Entry: Juniperus chinensis “Itoigawa Shimpaku” – Shimpaku juniper ‘Itoigawa’ – USA
ofBonsai Magazine
Before
This clump of Shimpaku junipers was started as cuttings about 5 years ago by me (in summer of 2007). I usually take big cuttings of junipers, of about 6 to 12 inches, and set them in clumps in small nursery containers in whatever soil and then forget about them for a while. My cuttings’ survival rate is only about 50% probably, but I got all I need from the few survivors like this one. This clump was very neglected in the back corner of my yard and got very little sunlight in the last 2 years, and is therefore suffering dearly. I took pity on it today and pull it out into the sunshine and then decided to work on it for this contest. Hopefully, it will turn into something nice someday. If you ask me what is the price of such a material, I would have to say that this clump is worth about $10 in a typical bonsai nursery in Southern California. Clearly it is not worth very much. It has 4 small trunks with very little movements and few long and weak branches and sparse, pale thin foliage. There’s very little foliage close to the base of the trunks. But the trunks are still soft and easy to bend, which is what I need for my design on it. These small shimpakus tend to recover very quickly. With new soil and plenty of water and fertilizers, their foliage pads can get full very quickly from just a few small twigs such as seen here. I find it very rewarding to work on small raw stocks such as this because one can control all aspects of the design of it, from beginning to end, and have a decent, finished design in just a few years. There is little chance for natural serendipity with such a young material, so one has to consciously create pleasing curves that will hopefully grow out and appear natural and wild in the future. I plan to create a multiple trunk, clump style, kabudachi style bonsai.
Wish me luck! And good luck to all the other contestants!
One Quarter Progression
It is the middle of September and I finally got around to working on this little tree. As usual, I start out with drawing a few sketches, which I will scan in and submit later. For the final design, I decided to make use of all 4 trunks and major branches for a clump-cascade style bonsai. The work started with wrapping the trunks and major branches in rafia. Then a few days later, I removed the old soil from the root ball and potted the tree into a slightly larger and heavier bonsai pot. I wired the tree into the pot tightly so as not to disturb the root ball later when I do the heavy trunk twisting. Then I potted the tree in a mixture of akadama and lava.
That’s it for now. Sorry there is not much to show yet. Next time I will wire and bend and twist all the trunks into place and the tree will be almost complete.
Half Way Progression
In October 2012, I wired and twisted all trunks and major branches.
Three Quarter Progression
The trunks were twisted on their axis and coiled tightly, and the profile of the tree is compacted.
Final
! The work is completed for this year. The tree was repotted a few months ago and it has responded well since. New roots are seen growing out of the bottom drainage hole of the pot. New foliage tips are seen on most branches. In November, all trunks and major branches were wired and twisted and placed into position. The tree was compacted without any trunk chop. It is now only 8-9 inches tall (about 22 cm) and 18 inch at its widest point (44 cm). It had a little foliage trim this week for this final picture. It is still too full looking. Next year, I will trim and remove most of the foliage. I like my bonsai with very small and compact foliage pads. When strong and in full sun light, the foliage will be grow very small and tight, unlike how it is now. The bonsai activity I enjoy most is trimming and pinching foliage, so I would like to take my time with this tree and just snip at it a little bit here and there all year long. For this tree to look right, it will need to have more negative spaces and much less foliage. In the attached sketch, one can see how this tree will be reduced further in the near future. I may reduce it to just 2 trunks in the future. The wires will be removed in about 2 years. Then a smaller pot and some more foliage pinching and the design will be complete. For a small tree such as this, a decent bonsai can be achieved in about 2 to 3 years time. That’s it for now. Enjoy!
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Scores:
Selection: 4
Design: 7
Technique: 7
Final Outcome: 7
Documentation: 10
Originality: 7
Total: 42
Very nice result from very challenging material, this has a good future, for this contest the crown could hav been styled a lot more in detail
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[tab title=”Judge #2″]
Scores:
Selection: 5
Design: 7
Technique: 6
Final Outcome: 6
Documentation: 6
Originality: 7
Total: 37
Could use some branch wiring.
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[tab title=”Judge #3″]
Scores:
Selection: 7
Design: 8
Technique: 8
Final Outcome: 8
Documentation: 7
Originality: 8
Total: 46
Not yet finished.
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