Alberta Spruce Feedback

[Elias]

Hi All,

Here is a photo of an Alberta Spruce, not my favourite species, especially when it comes to wiring. T
his tree was nearly dead when it was given to me, I tried to restore its vigour before I worked on it. The trunk split up into a twin trunk which I did not like and the top of one of the trunks was completely dead, I have trimmed it to induce backbudding which it has...Anyways It still has a long ways to go but I think there is some potential on this one.
Any thought on how I can improve this one....?

Thanks,
Elias

[Asus101]

I can see a few things that I would try doing. One would be not having the second trunk as high as the dead one. I would knock it back a fair way and start forming a crown much much lower. Look at what you could do with say 3 or 4 branches or less...

[Pup]

If you reduce it to the bottom few branches. Shape them in a semi cascade style. Leaving the dead trunk.
You will have a spruce near to one created by Masahiko KImura in 1998. Just a thought Pup

[Asus101]

I think I remember that tree. I was thinking of Walters style of tree's when I posted.

[Elias]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the replies, your sure brought a tear to my eye Masahiko Kimura Walter Pall
Anyways Mr Hahn told me to "Cut and Let it Grow!" he did not like the overall height of the composition either something about the ratios not being right..... oh well back to the drawing board.

Elias

[Marc]

I like the tree though Elias, i rekcon it's good. got very good potential, needs more time is all... I agree with Asus, that dead twin needs reducing by about half to me...

[LLK]

The National Collection has a pair of very beautiful Alberta spruce. When I asked Grant Bowie what kind of work he had done on them, as they looked so good, he replied (as best as I can remember) "Leave them alone, let them grow the way they want and don't try to do all sorts of things with the branching to change the style". Apart from that, the trees get pruned to shape.
Anyway, I hope Grant sees this thread.

Lisa

[Grant Bowie]

Hi everyone,

I obviously need to respond to what Lisa said.

First Picea glauca "Albertiana Conica" is a great bonsai resource and one of my personal favorites. It is very slow growing and slow maturing and there are great aged pieces of nursery stock out there; especially in Melbourne. Almost an instant classic bonsai.

However I have seen a lot of these trees killed over the years by overenthusiastic pruning and unnecessary reduction of "Bar Branching". People buy these trees because they love the full silhouette of the tree and then they proceed to cut the crap out of them, leaving them with little green living material to power the trees to recovery.
Also by leaving so few branches, if the tree survives, the remaining branches thicken so quickly that the wire bites in very quickly and severely and can distort the branch.

Leaving more branches encourages the trunk to thicken and the tree to recover quickly; you can cut out the bar branches later if you think you must and no individual branch over thickens too quickly.

Also be wary of repotting at the same time if you have done a massive removal of branches. Better to leave it for a year or two.

So if you can be patient you can get a great bonsai very quickly by not doing too much in one go. Does this make sense?

As far as styling goes however you can be quite adventurous. I don't currently have a PgAC as I sold my last one to Leigh before I moved to Canberra, but I am tempted to have another one.

Grant

[Asus101]

I like the tree though Elias, i rekcon it's good. got very good potential, needs more time is all... I agree with Asus, that dead twin needs reducing by about half to me...

No the living twin needs reducing. Better the have the deadwood coming out of the top than being hidden in the foliage.

[Marc]

oh, you did say that...

i reckon go agsainst the grain, make the lving one higher!!

[Elias]

Hi All,

Thanks for the replies everyone, Grant thanks for taking the time to post, I was thinking waiting til late next spring to repot but if you suggest more time I will wait. Also I was debating reducing the size of the tree as Asus and other people have suggested, but after reading your post I should perhaps let the tree recover and then reduce the size later on in the future.


Elias

[Asus101]

oh, you did say that...

i reckon go agsainst the grain, make the lving one higher!!

proportion wont be right to a lot of people.

[Marc]

Asus, that's why you will see bugger all of my plants on line...