Spent this past Saturday at Flex's home. At the recent BSSJ holiday party Flex was asking around if anyone was into doing some carving work and I jumped at the chance. I brought 3 trees: my big fat maple project, a "blue mist" spirea I collected this past summer, and a euonymous I've had for a few years.
Flex took one look at my big maple project and frankly told me not to waste my time. I had my suspicions the tree would never become great bonsai, and Flex confirmed this. So I will just grow it and enjoy it, applying bonsai techniques and see what I can make of it.
On the other hand, Flex really took to my Spirea (caryopteris - pics coming soon)...I dug this up from a neighbor's yard when they were considering tossing it. I dug it out rather clumsily, and left too much foliage top-side and so it was rather an unnecessary battle keeping it alive for the first few weeks in the shade. But Spirea is a real trooper, so when I saw some new growth I started hacking back the big stuff and the new growth really took off. When I went to move it for fall cleanup I noticed roots had grown through the bottom of the plastic pot and that is always a good sign! Now this spirea had a lot of thick chunky bark on it, a perfect candidate for cleaning and carving.
Flex immediately pointed out some tiny fungus on the bark, indicating we definitely had some dead wood to work with. And so we began...carefully flaking off old bark with a small knife, dental pick and a soft toothbrush. While cleaning up the tree Flex pointed out some things that helped me get a good read on it's health and habit. Flex's analytical process was fascinating to observe, and itself taught me new approaches to looking at things. As we slowly revealed the "tree within", we discovered gorgeous twisting, undulating veins, subtle healing scars, old knots and other details that help create the "character" we tend to look for in great bonsai. By the end of the spirea's session, it's appearance had improved dramatically. My hopes have therefore improved beyond what I had originally imagined for this tree. Of course time will tell, but it's off to a great start as bonsai.
We also worked on my euonymous...this tree has patiently hung around my bench for the past few seasons, waiting for me to decide what the heck to do with it. Last year I hacked it down to the main trunks and a profusion of new branches erupted from the cuts. I've trimmed them all back to one or two buds for winter, leaving actual branch selection for spring. A few larger buds here and there show great promise...
Since there wasn't much deadwood carving to be done on this tree, Flex and I took a step back and looked at basic design. We soon revealed a long-ish branch that had a healing cut in just the right spot for developing an interesting uro. So, out came the power tools and Flex walked me through the detailed process for creating a realistic uro feature. It was all very "graham potter" and great fun. A bit of careful wiring and branch bending and the euonymous now has a defined future, again much better than what I had in mind initially.
Finally, Flex put his 200+ year old rocky mountain juniper on the bench for some jin work. I stood back and simply watched the master at work. He explained his intentions and talked me through the process so I understood exactly what he was doing and why. Fascinating stuff, and I am interested to keep an eye on that tree as accomplishes what he has in mind for it.
So big thanks to Flex for his time and generous teaching this weekend. I would encourage anyone to learn what they can from him as his technical expertise and vision combine to offer valuable lessons from which we can all benefit. Thanks Flex!
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