Salix purpurea 'nana' no 3

Here is how the tree looks after the first styling. It has been a drastic pruning. I have used some of the cut off branches as props to place the brances where I want them and have only wired a few branches. Most of them are too thick to wire effectivly.


The rootbase now measuses 13 cm in diameter and the hight of the tree is reduced to 36 cm.
Next step is to repot when spring arrives.

Salix purpurea 'nana' no 2

Here I have started to cut back the branches



Still morte cutting


It is starting to take shape


Still more cutting. This has only been very rough cutting back so far and. The silouette is just about right now, but that leaves no room for new growth and fine ramification so I will have to cut back quite a bit more, and some of the branches are pretty long and straight anyway so they have to be shortened. The hight now is 47 cm and the width of the crown is also 47 cm.

More to come...

Salix purpurea 'nana'

Here is a dwarf red willow. I have never seen one as a bonsai before, but to me it looks like this species has very good potential

This one is about 10 years old and has been growing in a pot and the roots has grown into the ground and helped thicken the trunk. It was one meter tall and 120 cm wide before work started


Close up of the root base before any work


Here I have started to uncover the root base. It is 9 cm wide but there is still more to uncover.


For scale. More too come soon....

Linden

Here is my Tilia cordata.




I pruned back the new growth a bit


And I took off the wire. It has been on for 1 whole year now, but it still hasn't left any marks on the branches.
This is the back of the tree


And here is the front. It's a bit difficult to get good ramification on linden, but I can see some new buds here and there on old wood on the branches and on the trunk so it will improve over time.
The lower left part still need a lot of growth. There are some new buds in the right places on the trunk so I will get more branches in that area in a few years.

Privet finished for now

Yesterday I found time to finish shaping my big liguster. I think it's starting to look pretty good alredy!

Privet half done

I don't get much time to shaping these days, but I get a little done every now and again

My big privet is half done for now.
I have grown more than 10 new branches from the trunk this summer to fill inn gaps here and there. It will obiously take some years before the ramification is satifactory, but privets develop really quickly!

New spruce

Here are some photos of a spruce I collected just behind my house in september : -)

As you can see it has a really strange shape with a 180 degree bend in the trunk




It was growing on a rock and had a very shallow and compact root system so it has an excelent chance of survival


Here it is in its new home.

Honeysuckle wiring

Here is one of my honeysuckles. It was collected as a stump in spring 2007




Today I cut it back and wired it again. Here is the result. It's improving every year, but it still needs a lot of development.

Privet again

Here is my privet after I have plucked off all the leaves


The back



Here it is after I have given it a haircut



And here I have started to wire the branches. Still a long way to go....

Development of a privet

I got this tree last summer. It was raw material then. Here it is after the first styling in august 2008




This is how it looked a few days ago, only one growing season later. Ramification has increased a lot. I have cut back the branches 4-5 times this summer. It grows like crazy.



In order to better see the branch structure I decided to pluck off all the leaves. Ligustrum is a semi decidious tree and if it becomes cold enough it looses all the leaves by it self. I placed the tree inside in a frost free room a few days ago so it will not happen by itself. It had been exposed to night temps down to - 5 celsius for a few weeks and showed no signs of dropping the leaves.
It is time consuming to pluck off all the leaves. I have to take one at a time, it's not like a pine where you can pluck many needles at the same time.
When I'm done plucking the leaves I'll cut back the branches again and wire the tree.

More carving

Here is another big honeysuckle that needs a lot of carving work






And here it is after a very rough first round with 'the terrier' No detal carving has been done yet, only bulk removal of wood.