10 Things I have learned; Dremel Edition

While learning to use my dremel today I learned:

1) Dremels don't have to be scary. I have come to the conclusion (actually, came to, several years ago) that the man who did the first workshop I ever saw, using one of these tools, was a particular breed. A gods-damned idiot. And its no wonder he ended up needing stitches.

2) The bits that came with my dremel are completely worthless.

3) The bits that came with the dremel bits box I purchased are slightly less useless, but really aren't made for what I'm doing with them.

4) One of the local birds knows the opening bars to 'Three Blind Mice'

5) My dremel is extremely low powered.

6) No matter how low powered it is, my dog is still terrified of it.

7) Fresh cambium from a juniper gunks up the bit FAST.

8) None of the bits I have are very helpful on live bark. They work, but peeling that part off by hand (for now) seems to be more time effective for me.

9) No matter how low powered it is, it still takes off deadwood and hardwood faster than I do by hand. This is neither positive nor negative on its own, but could be either depending on what I'm trying to do...

10) While not powerful, I like the multiple speed settings on a smooth functioning dial that I can change with my thumb while working.

General thoughts:
The dremel is a tool. It is neither better than nor worse than doing deadwood by hand. It has pros and cons, and I am certain that some of the cons I'm encountering will improve with a) practice and/or b) appropriate bits.

Generally, I like the work I do on freshly stripped wood better with a knife and several different pliers. I'm more familiar with this sort of wood working, since I had someone teach me wittling at a young age and never really gave it up completely. I can feel the weakness and strenth in the grain of the wood, and know where it will peel easily (i.e. would have rotted naturally first anyway) and where it's going to give me grief. This gives me a very realistic bit of deadwood on my smaller trees and on smaller jin on larger trees. What this is exceedingly time consuming on is large areas of freshly carved wood.... and on existing deadwood.

Enter the dremel. I was very pleased with what I could do on existing deadwood with this thing once I got the hang of it. It is really easy to try to let the grain of the wood dictate where the dremel ought to go; with disasterous results. Once I developed a firmer hand I had an easier time of it. My artistry with the dremel is low, something I know will improve with practice. The dremel also gives a smoother finish than my previous methods, which opens up a more weathered deadwood look than I can get with my hand tools, without waiting a season or two for actual weather to take its toll on the exposed wood and smooth things out. It will become, I think, an essential tool for me when working on existing deadwood, as my usual method is not very effective on that work at *all* and I have thus far avoided doing any serious work on areas of pre-existing shari on any of my bonsai, limiting myself instead to working on newly formed deadwood areas. This opens up work on several pieces of stock I have been stumped on for the last couple of years. Which is extremely satisfying.

I have an enormous way to go with learning the limits of what I can do with this tool. I kept the work on the deadwood today relatively limited, and used a combination of knife, pliers (three sizes and types)and the dremel. I will start doing more research on better bits for this, though for now I am content with the low power, rechargeable dremel I have; spending a lot on something more powerful now would just be silly until I know just how far I can work with this one.

The deadwood on the learning tree as I'm calling it, is actually on what I intend to be the back of this juniper. I spent some time playing on some dead branches from a cherry we'd taken down in the yard last year, but it wasn't really the same by any stretch.
















There is still a lot of 'fur' left over from working with the dremel, another 'con' that I'm not accustomed to. I know I can burn this off, but I'm going to wait until I do some of the foliage work I intend to do tomorrow, so I know what I need to protect and can save myself some time. There is still more work to do, and I didn't do anything deep or drastic, but I'm content enough for now, just getting used to the feeling of the tool in my hands.

Gumpo Azalea 1

Gumpo Azaleas are a satsuki hybrid with particularly small leaves, making them lovely for shohin bonsai. Classically, they are white, but pink (light), Fancy (pink flowers with a white margin) and red (dark pink) are available. Though less common in the Northern USA, these have been grown in parts farther south and in Japan for a long time. Usually considered suitable for zone 7 and warmer, we've only seen these little gems available regularly up here in the last ten years or so, as the winters have been slowly warming. They still require winter protection in my area, mostly from drying winds.

Intersting tidbit - Gumpo translates to 'Group of Phoenixes'.

This weekend I was considering a piece of stock I picked up at the end of last season. I got it for a song from the back of a large nursery, along with several of its brethren gumpos. Ostensibly a bush, the base is what drew me, and as I cleared away a lot of the old soil I was rewarded even further.



Originally, the soil line came up above the funny elbow looking branch on the right, with the whole bush being tilted to the right, hiding the root flare on that side. Fine roots had started to grow in the gap between the branch and what has now become the exposed nebari. I cleaned these out, since I had more than enough healthy roots to work with in more appropriate areas. Below are shots of the base and nebari from two different vantage points, both offering very different thoughts about a front for me.


The tree is a little wierd and kooky from this angle. I would actually rotate it slightly, so that the lack of roots on the left hand side is not so glaring, if I were to chose this angle. There *are* roots on that side, just not nearly as flat and spreading as the ones on the right in the above picture.

From this side, the nebari is not nearly as dramatic, but it still has something to offer, especially if I want to go with a heavy cut down and start the branching entirely from scratch. It could make a potentially powerful little shohin, which the leave size lends itself to very well. Less dramatic, more sedate. This was the side originally exposed, and what made me bring it home in the first place.

I will be letting this piece recover from the repotting while I deliberate possibilities. Extensive removal of branches (there are a lot of them that will play no role in any future work) will wait. I intend to remove the flower buds, and once vegatative growth starts up again here, doing light, selective pruning, with an eye on encouraging back budding. If I had a clearer idea of which direction I wanted to take this, I might be more daring with cutting it down, but for now, I am in no rush.

Suggestions and thoughts, as always, are welcome.

Carpinus betulus 'Columnaris'

So its become pretty obvious that I don't really like to share my trees. Knowledge, tidbits, photos, yes, but my trees? Not so much. There are a couple of reasons for that, many of which sound like excuses, even to *me*. But the most important one is this:


I don't really have a lot of trees worth sharing yet. For a number of reasons that are relatively unimportant right now. Living in an area far away from anywhere I could collect, limited funds of a family where despite a love, bonsai gets ranked toward the bottom of needs, and the dying nursery business on Long Island (we've lost both of our bonsai nurseries here in the last four years or so), leave finding really good stock difficult, and leaves me instead with many pieces that are definitely 10-20 year projects. Which is good, because I'll be doing this the rest of my life! But bad for showing work on a blog.


Well, I'm going to do my best to change that. Some of the pieces I have I *can* share, and the only thing preventing me are unspoken excuses. So while they aren't anywhere near finished (though what bonsai is) I'm going to bite the bullet and start putting them up here.

Carpinus betulus 'Columnaris'. Columnar European Hornbeam. I picked this piece up at a place called Peconic River Herb farm about three years ago. I wish I had pictures from that year, but the computer they were all on is vindictive and cruel. I brought the height down by almost half. It is currently 30 inches tall. I have a lot of thinning out to do, after a season of unrestricted growth, and this tree seems prone to sending out shoots right above each other. There is a spot in particular where a very thick branch comes off of the trunk on the right hand side that I will probably remove. It contributes to the silhouette, but the branch is nearly as thick as the trunk at that point and while it looks good in leaf, that particular issue is a lot more obvious this time of year. It will leave a rather large bare spot, but a bit of a rotation will help that, and the tree is very good at sending out copious quantities of new shoots at the slightest provocation.

I know I should shorten the tree to give it a heavier look. And I know that I *should* wire down the branches. I will probably shorten it a bit, but since this is a columnar form I'm hesitant to do too much in the way of fighting mother nature on the wiring down issue.

Little Azalea

I don't frequently share my trees online. There are a couple of reasons for this. Partly, the work I do and time I spend on my trees is a highly personal experience for me. But there is a far more concrete reason as well. None of my trees have been in cultivation for more than two years and I'm just not ready to share them. With the divorce and the move from Ohio, it was a complete restart... well, with everything, not just bonsai.

However, I figured I am overdue for a couple at least. Below is an azalea I picked up last summer from Edna over at Green Garden Nursery. I almost walked right past it, because it was so large and scrawny, my eyes just cast over it. It wasn't until I was on my way back through to the front of the nursery, and caught a glimpse of the 'back' of this that I pulled up short. I hadn't even been looking for an azalea that day, but then, I always leave Edna's with more than I intended on.



The above picture was just taken for my own reference, so forgive the mess in my work area. Anyway, this year I repotted and did a serious pruning. It has backbudded very well, and growing very well in general, so I'm pretty happy. Obviously, this is no where near complete. I'll let it grow out for the next year and see where I'm keeping the new branches. In two years, I might cut it back even further, as the lower trunk would make a pretty powerful shohin. Right now, it is about five inches high, the trunk is just under three inches wide. The picture makes the roots look a lot messier than they are, though they do need work.

False Indigo, Progression

(Originally posted 9/12/07)

I purchased this plant, Indigofera pseudotinctoria, better known as a False Indigo, this past spring at a local nursery. The species information I came across on the web after my purchase, as the nursery staff couldn't figure out what this unlabeled pot was either. I took a risk with it, but as the only one of it's kind at the nursery and a price was was willing to pay for an experiemtnt, it was worth it. I wasn't originally looking at the plant as potential bonsai stock. In fact, the thought didn't even cross my mind until I noticed the out of this world nebari and interesting lower trunk. This species is primarily a mass of runners that can spread to six feet in diameter and die back in the winter. A hardy perennial, they are considered more of a creeping ground cover than as a shrub. While I took no images of the nebari and lower trunk initially (I knew I would be able to get better images once I cleaned it up), I did take a quick snap shot of the plant in its nursery container before I laid a hand, or tool, on it.



My initial assumption when I plopped it on the table to start the first styling was that this tree would simply *have* to be a cascade. All of the runners seemed to lend itself toward that and little else. But as the trimming started and I got a better look at the lower trunk, I realized just how unnecessary all of the hanging branches were to what, to me, would become the focal point of the tree. Rather than a larger size cascade, this would become something far smaller and focus on the roots, rather than the flowers and the foliage that initially attracted me to the plant. Armed with the knowledge that this would back bud like crazy, possibly even onto the woody trunk, I pruned heavily, leaving very little of the original left.

My apologies for the quality of the next image. My digital camera is so old the company no longer supports it, and sometimes the image that I need (or think I need) simply doesn't come out. I'm still working on learning how to make up for what the camera itself lacks, and hopefully will come through in the subsequent photos.

I let it grow out after that and had planned to leave it alone for the rest of the season.... until I saw just how prolific a grower this plant actually was. Within two weeks it was back out to almost half the size it had originally been. After that I started regular pruning to encourage ramification, pinching off new growth after it had reached three to four new sets of leaves at first, though now I'm at the point for this season where new growth gets one to two leave sets before I'm snipping them. I didn't want to pinch too agressively over the first season, as I was still unsure of the growth habits.... obviously not a problem here.

Root pruning was less aggressive than the top pruning had been. Being a tropical, I was less concerned about repotting a little late in the season. We'd had a very mild summer with a week and a half forcast of overcast and rain, so I took the opportunity, hoping to slow down some of the top growth with a reduction in the roots. Though the plant was potted into a gallon nursery pot, the roots took up barely half of that. Due to the dense, peaty soil, the bottom third of what there was had already started to rot. It turned out to be good timing, as I had considered leaving it in the nursery container until the following year. The plant likes it's feet wet, but that was just silly... It took some work to get the clay out of the upper parts of the root system that I wanted to be exposed, but well worth the effort. The "bark" on the tree and roots is very delicate, and with the discovery of a slime mold growing on some of the areas I wanted exposed as well, a soft bristled tooth brush was used to remove it.

I am unhappy with the pot choice, though at this point I have had mixed reviews on it. Regardless of the few people who actually like the heavier pot, it will not be staying. At the moment I am still keeping my eye out for something better suited for a repot in spring and a further reduction of the root system.

The first image is the front view that I have chosen, though the second image's "back" view is also, I think, acceptable. I prefer the first image as a front, but again, have had mixed opinions on that. The final height of the tree is five inches (12.7 centimeters) from the soil to the tip of the tallest flower..... four and a half inches (11.4 centimeters) to the top of the foliage.
The growth has indeed slowed down since the repot, and I'm not out there almost every day pinching back, though it's still happy and continuously flowering.



I have reservations on the longevity of this particular tree. The die back issues, the sheer oomph with which it bursts forth with growth just even in the single season it has been in my care.... the fact that what I had originally thought would take two years to achieve has come around in a single season astoundes me. The growth habits of this plant are so prolific, that it simply may not be suited, long term, to a bonsai pot. Even if I decide that it is unsuited for a bonsai next spring however, simply working on this little tree has been the highlight of my season this year. It will have been worth the time and effort, even if the tree proves more ephemeral than I had initially anticipated. I hope to get many years of enjoyment from it nonetheless, but we shall see.