It’s time to start thinking about dormant pruning. This page of simple illustrations shows pruning and pinching basics for beech trees. It’s the first of a series of posts on training deciduous bonsai. The illustrations are from Bonsai Today issue 41.
These illustrations by Kyosuke Gun show three stages in the development of simple shohin cascading bunjin style pine. Though we don’t know for sure, we might assume that these illustrations are of an actual tree, as many, if not most of Mr. Gun’s illustrations are based upon actual bonsai. The illustration originally appeared in Bonsai Today issue 39. Small adjustments with big results One of the purposes in this post is to show how a couple simple changes can turn an untrained stock plant in to presentable bonsai.
One year later Part one showed how to encourage tertiary and quantiary branching. This post shows how to establish of the next layer of branching (quintary?). The illustrations are from our Juniper book. Quantiary? In the bonsai world, it’s not unusual to hear or see primary, secondary and tertiary when it comes to branching. I’m not sure you’ll ever hear quantiary or quintary (or beyond). When it gets to that point, what you’ll normally hear is twigs, fine branching, delicate ramification, or some variation on those themes.