Hi everyone Nigel Saunders here we got a Cool night last night we got some Frost It didn't go below freezing but Everything was frosted over in the Morning I did manage to get a accent planting or Accompaniment uh for my large Forest I'll show you a close-up of it Here's what I came up with A stone kind of land on this side you Can see the Moss Sand on the other side and a little kind Of Island at the back there so very small But I think it looks good it kind of Matches the planting quite nicely same Kind of stones same color pot and same Moss sand kind of theme so I think that'll be good I noticed the Larch Forest is changing Color quite dramatically I can notice a Change just overnight The main two trees up front here are Turning yellow now so that's kind of Exciting I think You know the show is in two days and I Think the force is going to look quite Nice for the show the KW Bonsai Society Has an in-person meeting tonight and I'm Going to be doing a demonstration on Getting a tree ready for the show so I've got to pick out a tree that I'll be Taking tonight and also one that I'll be Working on today
I did the Larch Forest yesterday so I Was thinking for today's video I would Work on my sarisa Which is Way back there in full flower so I'll Get that out for today's project And for tonight I think I'll do the Avatar Grove Down here I have the Avatar Grove my Eastern White Cedar Forest So it needs a lot of cleanup the Moss it Needs a lot of landscape work some sand Some Moss maybe fixing up some Stones I've got to clean the trees up do a Final pruning and get the pot prepared So I'll be doing that all tonight at the Club meeting I have got my cyrissa out on the bench You can see all the flowers on top They call it the tree of a thousand Stars and you can see why It's like a whole Milky Way worth of Stars there Yeah really really cool So it definitely needs pruning you can See how long And Shaggy the canopy is there's no Definition between pads The soil needs cleaning up there's a lot Of mosses growing in by itself Yeah quite a bit of cleanup work to do Today on it Should be quite fun I did notice on this Side you can see this one branches a
Little weak And I think I think it's just because Maybe it's in an awkward position and The trees just kind of shedding it Um maybe the stronger branches going Around we'll have a look at it we'll you Know crawl underneath Have a look at the structure of it and See what's going on with that Branch but I just noticed all summer it's kind of Been growing weekly You know the leaves are still healthy But Just not with Vigor like some of these Branches shooting out and it's probably To do with the flow lines going to that Branch it's probably just doesn't have a A direct route for sap to flow to it It's probably Something awkward with it So the rest of the tree is really really Healthy I've got a lot of the old leaves that I've got to pick out the yellow leaves And that happens all the time in Psorisa's they're constantly shedding Leaves the old leaves and going in new Shoots yeah so lots of kind of fun work To do on this tree today getting it show Ready My first step with this tree is I want To prune the canopy when you're looking Above
I want to prune the oval shape Um So to do that I have to know my extents Like I can see you know front to back I want To prune it back to about here at the Back maybe to about here And the sides are fairly obvious but I Want to come down to the front view And make sure the tree is still balanced I don't want it growing longer on one Side and shorter on one side so it looks Kind of out of balance I want the tree To look Balanced around the trunk so I'll put the camera in the front view Position Have a look at it kind of analyze the Width of the canopy and see where I want To prune it to here is a look at the Tree from the front view and you can see It's grown quite a bit since the last Time I showed it which was the Toronto Spring show So I'm just analyzing it I've got this Tree shifted in the pot quite a bit to The right hand side Kind of counterbalanced by the rocks and The zebra here I think in future it'll be shifted a Little more Central So I'm looking at the width of the Canopy Kind of I'm about
Here and here which you know is fairly Symmetrical around the trunk line You know I don't have one side Way longer than the other I think it looks fairly balanced so I Think it's just a matter of kind of Going with the proportions it's at now And just pruning away all the long Shoots I'm styling this tree in the pyreneve Style which is a kind of a Umbrella shaped canopy very flat on top I also want it curved underneath the Foliage So the canopy is a thin curved layer of Foliage on top and I also want to Separate the foliage into separate pads So you can kind of see through the Canopy a bit to give it some space and It'll help miniaturize the the tree give It that image of a an ancient acacia Tree In the plains of Africa There's a YouTube channel called Blue Sky bonsai There's a YouTube channel called Blue Jay bonsai So I'm thinking blue Blue scissors Bonsai so here I go I've got the blue scissors I'm going to Begin by looking straight down on top of The tree and pruning the oval shaped Profile to the canopy All right you're looking at the top view
Of the tree So here I go with my pruning So I'm thinking width-wise Somewhere about here so here I go I think that's Looking pretty good for that end Maybe a little heavy back here There's that cyrissa smell okay so let's Uh Prune this side now I think that's pretty good A little pruning front and back now Pruning off these really long shoots Sticking up They'll get more They'll get pruned more accurately later Okay let me have another look at this Oval shape Uh I may be a little heavy here I mean it doesn't have to be a perfect Oval but it has to be kept in check you Can't have you know one side growing out Way more vigorously than the rest of the Tree so that's why I'm trying to kind of Keep this oval shape in check and then Just going a little larger each year That way you uh Keep the tree balanced Hopefully avoiding you know weak Branches like this Okay I think that's it for the top view I'm happy with that I think it's got
A fairly nice oval to it Here is a look at the tree from the Front view now and you can see how heavy It looks up top it's like a big thick Layer of foliage so I've got to thin That down I've got to take the canopy Back Kind of tapering it off at the edges You can see the start of my rounded Underside of the canopy also The rounded part on top so That kind of gives you an idea of where I'm going with the top shape there about There and the underside See if we can get a little more Curvature to it It's coming along that Pyrenees style I Also mentioned that in the last video That I'm trying to get the foliage pads On the outside on an angle So they kind of follow the curvature of The umbrella shaped canopy So I'll try and Achieve that today too So I think I think the next step is to get that top Profile in check I don't know if I've mentioned this Before but this tree here my cyrissa I bought it from Eldon lease it was a Small cutting about this big Alden Lis is one of the founders of the Kitchen or Waterloo Bonsai society and He had a A tour
Um it was part of a pottery tour And we went around to various artist Houses and he was on the tour And He was selling I think it was in a little Yoga Yoga Container or something uh these little Cyrissa cuttings and I remember thinking at the time I wanted To buy something off him because he was You know a fellow Club member and Everything was pretty expensive but this Little cyrissa was the cheapest thing You had for sale there and even that I Think was like six dollars for this Little tiny cutting and I I thought That's a lot of money to pay for a Little tiny cutting but I bought it and uh this is the tree Today uh yeah many many many years later I think Almost 30 years later so This little Little shoot this little cutting turned Into something quite nice All right I'm going to begin Pruning the canopy the first thing I Want to look at if I look in the side View I've noticed that It's a little taller here than it is Back here so I've got to equalize that Out To begin with so here I go
So I don't want a lot of curvature in This view I want it fairly flat I want most of my curvature to be in the Other View Curvature in this view well you won't Get a a thin layer of a canopy It'll be thicker because you'll have That Curvature front and back if it's fairly Flat then you'll you can get this thin Layer of foliage when viewed from the Front or the back And that's how trees grow because in Nature as I've said you know the sun Rises in One Direction goes across the Sky and sets over here you never get the Sun shining in these directions so you Always get More of a rounded shape this way where The sun travels across the sky then this Way where it's always kind of flat Because the sun is always above But it's never over this direction or This direction I hope that makes sense So let me have another look Um I'm still heavy on this side So I'm pruning It back to kind of Equalize the canopy in the The end views This is rough pruning for now It'll get refined Okay so I think that's taking care of That view the
Left and right hand view it looks Quite equal Yeah I'm happy with that So now I'm going to work on the front View Getting that rounded Shape so you can see from the front view It's quite flat on top right now which Is good I don't want it too too much of A rounded shape but Just a bit And I've studied Many pictures of acacia's And some are very flat on top some are Quite domed so this one's sort of summer In between All right well here I go this is always The uh Yeah this is the This is what pruning's all about getting That shape So here I go And I'm going to start a little long and I can refine it as I go And yes I'll be pruning all my flowers Off but That's okay I wanted this tree to grow as much as I Could Over the summer And it grew really well it got all its You know a very healthy vigorous Which is what you want you don't want it Weak
If you're always pruning it They get weak and they die It's getting better there's the front Just checking all the views as I work on It Let's move it a little more Central here So it's looking quite domed Um I think I've taken A pheromone off the left and right hand Side but I think I've got to take more Off the top Getting it a little flatter looking I think I've got just too much of a dome Shape It looks too much like a Tropical tree rather than a Acacia This tree has lots of vigor in it Because it's been growing all summer so There's no problem you know doing some Fairly hard pruning on it You can take it I think the tree is getting very close I Think the rest of the work will be Pruning the individual branches with Shears I think the shape is quite close now so All right so I think there To the profile I need to go in and pick Out all those yellow All these yellow leaves and Debris and just clean up the tree Here's a look at the canopy so in here
You can see all these yellow leaves Pick those out I'm going in with the tweezers now and Just Picking out all the yellow leaves I have got the canopy all cleaned up of Its yellow and brown leaves So it's looking nice and clean I uh it Took quite a while I had to go in every Branch and also underneath And get all the Dead Leaves out All the debris and that so Yeah it's pretty clean now The Next Step I want to clean up the surface surface Of the soil I've got a lot of leaves That have fallen down and at the back Here I have some suckers Growing up from the root base so I'll Start with those Here's a look at the suckers coming up From the roots so I'll just kind of Find out where they start from way down Here Turn them off Like that So now I'll come in with the tweezers And Clean up all my debris from the soil and There's lots of it so This might take a little while too I have got the soil surface all cleaned Up on the tree now There was a lot of leaves and debris That had fallen down
So the root base is looking really Really nice Nice and Radial And some good good surface roots So my next step you can see I had some Moss clumps uh Kind of to resemble bushes and the rest Of the terrain was supposed to be you Know an arid dry Terrain It's kind of changed you can see there's Clumps of moss growing in everywhere and This main or this one clump of moss back Here is just spread like crazy It's not too bad at the back but the Front here it's developing quite a Carpet or Moss so I'm going to prune up My Moss bushes and get them looking a Little more trim I'll come in with the tweezers and just Pick away that Moss that I don't want Okay that's got that one kind of looking A little better I'll have to put some More of that red sand around it I think all these all these new Tufts of Moss that have grown in look okay it's Kind of a nice Splattering of green color on the Landscape I think it looks very natural So yeah I'll just add a bit of red sand Around here and then I think the next Step is to clean the trunk on the tree It's just getting too green looking It should be a light kind of whitish Beige color
And it's just too too Lush looking Hopefully it won't take off too much Bark but uh We'll see how it goes I've got my sifted red turface here I've Got some aquarium gravel that Tom Sent Me And I've got some red sand from the Hobby store so Yeah I'm not sure what I used on here I Think it was mainly the turface So I'll I'll put Some of that Let me get my spatula here Put a scoop of that down here by the The Moss just kind of Like that I think that looks good Give that a water and it should settle It in quite nicely There's also a bit of a low spot here I Could put A little more Turface around this clump of moss [Applause] Here's a look at the surface of the soil Now so it Blended in quite nicely Yeah it's looking good all right next I'm going to tackle the trunk on the Tree And maybe some of these upper branches Too All right here I go on the trunk so I'm Going to wet it all down I'm just going To
This is just rain water Hopefully that'll soften the liking up a Bit Then I've got a toothbrush and I'll wet That And Start brushing and you know if bark Comes off it comes off [Music] Okay I I think I think I'm done I don't want to go up too high in the Branches otherwise And never end you could be Scrubbing branches all day long I think I think that's high enough I've gone Kind of up into the canopy here Yeah I think that's looking pretty good Give it a final Spray down And then I'll give it a water just to Kind of wash that Water and algae out of the soil Well there it is I've Given it a watering so you can see the Trunk is much much lighter now Looks quite nice Looks more like an acacia tree Yeah I'm liking that My accent plant for my cyrissa in the Toronto show was this little clump of Jades that Matt gave to me They had grown quite tall and I pruned Them back they're just starting to come
Out with new shoots on them so I think You know they're looking good good for The the KW show Um I'm going to give them a watering and Put them back in the greenhouse I should be pretty happy there until the Show I'm going to work on the canopy of the Sarista now separating the foliage into Pads getting some separation between Each kind of Branch structure Should be kind of interesting so here I Go I've done a lot of videos on Doing this pad separation I just follow The branch up Kind of isolate The clump that goes with that branch and Trim the edges so there's space between The All the adjacent branches behind it so You get these little foliage pads with Separation and it looks really nice This operation of separating all the Pads takes a fair while So I'll be working away at it So this is a very difficult process Because you've got to prune off branches To get the space between them And it's always hard deciding Which one has to go Naturally keep all your branch Ramification but
Sometimes As I said before less is more sometimes On a tree Getting those spaces is very important I am making good progress on the tree I've got kind of the front part thinned Out separated into pads but I have a Long way to go but I have to go over the Community Gardens now so I'm going to Have to take a break And there's a lawnmower going so I Better leave it for a little later on Hi everyone I'm back from the community Gardens we did a little work in the Spiral Orchard I'm not going to get a chance to finish My cyrissa tonight because I've got to Go off to the Bonsai society's meeting Tonight So I'll have to continue the work on the Cerissa tomorrow I've got the sarisa safely back in the Greenhouse here So yeah I'll continue the work on that Tomorrow morning I'll be taking my Eastern White Cedar Forest to the Bonsai meeting tonight to Work on it doing show prep so I'll be Bringing along my moss and my tools and Everything I need to get this looking Really good Off I go to the KW Bonsai society's Meeting the last one before the show so That's all for today I'm Nigel Saunders
Thanks for joining me in the Bonsai Zone [Music]
