Demonstration with a phoenician juniper (Juniperus phoenicea)

During the XX exhibition of the Madrid Bonsai Club, David gave a demonstration with a Phoenician juniper in the pavilion of the rose garden in the Parque del Oeste in Madrid.

This juniper had never before been worked on, it had simply been cultivated with a clear objective in mind - to obtain the most vigorous growth possible. David made a point of this during the demonstration, as well as the necessity to respect the health of the tree by always taking into account beforehand the consequences of each of the operations which are to be carried out. The objective is to guarantee the development of the plant and to obtain results in the shortest period of time possible.

In the introduction David explained the qualities and defects of the specimen and the order of the jobs to be carried out in the styling of the tree - "The jobs are carried out from greater to smaller, the toughest work to the most delicate". The order in this case was:

• Work on the dead woods and defining of the living veins.
• Defining the design (front, planting position, distribution of principal lines and positioning of foliage masses).
• Drawing of the final design in order to allow the public to follow the work.
• Wiring of the main branches.
• Wiring of the secondary branches and refining the crown.

Step by step

Phoenician juniper (Juniperus phoenicea) before the work.

The work began by cleaning the wood, eliminating those parts which were rotten and the accumulated waste in order to later apply jin liquid, which helps preserve the most healthy areas and slow down the general deterioration of the wood.

For the cleaning a nylon brush was used attached to a drill. In order to obtain better results David explained: "the wood should be kept humid while the brush is being used".

In order to aid the task and avoid damage to the foliage the branches were tied with wire, leaving the trunk completely exposed as can be seen in the photo. As the wood is humid, the brush does not burn or create too much dust.

In order to give the impression of movement in such a rigid trunk the planting angle was modified, the tree was inclined towards the left. The priority was to find a design in which the living vein was visible from the front while at the same time creating a harmonious composition.

The public paid attention to all the details of the work. David can be seen drawing his idea before styling the crown of the tree.

Once the drawing was finished he explained the details, which branch of the tree corresponded to each part of the drawing. In this way the public could tell what was being worked on at each moment.

Once the design has been determined, the unnecessary branches are removed and the tree is prepared for wiring. In this way neither time nor wire or effort are wasted by wiring branches which will later be removed. David emphasised the importance of working with clear objectives in mind.

While David wired, a volunteer (José Gálvez) applied jin liquid to the dead wood. The demonstrator concentrated on the main branches in order to structure the tree. The wiring of the secondary branches would come later.

The last stage of the process was to position one of the shoots and to adjust the length of the branches. David explained that in this first stage not all the shoots should be pinched, vigorous shoots should be left unpinched at the tip of each sub-branch so that the tree doesn't hold back its growth or lose vigour.

After 3 hours of demonstration.

The result of the demonstration can be seen better in this studio photo. The trunk now has movement and the vein is visible. The base is also very interesting from the front and the long first branch helps compensate and balance the large upper jin.

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