Wednesday workshop 6th May 2009

Dragon bonsai held another of their Wednesday workshop tonight.
Dragon member and workshop regular John Harris brought in his Larch. 17 years in a pot, John needed to re design this tree after losing a few branches over the winter.

The tree at the start of the workshop.



The tree has a great base, with an interesting shari and good movement..



After some discussion, John decided to remove the right hand branch and wire and lower a few selected branches.



John felt he wanted to be a little cautious and not remove much more as the tree might abort more branches, so he is keping his options open for the near future.

Your thoughts are very welcome.

A nice, very healthy tree. The only suggestion I would make would be to remove the small branches under the main lower branch on the left, and also define the gap between the two lower branches on the right. Then wait and check the tree at the end of the current growing season. I think the owner is on the right track to be cautious. This tree has obviously been well cared for over the years and a sudden change in the overall structure should be avoided. Just my two pence worth!!

John T

...my virtual games, thanks

Erik,
Thank you for the virtual.
I will pass it onto John. I know he will be pleased to see the virtual.
It appears to be all possible, as long as there are a few new buds halfway up on the right and accepting the back branch is lower than the first brach.
We did discuss the back branch at length on Wednesday, John's reaction was "it is not in the guidelines, but b*##*$!! to it, he'd work with what he had".

Hi Jerry I like Eriks solution, really looking forward to seeing you guys at the weekend, coz you are quite a distance from me and I am starting out really early on Sunday morning after a Gig on Saturday night I may stay over... who is willing to put me up?

me....
or Chris has a caravan......

or our chairman, Gerwyn........

I liked the original, the shorter virtual, and the pot all well enough that I printed out a copy to inspire both training of some seedlings and my pottery.

Marty

Today Tony Tickle did us the honour of officially opening our workshop and display area at Dragon bonsai.

]More of the open day at Bonllwyn.

Tony spotted John's Larch. So with Erik's virtual in mind, John agreed to take the plunge and Tony and John worked on the larch.





The end result


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It must be the angle of the photograph, but visually it appears that the lower branches are just opposite each other and creating a straight line or bar branch effect.
Wish we could grow larch down here!

Alan Walker wrote:It must be the angle of the photograph, but visually it appears that the lower branches are just opposite each other and creating a straight line or bar branch effect.

Hi Alan, yes you are correct it is a bar branch..BUT... this was a big step for John to cut off the top, it was enough at that stage for him....any more would have been tooooooo.... radical. At the event I did not want to create too much 'peer' pressure to make him uncomfortable. John has a good eye and will probably make the other 'cuts' in his own time.

That top would make a cute shohin. Will larch cuttings take or should it have been air layered?

Bar branches are not so bad. Better than no branches. Yet in the first photo showing John working on the tree it doesn't look like a bar branch. That looks like a nice front too. Great roots to trunk transition.