Spruce/Picea abies

Just added a Spruce to my collection, the plan is to get it more compact over time...








After a prune and wire

Very nice piece of material!! Very nice!!

Cheers Lance! Ive started a few threads labeling the tree Abies but I think it could be picea glauca!

Very nice.

We see many deciduous bonsai that look coniferous in terms of their styling - its unusual to see a conifer that looks like a deciduous tree - especially as shown in the second picture.

A tree that looks like it has great potential.

I look forward to following its progress!

MKBonsai

This is a very natural looking Spruce. I'd be interested in knowing what your plans are for making it compact. If you can make this healthy enough, you may find some adventitious shoots, but don't expect much back budding.

Your best approach would be to wire the branches in such a way as to increase light to the inner branches and compacting it in the process... don't get too carried away with compacting (you may loose the naturalness).

Thanks for the comments folks

It was sold as a Picea abies but i think its Picea glauca albertina, if you see on Walter palls blog his yamadori abies mostly grow with a downward habit to the branches, This tree the branches want to go upwards, ive googled Glauca and they mostly grow up. which is why it will take much longer for branches to set to grow downwards like a conifer, although flexible they bounce back quickly ive read.
Ive already compacted it slightly from the first image, i aim to do this by pruning back to branches with buds closer to the trunk and wiring  and manipulating branches into place. they are difficult to back bud but ive read that if you pinch in may and then prune in aug, the spring growth will be tighter and more dense, i will try this. but yes, wont go over the top, it already has a natural, airy look about it. ive since guide wired the lower branches to horizontal.

This is it today with guide wire applied to heavy low branches, after a careful prune and minimal wire will leave it alone for a while and see how it reacts..




Will update later in year!

Today i decided to wire all the primary branches on this one, trying to get it looking more conifer like and less deciduous like, ive got all the branches hitting horizontal now which has also allowed more light into the tree, this should help to promote back budding in the future.

Having a spruce myself, I would be interested in seeing the progress of this one, any updates?

I sold it on, within a few months of buying it, hence no updates.

love to see your Spruce, is there a thread on it?

BobbyLane wrote:I sold it on, within a few months of buying it, hence no updates.

love to see your Spruce, is there a thread on it?

Oh, what a shame, would love to see the progress.

Mine is still a youngster in development, however I made a thread about it, see https://ibonsaiclub.forumotion.com/t17474-spruce-pruning

I will be updating that thread once it starts growing this year and I take some more pictures. It's a bit slowed down this year, we had some snowing again today which is quite unusual compared to several prior years.