So I dug up a privet from my yard last year and put it in a wooden box to recover. It did great, and now I’d like to put a little movement into the young branches before they are too thick to bend.
Young branches on thick trunk
I will only want to keep one of the branches emerging from this spot on the trunk. It’s very early in the design and growing process so I can’t necessarily choose which one is better, AND to anchor one of these to another branch with wire would require wrapping all the way around that thick trunk, which could risk scaring on the trunk.
Same branches, from above, after wiring
So, don’t make that choice now. Wire these two branches with one wire and put movement into both. No need to wrap all the way around the trunk, and I can decide which branch to keep later on.
Just a little hack.
Ready for spring growth.
WARNING: This works here because of the stiffness of these privet branches. In another situation or with another species, extreme care may be needed to wire both branches without causing damage to one or both.
I’m proud to say I am making progress in my goal to improve the quality of the bonsai in my collection. I have spent way too many years playing with SIPs (sticks-in-pots)! But as my trees improve, I am discovering one of the down sides — one tree can involve LOTS of wire!
Vicary privet shown in Spring 2021
This privet is a good example. Since it is relatively early in its styling and development, a nearly full wiring job was necessary this spring. I was able to apply the wire with all of last year’s leaves removed — in winter image as it were — but removing the wire was a far more delicate task that required great care not to damage the leaves that now cover the tree.
An interior shot midway through wire removal. There’s lots of wire in there!
Removing so much wire really gave me some time to reflect on this as a bonsai practice. I was able to think about what I have been taught, what my own habits are, and where those two don’t necessarily line up.
So how are we supposed to remove wire from bonsai?! (And how do I do it?) The shortest version of the story is this: The experts say you should cut the wire off, but I tend to unwind in many cases, but not all. Which I choose is based on the safest approach for the tree.
When the wire is particularly thick, I usually cut it. Using a good pair of bonsai wire cutters with a blunt tip to cut once every rotation allows you to remove the wire in pieces without the force of the thick wire pressing in precarious ways against the bark and causing damage. Trying to cut thin wire, however, is more risky.
Cutting tiny wire may be a bad idea so I usually unwind.
Thin wire is used on thin branches. Cutting thin wire would involve a lot of very close encounters between a cutting tool and a thin branch. In my opinion, the risk of cutting a branch is too great, so I unwind it. But this also needs to be done carefully.
To unwind, I find the end of a wire as a place to start. If necessary, I use jin pliers to grab hold of the tip of the wire and begin pulling it away from the branch. I will sometimes continue to hold the tip with the pliers for a few rotations, but other times I get it started and then guide the unwinding with my finger tips.
Beware the treacherous wire hooks!
Either way, I am always very careful to keep hold of that last bend at the end of the wire. The sharp tip, plus a hook shape makes for a very effective leaf tearing tool. So keep hold of it to prevent that hook from being pulled through the leaves you are trying to protect.
The wire starts to pile up.
The most effective process I have found for unwinding may seem obvious to some, but let me briefly explain it anyway. Unwind it the reverse of how you put it on. Find one end. Unwind it back to the branch intersection where the wire turns onto another branch, and stop. Then find the other end of the same wire and unwind until the first half comes free. Support the branch you are working on as you go, similar to the way you support it as you apply wire.
Once the wire is free of the branches, carefully remove it from the interior of the tree making sure the sharp hook at the back end doesn’t catch leaves on the way through.
There are, of course, times when it’s not so easy. When branches get a bit too dense, you may need to unwind a bit, then cut a part of the wire off to continue without having to weave and thread your way out.
Unwinding wire (at least in the case of aluminum) does have the benefit of being able to reuse the wire, but don’t become so obsessed with this that you make a decision that damages your tree.
This is the corner of my bench where I straighten wire, a topic for another time.
If you decide to reuse, I recommend straightening it first, but that’s a topic for a different post.
I collected this holly a few years ago. Did some hard root pruning in spring 2020 to get it into this pot, and have let it grow wild since then. Read about the work from last year here. As you can see, it is big and hairy and needs a trim.
Big holly before styling, June 2021
Don’t be fooled by this front view though. The crown is coming toward you, and back branches need to be positioned and developed to catch up. Here’s a view from the side so you can see what I mean.
View from the side to show how undeveloped the back of the tree is.
This holly has proven to be extremely vigorous, and after this styling I will have to keep on top of it to develop finer branching. I am confident in its ability to back bud and fill in, though. In fact, the first thing I need to do is remove several suckers growing from the base of the trunk.
Removing suckers that will grow all around the base.
The next step is to analyze the structure and remove whole branches that don’t serve the future of the tree. I remove branches that are too thick, in a poor location, pointing the wrong direction, or conflicting with a better branch in the same area. The goal is to leave a better primary structure to build off of. In the image below you can see where several branches have been cut.
Holly showing where several branches have been removed.
The remaining branches were far too long. I shortened them by selecting cuts that would leave a better taper as the branch moved away from the trunk.
A few guy wires were applied to pull primary branches down into position, and a nice shape for the silhouette was my goal for the final length adjustments.
This privet was a landscape plant on my property until I removed it from the garden in 2015. Since then I have gradually selected from and reduced nine trunks to three, and reduced the root system to fit in an appropriately sized pot — if not a refined looking one.
Vicary privet, March 2021
Allowed to grow freely for most of last season, this (above) is how it looked in early March, still holing last year’s leaves. The dark green and sometimes purple cast of the leaves is it’s winter color. In spring the leaves are a bright yellow-green which is why I suspect this is a Vicary golden privet, Ligustrum x vicaryi.
Purple color of winter leaves.
The first step of many this spring was to remove the old leaves.
Leave removed.
With leaves removed, I could see what I was working with and apply wire without interference. I wired out most of the branches and set them into a rough placement before repotting.
After building strength last season, dense roots had slowed percolation, so a bit of root pruning and some fresh soil — two parts akadama to one part lava rock and one part pumice — set it up for continued growth and vigor. For now, it is back into the same unrefined pot until I can find or make a better one.
Roughly wired and roots pruned, ready to go back in a pot with fresh soil.
Once secured in the pot, I refined the branch placement a bit and used a couple of guy wires to set the design.
Repotted and wired, March 2021
Spring growth pushed shortly after, and below is what it looked like by the beginning of May. (Don’t mind the pink ribbon. This is just something I use to mark those trees that should be protected from frost if cold temperatures are forecast. I mark all trees that have been repotted this way until the chance of freezing temperatures has passed.)
Spring growth by early May
Many shoots had extended to 8 or 10 leaves marking a good time for spring pruning. Some were even developing flower buds, but flowers are not important for the tree at this developmental stage, so they were removed with pruning.
Flower buds developing at the tips of spring growth
I reduced strong shoots to just 2 or three leaves, and left weak shoots or branches that need to grow out or thicken (like the bottom branch on the left) with more.
I plan to stay on top of the growth, moving forward, to promote ramification and continue to fill in parts of the silhouette that need it.
That was a lot of work on one tree in just a couple of months, but it is on track to continue developing into a nice bonsai.
This is not a human. It is stone. It is also not George Washington. George Washington was a living person and this is not. This is a sculpture representing George Washington.
The image below is also meant to represent George Washington by way of a costume. In addition, it is a (photo of) a living, breathing human being — not a sculpture. (As an added bonus to the topic at hand, this particular example is smaller than the original man.)
Photo from Party City. You can buy this costume there if you like.
Quick question… is the boy in the George Washington costume meant to represent the man, or represent the sculpture of the man?
If the designer who created the costume took inspiration from the Houdon or some other sculpture, would you then think the boy is meant to represent a sculpture? Or to represent the man — the first president? I would say the man.
Now let’s talk about this.
Wire Tree Sculpture by Rick Skursky. Before I go off the deep end, let me take a moment to acknowledge this perfectly lovely sculpture. Rick won my recognition here for a couple of reasons: this example came up quickly in a Google search, and his sculpture is named appropriately, “Wire Tree Sculpture.” If you like it, the website where I found it says it is for sale.
Now to my point…
THIS IS NOT A BONSAI!
THIS IS ALSO NOT A SCULPTURE OF A BONSAI.
This is a sculpture of a tree. In my humble opinion, neither this nor any other wire sculpture of a tree should ever be referred to as bonsai, wire bonsai, bonsai sculpture or any variation thereof, and this is for the same reasons, described above, that the boy is not wearing a sculpture costume, but rather a George Washington costume.
A bonsai is a living plant in a pot that is a miniature representation of a full size tree. Bonsai is an art form. It is living sculpture.
A wire sculpture is not living plant so it does not meet the definition of bonsai. I think we can all agree on that point, but even if the wire artist was inspired by bonsai, he is using that inspiration to represent the same subject as bonsai — a tree.
I hope I have sufficiently explained my logic in this conclusion. Now, kindly refrain from referring to wire tree sculptures as bonsai. And could one of you please correct all the places it is wrong on the internet?
Bonsai is an art form. The most effective bonsai artists employ the skills of artists who work in other media (our medium just happens to be living plants.) Among these skills is looking — I mean REALLY looking.
I am finally starting the work that needs done on my few tropical bonsai. These poor, abused plants really struggle with the outdoor/indoor cycle they must endure. In my area (Northern Virginia, USA) I need to keep them inside very nearly half the year to protect them from cold night time temperatures — from sometime in October to sometime in May. They pout and just barely hang onto existence while inside over the winter, and it takes a while, once back outside in the summer, for them to rebuild strength and grow well.
I am super excited about the development of a beech I collected and shared with you two years ago. You can read about that, and see photos from the time of collection here. For a quicker reminder, here’s a photo from autumn 2018, just a half a year after being collected.
This is a very young forest of Amur maples I started from seed. It was roughly pruned to shape after leaf drop in the fall, and needs a little wire going into this growing season. As you can see, the tree is ready to go, even though winter is still with us here in Virginia.
Last summer I picked up this little juniper for a couple bucks from the section of the garden center where they put the plants that don’t look so good. In fact, this particular garden center calls it the TLC area.
Bonsai Iterate 