so on the upper reaches to allow for carving of the lower stubs . This will now be allowed to grow freely for another 12 months then if the grafts have fused they will be severed and the work begins on styling and shaping the new foliage . This project will take a couple of years to become a Shimpaku Trainer so for now its onto the benches and into the next task at hand .

Cheers Alpineart

This is one of the Juniper Sabina -Savin Juniper collected recently along with many others . This was long and leggy with too much material and a lot of waste . I have decided that this along with another one has more than  1 trunk worthy of using . I used a sabre saw to split the trunks down to a more usable plant . They still have impressive trunks with plenty of character however i will most likely inarch graft Shimpaku Juniper onto the smaller of the two or graft more Savin juniper back onto the lower trunk . It will make for a very impressive Shimpaku with attitude and plenty of carving to be had on this 150mm base. The remaining larger trunk has various options from informal upright to semi cascade , there is even the possibility of a huge raft style in there if i was inclined to layer another section off . I’m looking forward to the next couple of years designing and styling these big buggers into something quite unique . Now 8 big trunks become 9 and no doubt i could split a couple more to increase my future stock .

Cheers Alpineart

This was another  purchase from Ebay recently .I find a lot of good material that people don’t want and its usually at a very cheap price . Most consider this as a poor quality pot plant , which it probably is however as far as Bonsai goes it good and can certainly be improved .This was simply slip potted from the large plastic container to a large bonsai training pot .The roots close to the trunk were very healthy however lower down in the soil they where extremely wet and rot had began to take it toll . The majority of the roots that were good were around 1.5 long . I simply teased them out and  cut them back by about 60 %  then slipped it into the pot . This will in time make a very nice semi cascade . I will allow this to settle back then trim and wire it for shaping . It has a slight reverse taper at the graft union and a couple of area’s that will nee some work where the tag ties that were left on the trunk have created some swelling I’m in no hurry to shape this as i need to pot up more big junipers , so its under cover and onto the next challenge .

Cheers Alpineart.