Pinus Mugo - Yamadori

My new Pinus Mugo came to my garden from Tora. Im planing to work on this tree at the first sesion of the Progetto Futuro School.

07-2010 - Pinus Mugo 

04-2010 - Pinus Mugo other side

Some useful information about Pinus Mugos:
- Pinus Mugo Indepth
- Hans van Meee - Two Needle Pine Care

Demo - Enrico Savini

05-2010 - Before the Demo

05-2010 - Analyzing, preparation

05-2010 - Styling of the deadwood

05-2010 - Woring on the foilge

05-2010 - End result of the demo

Demo - Marek Gajda

05-2010 - Marek Gajda

05-2010 - Starting material

05-2010 - Working on deadwood

05-2010 - Marek Gajda in action

05-2010 - Final touch

05-2010 - End result

Juniperus Prokumbens Nana - Cascade

I found this Juniper (Juniperus Prokumbens Nana) in TORA in 2009 and I decidet to add him to my colection. In the first year I only made some basic branch selection and some first design steps in the direction to the final goal.

06-2009 - Juniper after purchase

07-2009 - After branch selection and cleaning

I then let the tree to rest and only watered it, fed with fertilizer and did some basic pruning.

In spring of 2010 I went to Tomaž Kovšca for an advanced workshop, where we established the first serious form of the tree. Part of the story from the workshop is available on Tomaž-s blog.

03-2010 - Before the workshop

03-2010 - After the workshop

The plan for the next stages is to transplant the Juniper to a higher and narrower pot, and to bring the lower branch more toward the center.

Carpinus Betulus - Yamadori

Today I collected my first serious Yamadori. The Carpinus Betulus has a great Nebari, some movement and at least in my eyes a great potential. With a lot of help form Matija the tree was transported to my garden and I hope it will feel well. The Carpinus is planted in a plastic container (diameter 60cm) with well drained substrate.

The plan for this year is aggresive feeding with organic fertilizer and leaving the tree freely to grow and getter strenght for the first styling.

05-2010 - After collecting

Chamaecyparis Pisifera Bulevard

After the first real contact with the world of bonsai (visit of the beginner course with Thomaž Kovšca) I was full of enthusiasm and looking for a suitable material for the first "serious" work. I found a Chamaecyparis Pisifera Bulevardi) in a nursery near Ljubljana (April 2009), and notwithstanding the fact that this was the purchase of a plain bush I had considerably beginners luck and got a very solid material for the first serious work.

04-2009 - My first starting material

The first design (May 2009) was carried out at the Slovenian bonsai club workshop and with great help of Thomaž Kovšca my tree got its first design.

05-2009 - On the workshop 

05-2009 - The result of the first styling

After the first design I was confronted with many questions that were related to the care of a tree, how to achieve an optimal result for further development, how intensive should I water the tree, should I put the tree in full sun all day or just part of the day, what kind of fertilizer should I use, how often should I use the fertilizer, when and how often should I prune the tree ... a lot of questions with few answers.


Via different forums, articles, discussions with other “bonsai people” I found the answers and the tree developed nice, it survived the winter and in spring it was transplanted into the first bonsai pot (March 2009). Instead of normal soil from the nursery I used a mixture of Akadame (70%) and soil for conifers (30%). Wire from the first design was also replaced because it has already started to grow in the branches.

04-2010 - The tree one year after first styling

The pot is not yet final and will be replaced with a pot that will be wider, lower, and probably non-glazed and oval shaped.