Paul Pikel has a new video that explains how to style a Podocarpus bonsai.  His pal Cosmo loves to watch him work especially when he’s preparing a tree he hopes to display at the Epcot Flower and Garden Show. Podocarpus is a common shrub in Florida so maybe you’ll want to try your hand at styling one of these too.

Click on the YouTube link below to watch.

http://youtu.be/GmRXw55caCw

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As you can see, long leggy branches with no structure.  It is trying to revert back into a shrub.  The long branches take away from the nice trunk of the tree and make it look small. 

After just a short time the tree now looks like a tree.  The branches are shorter  and taper up the tree.  Additionally the driftwood will be the top of this tree.  Once the bottom fills in and has nice pads for branches the color contrast will be great.  The tree is potted incorrectly in the pot and will have to be turned to this front during the winter.  This tree is less than a year away from being completed.

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This weekend I spent some time with Mike Rogers who helped me with a couple of my trees. One was a podocarpus that I had bought from him last year. During the year due to a watering issue I lost the growth on the top of the tree, but left me with tons of deadwood. The problem however was that the deadwood was too long and needed to be reduced. Mike has developed a method to address that.

As you can see there is a long stright section that is rather boring and doesn’t add any interest. I fthe section couldn’t be removed the great spread near the top would have to be removed because the overall tree would be to tall.

Mike’s solution is to cut the section off and drill a 1/2″ hole into the base of the driftwood.  The other end is carved into a peg that slides into the hole. 

The hole is filled with wood glue and the section is held in place for 30 minutes

After the glue dries and the wood is carved you can’t even tell the 4 inch section was even there.  Amazing stuff!

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Podocarpus Pre-Bonsai

But deadwood means a great carving project to address in the future of this tree.  I already have an idea of what I want to do.  I need to establish the branches and structure of this tree first.  First things first, let’s get that tree out of the nursery pot and into some bonsai soil to give this tree a kick start.

Upclose look at the trunk and nebari

The base of this trunk is wonderful, lots of different fronts to the tree so plenty of options for development.

Prior to root pruning

The roots of this tree weren’t great, but at least I didn’t need to prune much off to get it into this bonsai pot.  The soil mix was also pretty poor for drainage, too much sand.  It will really flourish in my bonsai mix

Podocarpus initial potting

Well it doesn’t look much of a Bonsai at this point, but this years goals are simple.  Get the tree to develop better roots, and put out new branches.  I may get lucky and be able to chose a few branches, but the styling won’t occur until late this year or next year.  Just need to keep it alive and happy.

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Pre-bonsai podocarpus

The tree is about 36″ tall and will need a lot of work to get the basic structure set.  I plan to let this tree sit during the growing season and then this fall put it into a bonsai pot.  Better start saving now, it’s going to be a costly one.

Close up of nebari

Pay no attention to the weeds, I really need to start pulling those before taking pictures.  But there is a nice jin on the left side and a wide root spread overall.

Close up of podocarpus top

Just look at all the jins!!!  That is a carvers heaven.  I just can’t wait to see this tree when it’s finished.  The colors and textures will be amazing.

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