Aging is something we will all go through. Rather than fighting and denying it, accept it and do it gracefully. The choice is yours, do you want to age like a fine wine or a sour vinegar? Why do I bring this up? 3 reasons: 1) The title of this post reminded me of aging because the only one thing about aging that I have the least control of is my eyesight. Without my reading glasses, things are blurry and almost like seeing double ( or multiple blurry images). 2) Bonsai is a great example of aging gracefully. If only I can age light a bonsai, I can become more beautiful as I age. 3) Seeing double and aging maybe a good segue to the subject material I will using for my demo at the World Bonsai Fest at the Pacific Bonsai Museum next Saturday May 14th.
This is somewhat of a spoiler alert if you plan on going to the event and want to be a surprise. Now is a good time to stop reading and move on with your day. For those who decided to keep reading, I want to give you a quick preview of the material and what I will do it.
I appreciate Puget Sound Bonsai Association for asking me to do this demo. Also lucky enough to choose my own material for this demo. I get to contemplate about it ahead of time. The tree is an urban yamadori juniper (looks like an old gold juniper) that I collected from a landscape client’s yard. It was a branch that ground layered. I just cut it of from the main tree and potted it directly into bonsai soil about 2 years ago. It did really well the first year. During my initial styling, I discovered that another tree could be air layered from this one specimen.
Last Spring I decided to do an air layer on a branch that has the potential for a cascade or semi cascade. The root took and last fall I decided to pot the new roots with bonsai soil without removing that branch from the original tree. Next week, I will remove that branch from the host tree to create a cascade bonsai.
This is an bit of an ambitious demo but my hope are to demonstrate the following ideas:
- Use raffia and bend a thick branch. Do some light wiring.
- Remove the air layered tree and pot it.
- Demonstrate identifying the best front for the trees.
- Do some carving to age the trees.
- Prune to anticipate future growth and design.
- Suggest possible pots.
Looking forward to this demo as I make two (2) trees from one. I will definitely need my reading glasses for this demo.