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 Rocky Mountain National Park |
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Workshops in Colorado:
I took a 20 year old spruce which I had been rough shaping for 6 years
to a Craig Coussins workshop.
The spruce was about 16 inches (23 cm) tall with a nice 3 to 4
inch (8 to 10 cm) diameter trunk with curving movement and
good nebari. Still, there were not always branches where I needed
one, and I did not have a final vision for the design of the tree.
After a few hours I had completely wired the tree and Craig started to
move branches to build the basic silhouette and to
create a natural branch placement. Some branches moved up toward the
apex up to fill gaps
and balance out the design. But he only did half of the branch
placement, leaving the other half for
me to do based on his example.The end result was wonderful. A tree
that was neglected and unruly was
transformed into one of my better specimens.
I have done several
workshops with various Bonsai experts, but this was the best
hands-on workshops
I have ever attended. And it is the first time I walked away from a
workshop where the tree I was
working on was truly transformed.
My wife was amazed: the tree she most wanted to dispose of suddenly
became her favorite.
Darrell Whitley, Colorado
I was asked to do a demo for the Rocky Mountain Bonsai Society. Jerry Morris who has a large collection of Native trees from Colorado brought along some Colorado Blue Spruce and a Ponderosa Pine for me to work on. Unfortunately I had no prep time and could only do the smallest of the trees offered (much to my frustration as there was plenty I wanted to do with the others of course)
I normally require at least four hours prep time prior to a demo to allow me to study the tree and fully wire everything prior to a demo so I need only discuss the design aspect of my style of 'natural' Bonsai design.
In this case the spruce I chose was presented with an existing 'front'. I needed to work on the tree without transplanting it and decided to turn the tree around to the side. Hence the side became the front and the old front was now the side. Interestingly the new front also had a back but that in turn was also a nice front. So the front would therefore be determined by the nebari-surface root in this case when the tree was transplanted into a circular pot. You can see Jerry here with some of his great Yamadori. I really hope I get to go back one day as I not only like the humor of Coloradoans but love the material that they find.
AFTERCARE: Spray three times a day for at least six weeks to keep the humidity levels up (like a giant cutting) and water to keep the soil damp. Don't feed for six weeks and then half strength high nitrogen every two weeks to assist in bud growth. Read my books to learn about feeding and watering regimes.
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