The_only_tree

 ... I would never sell.

And this because it is my very first styling-attempt, when i started my bonsai-journey.

I acquired this particular Juniperus chinensis blaauw in a small garden-center as 

raw-material back in 1996.

I had been inspired that days by a styling-documentation in a german Bonsai journal

 (Bonsai creativ).

Harry Tomlinson (father of Corin Tomlinson from Greenwood Bonsai studio UK),

worked on a Juniper chinensis blaauw.  

Well, the raw-material was very, very poor according to bonsai-suitability, 

but i did not knew it better 27 years ago :-))   ...

Pictures:

small_and_gnarly

No major changes so far. This yew had a really good growing-season, hence the amount of  

adventious-buds for back-budding next spring.

The height of this tree is about 25 cm. The future layout of the height will  not expand over 28 cm.

I am looking for a pot for this particular Taxus baccata. 

The next Trophy in Genk/Belgium will bring up a good opportunity to find something suitable.

it_had_been_a_gift

 ... as raw-material of course.

Two years ago i visited a nursery in a suburb of my home-town. 

A small Taxus baccata laid aside a road on the nursery-yard, wich had obviously been run over by a 

tractor or such. The little tree was in a very poor state, but i thought, what a pitty, one should try to

develop something out of almost less than nothing.

As i asked the manager to buy this unlucky specimen, he looked at me in the most  compassionated

way and said : "Well Sir, its a gift ... ."

Maybe this man considered me for being an absolut mad-man (or rather an utter fool), but anyway, 

here I go with my Taxus.

Formerly the yew had two stems and a whole lot more branches but most of them were broken.

So I decided to go for a very reduced design from scratch.

less_is_more

And again a tree, wich I considered to be too dense.

This was okay so far, since the tree gained a lot of energy because of its large amount of green-mass.

But then comes the time to "destill" a kind of essence of the tree's character.

Now I will start again to lead the growing-energy to the right spoots within the trees-System.

Sometimes things has to become worse before getting better ...

Do not be disappointed when comparing the pistures of May '23 to nowerdays state of development.

In the long run, this concept of reducing to the max will be rewarding ...

the_other_Squamata

My designing-aim on this one had been: 

1) developing the green-mass closer to the trunc 

2) creating a domeshaped apex and

3) defining the leaf-pads ...

I am satisfied with this state of  design so far ...

Pictures as of today ...

Maybe you know this picture already, as of January 2021:

the_Squamata's_way

 Further development of one of my Juniperus Squamata (meyeri or blue star variaty).

The very beginning of this particular designing-journey had been not that easy for me.

Didn`t know what to do with the raw-material, but once you start to find the truncline and do some 

structural wiring such a project turns out clearer and clearer.

pictures as of today, with different front-views ... wich one do you like best?

boring_raw_material_?

 What would you do with this taxus baccata?

 It is not that type of raw-material you would prefer, is it? ...

Howsoever, here is a picture before the designing-session:

The first stage as an pre-bonsai :

And the overblende view of "before and after"-pictures