I'm always looking for Projects which are relevant to our Bonsai viewers And this Episode is going to be called room for Improvement I remember when You know one was in school they always Write in your report there's room for Improvement And this applies right through life In every aspect of life there is always Room for improvement So on our Nursery we just leave trees to Go to get older And customers bring their trees in which Have lost their way so we always say to Them there's room for improved so Walking around the nursery I usually go and pick up all the things Which are thrown away in a corner Forgotten and I say to myself there's Always room for improved so we're going To look at four separate projects this Is a Chinese juniper it's lovely trunk But we're going to improve that one This is a San Jose June upon these Believe It or Not were grown from Cuttings this is probably grow from a Cutting 15 years ago we don't grow them In the ground but they've been kept in Pots all their lives so they don't grow Very well this is you which we dug out And put in a training pot and nothing
Has been done except taking the lead Route and we grew the branches so There's nothing been done to that one And then this one is a black coin that We wired maybe about five six years ago Just to give characters a trunk and We're going to improve this So let us Begin by doing the simple ones First So this I would say is the simplest of All of them so let us Begin by doing This To practice what I preach this is an Indian tool which we call the chimta for Holding pots and pans and I use it Sometimes as a gin flies So I'm going to take this wire off Because the wire has done its job Many people criticize me or say oh you Must never leave why marks on trees They're bad for trees but we Deliberately leave the wire masks on the Evergreens especially not so much the Maples and other deciduous trees but With Evergreen Species if you leave the wire marks like This and give it a few more years to Grow it makes the trunk look really Gnarled and old it gives character to The tree so you see just leaving it on For about four or five years has set the Trunk look at that it's almost like a Circle you know A shape that would not be possible had
You not used one so why has its use uses Without wire it's very difficult to Create any decent shape in one side Okay So we've got as far as this what can we Do to this truth I always say to people that if in doubt You can always [Music] Do simple things like changing the angle Of the tree So let me just or to the angle of this Tree And see What we can get from changing the angle So changing the angle does make a Difference The problem with this tree is that this Part is rather straight Yeah okay look okay that's not too bad I think someone's already tried putting A bit of wire on that Without my knowledge So this is virtually A literary just by doing a little bit of Death Let me just add another piece of wire And see If I can prove it a little further I think I need that one I don't think I need that one All right let's see if I can bring this Down I always Marvel at what why I can do Today is a lovely sunny day
But it's still cold outside So the angle of planting makes a big Difference Very few people understand literology Literati is really So artistic that it requires a certain Mindset to appreciate appreciate the Full beauty of literology you can play Around with it until you get the right Shape that in fact is not a bad shape To ask yourself but I need this a lot With Literati Which is the classic Zen design Zen Principle less is more is very important Now I'm not worried about It not butting back can you see how These buds develop here even that is a New bud so you'll get lots of new buds Coming so although it may look a bit too Sparse given a year or so it will have a Few more pads and it will fill the top a Little more so I think that Would have improved it somewhat we're Going to let this grow a little more If I'm not happy with that shape What could I do I could probably try and bring the Branch back like that the trunk back Or try and bend it even more I've got to be careful you know I don't Want to press my luck if you go too far You can snap the trunk Which one could easily do See this is a bit too straight for my
Liking So I might put another piece of wire Back on that tree And see what happens so I'm not going to try and change this I'm Going to try and change that I always remind people that when you Split the trunk you're doing two things Not only are you making it easier to Bend but when the split heals over It will give more character to the trunk Again it will look nulled So trunk splitting Has that benefit as well Strong splitting may I remind you is Best used for evergreens conifers They take to it quite well deciduous Trees like Maples and Horn beams It will only have a partial effect It really won't help depend so much okay Now I'm going to put a wire on and see What happens I'm not going to wire over the same Grooves I noticed that the wire was put on the Other way So Let me follow the path of the Previous wiring So I'm going to go clockwise I find that over the years I've tended to Wire trunks anti-clockwise not that it Makes any difference is that
It's just that different people have Different preferences Over the way they were Okay this one only came as far as that But I'm going to put a double for this Part but I'm going to put a single for This part because this is thinner than This bit So there is method in my madness So put the double on Go to the top Okay now let me bring my Kitchen Plus The Indian potholder Does the trick okay now I will try and Do a little more bending So the double wire works So literary is really just experimenting With the shapes to see which works and Which doesn't work So very aesthetic thing It's hard to explain why one Twist Of one design Can make so much difference to the Overall look So just placing it to different Directions to see What is best see this is quite nice like This If it's this it's not so nice this is Not so nice because it's Crossing but if I leave it open This seems to work quite nicely so we'll Aim to design the tree like so
And bend it down a little More bringing it back on itself If we do that this becomes the impex This becomes a branch So I've created more of a Bend there Whereas before there wasn't a Bend there So I'm going to look through the camera To see Effect because the camera doesn't lie The camera can tell a lot of Fault I know the camera is only showing You Two-dimensional but this is Three-dimensional So I think this is better than what it Was before And leave it for a Another year It may turn out to be better I'm going to assure you it looks better From Three dimensions if you look at it from Different angles You get a different View [Music] It needs to really Become a little more dense on the Branches And don't forget the wire will come off Eventually Okay that's quite nice That's why so you can see like a zed Bender And as for pot
I will probably put it in one of these Japanese training pots for now to give It vigorous growth I won't put it in its finest small drum Pot One is always tempted to hurry things Along and put it in its final point it's Not ready for the final part here so This is the angle I'm going to plant it In one of these Japanese trading ports So that is what I've done to Make that a little bit better room for Improvement now let's look at the next One This is a San Jose Juniper which has Been allowed to go like this Whoever had to go at trying to style it I think was thinking of making it like a Semi-cascade but I think Simply putting it like that at this Angle Improves the tree no end So that is how I would improve the truth Rather than just leave it like this This is doing nothing We could try and do like A semi Cascade this way This is also possible But this doesn't go Far down enough So exploring different angles Gives you a different perspective every Time so even that Is possible
This looks Um Like this But see just altering the angle makes so Much difference in the appearance of the Tree This gives the tree one type of feeling With the three more upright and this Gives the tree another feeling So the angle of planting is so critical I think this is quite a nice cycle So if we were simply to potted up at This angle and then tidy up some of These branches you can wire the pads That would make a lot of difference So These are little bits of gin And then I've got to ask myself do I Need this Branch or not you could easily Put it there but I think the design of The tree doesn't really need it so I'm Going to take this off I'll make that engine as well So the tree would be like this leaning This way So simply repotting it at this angle Would make a difference I know I could Spend a couple of hours just tidying up The pads But the purpose of my video the videos Are really just to give you ideas rather To finish off the tree In great detail there's a case for that But
Is giving you ideas which I feel is more Useful than Spending hours and hours refining the Tree Which still needs to be done but This is not the purpose of this exercise Let me just show you How one goes about it so with this part This is set very nicely so I would just Refine it further by Doing these branches Another bit of advice about San Jose Juniper San Jose Juniper is one of those Junipers that has two types of growth Juvenile growth and Adult Growth either fully juvenile foliage Adult foliage If you hold me on the camera you can see That this is what we call adult foliage Which is not spiky they are what we call Cord-like but this prickly stuff this is Called juvenile growth With San Jose junipers the longer you Leave the tree On potted that means pot bank for a much Longer time The root restriction will encourage The adult foliage to grow so if you Don't rush to repot the trees so often You will get the Adult or non prickly foliage forming Much quicker
So that is a bit of advice I can give You [Music] Want to arrange this pad flat Now done [Music] I would take off So that's a flat pad So you can do all the pads like that I Will do it in my time in my own time but I don't want to waste this video time Showing you how to wire every single Trig So that's how we're going to arrange the Pad flat select so when I complete it I'm going to pot it up like this and Then I'll show you the finished article So that is the second One that are in improved on Now this is a true Chinese juniper this Is the variety kisu kis Double O And this is another very popular Variety of Chinese juniper I know that Now everyone wants the itoigawa but the Kisu has been used for a long time so Let's work with this Now one could go a bit crazy and use This as a new leader but I won't I will Still keep the size of the tree like This but just improve it by wiring With trees like this If You Begin by just cutting off all the Dead Trees
The tree will suddenly look very neat And tidy Anything too thin I will take out Tucked away in a corner didn't get fed Or fertilized You will Rejuvenated by just a bit of fertilizer Let's clean the bark off so home in on This see the Dirty bark will clean it up with a brush Brass brush cleans the bark See the true color Nice and red So what you should do with all junipers Occasionally give it a good scrub and Clean It takes all the flaky bark off and it Restores the color to new Again I will just explore the Possibilities of changing the angle of Planting So let me just take it out of its pot Angle of planting makes a big difference The entire perspective of the tree can Be changed By just watering the angle of planting a Little bit I think this would emphasize the bend Much more coming out of the slant rather Than coming straight upright So doing this Makes the tree appear to have more Movement So we will Begin by doing some wiring
I try always never to look too far ahead And try and design the tree before I Even started doing the wiring [Music] What is causing me a lot of problem I Should speak my mind is this thick Branch here If you hold in on it look at this one There is a thick branch This one here As I said one could be tempted to use This as a new leader but the tree has Obviously been trained in an S to go That way which makes that the leader so This really is Really an anachronism it doesn't really Belong here So a possibility is to use that for a Gin if we got rid of that we could use It again rather than just cut it off Completely we will use it as a gin and Then stick to branches of that thickness So that is the way I'm thinking Whenever you're working on a tree A lot goes through your mind you're Saying to my yourself what am I going to Do with that balance what am I going to Do with the Apex you know how am I going To terminate the tree finish it off or Make it look nice so if I use these Branches you can already see The possibilities of doing this So let's begin by wiring these thinner Branches which can be wired and then see
What happens from there Okay so [Music] Leave enough wire To go to the end of each branch Otherwise you'll find that you run short On one side Give a bit of an anchor And once it's anchored then you proceed Toward the other Branch now I've more or Less decided that this thick branch is Not going to be much use it's coming off In the way of my wiring so I'm going to Take it all off So although one is tempted to use it and Force it to bend I'm not going to do that All These Fine little junipers which Makes beautiful show hints festivals are Created using trees of this size So Don't ever look down on small junipers They have a lot of potential [Music] Foreign [Music] I will probably terminate it here and Then use thinner wire Go to the end These are nice side branches here see This Branch comes out from that thick Branch there So the fact that I left it Might serve a useful purpose now this One coming out this way
This is too much So you don't need See although this tree is looking a bit Sparse there's still a case for removing Quite a few unwanted or unnecessary Branches I just noticed that while wiring Branches I tend to go clockwise but when I wire The trunk I tend to go anti-clockwise Not that it matters it's just something That I've observed I never think of it when I do it but I don't know why it is The Chinese juniper is a lovely Juniper Would work to work with Other things like San Jose and many of The procumbents are difficult When I was out in India there's a Procumbent juniper which is extremely Difficult to use It's a very straggly Europa the foliage Is not nice it's prickly So I'm filling the space there So I've created the base for the Triangle so remember what I told you About creating the Triangular shape The basis of all Bonsai design is the Triangular shape if you can create the Triangular shape you can't go far wrong So you can see the triangle coming now I'm going to wire another couple of Branches to make it look More triangular so I can go to those two
Or even use these two but I want to Leave space between branches so you see That two branches here this and this They're too close I want to remove this one and I can then Wire these two I can still have a space Between these two branches I won't think About this at this point in time because It may come off but I don't want to Foreclose the option In case I regret it Okay let's move on to the next one which Is Two more branches So we're gonna wire these two Go Now this one's sticking up there I'm not Sure if I will use it I might keep it Just in case As I say I don't want to regret it Should I remove it prematurely Although I did think of using it for gin I might partially gin it but let's see Let's see how the other branches work Out I don't want the front to be completely Bare Okay so this one is poking me and now I Can use this Branch although it's a bar Branch I can remove this one I always have to keep reminding myself I Don't want to go so far that I will Regret it having removed everything You see how effective the use of these
Thin branches are Rather than just using thick branches [Music] I will follow up the progress of these Trees Show you in a few months time how They're looking But I always remind you that because People come to the nursery and they spot A particular tree They begged me to sell it to them so It's not always possible to follow the Progress of trees I've made It has happened so much especially in The last year they recognize the work That I've done this and all that Appeared on the YouTube video can I buy It you know I hope you can notice the difference and Now I'm going to wire these about four Uh branches so I can do two pairs Always looking for pairs Far as possible But don't worry if you can't find the Pair because you can always do two Branch principle using an existing wired Branch These two you see if I don't have it the Tree is still all right but if I have it It may give more depth there I always look through the camera because The camera doesn't lie it tells you Whether you need it or do you think I Need it
No I don't think I need it Um Let me make the tree Fuller Make gin with that With this we've tied it up so I'm going To pot it up at this angle So we've got rid of that problem Tech Branch So we've improved it like this so don't Forget I've just wired it you've got to Give it a chance to Bush up and thicken Up When you have more pads so again we've Created the structure we've got an Agenda string this and then Port it up So that one is done Now let's look at the last one the Fourth project where we're going to see How we can improve this Now this tree has some stops I can Improve it by carving some of this wood It's already got a Shari we'll carve This up And then we will simply wire some of These branches To give it More of a triangular shape I think that's got a nice curve there I find that use can be very Temperamental They can sulk If the roots have been damaged by Frost So you should give it some protection
Over winter Because they tend to have fleshyots [Music] Wiring requires quite a lot of patience I can already see a lot of new bugs Coming it's only the first Couple of days in February what Spring is on its way if I don't know Where the camera can hold me can you see These little buds there Those are like dormant buds which will Form more of the pad Later in the year I'm just going to try and clean the Trunk up a little bit before I I'm going To use the carving tool to dremel not to Dremel the Makita And see if I can give more character to This song This is distressing I think where the More probably Graze the side of the tree when it was Growing in the field The question why all these branches and Seeing what we get out of it So I'm going to give a Twist to Launch It's hard to visualize the final shape Until all the wires are put on once the Wires are all in place then just a Little bit of tweaking here and there Will transform the Family appearance So just be a bit patient We want these two
Getting the watch to hug each other is Quite important to make it look good Tidy and neat [Music] Huh Not a dead trick I've seen I have to show you a little more because I don't want to spend all my time Showing you Very boring tedium Of wiring This is going to leave us an open coil To guide the young shoots in the right Direction Foreign You can see how I'm creating this Triangular shape Let me get some of these extremities off To make it push up You can see how I'm creating the conical Shape as I say the conical shape is Absolutely Paramount once you can find The conical shape You're virtually the You know there are too many branches That's very close you can see this is Very close to that one So let's get that off This can be wired to make the conical Shape more pronounced So do a little bit of that I'm just looking for the right Gradle Wire Foreign
Because I wanted to Bud More from the old wood and when I get More I can use those as the future back Branch So although it's not really part of the Design I may encourage shoes to go there So I can make a flat pad with that Meanwhile I'll wire these as well to Make these as potential pads Very convenient but there are two pairs That and that Two pairs of wires This seal has been grown in a pot for so Long that the needles have become really Fine can you see how fine they are Normally the U needles are longer than That Thank you So although this is coming out from a Thick stub I'm keeping it because I want To fill the space here Later on I might consider getting rid of It but because it's going to create back Branches it's not really visible so You can get away with it A lot of people would say that you know These are rules that Should be used that means don't have Text stop like that but In a way your Circumventing the rule I'm not saying Breaking the rule but you're Getting past the rule by doing something Slightly different
I hate the Trump breaking the rule because It seems Renegade [Music] Although the more I look at it Some more I think I can [Music] It's this Branch I'm talking of you see This Branch here it's very thick there Although it's the back branch It's out of character with the rest of The tree so let's hide that So I got to ask myself do I need it I don't really need it the future design Of the tree doesn't require that so I'm Going to get rid of it so this Handkerchief on the back trick is very Useful okay I'll keep it just for Good luck or whatever you call it and See if I can make gin out of it So that's how I make the Gin by tearing The wood you can see So this is what we've done so far And we can wash all of these to give Them more Uh pronounced or full crown and then I Will show you what I will do with the So this is the front of the tree We've got two Now let's do a bit of Dremel work Right that's all I will do because this Was distressed and that was just a tiny Bit I've enlarged it more to give it More Shari so I think I've improved it
Just by doing that and we will see how This tree develops so if you compare it To what it was originally you will see We will now put up the other trees and Then we will show you the finished Article Let's look at these four trees in turn The first one was that literacy that we Converted So that is what it looks like and this Is the San Jose which we've now made Into like a slanting style Really slanting this way but flowing out To the right hand side and when the pads And the crown gets denser and Fuller They look quite different I've only Wired the pad on the right hand side the Other pads have to be wide as well And then I'm going to bring the other Two trees to show you Let me home in on each of these trees That's that little Chinese juniper Which we rewired that bit at the back Which is the Gin I might eventually gin That or take it off completely But this is how we've used the tin Branches to create that conical shape We need those pads to Bulk up And the Little you that we had We've given it to Shari it's not that Little the trunk is at least two inches In diameter the best
So We've created a nice triangular shape With A nice low Branch here So that will bulk up and form a nice Potential Bonsai so we've improved all These trees so this little exercise of Room for improvement Shows what can be done there's always Room for improvement with your Bonsai so Just take your time and improve your Trees By looking at each of them in turn and Seeing how you can improve them So there you go hope that's been a Useful video for you And I hope you are enjoying it [Music] Foreign
