Progression series over 34 years of a Golden Cedar
Posted: February 27th, 2009, 3:21 pm
The Canberra Bonsai Society has chosen to use one of my bonsai in their revamped website banner so I thought I would give you an idea of its origins.
Over 30yrs ago, in about 1975, I was visiting nurseries in the Blue Mountains of NSW and found a small, much neglected grafted cedar that had been blown horizontal and half out of its pot. The roots that were sticking up into the air had died off but the rest of the roots were alive and doing OK.
The only possible style I could see for this piece of nursery stock as a bonsai was as either a full or semi cascade windswept. I took the plant home, wired it and potted it into a small, squarish semi cascade pot. The basic wiring I gave it at that earliest stage set the tone for the future of this potential bonsai.
I tried out variations on a theme over the following years with different types of pots and different styling; more cascade, less cascade, more apex, less apex etc, but the one thing that remained constant was its basic inclination of the trunk line. I introduced a small rock (Serpentine) at some point and this has stayed with this particular bonsai for the last 25yrs or so.
The tree, a Golden Himalayan Cedar (Cedrus deodara aurea), is not a particularly fast growing tree in a bonsai pot and so it has slowly grown and matured for over 30 yrs as a bonsai.
Joe Micalef apparently asked many years ago “What grows a Bonsai?” Various people answered “Fertilizer?” “Water?” “A bonsai nurseryman perhaps?”
His wise answer was “Time”
By about 8years ago(2000) the apex had become very heavy; the remnants of the former roots that had been sticking up into the air had completely disappeared and fused into a bit of a lump. By this point the little rock is now positioned vertically to imitate the lump of the roots and the pot is a different one again.
The bonsai didn’t change much for the next 3yrs style wise but it was receiving a good regime of fertilizing, watering, trimming, spraying for pests and disease, and was being grown in the full sun and wind all year round. After close to 30yrs in a pot it was in very robust health, the trunk had thickened considerably and the foliage was still nice and compact, but it needed a major overhaul to bring out its full potential!
In early 2003 I did a fairly major rework of the apex of the bonsai. I cut off the apex and left a short Jin in its place. I also removed all branches moving to the right and wired up a small back branch on the top remaining branch into a new smaller apex. I left the tree to recover and grow for the next two years and displayed it at the 2005 AABC convention in Sydney.
Over 30yrs ago, in about 1975, I was visiting nurseries in the Blue Mountains of NSW and found a small, much neglected grafted cedar that had been blown horizontal and half out of its pot. The roots that were sticking up into the air had died off but the rest of the roots were alive and doing OK.
The only possible style I could see for this piece of nursery stock as a bonsai was as either a full or semi cascade windswept. I took the plant home, wired it and potted it into a small, squarish semi cascade pot. The basic wiring I gave it at that earliest stage set the tone for the future of this potential bonsai.
I tried out variations on a theme over the following years with different types of pots and different styling; more cascade, less cascade, more apex, less apex etc, but the one thing that remained constant was its basic inclination of the trunk line. I introduced a small rock (Serpentine) at some point and this has stayed with this particular bonsai for the last 25yrs or so.
The tree, a Golden Himalayan Cedar (Cedrus deodara aurea), is not a particularly fast growing tree in a bonsai pot and so it has slowly grown and matured for over 30 yrs as a bonsai.
Joe Micalef apparently asked many years ago “What grows a Bonsai?” Various people answered “Fertilizer?” “Water?” “A bonsai nurseryman perhaps?”
His wise answer was “Time”
By about 8years ago(2000) the apex had become very heavy; the remnants of the former roots that had been sticking up into the air had completely disappeared and fused into a bit of a lump. By this point the little rock is now positioned vertically to imitate the lump of the roots and the pot is a different one again.
The bonsai didn’t change much for the next 3yrs style wise but it was receiving a good regime of fertilizing, watering, trimming, spraying for pests and disease, and was being grown in the full sun and wind all year round. After close to 30yrs in a pot it was in very robust health, the trunk had thickened considerably and the foliage was still nice and compact, but it needed a major overhaul to bring out its full potential!
In early 2003 I did a fairly major rework of the apex of the bonsai. I cut off the apex and left a short Jin in its place. I also removed all branches moving to the right and wired up a small back branch on the top remaining branch into a new smaller apex. I left the tree to recover and grow for the next two years and displayed it at the 2005 AABC convention in Sydney.
