After. This sweet little Shimpaku and the one below were posted on facebook by Bjorn Bjorholm. The before photos for both trees are at the bottom of the post.
Before I make another mistake and look foolish in the process, here’s my disclaimer for this post: I don’t know for a fact the origin of the bonsai shown here. Much of what I have to say below is simply conjecture.
Lately I’ve been noticing field grown bonsai stock that look like yamadori (bonsai stock collected from the wild). More accurately, the best look almost like yamadori. I believe that’s the case with the two before and after bonsai shown here (both were transformed by Bjorn Bjorholm). Here’s why:
First, the quality wild Shimpaku in Japan have long ago been collected and are very expensive. As a result, most have fallen into the hands of wealthy collectors or people like Kimura and other great Japanese masters. Also, for some reason the old yamadori shimpakus tend to be larger than the trees shown here. I’m not sure why, but this seems to be the case.
Second, though the bonsai shown here are excellent, they don’t quite look like Yamadori. Very good to be sure, but something is different.
After. Tree number two. The before photo is at the bottom.
This is the before shot of the tree at the top of the page.
Here’s the before shot for tree number two .
This is my opinion only, and not to be taken as fact…
The yamadori shimpaku I can see in an image search are not nearly as compacted, both in deadwood and branch length. Despite any harshness of their environment, they tend to reach further than the two trees pictured here.
The living vein is also much larger relative to the deadwood on these trees than yamadori shimpaku. This would indicate much better growing conditions for a longer period of time, and more “half the tree died but the rest is thrived” compared to “the tree is clinging to life by a thread”.
Sweet little Bonsai,awesome styling
Dear Privacy,
Good observations. I think you pretty much nailed it. I think it’s close to impossible to mimic natural conditions. Look for more on this topic soon.