Squamata Prostrata

[Jamie]

here ya go mate

something to aim for, a little heavy bend, a tilt and some good growth and away ya go

virt for mitchell.jpg

[Mitchell]

Loving the look of that...

Just hard sometimes, you know what you want but can't fathom how to achieve it.
I guess that's why it interests us, if we could complete our goals easily, there would be no point trying to achieve them in the first place.

Should i be pinching out these pads, or letting them go wild? I'm thinking go wild for a season then work on them.

Thanks Jamie, a second opinion is always a bonus.

[Jamie]

let it grow freely for 12 months mate, you will be amazed at how much extra growth you get and so much better branching to work with

[Mitchell]

Here's a shot of it sitting in the stockyard. Sorry no backdrop and terrible photography, just a tad busy..

[Mitchell]

Did the first re-pot since I bought this plant in July.

Angle changed to what, I had envisaged it to be.

[Mitchell]

Extended the Shari, to the base.

I also widened it a couple of mm. I shall take a thin strip off each growing season, to achieve the flat plate trunk look in years to come.

Lime sulphered the whole shari and jin at the top to bring the older and newer deadwoods to a more uniform white. I don't really like the stark white look, but i must say it is growing on me.
Especially when toned back down with light and dark areas.


Anyone got some tips on how to bring out the red in the bark like the Japanese do? i have been picking off scaly bark, then rubbing the under brown with fine wet and dry sand paper till i hit red. is that about it? then oil slightly for photo's/display?

[Mitchell]

Some more random shots of the continuing shari and lime sulpher application.
You can see that I have already established some darker areas, on the jin before applying the LS.

[Mitchell]

Some shots a couple of hours after the application. Has been damp here so it has not yet dried, hence the yellow tinge still left. Tempted to get the hair dryer out on the jin.

I am enjoying spinning the plant, checking for fronts. ATM I am just working it when it tells me to. It wanted the Shari cont'd, it really did.
To be honest I am not even thinking a style for it, it is simply a tree. I am not even sure what "Style" it fall into yet or what I "should" be aiming for.

Anyone that has some advice, feedback or comments please feel free to post.
I would really like some input, even the negative is valuable input.

[Bretts]

It's definatly different Mitchell The carving is very nice. It should be fun to work with from here. I am sitting on the fence wether I would suggest growing it out while keep working the shari so it elongates like the old windswept ones we see or keep it small and refine.
Whichever way you go I reckon it will be a fun ride.
I think Jow has a great thread about working the shari on young material that shows what I mean!

[bodhidharma]

It is way to contrived for my liking Mitchell. Age and a bit of growth will change it but i would shorten the top jin and do some wood peel on it. Let your foliage grow and bring the branch down a bit.

[Bretts]

Nick Lenz work is contrived but I love it

[Mitchell]

Thanks for the input Bretts. Personally I don't like the corkscrew and top jin, yet the corkscrew is what made me hate it in the first place, prior to buying it. I know that is odd, to buy something you find ugly, but that's just how I roll.



Hey Bodhi, funny you mention it being too "contrived" that is almost the image I was going for. I have this obsession of purposefully creating un-natural/unrealistic looking bonsai. Sounds stupid, but I have many natural looking trees in training, I want something un-natural looking, with a corkscrew jin, bleached white shari and red bark.

Branching is definitly being grown out, you'll notice a page or so back, I lost the whole lower cascade tail. ATM I have no angle, front, style, final image in mind and am in the process of figuring out what this plant will be. For all I know, I could snap the jin tomorrow, and the tree would become something different all together.

I'll try and find an image of a similarly "contrived" tree, which I have in mind.

I'm only 5 months in from a stock Squamata, hopefully in the 10-20 years to come the "contrived" look, may fade to one of interest.

[bodhidharma]

Good on you Mitchell. Nothing wrong with different thinking. i have a friend who does the same with his Bonsai and he calls it "a discussion point" the point where people stop and discuss whether they like it or not. Doesnt matter whether they do or not...they are discussing Bonsai. Look forward to its progress.

[Mitchell]

Anyone have some drastic styling suggestions? I am keen to create something from this plant, yet feel i'm not really heading in the right direction. The plant looks the same as previous pics, just a tad more foliage now. I'll try and grab a current shot tonight after work. Only another few hours.

[Mitchell]

Hi Guys and Gals!
I am not looking for sympathy, but thought it right for learning purposes.
This plant died over the last month.
Possible causes were, curl grub and or root rot and or user error.

From day one it had A very inward twisting root ball, which I did not address as I felt it would put un-due stress on the tree during slip potting after purchase into a larger container. I teased but obviously not enough, over the proceeding months the root ball did not at all throw new roots outwards into the fresh soil just bound more into a ball.
I had noticed something was up leading up to its demise, I guess this means I am learning. I preformed an emergency re-pot to sort the roots, but it did not pull through it.
Contained within the compacted root ball were several large curl grubs which had been feasting on what ever roots were left inside it.

Not only does this sadden me it was not a cheap exercise, the plant initially cost about $220. Though it is bitter tasting, it is a lesson easily worth what I payed.

From this lesson I also found, I was ready to suffer the consequences of losing better stock. Had I suffered the loss of a more expensive plant, earlier in my bonsai journey I dare say I would have packed it in.

I am glad I bothered to post this thread and keep track of what I did to the plant, now that it is gone it means just that little bit more to me.
Thanks also to everyone for their input (as much as I chose to ignore it ) it was much appreciated, without it I am sure the plant would have been dead long before this.

Cheers guys/gals.