AusBonsai

Hi all.. I have a couple of picea glauca that i am working on.
Both are around 9 years old (since I have owned them) that I originally purchased as 'living Christmas trees' for the family and just let them live in the original 8" nursery pots as ornaments.
Over the last 6 months I have re potted,(into training pots) thinned out the needles, rafiered the main branches and started rather 'brutal' compression twisting of one and spreading the twin trunk of the other.

Originally the twin trunk tree was very hard to bend so I 'part split' the branches thinking this would soften them up for wiring.
It worked at the time but I removed heavy wiring and re did the bends with raffia under binding re sealing the wounds and over binding with 'bud tape' and again heavy re wired into a style that I am happy with. (through out the forums I read that style is what the owner thinks is suitable)

My bent and compressed tree was started before joining the site with NO skills other than from a few cheap books and my own interest.
At this stage I have not harmed it and continual tweaking of wires and guy-wires are done once a week..'it's coming along well with plenty of growth and back budding going on even though it's cold.

Both trees are actually doing better by a long way than they ever did in the nursery pots but then again they were just ornaments where now they are part of my 70 odd trees ranging from Squat Junie's , Quinces, Azaleas, Lilac, Maples,Carmelia,Pomegranate, and Jasmin plus a heap that I have not identified as yet in sizes from 'mames' to 60cm.

Should anyone have picea glauca 'happy snaps in any form and would like to share on this post I would appreciate some ideas as this species will be added to as I gather some new stock to manipulate over the next few months.

Regards Steve.

Just a few of Picea #(1)
Will see if I can add Picea #(2) soon.



Before raffia...yellow wrap is 'chucks super wipe'





Addition of 'nylon raffia' and spreading trunk branches 2 and 3
Upper branch twist



Upper branch anchorage and guy tension.







# (1) branch compression twist.(Yellow and orange plastic are trimmed off poly clothes pegs with concave shape
to meld in with branch/wire diameter.

hi Steve
good bending exercise so far. although piceas are not typically bent and twisted like junipers or pines, i see no harm in doing so. as with the species, i think it's Picea albertiana Conica.

good luck with it and welcome to Ausbonsai.

regards


Tien

lots of movement in the branches, but not the trunk.
There should be sympathetic movement of both branch and trunk so that both look like they are on the same tree.

Ken

kcpoole wrote:lots of movement in the branches, but not the trunk.
There should be sympathetic movement of both branch and trunk so that both look like they are on the same tree.

Ken

thanks Ken..this is the feed back I am after. got a vision now of altering potting angle to the 'right' and giving the trunk
below branches 2 and 3 as sharp a bend as possible and tweaking 1 and 2 within current arrangement to match.
Thanks Steve.

bonsaisensation wrote:hi Steve
good bending exercise so far. although piceas are not typically bent and twisted like junipers or pines, i see no harm in doing so. as with the species, i think it's Picea albertiana Conica.

good luck with it and welcome to Ausbonsai.

regards


Tien

Also thanks Tien for your 'bending encouragement.

Picea # 2


Proposed Front


Rear at the moment

kcpoole wrote:lots of movement in the branches, but not the trunk.
There should be sympathetic movement of both branch and trunk so that both look like they are on the same tree.

Ken

Just a bit of help required here regarding sympathetic movement of the trunk. 'Is this for #1 or #2 tree??
I possible Ken could you steer me in a direction regarding the trunk...Maybe shop a couple of lines in on the trunk.
I'm not afraid of sawing to get a bend as I have a Juniper 'Rocket' that is healing up nicely with saw cut angles that have reduced the height as well as styled the ' straight up stick'
into a shape more informal upright than this species would generally be seen in the garden.
I have also attempted a 'trunk split and fusion of a pair of 'rockets with the aim of a thicker trunk upright.
This is being attempted by splitting the entire length of one from roots to apex into (2)..Shaving down the 2nd so as to fit all (3) sections together and binding it all together.
So far 3months in they are still alive.

As a side note I use a goo that my Dad always made up for grafting fruit trees l..(lemons,apples, pears and stone fruits) when he was in the retail plant game at Trash and Treasure Markets.

This comprises a 3 equal part mix of Rootex,Honey and Vegemite

Another concoction he used ( which works very well)for sealing cuts,scars etc is a putty ( each batch) consisting of 3 tee candles, 3 table spoons of olive oil,1 table spoon of honey, a table spoon of either cinnamon or mixed spices, (re-enforces mix as a binder/disinfectant) another table spoon of Vegemite, teaspoon of Rootex and a table spoon of 'el cheapo Vaseline.

Wax,Olive oil and Vaseline are warm melted together then all other odds and end are wipped into a paste and let cool....... 'add extra dry spices if you want a thicker putty/paste.......just a cheapy in regards to 'wound or cut paste that seems to work fine.
Regards Steve.