Making Formal Upright Bonsai from Alberta Spruce

now these are our famous Christmas trees the Picea Alberti on a chronica and they're not sold as Christmas trees they're quite big and I'm going to make them into bonafide they are hugely popular with my customers and I'm going to show you how you can style them I have shown them before in different sizes but I'll just go through the process again because there's no harm in repeating what I do because I do them as partly trained trees and people like to buy them so I'll just take at random no single step so let's just take these two and show you what we do with it and then we've got to stop so here is the plant these Alberta spruce I call it without participants and it's so well grown that they have branches from right down here and it's every bit I would say 70 to 80 centimeter tall now do I need all that height probably not so let me go through the process again because every time I explain it and repeat it you will learn something so the first thing I always do with any plant that you buy from a nursery is to take it out of the pot and see where the actual roots start form because although it is planted deep you will find that they have invariably potted it deeper than they need to be so I'm going to tease the roots the bottom here we just tease from the surface to find the start of the tree because the way the roots go into the soil also provides the basis for a good root system or Japanese word nebari which is used a lot simply means the surface once so you want good surface roots so you tease where and see what is we always say that it but really just go straight in the ground without any signs of surface roots then it's just like a telegraph pole or an electric pole just looks like a post in the ground so you see just by teasing away you see I've already exposed about one inch of extra trunk before I come to the base of the tree so that is something you should always do with any ministry with you very often not going so well these extremely well these we buy from commercial horse in this race it's not a single dead branch right to the base that's a lovely base can you see it check guessed it really looks like a Moultrie so I always say that you don't need the branches talking from solo so we will remove some of these see because when you why the branch down it is too low you need to show some trouble so let's get rid of these and these are dwarf I'll gotta spruce by the way they go from cuttings ever so easily that's why they are so easy to produce that's the perfect leader cutting they will root okay so let's get rid of branches but nothing has been wasted why are these lower branches have been growing it has helped to thicken the front em you see I'll take the truncus now that thickness of trunk has certainly come from then leaving the lower bounce is there if they have not left the lower branches it would not have thickened so well so if we still pressed the bunch down it's still too low you can make it a tree that has these very low spreading branches but this is not the sort of image I want I might do that on another tree to show you what it looks like but for my liking and my taste I prefer to show much more trunk so I'm going to go up the tree and then start from higher up so even from here I can start making it a bit tree always remember too that you don't want thick branches because thick branches like this don't provide good contrast with the thickness of the trunk if you use thin branches like this thin branches contrasting with the trunk makes the truck look thicker so always try and use the thin branches if you can and that will give you a much better effect now I always begin by wiring the bottom path and then as I proceed by then widening next layer so don't find jump the gun by going too far of the top because you want to do each pair see how it looks and then go on to the axle so for this thickness of branch or have a selection of different sizes of wars this is too important three I've always told you that there's no hard and fast rule as to what thickness of wire will wire a particular thickness of branch because every situation is different every situation is different because the tree could be Young's and it would not be soft stiff and difficult to run if the tree is older it would be more difficult to bend so there are no hard and fast rules you've just got to use common sense and just see what works branches there and although it's coming straight I can always do it with the zigzag like this if you look see that little zigzag like that can shorten the boat like this one as well and then that could short the branch and make it look more interesting do I need this one I've got to decide what side I'm going to use as a front ok I don't think I'm going to keep the tree that's tall I certainly don't want to make the tree so tall so let's take some of this let me take that off for stop [Music] and the chicken let me or you again at the front which side with this part coming out here I clearly don't want it so the first two branches are those two and the reason why I chose those two let me just cut this off is because we always say that the first two branches are the welcoming branches like the arms like that and you hold your arms out there like this not like that swimming like that but this way so they should embrace you so these two branches should be embracing and then the next one some at the back to give some density at the back shorten this a bit not received one and mix these next two are slightly thicker than their other ones that I had just one so I will use it slightly thicker please watch our burner up to two and half when I wire the two branches together I always go around the trunk because that gives it some stability so I go around the trunk like that and Warren I could have easily wired from one branch to the other but I find that if you go around the trunk that is more effective everyone has their own ways of doing things as I always said there is no absolutely right and wrong way I think if you become so arrogant as a teacher and say that there's only one way to do it I think that is not giving the student the right mindset because we always try to show people that there are other ways of doing it it doesn't have to be always that particular way to reinforce I do a zigzag to make it more interesting exact like that and then these parts these are beautiful pants look at all that growth lovely growth and they can be trimmed so this is the back side this is the front with the trunk open our next Bunch can be now we've got to decide where the next layer branches are going to be because suppose we have brought this branch down if you look down you will see that this bunch of I brought it down is going to cloud this one so I think this is going to be too close so probably the next branch let's see what could we use it here okay bite the bullet I want to keep the front open as much as possible now if I take this branch down I've got the back branch already there do I need that it's maybe too much I think I brought this down see this clouds this space but if I brought this down this is better so I can get rid of this branch so I hope you can understand the way I'm thinking and choosing the brush so that gives me more space like that then this one if I brought it down this is too close to that so this one so probably these two could be okay and they won't interfere too much so we do these two like that now these two are thinner than the ones of Justin so I'd revert to the two millimeter now again going around the trunk [Music] these five shares of spruce have a beautiful fragrance absolutely divine fragrance so that gives you space it can you see the spacing between that so over there I've removed two branches just to create the space okay so next one that one I think is too close see that one's going to be too close so if that's too close get rid of this one so you've got to look at each level as you go along to decide okay I'll remove that so that should be about right now what about this one this one again is too close to this one so we won't use this one because this is too close so get rid of that then let's try these two these two could work over there so that's fine or I could even use this one all right well can we use these two first these two then the slightly tell us I'm going to revert to the two middle one these two branches together [Music] I don't let all the branches overhang each other I will stagger them so that they don't overhang then the next one do I need that one that's too close to that so that I can get rid of so you can see how I'm proceeding I have to just wash a pair of branches and then examine the next situation to see whether or not so always looking at the front so do I need this one this could be clouding this one so probably not this one I'm not sure that can go that way so that won't interfere too much soil keep that one this one could probably come [Music] [Music] see that's nothing there so I may have to be a bit careful see there's so many branches y'all got to decide what to do if I wanted these dollars going to fight that one so let's get rid of these two it's too close so that can be wired that can be wiped this way what can we want this will maybe better this we keep thinking ahead okay these choices keep looking to see what the future this position of the branches will look like when the others have been pulled down [Music] [Music] so this is the back you can see the back the back has got far more branches that were from so the front is fading opal so that's why we're going now let's pull this one down I think that could be okay that can be used that can also be used because I don't want the front to be too bad I mean it needs to be better but not too bad so I want these two again this is a fairly thick to use this [Music] [Music] [Music] I know that for most beginners deciding which branch to remove is always a daunting experience but don't worry take your time because I work fast it doesn't mean that you have to work fast now that one is too close do I need this one this one is also a bit too close you can see ready to many girth and you see that's three there so I can take so let's take this one off you can see already how much I've taken I've taken more than half the tree off that's the amount of chasing off after they're making bonsai remember the principle less is more that one at the back we decide whether I need it or not [Music] that's what these two and see that just come on I've seen a lot [Music] now this branch I think it's too close to that then you see if I bend it down it's too close to the ones that already wide so I think I can take the decision court please leave that I can remove this one you don't need this one [Music] progressing up the Trump to see now if I use this one this one is in fact too close this one is too close to this one so we don't do this too close now this one is too close to this one so it's going to make it look too congested so I'll get this one I don't need this one that little one add back and draw in that direction sorry no get rid of it I can use this one to give the back branch now that one look quite nice I'm now getting to the apex so I've got to be careful what I do because I need to terminate the apex somehow I don't want it to keep going taller and taller already it's looking quite nice so we could do these two now this one is a drift out why this I think that would be what these two can be wrong let's go Murphy please don't miss anything so we want these two so we can use the two men one you notice I'm cutting the wire with the Secretary's in case anyone criticizes me always remember what these fellows secateurs is so values have lost their covering on this there is a little notch here can you see that notch there that is for cutting wire so when you see me cutting it I'm not cutting with the blade I'm cutting with the notch so the fat causes useful in that respect okay so we are going to wire these two so again I go round the clock to give it some stability and then I take [Music] it is really like a real tall codify that you would find in a forest Scottish forest or Norwegian Forest that's different as we get to the top it's getting a bit denser which is quite natural now this one yeah if I pull it on it's too close to these two so we will get rid of this one always test it to see if it is too close or too far but it is too close that you get these two four wire down because at the top we want to tell you then this would look okay or I could even got to look for an apex so I think I found an apex yes you can you see if you come close you see this one is going up over there so that can be a new apex so I can cut out I've already cut that much off so I'm going to cut this one can you see me cutting it mr. secretary I'm going to keep that one so I'm going to cut this off why these two shorten a tree by about 30 centimeter almost it is now I would say 45 maybe 50 centimeters so 70 centimeter down to about 50 centimeter a reduced height but nice thick trunk all the balance is there so now these two this is fairly 10 so we go for 2 men [Music] these are the sort of things that most people can make without much difficulty the object of my youtube videos is not to show you these great masterpieces is to enable watery humble mortals who are just starting in bonsai to enjoy the Hobby after all most of what we do should be enjoyable if it's not enjoyable that's not doing it so then we come to behave like so in virtually there I keep that little ape excess so we want some of these down I don't know one of the but I need that back of these so I can wipe these two together always looking for pairs so I've used just two grades of art our youth to and toward off Millward for this particular tree I've always maintained that two men wah is probably the single most useful grade of wire that there is for bottom side that is a minimum I'm not talking copper wire [Music] keep the top fairly dense rather than just an arrow pointing upwards so as well these two and I think that should be almost the end you go and leave the top like that all I need to do this call until the end of because by trimming the end I'm going to force more bug break and little get more pads coming out all around the tree over this side this is the back side pop this up into a plastic training pot and I will show you the pot image with it in its plastic training pot so I recognize remove maybe 60% nearly two-thirds of the original foliage lots of lovely cuttings over there and I will show you just for good measure always I'm conscious of boring people too much by talking too much so this is again the standard Street when we started off as you see the difference see the difference between the two from that to that and let me just go through the process again I won't probably do this so to repeat take it out of the report explore the trunk see which side is nice tease the roots and find the apex and then take the branches from high up do this in another stars I could even take the branches from high up but I think this one I spread abroad just so I can do this in a slightly different way so I'm teasing away see these conifers are just gone in this 80 types soil they turn off and they're so strong so I'm just supposed to show that the compost there's a lot that critical that's an ugly look here you can see this this root here it's going round and round the pot so I'm gonna get rid of it because I don't think I need the song game can you see that this root there I think it's a bit high it's not like to add anything today in a bar Ian because this tree I've got such a lot of lovely roots I can afford to take that off that's a girdling root or not sometimes you get these roots going round and round the truck and it can strangle the tree this is got a lovely spread over there now that's a very thick branch there which has helped to thicken the tree so it makes this so because this is so low I think it's done its job as a sacrificial so I get a little bit sometimes you can use a gin but the bars are not taken up for gin so I won't bother I think don't use gin just for the sake of using a lot of people use jeans because oh it's the thing to do so the end objective is just to make lots of gems now the question is do I need a low branch or not I can start from here and first-rate some decisions to make I thought I would start the tree with very low branches and see what happens just just for the heck of it let's see if I use low branches what would happen this is very thick so because this is so thick I will probably get rid of it straight away can you see the difference in thickness have you come close you can see this one and this one this is much thicker than this so because it's too thick about I will get rid of it I prefer to use the thinner branches so this is the ideal thickness for the bronze so I think we can use that as a back door for the back so we're going to use low branches in this instance to see how it works if it doesn't work we will probably revert to another design but let's see if it works if it works well and good if it doesn't nothing lost in bonsai it's very seldom that you would get identical clones even the mass-produced trees that you get from China the Chinese urns if you look at them closely they might appear to be close but there's always a slight difference in them so the object of this exercise was to see what happened that we have low spreading branches now although we poked along spreading branches but not these two thinking all of them needs to go we don't need all of them so which one this one and that one so this one can go we don't need this one now if I use this at the front I need this this if this is the fun this is going to be in the way really so I really don't need this one or do I need it well let's try let's try using this okay now there are three branches here one two three now we can use two but get rid of the middle one you need to manage together so I got spacing between these two so I can want this too now these are particularly nice and bushy plants I have seen some sort in nurseries where the growth is not so dense usually very likes so you do have to choose carefully because different growers have different styles of growing and fun my even better than others some are less so so this particular one is particularly nice no this is fun remember which was the front this is quite a nice I don't want like this if I used as a branch would be talking too much in my eye so I get rid of this one we can use that one can probably use this one so we will wire these two together [Music] [Music] this part is quite a bit higher up the trunk I've wrapped around the top once just to traverse the truck to go up the front [Music] [Music] I'll go to decide which to use this one for that one [Music] let's talk much I'll keep it short I might get away with it but if I put this down it'll be overhanging diss problems so I'm gonna head right off this one so this one can come to the front slightly off of the front [Music] [Music] I don't want it to bear these two I'm trying to match similar thickness branches tricky [Music] that's too much over there lots of branches I'm taking many to take a ones out [Music] then I pick parts I'm going to get rid of room right over here just to show you with the silver stay for Christmas because there was so many branches they can you see the swelling here it's become rounded here so always be careful of too many branches growing from one point if you have too many branches growing from one point it makes this inverse taper effect so if you can spot it at a fairly young stage it's always a good idea to get rid of it otherwise you get that bulging bulging effect which is not nice still too many branches to probably use that one [Music] [Music] I think that could be used probably no I don't think I need this one I need because there's a space here that's already been wide because the very thin bottom just putting an open call so this has got Lois weeping branches much law I could have started the tree with the branches from much higher up but I've decided to keep it low nor spreading okay you can use those two this can be used this can be used okay we're getting there so I'm now going into one and half millimeter wide because the branches out here are much much thinner so you've got to keep adjusting the greater wire to the thickness of the branch you are [Music] if it's to 10,000 do the job it is to take it's a waste and it also can be a bit too aggressive so this is to the front I keep forgetting to mention the front and the back because I'm so used to working without a marker because many people use to show people if you just take a piece of aluminium water and then if this is the front I just put it like that to remind me that I'm always working with this as the front of the tree so I don't forget what I'm doing so that is that that is going to be if it's too close I can do that I might even do this let's see I think this is too close I think that would be better so let's get rid of this one [Music] so we watch these true got several branches there because there's so many I don't need too many at one point so I'll get rid of this one so have d-stroid in a while I can just do those now I could use these two because there's a space over here [Music] [Music] so if it's overhanging just move it apart so it that it doesn't over hide in the other guys so we're getting to the top so let's find the apex now this is a bit lanky there so let's get rid of this for a start that's a good eight inches and conduit off these are bit long so this is going to be like a parkland tree with low spreading branches I don't usually like doing these very long videos where I repeat heart I think that repetition is always useful as a learning process involved in dance and I used to be involved in swimming and these endless drills going up and down the pool improving your technique and same with the dance the more you practice the more you become perfect [Music] these two years I can use these two because as you get to the top you want it to be more dense so I think that can be an impact so I can get rid of this see this is going up this way so I'm going to take that off so you can see what I'm gonna do I'm gonna go I'm gonna use this as the attack you're gonna get that off so that's going to be the apex the crown should always be a bit denser Weiss is just like a feather sticking federal it kept sticking up and doesn't look like a mature tree mature trees always have a nice crown crown that is visible that is much better the effect is much better I think by now all of you who watch my videos should have understood the two branch principle it is such an important part of wiring and yet very often on my own classes too or I've mentioned too much principle and what do you expect you see someone trying to war one branch on its own and it doesn't work it flops around so when it flops around I said what did you do sir I forgot just making the crown a little more dense so if I place it down I can see that is quite okay enough foliage so I can this still den so there so those two will be what is the one method back I daresay in commercial nurseries where people are mass producing these my tree like this shouldn't take more than I would say 20 minutes to do but if I've taken say best part of half an hour that is a little bad but if you are doing it from scratch and I've never done it before if you take half a day that is quite good so take time to think think out that thought process ask yourself do I need this branch do I need that branch is it clouding or interfering with the other side and so on interfering with the branch below so that is how you think that's my anchor so this odd branch on its own you can always wire to an existing wired branch much lower branches this one the branch is a bit higher but as I say you can even take the branches to start from here and it will still look nice so they really look like mature trees because the trunks are so thick I'm now going to put them into plastic training pots we will show you the end result so here's the final what we call the mug shot softy paisius that I did that is all the pruning that we prune from those two trees that is a typical unshaped unpruned Picea that we made it from and this is the end result looking like a parkland tree what we call a formal upright style most people seem to imagine that all bonsai have to be curly shaped and twisted and gnarled they have their own fascination but the formula bride bolt upright trees are beautiful in their own right because this is how you would see these great big conifers growing in nature the one on the Left I did deliberately as a tree with low branches the one on the right has slightly higher branches and I could have even taken it much higher a little tip if you make several of these you can plant three or even five in a big dish and make a nice forest with these quite widely spaced so these would make a lovely image so these were done very simply and the trunks I would say is at least looking at it inch and half to two inch thick and that one too is also quite thick and if I can get my tape measure out I will see how the trees are from the base it is still about 65 centimeter tall if you don't include the part I would say it is about 60 centimeter 55 to 60 centimeter tall so there you go I hope you've enjoyed this little exercise still doing the Christmas trees but slightly more sophisticated using more mature plant material [Music]

Channel: Herons Bonsai

Views: 1,168,421

Keywords: Herons Bonsai, Bonsai, Bonzai, Herons Bonzai, Herons Bonsai Nursery, Bonsai Nursery, Garden Centre, Peter Chan, Bonzai UK, Peter Chan Bonsai, Indoor Bonsai, Outdoor Bonsai, How to care for Bonsai, How to look after bonsai, Indoor Bonzai, Outdoor Bonzai, Evergreen trees, Japanese Garden, Zen Garden, Pruning, Pruning Bonsai, Large Bonsai, Garden Trees, Acer Palmatum, Maple Bonsai, Chinese Elm, Chinese Bonsai, Japanese Bonsai, Bonsai for Sale

Id: EBcbKm6BDjE

Length: 55min 30sec (3330 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 19 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Bus_Chucker]

Man terrible comments here on some quality content. I love Herons Bonsai

[u/suburban_roach2]

His voice is nice, I like listening to him talk about his work