Wow, I'd sure like to see the process by which he takes the cutting and puts such natural twists and bends in it to make it look like a yamadori shimpaku. His trees are always fantastic!

Ah, no. He does quite a bit of early wiring, then plants out in the field then after it has reached the size he wants he revisits and starts to develop the shari and jin. I have one from him that I reduced back to the core twisted trunk this year, next year will begin the process of getting the shari started.

John

So, first the wiring, and later, the shari. That makes sense, since in the earliest stages, when the trunk is very thin, it is too early to create the shari. Wiring is what creates some good curves. Later, when the trunk has some volume, the shari can add to the contorted shape.

Since Ross mentioned the Lindsay Farr video, this is a question that is not related to the shimpaku, but I hope I will be forgiven for asking: There was a black pine growing field with thousand of young black pines. How ofter are they root-pruned? Every 2 to 3 years, or may be they grow much longer before getting root-pruned? Does somebody have any idea how they do this? I prune mine every 3 years, and I thought that it is not a good idea to grow them longer without root-work, but I wonder how they do it in Japan?

Would this method of bark/cadmium layer removal work on pines as well to cause a twist over time?

I think what Boon and John are saying is that a good early wiring is the important part in making nice bends in the trunk, and that shari just adds to the character.

I know old thread, I ended up buying this tree from Jim Gremel when I was out at the BIB show. It now resides at Boon's and is going to be made a bit more compact over time, with more refined and reduced jins and more shari work. Jim worked on this tree for over 15 years, from striking as a cutting to placing in the show. He sent me a picture of the tree from 4 years agom when he was digging up out of the ground at his place.

John

John,

I had seen this on Jonas' blog, but had forgotten it was yours.  Looks great!  What more thoughts did Daisaku have?  Any suggestions for a new pot?  The jins seems a bit thick still, did he have any thoughts on them?

Rhode Island?

This is an absolutely fantastic tree. Wow, just wow. I know there is no such thing as a 'perfect' bonsai, but this one, from the picture, appears to come close. What an amazing tree. Thanks for sharing, trees like this inspire me a lot.





Regards,
Shimsuki