Satsuki in mid summer

This is about as healthy and robust as this tree has looked in a long, long time. We got this tree at the 1998 Florida Bonsai Society meeting. It is the only "pre"-bonsai I have ever bought. (I say "We got this tree" because this is "Jackie's bonsai -- though I think all she's done with it is admire it.)



I think it still is a bit weak in the middle right side, and needs some thinning in the interior right nearby.

Waka ebisu. I've shown it in flower.

Looks like you have the needs covered. I'll note a positive- my eye is drawn first to the nebari. Really attractive with good movement!

Nice Nebari and trunk line. I do think the the first branch on the right is too thick, it distracts from the image.

The fact that the missus doesn't 'work' the tree only means she has you trained well.

Thanx for the comments.

Here are a couple of cuttings taken from this tree a few years ago.

1. 4 inches tall. A tree limb broke off the top of the big tree about 2001. I used it as a cutting.



2. That thick lower limb once was MUCH longer. I got tired of the old-style Japanese-type styling and chopped it back 5 years ago. This is the resulting raft. About 6 inches tall from the soil line. Lots of work to do yet on this one.

Love the trees. Something tells me that you'll have the raft looking as great as the other two in no time. I think your tree and pot matches are fantastic! Thanks for sharing.

Jane

They look really nice. Jim. I like the Wakas for bonsai, they grow fast, maintain shape well, and they root like weeds. I gave mine a chop this spring, I thought it was too tall.

John

i really dig the #1 cutting...
especially because of the placement and angle of that very low first branch...

unorthodox ?
you betcha
appealing ?
you betcha

Lovely work, Jim.....thanks for sharing.

Best regards,
Tom

Thanks all.  I'm quite fond of them, too.  

Someone else may have to take over the further development of the raft.  My old (77 tomorrow) hands are just too shaky and unsteady to even attempt to wired a brittle azalea any more.  Clip and grow is my normal approach and that doesn't do much for those tiny, straight branches/trunks.

JimLewis wrote:
Someone else may have to take over the further development of the raft.  My old (77 tomorrow) hands are just too shaky and unsteady to even attempt to wired a brittle azalea any more.

happy b-day...

i will be visiting asheville & the arboretum for about a week in late october in case you are looking for a foster home for the raft
(sorry to hear about the hands...)

LATE October? If you could move it up, you could attend the NC Bonsai Expo on the 11-12. We always have an extra bed down here. By Late October, some of the Arb's permanent display plants may have been put to bed for the winter.

Thanx for the offer, but I already have an inheritor for my trees, etc.

JimLewis wrote:LATE October?  If you could move it up, you could attend the NC Bonsai Expo on the 11-12.  We always have an extra bed down here.  

well, considering that we have engaged in some (hopefully good-natured) head-butting, that is a very nice offer...
however, its the expo that is actually preventing me from coming then... i will PM you why