https://bonsaitonight.com/2019/02/01/alternatives-to-shohin-box-displays/

We had very good attendance for a Monday.  Kenji did his usual excellent instruction.  Fred Miyahara was not available for this photo.  We accomplished much with all of the trees we brought.  'twas a very good day.  Thanks to Brenda for bringing items with which to make sandwiches and bottles of water.
Note:  Apologies to Jaya as I really goofed up a photo of her and with her trees.

Glenn working his very old Juniper doing some refinement.  Just need to reduce the size a bit.  

Brenda with 3 of her new trees.  Her trees are advancing quickly as her skills have greatly improved and now she has these 3 beauties to add to her collection.

Mori and Kenji working on a very nice shimpaku somewhat recently acquired by Mori.  It was previously styled, but Kenji is showing Mori how to significantly improve the tree.

Eric working on his JBP.  Some fall/winter needle plucking and general maintenance.  Very good nebari, trunk movement and will nicely compact due to his ability to grow the JBP correctly.  The nana on the foreground was recently acquired and will be a cascade when it is styled.

Susan is definitely lasered into her work.  She had 4 very nice trees for the work session that definitely showed she has been working hard on her trees.  Sylvia is very happy with herself and for Kenji's help in fine tuning her Itoigawa.

John brought a very nice Ficus 'Melon Seed' which he has been working on for some time.  Kenji is doing some fine work and finding that he really likes this variety of Ficus.  He said he is very interested in growing Melon Seed.

The group met on August 19th as scheduled with Peter Macasieb.  Peter's wife Marissa was also there along with 9 of the group.  Got lots of work done.

Mori working with Peter on a 'Blue Rug' Juniper for size of silhouette vs the trunk.  Blue Rugs have soft foliage that needs to be controlled to keep it from being too droopy, but the softness is also nice.  

Brenda's Japanese Boxwood is showing thickening of the primary branches getting them ready for ramifying into secondary branches.  This will greatly enhance the aging look of the tree and give it an excellent silhouette.

Rita and Peter taking a Ficus down to structural branching basics.  From there the prinary branches will grow starting the basic structure and silhouette of the tree.

Olive on the left is big enough now for a small shohin pot.  A little wiring and it will look terrific.
The semi cascade on the right is a type of Sage, maybe.  A striking yamadori regardless.

This Olive is also ready for a smaller pot.  However, keeping it in this pot for further training is good as the secondary branching is developed.  Moving it to a smaller pot would slow the growth of the secondary branches making for better ramification and smaller leaves.  Hmmm.

An Itoigawa shohin in the making, yamadori style. Trained from a cutting and wired after about 2 years, it has responded nicely to the tight curves and twisting of the trunk.  The tree is probably 5-7 years now and is healthy and ready for heavy working. 

https://bonsaitonight.com/2018/05/11/cutback-and-wiring-on-a-semi-cascade-ume/

The link is a short series of photos of a very, rugged, beautiful and very old Ume by Jonas at Bonsai Tonight. Just imagine what it looked like when he first acquired the tree.  Probably not very inviting, but many old trees and nursery stock start out that way.  It is not a shohin but, if one could find a smaller one or reduce the dead wood....Reducing this dead wood would be sacrilegious.

The group had the usual show prep meeting on the 15th after the SDBC general meeting.  Only 6 of the group were there but Janice, Brenda, Nancy and Jaya were in Tak Shimazu's shohin Juniper workshop making more shohin.....the workshop created some really good trees to add to the group!  Shirley, Cristina, Sylvia, Eric, Bill and I worked on the 3 displays for the group.  David Inglish was also in the workshop and is also starting to move into shohin and kifu sized trees.
Thanks to the following members:
Nancy for creating a beautifully detailed inventory of our stands/slabs with detailed descriptions, and each one and its bubble wrap are numbered.  
Eric and Brenda for taking the box stands home to bring to the show. 
Janice for taking the container of small stands/slabs home to bring to the show.
Eric for creating stand layouts on paper.  The variety of tree and its owner and the stand/slab  number are entered into the layout for replication at the show.  Members will bring an extra tree or two and accents just in case "stuff" happens to the selected trees and accents.

​Next meeting is July 22 in Room 104 at the Prado.

 This Juniper was from the Sacto Convention in 2016 from Ted Matson's workshop.  The foliage was reduced by 80 percent! and then allowed to grow out again which it did very vigorously.  It was originally designed as a chuhin, about 15" when it would be "finished".  However, someone suggested to airlayer it and have two shohin.  There are two black lines barely visible on the trunk.  One is just below where the trunk takes off to the right even with Ken's chin and another about an inch below that even with the zipper pull on Ken's shirt..  That 1" space is where the airlayer will be created.

Youpon Holly before and after.  Huh?  In the first photo the top half of the tree is being held in place.  It was cut about halfway down the trunk...the white line on the trunk.  So the funny people sat the cut off top down on the tree to show the new tree when the top is re-grown.  Pretty nice in the very short term.  The tree will be re-potted lower in the pot to hide the big roots.

This Juniper, after initial styling, looked a bit like a pinwheel with over-sized jin.  Lots of potential choices.  The jins were reduced by 1/2.  Branch removal was done based on the cloth hiding the existing branches.  Now movement has been established.  The jins and branches  are more in proportion; very important in bonsai and critical in shohin.

The chopstick shows where the "head" comes off.  This is needed to reduce the tree so when the apex is grown out the tree will within the shohin height requirement.  Nerifolia's back bud nicely so with Eric's expertise with them, a new apex is not too far in the future.

Peter helping Ken with some refinements for his beautiful Elm.

Peter and Cristina in deep conversation about her Japanese Black Pine.  This is a sweet little tree.  Can't wait to see it in a bonsai pot soon.

Itoigawa before and after.  Eliminated most, not all, branches.  Let the runners stay to motivate back budding, then the runners will be cut back to bring the tree into size.  Ted Matson, as always, taught another great workshop.  One of the many excellent instructors at the seminar.

JBP start, needle plucked and then final needle pluck and branch removal.  Now we wait.

Ron and Jaya working with Jonas on their pines. My baby!  Jonas did his usual excellent instruction.  Easy to follow this guy.

Kusimono workshop was excellent.  Beautiful plantings by Brenda and Cristina.  Lucy Sakaida-Judd is amazing!!!

Janice working hard with Sam Adina.  Shirley very happy with her Olive.  NICE tree.

Janice after all of the pruning and wiring.  Excellent!  Shirley with her "finished" Olive and a dozen or so cuttings destined for pots one day.

Bob intently listening to Redwood guru Bob Shimon.  Great workshop.

Abe's before and after with very nice Shimpaku junipers.  This this is only the first stage of development.  The branches will back bud and then will be able to be shortened as will the apex.

Got to this group a little late for b and a.  This Shimpaku has a very nice old jin and is easily a shohin.  

Photos of the exhibit are on FB

We all met on Sunday January 14 to select which trees would go to the seminar exhibit in Santa Nella on February 2-4.  We can make only one good display this year, being our first year displaying at the biennial seminar.  In 2020 we will have many more trees and will have 4 of our own shows to strive for to improve our trees and display expertise.

The top Juniper (Janice) is ready.  The Boxwood (Brenda) is ready, albeit no refinement yet but nice wood, moss and very healthy.  The Ficus B-D (Charlie) needs a bit of trimming and moss added.  The Ficus nerifolia (Shirley) will have the soil pared down a bit and moss added.  A few leaves will be removed.  The accent plant (Cristina) is ready.

We all will bring back up trees in case something happens.  John Carpenter and Kathy Shaner will be the final say as to what goes into the display and where in the display they will go.  this will be a good learning experience for us.  Looking forward to it.
Photos by Eric and Charlie.  Me thinks we should have had photos of the back up trees.

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