Before & After by Bonsai Boon with a Guest Appearance by Michael Hagedorn 10/27/18

b&a

Here's Boon's caption for this before and after... "Itoigawa shimpaku removed old needles, downward growth, rewired and reposition"

No bonsai is ever finished (unless it’s dead and then it’s no longer a bonsai anyway).  I don’t know how many trees Boon Manakitivipart (aka Bonsai Boon) has, but I know it’s a whole lot more than most of us

So what do you do when you have so many trees? Beyond basic care, like watering, feeding, treating for disease, insects etc? Well, one thing you do is spend some time bringing established bonsai back into shape, and if you have the talent, improving them in the process. But there’s more to the whens and hows of bringing them back into shape than you might think…
Continued below…

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specials ends this Sunday, Oct 28th at 11:59pm
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before

Before. This masterpiece Juniper has been allowed to grow for a while in order to regain its strength. Time to bring it back into shape

Continued from above…
If you keep pruning new growth back and never let it  just grow, you can damage your bonsai. Some years you might let it go a bit in the spring and trim it back into shape after it slows down. But once in a while it’s important to let it ‘run off leash’ Most beginners don’t know about this practice and run the risk of damaging (or worse) their bonsai (thanks to Michael Hagedorn, a student of Boon’s and someone who apprenticed in Japan, for the expression and the instruction on ‘running off leash‘

between

After trimming off excess growth

 

after

After wiring. Now it needs to be repotted at its new angle and fill out a bit and it'll be ready for big time. I don't know if Boon is going to wait a year to repot (some people don't do heavy trimming and repotting in the same year). If you stay posted to his timeline you might find out

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this special also ends Sunday, Oct 28th at 11:59pm