Geisha versus Sumo

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One of the main characteristics that we strive for in bonsai is that of a thick, fattened trunk. The bulkier we can make it, the better. A thicker trunk shows the proportions of a more mature tree. In nature, we know that the larger tree is usually the older one. And while trees may peak out in their height, or really slow down, they continue to grow sideways. I sometimes have the same situation.  

But in a bonsai, it’s good, so we are always seeking ways to make the trunk look bigger. One notable method is to reduce the height of the crown through pruning. The shorter the tree is, the larger the trunk will appear in proportion. This usually works pretty well.  
But we have lots of trees that seem to sit in the middle between thick and masculine, and those that are feminine and thin. Many of these trees are fairly unsuccessful because they haven’t really made up their minds on what they want to be. They lack anything that would make them distinctive. Do they want to be thick and powerful, like a Sumo wrestler, or slender and delicate like Geisha? So our job as a bonsai artist is to encourage the tree in one of those directions. Otherwise the tree becomes boring and lacks interesting qualities. How do you make those decisions?  

Take a look at your tree and check to see how many changes in movement it makes. How many zigs and zags? If there is only one, or no significant change in direction of the trunk line before the point where you want to reduce the crown, it might be better to style it into a taller tree, introduce some curves in the trunk line, and let it mature into a tree with a slender, more subtle nature.  
Here in the United States we tend to under value thinner trees. Often, these trees are classified as Bunjin. (Thin is not the only defining quality for a good bunjin) Now it might seem strange you coming from a person that admittedly likes large trees, but bonsai is still about proportions and making something beautiful. I very much enjoy creating bunjin style trees from appropriate material.  

However, we must explore each piece of material on it’s own merits. We want to take whatever the tree has to offer and expand upon it. Sometimes that means cutting something back hard to a new leader and redeveloping. This can even be part of the original plan to growing a thicker trunk. Sometimes we have a great abundance of branches and many options to reduce the height with plenty of movement in the trunk.  

There are times though, when the best solution is to use as much of the existing trunk as possible and lengthen the design. Pull a branch up and make it taller. A lodgepole pine is a great example of tree that would vary rarely make short, powerful tree. By nature, it is tall and slender and the option to grow it thicker just is not there.   

As the trees get smaller, keeping a thin proportion becomes harder. If you look at most shohin, there are not many bunjin style trees. In fact, the trunk diameters approach or exceed the total height of the tree. They become sumo-like pyramids. The sense of delicate movement is much harder to express in a shorter tree. So next time you pick up a pair of concave cutter, think about what your tree has to offer, then feature those aspects, whether it be the trunk line, jin and shari, fruit, or whatever you might have.

Scott E

The Courage to Cut, or Not

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Yesterday I was in my backyard with Steve Piper working on some trees that I had grown from seed. They are crabapples. Years earlier, I had stratified the seed in my refrigerator in a plastic bag with some sand in it. Pretty soon, those seeds sprouted and started growing, right in the refrigerator. Apples do like their cold! I was really late in getting them planted, so I ended up planting seedlings rather than seeds. I grabbed a few Anderson flats and put a layer of soil in the bottom, then built up a berm of soil to lay the tender roots on. I didn’t want to crush them by trying to shove them into soil from above. I then added a strip of soil on top of a row of seedlings, then layed down another row of seedlings on top of that. When I got done, the whole tray of seedlings was sticking out of the soil at roughly a forty-five degree angle. So as these seedlings began to grow, they natural grew straight up, reaching for the light. Fast forward seven or eight years and I have these wonderfully twisted trunks without a single wire scar, all on accident!  

This spring I laboriously rooted pruned and repotted into clay pots roughly eighty of these trees. At that time, I had to cut off about seventy-five percent of the roots because they were encircling the pot and tangled in the drainage mesh. I knew my Crabs and that they could take such harsh pruning. They grow roots profusely and are presently growing right out the drainage holes. Now that they have regained some strength after the spring ordeal, it has come time to give them a good pruning.  

I pruned them hard two years ago when they were out-growing their little four-inch plastic pots. But they ran again and now were towering at two feet tall – a little unwieldy in the wind and lacking much side branching. As we came to look at each specimen, we had to determine whether we were going to keep it as a shohin as originally intended, or let it grow into a medium sized tree. This was largely determined by the size of the curves available. In some cases, we made a drastic cut, leaving no leaves at all, but always a visible bud node. On others we were able to save leaves and still have some good curves.  

What we knew is that the foliage mass of the tree is what will drive its strength. The larger the foliage mass, the more strength the tree has and its ability to respond to our training increases. But overriding that, we had a need to get the trees to a height that we could easily manage and also induce some back budding to get branches to grow.  

I would have preferred to do the work a month ago, but that’s the way the schedule goes. The idea is to cut it in May or June so that the tree has enough time to grow new leaves before  the heat of the summer hits and burns the trunk. Be sure to keep this in mind with any defoliation technique. We really ended up with some home runs in this batch. The trees have a great  start. In many cases, we left a long branch to give the tree some strength and help it thicken and develop further. Every tree we touched was a viable bonsai and the reward of diligent work.  

Watering the trees all these years was a bit of a task. I even had to have help to keep them weed free. But now on to the real point. Every time we touch a tree we need to have a clear purpose in mind and a clear direction for the tree. Each tree needs a different kind of treatment for each stage of development. Can I begin developing branches, or am I still working on the trunk? Can I do a little of both? Do I have the courage and patience to make the hard cut, the best cut? And then let it recover.  

Or for some of us, do I have the patience to not cut and let the tree build up strength and bulk. Many of us have weak trees simply because we keep cutting off the very foliage the tree needs to get strong. Our task as a bonsaist is to balance the needs of the tree at any given moment, whether it be water, air, sun, styling, or growth. Have fun in the sun this summer with your trees and be on the lookout for each one as you water and prune.

Scott E

May Work on Pines and Deciduous

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Circle the week on your calendar. Last week of May. What's it for? Decandling your Black and Red Pines. This date has come by much trial and error. It is based on the time we need in Portland to grow a new set of needles before the trees harden off in September and October. So that means of course that you have been fertilizing the heck out of everything up to now. And while you are at it, you can thin out the needles and do any wiring and styling that you need on these trees. Pines can handle that just fine and it opens things up for light to get in for back budding now that you have stimulated the trees by having decandled them. The whole process and technique for decandling is something that needs to ideally be taught hands on, so we can't really cover it here, especially without illustrations. But if you are familiar with the technique, you now have the date to go with it. You just have to trust me on this one. It doesn't matter what they look like now - it's all about the time on the back end. And remember, Black and Red pines only. Anything else and results may vary (including death of the tree).  

What if I don't have any those kinds of pines to work on? Now is a great time to work on deciduous trees. It's a great time to start an air layer, either in a landscape tree to create a bonsai, or to improve the roots and base of an existing tree. I will be showing that technique in the next meeting. It's also a great time to do hard pruning and cutback on deciduous trees. They are usually up and running at full steam right now, so if you cut them, they can pop out all over. Plus, they have a month or more to start growing new foliage to protect the branches and especially the trunk before the heat of summer arrives. Try not to totally defoliate a tree unless you have a specific purpose and you are able to give good after care. Most trees will not need total defoliation. Be careful with those scissors, they can be more dangerous than you might think. And finally, now is a great time to start wiring that nice spring growth. Let branches continue to elongate, but wire the first four or five inches into interesting curves, very carefully. Then as the wire begins to cut in later in the summer, or possibly all the way into fall, you can remove the wire. During your fall pruning, you can cut back past where you stopped wiring to anywhere you need. You probably will not use all that you wire, but you will have the options at pruning time and letting it elongate will set the branch and let it thicken, if you are developing a new branch. Aluminum wire works great. You can use copper too, but it would be best to protect tender species with a wrap of paper around the wire itself before it is applied. Fold a normal paper towel several times into itself - accordion style, then cut across to make some quick strips. You may also choose to use guy wires in some circumstances, which helps with wire scarring.  

Have fun with your tree and enjoy the arriving sunshine.  Scott E

Mid-Life Crisis

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I started working with bonsai in my late twenties. That’s a pretty young start compared to most folks. I got hooked bonsai by my grandfather, but that was almost 25 years ago! I poured over his John Naka books on every visit. I even collected my first two trees with him just south of the Grand Canyon of the fourth of July during a summer visit. Yes, my very first trees were collected, not nursery stock.

 I used mostly books as my guide in those early years. That meant that I hacked away on trees until not much foliage remained, weakening the trees. Most survived though. I worked hard to develop them and like many of you, I now have those trees with quite a bit of nice, even foliage. Too nicely in fact. They have what Bob Laws likes to call lots of “Fuzz”. Now that the trees have reached some level of stability and are nicely filled out, they are rather a plump and overly ramified group. So this is the midlife crisis for many of our bonsai.  

Time to go on a diet. Maybe your trees have become too thick and full, and the trunk line is obscured or the movement or interest is all gone. Time to get out the saw and pruners and loose a few branches. Your trees will thank you. A friend told me of some experiences with his class with Ryan Neil. This person brought in a few trees to get worked on. When it came time, Ryan grabbed some concave cutters and asked, “Do you mind if I cut off this branch?” Gulp. “OK”.   Wow! Now that’s a bonsai!  

What Ryan had introduced back into the tree was movement, direction, and flow. Now the tree was interesting and what made it that way was space. The space between different branches, between branches and the pot. And different sized and shaped spaces. There was variety and not merely a fuzz ball.  

The proverb, Less is More comes to mind. As trees develop, we often have fewer branches off the trunk, but those branches are much more highly developed and carry a large foliage mass, keeping the tree healthy and strong. Is your tree boring you a bit? Take a look and see if the lower branches on either side are the same height. If so, think about using wire to raise or lower one or both branches, or eliminate one completely and you will automatically introduce movement into the design.  

Less static, more dynamic. Maybe you introduce a large space somewhere in the middle of the tree. If you can get out a ruler and measure the distance between each branch to get it the same, chances are it is a really dull design. Dynamic balance takes more skill and patience, but is much more rewarding in the end. Happy pruning.

Scott Elser

Repot Review

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After last month's program on repotting, I thought that this would be a great time to review what was covered in that session, both to reinforce and amplify techniques for repotting. Next to watering, repotting is the most difficult aspect of bonsai to learn. I for one am still working at it. As such, it's not something that you can just put down on paper, especially without any pictures. So we are not going to try and cover everything, but hit some of the basic concepts and details that might be different than what you might already know.

First of all, know why you are repotting. There are just a few basics reasons:
1.    Aesthetics — you want to change the pot size, style, etc... or change the planting position.
2.    Loss of percolation — the soil is compacted and no water gets into the rootball.
3.    Soil breakdown — the soil particles have broken down so far that they retain too much moisture for the tree.

Knowing the reason you are repotting will guide you in many decisions. Don't do it just because the calendar says so. A conifer can go six to seven years without repotting, and deciduous trees a shorter time. Before you start, have all of your pots and supplies ready. Have your soil sifted and mixed and ready to go. A good basic mix is one third each of Akadama, Pumice, and Lava, or 1-1-1. You can shift to 2-1-1 for more of a boost to the tree, and deciduous trees can even go to all Akadama. Sift all of the particles down to between one quarter and one sixteenth of an inch. For shohin, just use from one eighth down to one sixteenth. I find the easiest way to mix the components is to dump it back and forth a few times between two bins. That way you don't crush it.

Now that you are ready, free the tree from the pot. First, clip the wires at the bottom and clear the drainage holes. Delicately use a chopstick or sickle to free the edge of the tree from the pot. You only need to do three sides to get it out. Usually I find a piece ofjin or something firm at the top of the tree to tip the tree out of the pot. Once it is out, make sure that you know where the base of the tree is and where the new soil line will be. Then start working the bottom into a flat plane that can sit flush on the bottom of the new pot. Once that is done, work in the sides the desired amount and don't get too greedy to get it into that new pot you bought.
Take care of the health of the tree and don't do too much at once. You can really do a lot when you have the proper technique and aftercare. Know your limits, as each tree will have a different challenge. If you are working with a collected tree, especially one due for it' s first potting, be very cautious and do not handle the roots too much. Make sure that you are spraying the roots with water before they start drying out. Double check your pot dimensions and how much root you need to remove.

Once you are ready to go, spray the root ball again and prepare your pot with tie down wires. Galvanized Steel is great as it does not stretch like copper or aluminum and it is cheaper. 16 gauge is great for heavier trees and 18 works for medium trees. For shohin I prefer aluminum because it doesn't take much to hold them in. I found that Orchard Supply or hardware stores have a great selection of sizes of rolls to choose from. Home Depot is a little short in this department. Be sure to pre-bend your wires before inserting them into which ever holes you use. A ninety degree angle, nice and sharp. Make sure the portion between the two holes is convex so that it pulls up against the pot. And speaking of holes, if your pot does not have holes in the right place to anchor the tree, drill some new ones. Use a tile bit in an electric drill and a spray bottle with water to cool the bit. Mark your hole and begin drilling. Once you start penetrating through and hear the sound change, stop and drill from the other side to finish. This will keep the bottom from blowing out.

Add in a single layer of drainage material of the same proportions as regular soil, but at one quarter inch size. Then add in some regular soil on top of that, with a mound in the middle. Place your tree on the mound and settle it in well. Use pointed bamboo chopsticks pounded into the side of the root ball to secure the tree. Wrap your tie wires around the bamboo and tighten while pushing down with your thumb. That should get things nice and snug. Now that the tree is secure, add in plenty of soil.

Use your beveled chopsticks on the sides of the pot to begin working the soil in. Plunge the chopstick all the way to the bottom, then move it up and down lightly to allow soil to fill in the space behind it. Repeat as you careful work your way around the tree. Feel for the roots with your chopstick so that you do not damage them. Use a fine chopstick around fine roots and check for voids under the root mass. Are you still using lots of soil? Heaps of it? Hold the soil firmly with your left hand and you chopstick with the right. That will keep all of those small roots in place. When everything is firm, brush off the excess soil and tamp it down. Be sure to leave a lip at pot's edge so that the water does not run off quickly.

Then sprinkle some shredded New Zealand sphagnum moss on top. This holds the soil particles in place and keeps moisture in the upper levels of the root mass. If you want to hasten the growth of new moss, shred some dried green moss into your sphagnum mix. You can find this moss, which is much cleaner than our domestic moss, at pet stores or places that sell orchids. Be sure to spray the moss with a fine mist before watering in or you will wash it all off. When you water, be sure run the water until it runs clear out of the bottom. Be sure to protect the tree from freezing and if it is particularly tender, it can go on a heat bed for a few weeks to give it a head start. I know this was rather quick and brief, but hopefully you have picked up something new to make the transition easier for your trees.

Scott

Bifurcations

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That’s a really big, fancy word that sounds like something that you might do after too many beers. But what it really describes is the process of splitting in two – as in a branch that forks into two branches. We are more familiar with the word ramification – a branched structure – and its secondary meaning - the result of an action or decision. Put those two together and you have bonsai in a nutshell. We make a decision every time the scissors click together. But how do we make those decisions? Those pruning decisions are most critical on deciduous trees, and now is a great time of year to make them. Notice the “Bi” in bifurcation, as in bicycle –just two wheels. Just two. Not three, not more. So that’s an easy way to remember how to prune our deciduous bonsai. The trees have made it through winter and our latest snowstorm and are ready to go for spring. The leaves of fall are long gone, so we can easily see the structure in our trees. If you were diligent at pinching and pruning through last spring and summer, you are perfectly set up to do some pruning. Now that we have grown all of that ramification, it’s time to take stock and see what’s usable and what’s not. Not everything grew the way we planned – it might have grown too long, in the wrong direction, or too large in diameter. So let’s take a look at how to handle these conditions. 

Generally speaking, we always want to cut back to just two branches at any one node or junction. This includes the trunk too. So you might end up with a trunk and a branch, a large branch and a small one, or just two equal sized branches. If you have more than two at any location you will get an unsightly swelling and may have to eventually cut it off. So remember that prefix – “Bi.” Make sure to leave enough healthy buds. On a beech I have no problem cutting back to a single bud in the middle of winter, but on a maple I am more conservative, leaving two buds. Then I prune again to just one bud if it needs it in late spring, after passing the winter cold. Leave more buds for fine branched species like elm and zelkova. Ideally I would end up with two buds on every branch, but it just doesn’t always work that way. 

The first place to start is to identify the overall outline or silhouette of the tree. Are your trees there yet? Do you have a plan for them? More than likely you have some trees that are approaching their ideal size and structure. Once you have identified the shape that you are trying to achieve, prune anything that protrudes beyond that outline. If you have an area that is too short, make sure to leave more buds, and length to the branch. This might include all or more of the branch than you might usually leave. Allow the branch to grow out and thicken if needed and reevaluate next year. Make sure to balance the strength of branches too. I take beeches down to one bud in the crown, which are usually much larger than those on the lower part of the tree. Then I leave two on the lower parts, and maybe more on the interior where it is weakest. 

Next, cut anything that goes back towards the middle of the tree. Be ruthless. It will be much better in the long run. Remember that the last bud you leave is the direction the branch will head next spring. This means that you may have to leave one more bud, or take one more depending on the situation. Don’t leave two buds that are facing each other and will cross oncethey start growing. Cut anything growing straight up or straight down. These are not usable,

unless you are desperate and can wire them into position. 

Branches that have too long of internodes are pretty easy to identify. The distance between nodes should get shorter as you move out to the tips of the branches. The actual length is going to vary with the size and the species of the tree. The size and structure of my large beeches is completely different than the shohin maples. Everything must be in scale and proportion. When cutting back make sure that you have a live, active bud to replace what you are cutting. Sometimes this means cutting clear back to the node that it started growing from last year. But if the branch is too long between nodes for the place they occur in the tree, they will never get shorter. Better to bite the bullet now than to have to cut more off in the future. 

Now comes the harder part – both to spot, and to carry out emotionally. As you are pruning you may start to notice branches that have grown stronger than others, even though they are on the same main branch. This occurs no matter how many times you have pinched and pruned throughout the year. Since most of our trees are very apically dominant, these branches on steroids usually occur in the crown of the tree. It may have several twists and turns, but no real taper to it. It may be a great branch, and you may have been growing it for years. But it will only continue to get stronger and spoil the balanced ramification that you seek. Find a place that you can cut back to a live bud or smaller branch. You will see an instant improvement and the tree will look finer and more detailed.

And finally, make sure to leave lots of healthy buds on the tree. You might go through the checklist above and end up with nothing. That’s not the point. We need to keep a healthy amount of foliage on the tree to keep it active and strong. If you need to make a really big cut, do it later in the spring when the tree is going full speed and has time and resources to recover.

Happy pruning! Scott

Beech Buds

Repotting Tips

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We just finished up a great session with the Shohin club talking about pots. Since repotting is upon us, or just around the corner, I thought it would be a great time to throw out some great tips to add to our success and enjoyment this repotting season. These won’t be a formal checklist or set of instructions – just a collection of tidbits. 

Positioning the tree in the pot – this was big question that we went over several times in the Shohin group. Looking at the tree from front to back, the tree should always be placed in the middle of the pot. Always. The roots may prevent you from doing this, but it is always the goal. From left to right, the tree should be placed very near the middle. It may vary slightly to one side, depending on the movement of the tree and the proportions. Never try to balance a poor visual design by moving the tree too much to one side. Rather work on balancing the tree in the design of the trunk and foliage. In a round pot, the tree should go smack dab in the middle. The reasons for these placements are simple. We want to get nice, even growth of roots around the whole tree, so we want an equal length around the root system. When potting deciduous trees in ovals and rectangles, I often cut the root pad back to a circular shape, giving a little more room for new roots. 

Aftercare is one of the most important aspects of repotting, and is easy to overlook. Since I have no greenhouse to protect trees, I tend to start my repotting a little later to avoid frosts. I would start earlier if I could, just when the buds begin to start moving. Root development is happening way before the buds move, but don’t get too anxious with species like junipers and beeches, which are some of the last trees to start growing. Junipers like to have warmer conditions to activate their roots. All of these precautions are so that we can maximize the work that we do at this time. 

With many trees, especially conifers, we may not need to repot for five or six years, so we want to get it right when we have the chance. Speaking of which, if you have an established tree, get it into good soil, then let it settle down for a few years. This will allow all the internodes and foliage to shorten, and allow you to work on balancing out the strength throughout the tree. Aggressive repotting will tend to initiate aggressive growth and may ruin your hard work. 

This is also the time when we can really set the visual direction of the tree with a change in pot, planting angle, and position in the pot. And don’t forget, this is the time to get it just right for an upcoming exhibit. For the pot itself, we can adjust the size – and thus the growing conditions, as well as the style, shape and color of the pot. This is the bulk of what we talked about in the Shohin meeting. You can adjust the pot from Formal to Informal to Casual, from masculine to feminine, and from strong to soft by changing elements of the pot. Those roughly equate from angular to curved shapes, and from dark colors to lighter colors. So from a straight edged rectangular unglazed pot to a shiny cream colored oval, and everything in between.  

If we want a softer rectangle, we can choose one with rounded, or indented corners, or maybe some banding detail. To make it stronger, add an out-curved lip. There are many ways to work this, and of course we almost never have just the right pot. Rarely do I see a tree in too small of a pot. Many times, the pot is way to big, even for just growing on. Keep this in mind. 

As for the great techniques, the best way to learn repotting is of course to do it. If you can learn from one of our available professionals in the area, all the better. It requires some practice and knowhow. Each tree is a slightly different situation, so the more circumstances you can practice at, the better you will be able to cope with the current crisis. This is no more apparent than working with collected material, which hardly ever grows in the prescribed bonsai manner. Their roots are as tangled and irregular as the trunk and branches are on top and require some creativity to get them anchored properly.  Good luck with this year’s repotting. 

Scott

Buying Time

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As I continue along on my bonsai journey, I find myself enjoying many more trees than I used to. That might lead you to believe that my criteria for bonsai have somewhat softened, but I think you’d find that quite the opposite is true. My standards for my own bonsai are always increasing to follow my bonsai knowledge. But the knowledge that I gain changes my perception of what a quality bonsai really is. One characteristic that has really been driven home in the past couple of years is the value of age, and why the Japanese put such esteem on it. Certainly as things become older, they become more rare, and thus more valuable. Or maybe they just become junk. We don’t tend to revere age in our society the way that many others do. We are about youth. We tend to ignore the wisdom of our elders and go for the quick fix. But when it comes to bonsai, things should be different. 

I have always liked larger trees, as many of you well know. But growing them big takes time. Sometimes centuries. I am growing a bunch of deciduous and flowering trees in the ground in my back yard. The temptation is to let them grow really fast and really thick. In reality, if I do that, I get these straight segments of trunk that are joined with harsh angles and no transitions. The trees look very artificial, very obvious, and decidedly uninteresting. You’ve seen a hundred like them before. The roots also grow thick and useless. So I must balance the rapid growth in the ground with regular and strategic pruning to get satisfying results. And it IS happening. 

If you have heard our excellent recent speakers, John Thompson and Ted Matson, they both commented on the same idea. We have to use some wire, a little technique, and a lot of patience. I am always delighted at this time of year to check out the progress of the trees after all of the leaves have dropped. It’s like unwrapping my Christmas presents a bit early. Each year, I am slowly managing to dig a few up and get them into pots. The trouble is that I really want them two or three times the size – which means another five or ten years in the ground, then another five years to develop a decent branch structure before I could even think about it as a showable tree. More time. But there is another way! 

You can shorten the timeline by letting someone else do the work. You can buy a tree that has already been developed, whether it’s a raw trunk, or fully developed, you’ll be years ahead. What you are really buying is not a tree, but time. Time is our most valuable asset – we give it to employers and customers in exchange for money. So hopefully, when you turn that cash back into trees, you are buying quality time. Years that someone spent carefully and knowledgeably developing the tree. 

Sometimes I buy a tree just because it is old. I will have to start over with the styling and might have to develop new branches, but what I am buying is a thirty year head start on the bark of the trunk. With age also comes character. Branches die, insects invade, the dog chews on it, birds pick at its roots. All manner of events contribute to the persona of our trees and it is the tree’s visual record of these events that makes them interesting. Our job is to bring out the unique parts of each tree and maximize it’s potential, whether it’s a new seedling or an ancient monarch. 

Scott

Flow

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By far the number one challenge we have when setting up one of our shows at the Japanese Gardens is one of flow. Does the movement of an individual tree flow to the left or the right? What does this mean and why is it important? Flow is a term to describe the overall direction that the tree moves toward. In other words, which direction does it lead your eye to? In a normal display, the flow leads you naturally to the accent plant, and that planting points your eyes back up to the tree. In a shohin display with multiple trees, the flow leads you from one tree to another on the stand.

There are several elements that contribute to flow; trunk movement and direction, main branch position, direction of crown, and overall foliage mass. Where we run into trouble is when we have conflicting elements within the design of the tree. Frequently, the main branch goes in one direction, and the top goes in another. This is the most fundamental rule – The apex must move in the same direction as the main branch. The trunk may or may not move the same way, but these two elements – the main branch and top - must agree. The movement can be very subtle, but you can still spot it in balanced tree styles like formal upright and broom. 

Obviously, the main factor contributing to movement is the trunk. A slanting trunk is pretty obvious, but most of our trees fall into the informal upright category, where they start one direction and switch to another. The other factor is foliage mass. Where this is located and how strong it is can sway an otherwise balanced tree. 

I encourage you to take a look at each tree in your collection and give it a good evaluation to see which direction it’s moving in, and more importantly, that all the factors agree and are in balance. Doing so will improve each tree and make it feel much more harmonious. We don’t have enough space here to talk about how to make corrections; we will have to leave that for another time. Have fun with your trees.

Scott

Cork Bark Japanese Black Pine (Bonsai Boon)

Shimpaku Juniper ‘Itoigawa’ (Bonsai Boon)