Randy,
Wonderful idea/plan and beautiful plant. You are great at this bonsai art. My bonsai experience is limited to a few local trees (Elm and Apple), both failures and a few xerophytic trees that I trim to shape. I'm not big on the wiring thing, but you've really got it down :-)
Dan
Lincoln, NE USDA 5

Thanks Dan. I learned to wire by going out in a rural setting and collecting different sized branches and twigs to wire. Then I could spend time practicing my spiral and bending techniques on throw away material. Using copper coated aluminum wire means you can reuse it over and over again. After becoming comfortable with using it, I could then start throwing it on plants worth wiring :-).

I think most fail at bonsai because they want to rush the process by throwing twigs and sticks in bonsai pots and worrying them to death with constant dabbling. Or they buy mass produced crap from a street corner or the strip mall.

I study a plant to decide if it's worthy. Most folks grab crap at best to work with. So after years of work and care, the best they can hope for is well trained crap. I develop a plan, do an initial pruning and wiring, then just care for it and let it do it's own thing for a while.

I may need to loosen the wire in a few spots this summer on this one, but that will be about all I'll do. It will be pruned and rewired again late fall, early winter for next year.

randy

Thats excellent, you do fine work with these!

That's gonna be another nice one Randy!

I looked at my jade that I wanted to bonsai, but it still needs to grow quite a bit. You are right that patience seems to be a key ingredient for a nice bonsai.

-michael

Thanks guys. It's something I have fun doing.

randy