Peter's Bonsai Blog
| Peter's Bonsai Blog |
|
|
|
This Chinese Juniper was purchased from Wattson Bonsai in April 2013. It had been imported from Japan earlier that year. The variety is known as "Itowagoa", and has very fine foliage. It was purchaed as a finished specimen bonsai. I had to trade in 10 of my own trees in part exchage to be able to afford it. The concept of trading up, is becoming an increasing part of the hobby and is one of the principal ways by which entheausiasts can obtain this quality of tree. It will be known as the Wattson Juniper. This is its story so far........... |
|
|
This is the tree as I first saw it in the nursery in April 2013. The coffee cup gives some scale..... |
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
This is what the tree looked like when I got it home in June and after I had applied some wire and lime sulphur. |
|
|
|
By the end of September I decided to display the tree at the BTA show in Sheffield. The only work that was realy necessary was to clean up and spray the pot with "Leaf Shine" and to apply some moss to the surface. Although I don't like to strip off the old bark, I do like to achieve that "wet look" on the bark by spraying the trunk with Leaf Shine. This is the overall effect.....although I'm not convinced about the table. Any thoughts , please let me know.
In September 2013 I decided to exhibit at the BTA show in Sheffield. The followiing picture was taken at that time.
At the show I commissioned a new pot from John Pitt, The tree was then repotted in April 2014. In January 2015, Idecided to exhibit it in the Ayrshire Bonsai Group winter image display. The following picture was taken at that show.
I feel that the new pot and the table all help to improve the composition. What do you think? By October 2015, the foliage had grown very dense and I decided to thin it out and tweak the styling. This is intended to allow light and air into the canopy to encourage back budding. You can see how much lighter the tree looks. The guy wires were used to bring the major branches into a better position.
Lots of detailed wiring was used to open up the foliage and place it in position. This is the tree on the SBA display at Gardening Scotland 2016
In September 2019 the tree was displayed at the UK Nationl Bonsai Exhibition, held in Bury, England. I was very pleased that it had been selected for the UK's premier exhibition.
|
||
