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Further Autumn Pine Work Below are a few more pines weve shaped up through Autumn and managed to get snaps of Shohin size this time round Mugo Pine before work Above is a pine Id been slowly encouraging to become a semicascade Now was the time to revisit and get it fully rewired helping it along on its journey sideways After styling and repotting 16cm H Took the above

Autumn Pine Work Autumn is a great time to work on pines with bud selection and wiring best done at this time Below are a few of the many pines were getting through in the garden as Autumn progresses towards winter Yamadori Radiata before work Pictured above is an old collected Monterey Pine Pinus Radiata At close to 2 metres in height when

Literati Juniper styling Below details the styling of a Juniper that was originally a very plain informal upright with a few problematic branches on the lower and mid trunk I decided to completely restyle it repotting it on an angle and developing it into a literati Unfortunately I cant find the original image of it as an informal upright so the first image below is halfway through

Shohin Juniper Cascade Shape up Another quick post this time for a little shohin Juniper We shaped this Shore Juniper into a cascade many moons ago and left it to its own devices at the back of the garden and its time to give it some more attention Before and after photos below along with a virtual pic showing lowest branch removed which well do in the near future

Redesigning a Scots Pine to Shohin The Scots pine below was always going to have issues if left as an informal upright so I let it go for a couple of years knowing Id turn it into a shohin at some stage in the future Below is a quick progression of its redesign from a tallie to a shawty Pinus Sylvestris before work height 64cm After removing everything

Twisted Pines of the West Coast Below are a few images of some incredibly twisted pines that grow along the wild West Coast serving up some fantastic inspiration for bonsai styling Windswept Ponderosa and Radiata pine on hilltop Old pines showing the unrelenting conditions of the west coast Twisty Ponderosa pine Taipa walking underneath helping show the scale of these some only 2 3 metres in height Superbly twisted Maritime pine pinus pinaster Stunted

Handmade Bonsai Pots Its rather difficult to find unique bonsai pots here in New Zealand and relatively expensive to get them over from Japan due to their weight and price So weve got stuck into some clay and started making our own pots and it has been a great deal of fun Below are pics of a few pots made thus far Some have been

Dwarf Rata Below is a before and after styling of a Dwarf NZ Rata Metrosideros Carminea It actually grows as a vine unlike its full size cousin the Northern Rata M robusta occuring in coastal and low land forest It has beautiful miniature pohutukawa like red flowers during spring and summer and thus takes on the look of a miniature pohutukawa when grown

Mugo Pine Styling The following are a group of raw Mugo Pine ranging in age from 15 25ish years undergoing their first proper styling This particular group were purposefully grown to have slender trunks allowing us to create literati styles or create twists and turns in the trunk lines A more elegant direction for this bunch rather than the short powerful Black Pine feel

Young Black Pines Below documents the development of Japanese Black Pine lifted from the field after 5 years growth and initial potting training and shaping After about 9 years the trunk is starting to acquire the beginnings of textured bark and itll be another 7 or so years to develop nice fissures and age in the bark that Black Pine is famous for For the pine below its