a long and winding road to shimpaku
Posted: April 3rd, 2019, 5:29 pm
Hey all
So over the last 4 or so years I have been working on a couple of shohin shimpaku I picked up as somewhat twisted whips
Here's a photo I took of one of them about 6 months after I picked them up,
I initially got some very heavy wire, squashed them down, compressed them as much as possible and left them for about 3 years
Here's the same tree after the next bit of work Wire removed, shari and deadwood work started, trunkline selected. What I expect now is the tree to shoot back, but also to push more compact growth where there is already green. Another year and I will be ready for step 2
Here's the second of the tree, for reference I think it's about 10cm tall I did the same work as above a bout a year ago as I had much tighter bends in this one and I thought the above tree could thicken a touch more. Previously this tree had the heavy wire removed, Shari work started, along with removal of unnecessary branches and a rough trunkline chosen.
The last few days saw me re wire the tree, remove the further unwanted branches, add movement into what I chose for the trunkline and a rough structure set
I will probably drop the cascade altogether, as I don't think it really adds much, but I'm keeping it now for health Here's a couple of the shots to show the movement I have got into this tree so far I still have a way to go with these trees, but it's nice to see some progress and hopefully they will turn into some great shohin in the future
So over the last 4 or so years I have been working on a couple of shohin shimpaku I picked up as somewhat twisted whips
Here's a photo I took of one of them about 6 months after I picked them up,
I initially got some very heavy wire, squashed them down, compressed them as much as possible and left them for about 3 years
Here's the same tree after the next bit of work Wire removed, shari and deadwood work started, trunkline selected. What I expect now is the tree to shoot back, but also to push more compact growth where there is already green. Another year and I will be ready for step 2
Here's the second of the tree, for reference I think it's about 10cm tall I did the same work as above a bout a year ago as I had much tighter bends in this one and I thought the above tree could thicken a touch more. Previously this tree had the heavy wire removed, Shari work started, along with removal of unnecessary branches and a rough trunkline chosen.
The last few days saw me re wire the tree, remove the further unwanted branches, add movement into what I chose for the trunkline and a rough structure set
I will probably drop the cascade altogether, as I don't think it really adds much, but I'm keeping it now for health Here's a couple of the shots to show the movement I have got into this tree so far I still have a way to go with these trees, but it's nice to see some progress and hopefully they will turn into some great shohin in the future
