AusBonsai

Hi Fly,

I am impressed with your works on the top -- you must have had a very strong vision for this
tree when you collected it. Was it free? I mean it looked real tough in the 2007 picture.

Do you think you will get flowers and fruits from this tree?

Best regards.

wow, nice progress

Gday Aaron, Antonio, Bodhi, Daiviet and Psymo!

Thanks for the encouragement, but there is still a long way to go before this tree is remotely 'showable'.

aaron_tas wrote:it'll look sweeet in flower

Looking at it now, it appears that there are only 3 or 4 flower buds in place. I might end up trimming the tree before the flowers get a chance to show themselves.

anttal63 wrote:looking good in its new pot fly.

Thanks Antonio - I think the colour and shape of the pot is kinda nice for the tree, but I still reckon it's a couple of sizes too big. I'll probably look into having a custom pot made when the time comes.

bodhidharma wrote:Really nice to see the experiment going on. I think imagination like this is what makes great bonsai artists. Be willing to try anything.

daiviet_nguyen wrote:... you must have had a very strong vision for this tree when you collected it.

'Experiment' is the key word here: the whole process has been less about 'vision' or 'imagination' than it has been about problem solving.

Speaking of problem solving, if you look at the photo below, you will notice a rather ugly right-angle bend which tends to push the main branch into the face of the viewer, giving the appearance of a big number 7. (It is worse than this on certain angles, and I am hoping to make the tree equally viewable from all angles.)



I will attempt to rectify this today, and will keep y'all posted!

Fly.

[EDIT] I've taken a photo of one of the offending views. Don't worry - those empties are from last night and not this morning... [/EDIT]

yeah... sure ....uhha we believe you, Inspiration comes from an empty bottle.

bodhidharma wrote:yeah... sure ....uhha we believe you, Inspiration comes from an empty bottle.

Gday Bodhi!

You'll be pleased to note that the empty pictured in today's round of photos was consumed quite recently.

Where were we? Oh yeah - the ugly right angle where the 'new' leader leaves the old trunk... Now, how would I go about shifting such a thick bit of wood? It's way thicker than my thumb, and the collar where trunk and branch meet must be 40mm across.

I guess the first thing I'd do is to hollow out the trunk behind the bit of wood I intend to move. That would help, wouldn't it? (Since I took the photo, I've hollowed it out a bit more.)
I would want to apply something to act as a splint/support, just in case I pushed the bending a little too far. In this case, I applied some hessian webbing and a generous round of self-adhesive silicone tape (unfortunately, I ran out of the clear tape, and so had the hardware store). I would also apply some quite thick wire, just to be sure: if I do manage to snap the tree, I can probably save the top if it is held firmly in place. Finally, I need a means by which to shunt the offending bit of wood into a more desirable position...
Luckily, I happened to have some deadwood that I might fix one end of the turnbuckle into. Then all I did was crank the turnbuckle until I heard a menacing 'CRACK!!!', and continued to turn it another half a revolution... (If you scroll between the two photos, you should get an idea of how much I raised the offending branch/leader.)
If one turnbuckle is good, then two must be twice as good, no? Let's see...
So, there you have it. I have rectified the nasty right-angle and raised the top of the tree significantly. The best thing about the turnbuckles is that I can continue to crank them up as the tree heals/grows if I so desire. Maybe my Pear looks like Robocop, but it's all for the greater good of Bonsai. If I feel inclined, I might get some photos of other views on the morrow...

Thanks all!

Fly.

great work fly

i love mechanix and bonsai together...

you have improved this tree's line immensly

aaron_tas wrote:great work fly

i love mechanix and bonsai together...

you have improved this tree's line immensly

DIDO !!!

Oh Man, I lLOVE IT. Necessity is the mother of all invention. Thats the way to make a tree do your bidding. Loving the progress.

Never thought of using a turn buckle in reverse... Might have to use it on my plums second trunk.

And I love the way this tree is evolving. Keep experimenting with this tree and showing the results...

Good to see it has responded well to the treatment

I like the idea of the darkened shari, there are few deciduous tree's with wood hard enough to withstand rot in nature (prunus m. being one) so its good to see a non bleached white shari in the virt.
Its also something to remember when carving softwood tree's. Allow a little rot, carve it as if it had rotted and darken the wood. You will not see many if any bleached white decid's in a forest.

Congratulations, one of the best progressions I have seen. You have taken a rather ordinary piece of material and are turning it into something special. Your foresight in the virt is great, and you are well on the way to achieving this result.
I think that even though they say sharis are not suitable for deciduous,if it works do it, and this certainly does.
I wish you could use your foresight on some of my trees.
Great work,
Jonden

Asus101 wrote:I like the idea of the darkened shari, there are few deciduous tree's with wood hard enough to withstand rot in nature (prunus m. being one) so its good to see a non bleached white shari in the virt.
Its also something to remember when carving softwood tree's. Allow a little rot, carve it as if it had rotted and darken the wood. You will not see many if any bleached white decid's in a forest.

jonden wrote:I think that even though they say sharis are not suitable for deciduous,if it works do it, and this certainly does.

Gday folks!

In my area, there are numerous escapees from former orchards, including a lot of crusty old Plums and Pears. It is surprising exactly how many of these older specimens display a gently twisting line of deadwood. Admittedly, the spiral of deadwood I have begun is rather exaggerated by comparison, but I think the proposed width and alignment are my best bet for alleviating the straightness of that section of the trunk, as well as being somewhat sympathetic to the lines of the tree above (and below). When it comes time to complete the line of deadwood (once the wire and turnbuckles come off), I will take the carving slowly, as the continual thickening of the surrounding bark may give me all the depth I need.

Thanks!

Fly.

Gday folks!

I got a bit of a chance to turn my attention away from my Eucs, and thought I'd check the progress of this one. In the past, I have had wire bite quite deeply into the branches of this tree, so I am a bit wary of that now. At a glance it appeared that all was well, until I looked at the point where I had done the major bending (straightening?)...
As you can see (sort of), the Pear has tried to heal the turnbuckle-induced injury, and it would have done quite a good job of it by now, except that I had a bit of wire in exactly the wrong spot. All of the new bark/scar tissue that has grown has been 'undercut' by the wire, and now there was the beginning of a really nasty bulge.
So, how to deal with such an injury?.. Stay tuned to find out.

Thanks.

Fly.