Ravenna

Hi, as some of you will know I NEVER buy any trees. It is a principle I have strictly adhered to ever since I got interested in bonsai. So I was really pleased when a couple of days ago I got a HUGE parcel with what must be an advertising gift: two Japanese maples which personally I like very much but see for yourself.

The small red one is a Seigen, the larger orangy one is a Katsura. Ideas/suggestions are welcome... as usual...

Attached Images

	Seigen1s.jpg (40.4 KB, 41 views)
	Seigen2s.jpg (42.4 KB, 13 views)
	Seigen3s.jpg (69.1 KB, 14 views)
	Seigen4s.jpg (41.8 KB, 12 views)
	Katsura1s.jpg (46.2 KB, 35 views)

Ravenna

... the rest of the pics

Attached Images

	Katsura2s.jpg (35.1 KB, 10 views)
	Katsura3s.jpg (45.5 KB, 9 views)
	Katsura4s.jpg (42.2 KB, 12 views)
	Katsura5s.jpg (35.9 KB, 14 views)

JLDoggett

What nice gifts, and in your capable hands I am sure they will become extremely fine trees. The katsura will need a bit of work to tighten things up a bit.

How tall are they? It looks like the root work has been very suscessful.

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Ravenna

Hi Jim, glad you like them. The red one is about 25cm tall the other one about 38cm. Yes, they both still need quite a bit of work on their branches. The Seigen has most of the branches well placed already but they will need to thicken and I need to develop some movement in there. The Katsura is still rather a bit of a mess branch-wise and as you can see it is so dense that even when you have the tree in front of you you can't see the branch structure.

But they are still quite straight etc and at some stage I will have to select what will stay and what will go though right now I feel I see too little to really do that. So that will rather be work for next spring I think. The branching off from the trunk is a bit odd but I hope that I will still manage to turn it into something nice... even if I am less assured than you that they will turn into extremely fine trees in my hands but I will try my best.

Attached Images

Katsura6s.jpg (53.6 KB, 17 views)

Bonsai Barry

Nice "gift". Look forward to seeing these tree naked and what you can do with them.

Ravenna

Hmm... seems like I didn't have you guys fooled for a moment regarding my gifts... Regarding styling: I will try my best Barry...

Michel

Hi,

What on earth were they advertising for ?
The latest punk hair-do's ?

Both good species, and both with girthy trunks all right,
but still quite a lot of work ahead
in order to get those in proper bonsai-shape . . .

On the Seigen You ought to start with a branch selection,
maybe also cutting back to 1/2 or even 1/3 what You want to keep,
and then begin the ramification of what's left;
close to a 10 years' job, since they're quite slow growers.
On the other hand, they bud profusely.
But hold Your horses, as it seems to be already too late
for severe pruning this spring.

A Kadsura grows much faster, so that'll help . . .

Just a few ideas, when looking at Your latest buys
(sorry, my mistake . . . Your latest gifts, . . . )

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Greetz,
Michel

Ravenna

Hi Michel,

How did you guess right about the advertising company? Yes, they try to sell red and orange hair colouring as well as hair gel... Thank you for your ideas. I was a bit surprised that you suggested pruning it already now (if it hadn't grown so much yet) because I thought that may be I should let the branches thicken a bit first - they are so incredibly thin? And then the tree doesn't carry that much green anyway so will have to leave it something to "live on"...

I actually like the placement of most of the branches. There are only few which I think should go entirely (saying that obviously with time all the branches will have been replaced as right now the internodes are way too long....

The Kadsura will mean more work though as the branches it has are very odd right now... unfortunately way too late there so I will just try to lighten things but not do any severe pruning as I can't really see where I am going with that tree... good to know that it grows quite a bit faster than Seigen though... didn't that. Unfortunately a couple of branches got damaged but I have the impression they are less important than they would have been on the Seigen so on the whole it seems okay.

By the way: I planted some of my young maple material from Esveld and Maillot in my fathers garden this week-end. I haven't really seen their leaves fully opened yet but I am very curious (it is the Toyama nishike, the fujinama nishiki and the "First Ghost". The others are still here as I couldn't carry everything in one go (I brought him also a camellia to fill a "gap" in his garden.

What are you up-to?

centaura

I think removing some of the extra branches that you don't want from the red one will help thicken the ones that you do want faster, as there will be more energy available for them.

As for the orange one - done right I think you could get a credible broom out of him.

-Centaura

Ravenna

Hi Centaura,

thank you for your ideas... I must admit I am rather tempted to leave the tree as he is this year. The whole plant doesn't have that many buds so I think he can do with some more "energy factories" for the time being. I will also have to see whether the "superfluous" branches can not be used to give semi-shade to the lower branches: that way you get shorter internodes...

For the time being I mostly hope though that he won't mind the low temps we have... aftera ll it snowed yesterday!!!