Bonsai Master Goes All In: A Perfectly Good Tree Turns into Deadwood in No Time

This is the process of the fourth-generation owner of Shunshou-en, a very famous bonsai garden in the Land of Birds (not sure what it's called in Chinese), creating a small shimpaku juniper specimen. He really isn't afraid to cut.

The master says that when making a small shimpaku juniper specimen, two factors must be considered while cultivating the juniper material: first, the trunk base must be sufficiently thick and massive; second, the juniper foliage at the center must be preserved.

This is a 10-year-cultivated Itoigawa shimpaku juniper cutting. However, the full view was not photographed.

During cultivation, some leaf plucking must be done to expose the branches and foliage at the center, so that they can receive sunlight and not be eliminated. To make the trunk base thick, the only way is to use multiple sacrifice branches like this.

Without further ado, the master picked up the scissors and cut off all the outer branches, leaving stems of varying lengths to make deadwood.

Remove the old yellow leaves.

In order to highlight the deadwood and the main trunk, most of the leaves on the front were plucked off.

The deadwood on the front main trunk must be expanded gradually; you cannot strip the bark too aggressively all at once. It is best to strip a little each year.

Branch bark stripping completed.

Begin carving. The main techniques are tearing, carving, and sanding.

Next comes wiring, still the classic triangle. For a 7 cm small specimen, there are usually only two branches and the apex. The first branch is generally on the right.

The second branch indicated by the arrow will be cut off in the future.

Remove from soil and repot.

Trim the roots.

A handmade pot like this was chosen. For a small bonsai specimen, you cannot choose too large a pot, as that would make the tree look small and cause the tree to grow too fast. Choosing a smaller pot can make the trunk appear thicker.

Brush with lime sulfur mixture.

Done. In the end, only this little bit of foliage is left. It's almost embarrassing to still call it a tree. A total of 10 work hours were spent.

The master says that doing such drastic operations is best in winter or early spring, while still in dormancy. Afterwards, it should be placed in a shaded area for cultivation, with misting multiple times a day. After such major work, the first leaves that grow out of this juniper may be relatively long and needle-shaped. Don't worry about them; pluck them off after about three years.