• Saturday, December 20th, 2008
So I got a chance to take a look and the trident maple now that the leaves are gone. What appeared to be a lot of new growth wound up being not very useable. The problem was that the growth from the lower part of the tree blocked out growth from the upper section, so no new branches near the top of the tree.
As you can see I was able to bend many of the branches down as planned. However what I exposed were few branches near the top.
Keep in mind, I am only focusing on developing the basic structure of this tree, not complete branches. The Secondary and Tirshiary will come in following years. So I am using wiring and bending, along with Clip and Grow to develop this tree.
Share on Facebook
• Friday, December 19th, 2008
At times I’m reminded of my Mother saying, “well you wanted a puppy…”, because when it comes to Bonsai there is a lot of work to be done. However I am still very happy that I have my Bonsai collection, and my trees are all doing very well.
Here is my huge Trident Maple after its first year in a Bonsai pot. The weather hasn’t fully turned very cold yet, so I helped my tree go dormant by removing the leaves.
You can see all the buds in place ready for next Spring, so removing the leaves didn’t hurt the tree. However it does allow me to get a look at the growth, and get prepared for all the wiring.
Notice how all the new growth is growing straight up, well that’s what needs to be wired down. Why? Well first of all old trees have hanging branches, whereas young tree have branches that grow upwards. So by wiring them down we add the illusion of age. Also it opens the tree so that light can get to the trunk and more branches can grow. Remember last year there were very few branches so in a very short time this tree has become rather dense.
Share on Facebook
• Friday, December 12th, 2008
Well last year I attemped my first approach graft on my Trident Maple that was not budding out where I needed it to. Today I got an opportunity to inspect the graft and it looks like it was successful.
The last time I showed the tack the branch was much thinner. However over the year the branch has thinkened, and the graft has really healed.
Here is a close up after the tack was removed. Normally I would clip off the lead branch before the graft. However I think I’ll leave it on a little longer just to be sure that the graft is ready and strong enough to support the branch.
Here is the tree as it looks right after loosing its leaves for the year. I have some wiring to do, but the tree has filled in nicely.
Share on Facebook
• Saturday, June 21st, 2008
