The most often asked question at bonsai shows and displays by the general public is, “How old is that tree?” We always provide some whole or range of integers. For trees pushing the forty year barrier, we often hear a gasp followed by “Wow, these trees can out live you!” Yep, our trees, with good care, can live 5, 10, 20+ times the current life span of its owner. In fact, I cannot think of another hobby that makes you ponder your mortality like bonsai. You are just a temporary caretaker of the trees in your yard.
I bring this point up because of a special tree I acquired 3-4 years ago. A bonsai artist from Vacaville was quite serious in the hobby. He studied with Boon for years and had high goals for his trees and bonsai knowledge. But, he suffered a major heart attack and passed away soon after. The Napa Valley bonsai club responded to the aid of his widow and helped organize his orphaned bonsai collection to sell.

So, early one spring morning, a giant swarm of bonsai people converged at his house to help split up his collection. As the trees left the yard, a lone juniper remained on a bench. It was covered in prickly San Jose juniper foliage, but hidden among the clumps of needles were one year old grafts of shimpaku ‘Itoigawa’. Luckily Eric Schrader said, “Hey Lawrence, go check out that juniper over there, it’s grafted!” I walked over, saw the twisty trunk and grafts, and was instantly sold on the tree. I was knew to serious bonsai, but knew the potential of grafted trees after studying our logo tree. This was going to be a nice one someday.
The tree was a long term project. It would be 3-4 years before I could style it. A tough, long wait for a new bonsai guy. So, for the last 3 years, this tree has been sitting on my patio soaking up sunshine and growing.
The grafts were a little sparse so I wanted to try my hand at adding more. I had to match the foliage of the older grafts, but without the original source that would be difficult. So, I let the old grafts elongate so that their growing ends could be used to graft back to the tree.

BSSF had a grafting workshop with Jim Gremel January of 2008. At that time, I added 5 new grafts. Two of the grafts were successful. I was able to add another branch to the back of the tree and another at the apex. The following year, all the grafts grew quickly. It was obvious that the grafts were strong. So, I removed the endogenous foliage leaving just the grafts. That summer I held my breath, waiting for something to die. But, the tree grew stronger. I started wiring the new branches downward before they thickened and this past fall, I was finally able to start wiring the secondary branching.

The tree had it’s first serious styling and future style of the tree began to take shape. Carving of jin and shari has begun and as the life line develops over the next few years, the twisted trunk will look more impressive.

I will slowly carve away the living material, letting the life line of the tree swell and roll over at the shari boundary. By developing the shari over many years, it will have a more natural appearance. The developing life line will also cause the trunk to develop undulations and curves.

Shimpaku foliage grows quickly. That means the secondary and tertiary branching will fill in the foliage pads.
During the wiring process, the grafted branches were secured with plastic tubing and wiring to protect the delicate connections between the cambium layers. Since the branches did not develop naturally on the tree, the woody material at the center of graft is not physically connected to the woody material of the mother trunk. If the branch is not secured before wiring, there is a chance the subtle (and not so subtle) movements of wiring the branch could cause it to dislocate. After 4 years of growing the new branch, its death would be heartbreaking.

The short term plan for this tree is to 1) continue developing the shari and jin on the tree with carving tools and 2) to keep shaping the foliage pads as the tree grows. That should keep me busy the next few years!

For the apex of the tree, I plan to bring it more to the front and left side. There will be interplay between the large piece of jin the juts out from the top of the tree and the fresh living material that will surround it. This bonsai will represent a high mountain desert tree that has had its battle with snow storms and lighting. Despite the loss of its apex by a storm many years ago, a new branch has recovered and grows around the wind/sand carve branches. Carving the main trunk has been been quite an adventure. Parts of it were already dead underneath so I had to spend hours poking the bark search for the living tissue. I sure didn’t want to cut away the only living tissue feed the top of the tree just to make an interesting shari.

Even though I have been growing this tree for several years, it still has a few years before it is show-able. But, what I do know, provided it stays healthy, it will be one of the best trees in my collection and a show-stopper at our bonsai displays.
And, as long as it is fertilized and watered, it will out live me and hopefully my bonsai-master-in-training son who will take care of it for many years after I am gone. It may even give my grand children and great grand children pleasure for the next 200 years.

See what I mean?

-L.LeClaire

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