This Little Juniper Survived

Some sloppy wiring a year ago reduced my healthy little Juniper Procumbens Nana to half a tree.

August 2018

Thankfully eight months later it has made a good recovery.

April 2019 - too straight

It was still looking very straight and ugly though, so yesterday I decided to make another attempt at styling it.

I struggle with thick wire, especially on little trees,so I decided I wasn't going to risk that again. I don't want to kill what's left of the tree!

After an unsuccessful attempt to put some movement into the tree using thin wire doubled up, I decided to try something different. Instead of using a guy wire, however, I pulled the apex to the right and slightly forward using a humble cable tie - a trick I picked up at last Saturday's club meeting.

April 2019 - not so straight any more

Much better!

Unfortunately even the minimal wiring I attempted caused a little damage to the bark.

Damaged bark at base and a new bud a little higher up

Hopefully it's not bad enough to do any long term damage.

I'll probably wait another year before I prune it. If I'm lucky some of the new buds on the trunk with grow and give me a couple of extra branches to work with.

The Art of Growing Miniature Bonsai

At their most recent meeting one of my bonsai clubs (I now belong to two) had a fascinating speaker, Hennie Reyneke, who is well known for his mame trees.

Hennie holding a little Ficus Burtt-Davyi

I've seen his trees before and was delighted to get the opportunity to see how he creates his little masterpieces.

Of course, as is the case with bigger trees, creating good mame takes time, but seeing tiny cuttings transformed into the skeleton on which future bonsai will be built was really inspiring and made me feel a little bit guilty about some of the cuttings I've thrown away lately. I do however still have a lot of small rooted cuttings that I can play with and having already started trying to downsize some of my own trees, I feel certain that this is the right way for me to go.

Here is a close up of Hennie pruning one tiny tree:

Another being wired:

And the same tree after a little pruning:

As with all trees, it is important that everything is in proportion for miniatures, so you should choose species with leaves which are able to reduce well. Flowers and fruit must be naturally small as their size cannot be reduced. Big flowers and fruit on a tiny tree will look wrong!

Some of the species that Hennie recommended for miniatures are Maples, Celtis, Ficus, Cotoneaster, Pyracantha, Buxus and Lonicera, as well as conifers like Juniper Procumbens Nana.

A little literati

If you've got the patience to do so, growing from seed is a good way to grow mame bonsai because you can create taper and balance without the scarring caused by heavy cuts. Hennie also mentioned that fig varieties develop a thick buttress base if grown from seed. I have no immediate plans for trying that though as I've managed to grow ficuses with nice bases from cuttings, root cuttings and air layers. I'm really happy with the base of the Ficus Natalensis in the last photo in this post. That little tree was grown from a root cutting.

Miniature bonsai can of course also be created from small collected trees or nursery stock.

It is important to prune your little trees regularly to keep them in shape (something I'm often guilty of forgetting) and they should be repotted once a year, removing heavy roots to encourage the development of a fine root system.

One of the most difficult aspects of caring for miniatures is seeing that they are watered correctly. A good way to avoid them drying out is to stand the little pots in a shallow tray with damp river sand or gravel, providing humidity for your little trees. However over watering will lead to root rot, so drainage is just as important as it is with larger trees.

One of the styles I've never tried growing is root over rock. I've always felt that the rocks will make them too heavy for me too handle. However Hennie showed us a miniature root over rock Ficus, so I guess I no longer have an excuse not to try this style.

Seven Months in the Creation of a Lonicera Bonsai - my Reddit Competition Tree

When I entered Reddit's Nursery Stock Contest back in autumn, I knew that it was going to be a lot more challenging for me than it was for my Northern hemisphere friends because I would have very little of the growing season to work with.

Under the circumstances I'd probably have been better off working with a Juniper than the Lonicera which became my competition tree, and I did buy one. The wrong one! I shouldn't have bought that tree for a number of reasons:

1. I don't enjoy working with Junipers
2. I knew nothing about Juniper Mint Julep until after I'd bought the tree, when a little research led me to believe that the species isn't regarded as good bonsai material
3. The tree I bought was far bigger than the material I like to work with.

The Lonicera I finally entered in the competition had none of those problems. It has tiny leaves which are well suited to bonsai - even mame trees. But in the summer months it's essential to prune regularly or a little one like mine will soon grow totally out of control.

I bought my tree on a cold rainy day in April. A day so miserable I had the entire nursery to myself. Even the staff were reluctant to offer any assistance.

I must have been quite a sight, bent down close to the ground to examine the trees using one hand while I clung onto my umbrella with the other. I stayed well away from the big trees that day.

My purchase looked like this:

Lonicera as purchased, 6 April 2018

I decided to take things slowly, rather than cutting off anything I would regret, so after an initial pruning it looked like this:

First pruning, 6 April

I tied a couple of loose wires around trunks I was considering removing.

A few days later I was feeling more daring and reduced the tree to a very basic frame.

Second pruning, 11 April

Unfortunately some of the branches were still longer than I'd have liked them to be, but I didn't want to kill them by leaving them devoid of foliage.

By early May the tree was pushing out a little new growth, giving me hope that I'd be able to improve on the styling over the next few months.

New growth, 3 May

And by the middle of June it was really overgrown:

Overgrown, 19 June

Time to tidy up:

19 June

I still wasn't getting the back budding I really wanted though, so that left branch in particular was way too long and bare.

July was a slow month with only minimal signs of new growth, so I did nothing.

21 July

Then in August I finally felt there was enough growth lower down to let me shorten some of the branches.

After heavy pruning  - 17 August

Spring growth was pretty good:

21 September

With the benefit of hindsight, maybe I shouldn't have removed so much before submitting my final photo for the contest.

Final contest photo - 21 September

Still, I'm not too unhappy with the outcome given the constraints I was working under.

The contest is over, but the journey continues.

The little guy is growing well.

6 November

I was far less aggressive with my latest pruning because my emphasis has changed. Now I need to fatten up the branches I plan to keep.

6 November - after pruning

That shouldn't take long though. Not on such a tiny tree. As it stands today, the little guy is a mere 11cm tall. And in a few months time I may reduce the height a little further.

A Little Wire Makes a Big Difference

I wasn't really planning to use my Big Schefflera for bonsai. When I took it to a workshop last month I just wanted a little help with repotting it.

September 2018 - before repotting and wiring

However one of the men at the workshop took one look at the tree and decided that it was suitable bonsai material after all.

After a quick repot, a change of front and a little heavy wire, it's on its way.

September 2018 - after repotting and wiring

Looking at the photos, however, I'm beginning to feel that there are too many branches clumped together on the right. I think in time the two lowest branches may have to go. But not right now because they're full of flower buds and I really want those flowers to grow.


One of the reasons for my doubts was the ugly roots. I was unwilling to remove everything my tree had worked so hard to grow.

Roots before repotting

The change of front helped though. That raised root is not so prominent now that it's growing straight to the front.

Roots after repotting

The nebari will never be spectacular, but a little pruning and a change of front made a big difference. And maybe I can cover a bit more of them at the next repot.

My Juniper is Half Dead

The internet is full of stories of dead Juniper mallsai, many of them victims of the mistaken belief that they can be kept indoors. This is not one of those stories. I found a way to kill half my tree even though it was living outside.

Despite my reluctance to work with conifers, I currently have three Junipers in my collection - two small Juniper Procumbens Nana which I tend to neglect and a much larger Juniper Mint Julep which I foolishly bought as a candidate for Reddit's nursery stock competition though that tree was totally unsuitable for use as "instant" bonsai.

My younger Procumbens Nana is a tree which I propagated from a cutting when I entered my club's new talent competition a few years ago.

April 2018 - unstyled

Until recently I'd never done any work on it at all. Then in April I saw a lovely little Juniper bonsai on Reddit. When I heard that it had been styled without wiring I was inspired to see if I could create a small Juniper bonsai the same way.

Unfortunately when I examined my tree I discovered that its structure was totally unsuited to clip and grow, so I did a little pruning and some relatively heavy wiring. Then, extremely embarrassed by the result, I returned the tree to its home, determined that I was not going to write about the mistakes I'd made.

April 2018 - after bad styling

Over the course of winter I noticed some browning on the foliage and after a while it became obvious that something had gone horribly wrong. As you can see here, one side of the tree had died.

August 2018 - half dead

Luckily the other side is still alive and showing signs of new growth.

August 2018 - new growth on surviving trunk

Today I removed most of the dead trunk, leaving a little behind for a possible jin, while leaving the other side untouched aside from removing the wire.

August 2018 - cut back

So what went wrong?

Looking at the base of the dead trunk, there is a ring where the bark looks different from the rest. I suspect that while wiring it I accidentally stripped the bark and cambium, cutting off all life support to that trunk.

So now what?

Perhaps I'll let it grow back for a year or two before trying again. Or perhaps I'll finally accept that I'm not a Juniper person and put it on my club's raffle.

Finding the Bonsai Inside the Tree

At last Saturday's BRAT meeting we saw two talented artists at work. Both are recent winners of the national new talent competition.

As is the case with the new talent competition, the artists were supplied with material they'd never seen before. This time, however, they were working with vastly superior material - two Juniper Procumbens Nana "shrubs" which had been grown specifically for use as bonsai. Yet to the untrained eye they might have passed as simple nursery stock.

Here they are at the beginning of the demonstration:

Tree 1

Shaundre's tree

Shaundre Craukamp is a member of Eastern Bonsai Society (my club). He won the national competition in 2015.

Attracting young people to the art of bonsai is a huge concern. Most of my club's members are well over forty. Shaundre represents the future of my club. He's still at school. We desperately need to attract more members of his age.

Tree 2

Stefann's tree

Stefann Pretorius, a member of Suikerbos Bonsai Kai, won the national competition in 2016. Here he is assisted by Hannes Fritz, an experienced bonsai artist who represented South Africa when he did his own demonstration at the 8th World Bonsai Convention in Japan in 2017.

Stefann and Hannes

Stefann's tree

FOR SOUTH AFRICAN READERS

If you're not already a member of a club and would like to join one, visit the SABA website to find a club in your area.

When Branches Crack

Among the trees growing in my bonsai area is a skinny fig tree which I started from a cutting off a neighbour's tree when he pruned it in mid-2015. Although it's not much thicker than a pencil, by December 2017 it was nearly two foot tall. Yet it had not produced a single branch. I did however see signs that it was setting buds for next summer's fruit. (*)

Then disaster struck, or so it seemed. The trunk was growing closer to horizontal than vertical, so I decided to wire it into a more upright position, but with a little added movement. The trouble is I wasn't as gentle as I should have been and, while bending it to the desired angle, I managed to crack the trunk. Not a small crack either, this one went more than half way through the trunk.

On another tree I'd probably have cut back to the site of the crack and worked with what was left, but in this case I wasn't happy to do that for a couple of reasons:

• the crack site was just below the first leaf, meaning I'd have been left with a bare stump
• as I already have a quirky fig tree I've been working on for some time, my main focus for this one has been on trying to grow fruit. If I'm right about the buds I've seen, cutting back would have delayed my chances of getting fruit.

Although I believed the top half of the tree had little hope of survival, I decided to see if it could be saved. I manipulated the wire to bring the two sides of the crack together, then sealed it with Kiyonal paste.

By the next day the leaf at the site of the crack was starting to dry up and a few days later it fell off but, remarkably, that was the only sign of distress the tree ever showed.

January 2018 - three weeks after the "accident"

Now, three weeks later, there is new growth at the apex, but more importantly it's starting to develop new branches both above and below the crack.

Crack site - new growth is visible at the bottom

It seems that damaging the trunk was actually a blessing in disguise.

(*) I'm certain that somebody will be wondering why I started with such a thin cutting, so let me explain.

The cutting my neighbour gave me was actually big and thick, with too many branches to fit into any pot I owned, so I cut it into several pieces in a variety of sizes, hoping that the thicker ones would root. In time they may have done if we hadn't been hit by what I believed was a severe drought, but was actually relatively minor compared to the drought that is still taking its toll on other parts of South Africa.

When water restrictions were imposed I decided it was time to dispose of whatever was not alive, so I pulled most of the cuttings out of their pots. Sadly one of the thickest ones was just starting to root, but my attempts to save it were unsuccessful. Only this one skinny one survived.

I still hope to get a better fig cutting one day but for now I'm hoping that this one will fatten up. Maybe those extra branches will help.

Lonicera's First Styling

As I'm trying to reduce the number of trees in my collection, I shouldn't really be buying more, but sometimes I find the temptation impossible to resist. It doesn't help that one of my favourite places to have lunch is a little restaurant inside a nearby nursery. And when I'm there I always wander around to see if they have any suitable bonsai material.

I had lunch there last Saturday and I came away with this Lonicera Nitida - a small shrub with tiny leaves.

As purchased - November 2017

My only previous experience with this species was over a decade ago, a while before I joined my club. I don't remember too much about that tree except that it died unexpectedly shortly after what I believe was the second time I pruned it. It had been doing really well until then and I'm not sure what went wrong, a fact which makes me nervous about trying the species again. But at a little over $3, this one was hard to resist.

The fact that the tree was so small meant that all the branches were clumped really close together, making branch selection quite difficult. I decided to keep all the low branches, removing only the secondary branches that were growing straight up. I then had to make a decision about the thin straight trunk growing close to one branch. I didn't feel I could keep both so I had to chose one as the main trunk line.

Two possible trunk lines

As the branch was thicker and already had a secondary branch coming off it, I decided my best option was to see whether I could successfully wire it upwards. Once I'd established that it was flexible enough to reposition where I wanted it, I removed the straight trunk.

November 2017 - after first styling

At this stage I started to wonder whether I should have kept one of the secondary branches I'd removed from the new leader, but what's done is done. Seeing how many little branches the tree has everywhere, I'm optimistic that some of them will soon thicken enough to give me the structure I need. Once I see what useful options present themselves, I'll cut the top back to make an even smaller tree.

For now, however, I'll probably just leave it to grow. I also want to read up on Lonicera care to ensure that I'm able to keep this one alive.

Updated photos of this tree can be found here.

Styling a Juniper

Last week was another BRAT meeting - a meeting at which all the bonsai clubs in my province get together.

Among the speakers was Stefann Pretorius, a member of Suikerbos Bonsai Kai and winner of last year's national new talent competition. For that competition participants work on nursery stock - totally untrained Juniper Procumbens Nana. For this demonstration he used far better material, an older Juniper which had been propagated specially for bonsai use. This is what it looked like from Stefann's chosen front.

Before styling

Stefann had taken some time to study this tree and had done several sketches of potential styles, before settling on this one:

With a slight change of slant required, the first thing Stefann did was tie the tree firmly to the turntable.

Then it was time for a little pruning.

Nothing too major as Stefann says it's best not to remove more than 40% of the foliage in one go. I guess that explains why the Juniper I attempted to style at our club's new talent competition a few months ago seems to be dying. Well that and the fact that I decided to move it from the nursery bag into a pot at the wrong time of year!

The biggest job was wiring all those branches. Luckily Stefann had a very able assistant for that - Hannes Fritz, also from Suikerbos Bonsai Kai, is an experienced grower who recently represented Africa on stage at the 8th World Bonsai Convention in Japan, styling a tree belonging to Masahiko Kimura.

Stefann and Hannes wiring the tree

After wiring the tree looked like this:

After styling

It will take a while to develop the pads, but the structure is in place for a very nice bonsai.

When I see trees like this I wish I had the skill and patience to style a good Juniper bonsai, but they're really prickly and they require far too much wiring for my liking.