An open window into the comings and goings of students and their trees attending our regular weekend and midweek bonsai classes under the ever watchful eyes of John Hanby.
Classroom Corner – Andrew’s Juniper one to one
Included in the trees Andrew brought for his one to one session were these three Junipers. The main thing that they all had in common was that they were strong and healthy after a period of good vigorous growth.
The large Juniper Parsonii was now somewhat overgrown and ready for a restyling. I went through the whole tree cleaning out weaker inner shoots and made a new branch selection as I progressed. Andrew then started wiring all the branches while I turned my attention to his other trees.
In the afternoon I helped him complete the wiring and then all the branches were positioned. The tree is now ready to be allowed another period of good growth with the correct watering and feeding.
I like the small Juniper Chinensis……this is pure literati style and one we created together from a larger tree a while ago. This tree is so bushy now that the foliage mass is too big for the literati style and the tree’s trunk size/line.
It is amazing just how much foliage I had to remove to bring the tree back into scale……I suppose my regular “mangey” students would say that this is normal! The tree looks so much better and the canopy sits well without wire.
The third Juniper was from the Squamata Meyerii family. Once again the foliage mass was much too large and dense for the trunk and style of the tree.
I went through the tree selecting branches and shoots, removing everything I considered to be surplus to requirements. Andrew’s homework was to wire the tree and have a go at repositioning all the branches. Can’t wait to see how he gets on!
We discussed other trees also, making this a very pleasant and productive day. I look forward to the next one!
