The Mother Tree

A Mother of a Make Over

Mr. Yen, a bonsai professional in Taiwan, gave us this tree 4 years ago.  Our plan was to grow some small cuttings in the ground in the hope of creating some good bonsai in the future.  He referred to this tree as the Mother.  Her job would be to protect the young.  Here is the tree:

Planting this tree in December 2012

After about 6 months the Mother tree is watching over her flock with a keen eye.

December 2014 with the help of Jack we cut some roots and placed the tree in a bag.  This bag will help a root ball develop.  This root ball is essential if we are to place the tree into a pot in the future.  It goes back into the ground for another year.

In February 2015 I dig it out of the ground.  We can see the root ball is looking good.

I place the tree in a training pot.

I make some rough cuts and then let it recover.

 This is the tree in September 3rd 2016.  It has recovered and grown some tighter foliage. 

The first challenge is to spin the tree and find the best front.  The idea is to look for the most attractive features.  This front has the trunk leaning back away from the viewer.  The middle section bows out creating an uncomfortable feeling.  I also want to show some dead wood and this front didn't offer any.

I decide on this being the front.  I can make some dead wood jins to the left and right.  The tree is also leaning in towards the viewer in a bowing pose.  This is what I want.  It feels like the tree is coming forward in an embrace of some sort.

 I peel back the bark and smash up the two short stumps at the bottom of the tree.  This is used to create a look of age and adversity.  I wire some of the other branches and place them in a downwards angle, again trying to make the tree look older.  I'm still thinking about the top section

 A close up of the top 1/4 of the tree.  I don't like that thick branch coming out on the left side.  I'm trying to develop taper from base to apex.  This thick branch is messing with the taper of this tree.

I decide to make it into a jin...more dead wood.  I will paint lime Sulphur over the dead wood branches which will harden up the wood and reduce the chances of these parts rotting. 

The plan now is to let it rest over Autumn and I will revisit it in Spring 2017. 

The Mother tree did a fine job of looking after some babies and now it was time for her to shine.  Within a few seasons the branches will thicken and the foliage pads will develop more green.  We could have a nice tree here!

Hope everyone is doing ok out there.