Maintenance Before & After Bonsai 8/21/17

b&a2

This muscular little tree is a good example of a maintenance before and after. The artist (or artists) that wired and trimmed it perform their magic at Bonsái Pavía. You might remember them from just the other day. The tree looks a lot like a Taxus
 Yesterday we posted a from scratch before and after. Today it’s a maintenance before and after that we found at Bonsái Pavía. This is when a bonsai that has become overgrown is brought back to presentable (this is a little oversimplified, but you get the drift). Every quality bonsai that has been around for a while, has experienced this type maintenance. In many cases dozens of times.
Continued below…

 

after1

Trees like this are wired when they are still thin enough to bend into such radical curves. After the shape has taken and the wire has been removed, they are field grown for years to thicken up and develop branching. How many years depends on your climate and other conditions, and just how thick you want it to be

Continued from above…
This points to the practice of allowing your trees to periodically grow freely. A good idea if you want them to remain vigorous and healthy and to continue to develop things like strong branches, thicker trunks, nebari, good taper etc

before1

The trunk was already established when the maintenance was performed, as were the primary branches (they're covered with foliage in this shot and difficult to see)

Continued from above…
If you reflect on the notion of before and after, you could break down almost any process that way. Take a picture of a tree and then remove a branch, take another picture and you’ve got a before and after. Still, the way we (and others) have been using before and after, involves clear and even dramatic improvements. One that might stimulate your interest and cause you to wonder what kind of magic was involved (I’ve heard it said that when westerners first saw Japanese bonsai, magic is exactly what some of them thought)….

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