we’re into the first week of february and although christmas is over i have some small christmas trees now this is not the normal run of the christmas tree these are one of the most popular species at the moment in europe for selling as christmas trees and for those of you who are botanically minded this variety is called the nordman spruce uh i think it’s what is it either piscio or abby’s nordman spruce i saw a video program or television program not so long ago showing how these people in georgia which is in eastern europe were climbing these one and two hundred foot high trees of norman spruce and they climbed to the top to collect the huge cones they knocked the corners off and those corns are used for sowing these seeds so all these spruce trees they’re not produced from cuttings or anything they’re just grown from seed so these trees have been lying around on our nursery i bought them as small plants can you see small pots like this and this tree has been in this pot for at least seven to ten years they are all the same age these trees were potted into slightly larger potsy so this was potted onto this and then from this it goes into this and as you put it into bigger pots they get much bigger so this is a different type of christmas tree to the other types of christmas tree that i’ve been using if i may remind you this is the piscea alberta spruce they’re also sold as christmas trees but they’re quite different from the northern spurs so this is a difficult subject to use because the needles are so coarse and so long it is difficult to make them look credible as a bonsai so what can we do with them now let me start with the easy one of the three i think that’s a problem tree let me do the easiest one first so if you get a situation like this all you need to do is wire the branches down and you will get a pretty reasonable looking tree you may not even need to cut anything off you don’t need to make it short i think it’s quite plausible as a tree this height and this length so i will just proceed and wire the branches together you can plug some of these needles further back you don’t need them just leave the needles at the end by plucking the needles you can encourage bug break so i’m using two millimeter wire i like to say what i’m using because some of you viewers have asked me to set so that they can be guided as to what they should do and i’m now going to do the two branch principle you notice i wired that branch and then this branch i noticed that some of the viewers have sent pictures to me of their attempts at bonsai and they go to the extreme and maybe cut too much off don’t cut too much off otherwise it may look a bit strange and then we’re going to leave spaces between the branches so this one is too close i know that deciding which branch to leave a problem for those of you who are fairly new to bonsai so test it you see what i’m doing i’m testing it to see if the space is visible so if it’s visible then it’s probably okay i’m sure this type of spruce is sold all over the world certainly in europe you’ll find this used a lot and in recent years in the uk the northern spruce is the most popular variety so for christmas trees usually a big tree can cost anything up to 40 50 pounds uh big tree i mean about one meter 1.2 meter and because they’re grown in the ground and very rapid growers those trees that are harvested for christmas trees are probably only 10 years old and you think that this is 10 years old but i’ve kept it in a pot all its life and for that reason it hasn’t grown so much so growing anything in a pot keeps things small and that is the basis of all bonsai keeping them in pots keeps the tree small that at the back needs to be wired the back branches are always important because they provide some depth so now we’ve got a situation where there are three branches one two three so in case you’re worried what do i do with the third branch there’s no compared to what water yes there is you wire a branch that has already been wired so i just wanted a little bit to provide the anchor so you do that so when you get a three branch situation this is what you do do not panic you just link it to an existing wired branch and that should do you also notice what i’m doing i’m zigzagging the branch rather than just leaving it straight i’ve zigzagged it so that shortens the branch and it also makes it look more interesting these should also be wired but i’m not going to take too much time doing it because i want to just show you the principles of most of these things and the ends always just prune because by pruning the ends of any plant you encourage bug back and bug break from further back here so you’ll get more density and then keep pulling the branches down to see where they should lie this is much too long because i’m wanting to create a conical shape do i need this in the front here probably that here there are two four five branches coming out from one point so i don’t need them all i can either keep three or four let’s see which works these little ones i might as well wire just to show you and because those are fairly juvenile branches i’m using thinner wire i’m dying to wear my hawaiian shirts but the weather is not warm enough for that yet let’s wear these probably i don’t need the one in the front so i’ll take it off you see what i do i always test it to see how it looks let’s wire those two first so this is how these trees grow in nature you know tall and upright so this is the natural shape now those four i don’t think i need the four i think three is enough i can take that to the back and that pad is a bit too dense there i will make it like a herringbone point [Music] this also is a bit too low so again three now this three situation i can link this to the one up there rather than link it to an existing wired one and because it’s near enough or close enough i can do that without making it look odd so i just go up the trunk a little bit and then take it to i could take it to anyone i’ll take it to this one i don’t have any finished ones because whenever we make these they sell so quickly but they do become more dense and they are quite attractive as a bonsai so i’ve got there now what would i do with the top i think i’ve got too many there again so i will take this one off this one is okay there to fill that space this can go there i could possibly use this as well [Music] the branches get shorter because i need that conical shape at the top so i’ll wire those two there i’ve been using two millimeter wide throughout around the trunk always wire round the trunk to give it more stability and then take it out to the branches so i’ve used virtually all the branches i haven’t discarded i mean the whole length i haven’t chopped the top off to make it short and that i think completes it so that if you allow it to develop more density is a very presentable tree because most conifers are very flexible if you use thick enough water you can get an s shape from the streak and you see how i’m bending it you can get an s shape so their shape might look quite nice as well so that is also a possibility but i chose to do that as a straight one now let’s look at this one now let’s look at this second one now this one as i told you they’re all the same age but because it hasn’t had a chance to thicken very much and the branches are all over the place some are long some are short now rather than make them all straight trees and because there’s more bare this side let me just give it an s shape as i told you these trees could be anything from seven to ten years old i can’t remember when i got them as young plants so because they’re quite old the branches and the trunk i mean are quite stiff if it was a younger tree it might be more flexible but because it’s stiff you see i’m using the bronze bitter i think by now you will all realize how useful the branch splitter is such a useful tool i think that’s as far as i need to go so that will help me bend the trunk more if i want to bend it over there so that is bendable so i’m going to use fairly thick wire i might need like four millimeter wire i think i was showing you the other day using our old electric cables that is also possible now i’ll use some of this recycled wire this i think is like four and a half maybe five millimeter wire again many people ask how long will it take for the branch or the trunk to set and it depends on how old the tree is and how flexible the tree is and it depends on the species as well so a tree like this because it’s quite an old tree i think in two years it would set its shape and then we can take the wire off okay let me just cut the wire off now foreign so i put the wire on so the brown wire is better because you don’t see it looking so obvious if i use the clear aluminium wires not so pretty okay that wire should be able to do the job so as i said when you bend the tree although you’re making an s it’s better to make a three-dimensional s rather than a flat s so the action is stirring apart so you’re literally going around stirring a pot so that is the action you should do and support it with your whole hand don’t just do like a point load like that doing it with a whole hand is more effective it also can give you a good indication as to when the tree is about to give way or snap so this protects the tree quite a bit look at that bend i’ve got on that look at it very very credible bend single piece of wire now again another trick that you probably see me do is i pop it up in a flower pot so that i get a better idea as to how i’m going to pot it up so i think it will be something like this get out of the pot oh my god look at the roots growing through there i don’t have my root cutter with me a root cutter usually does this job [Applause] there you go so i will try and keep a lot of the branches for now at least and proceed to wire the tree so to one of the branches i will use i think this is two millimeter wide two millimeter wash should do you notice that i try not to waste wire so i cut precisely the amount that i need and because i’m fairly experienced in judging the amount of wire i don’t usually waste much it comes almost exactly to the end of the thing see i didn’t measure it that carefully i just had a good guess as to how long that piece of wire should be so there you are exactly the right amount of wire and then just give it a little twist and bend uh now these very small ones i don’t think i need because i’ve got those two so that i’ve got several branches there let me wire these two together again using two mil wire because i’m going up the trunk i’ve got to follow the path of the wire and then go to this one and then there is one more on its own so i’ll just do the two branch earth principle by linking an existing wired branch which is this this already wired but i just put about an inch of wire on that side to provide the anchor and go on to the next one so two branch principle can be used for three branches sounds odd but that’s what it is and then finally the top i think we should give that a more presentable image what can we do with that so i’m making one go down as a branch and that one going up so that’s how i’ve dealt with that so that is very presentable as a tree and i’m not going to show you putting it in a bonsai pot if you want to i’ll just bring a pot to show you what it looks like maybe a pot about i think a little bigger than that but you can get some idea see that’s the angle i’m going to plant at so what was a very straight and ugly tree has become this so this is possible as well so you don’t always have to make them dead straight now let’s see what we can do with this while you’re sitting and looking at this i’m sure you’re trying to guess what i have in mind and of course i can just hear you saying i wonder what he’s going to do with this and i’m sure some of you will have guessed right the obvious answer the easy option is to make it dead straight make it absolutely dead straight just while these branches and it will look a very presentable christmas tree the conifers grow like this so it is a perfectly normal type shape but it is a bit boring and because this large branch is here you know you can make this one the leader when you get a situation like this you can make that the leader so i think if you just do that you can make this the leader and that can become the leader so if we were to do that i think we will have to split the trunk i will do that as a challenge another easy option is to just make it a upright tree if you made it upright tree what i would do is get rid of the thick branches and use the thin branches to wire so that the tree looks big and tall with the small branches so that is the easy option but the more difficult thing is to make this into an s-shaped tree uh but although we are going to use it as an s-shaped tree it is tempting to use this as a leader but let’s see what happens it may not fit so always keep an open mind never have it fixed in your mind what you’re going to do because it may not turn out that way and you might get disappointed so let’s see when we put a piece of wire and bend the trunk after splitting the trunk what the tree might look like [Music] okay i’ll begin by splitting the trunk so that thing is almost thumbtake with thick trunks you can either split it once and split it twice so we’re going vertically up the tree all the way up the tree with the trunk splitter i hope you don’t feel that these are repetitive because i’m a great believer in reinforcing the learning process by repetition and i always feel that every situation is different although i’m showing the same technique same technique used on different trees different species of trees so the situation is never exactly the same but as long as you’re learning and benefiting from it that is the main object of my videos how high to go i think i’ll keep going a little more maybe leave it where i get about two or three inches from the top because the main bending is going to be done lower down the trunk so i only split it once now sometimes you can split it in quadrant fashion that means you can do at right angles to the original split that is also acceptable so it is able to slide in all three dimensions not just laterally in one plane like that it can twist the other way as well with conifers this is ideal because they give out a sap and the sap helps the healing much faster i find that many deciduous trees are not so good for splitting japanese maple for instance a very brittle tree i would never do it to that that would just snap and break the trunk so you’ve just got to play it by ear and see what works and what doesn’t work a lot of it is experienced by empirical study that means you got to try it and you’ll find that some species work some species don’t work the branch blade should touch so it’s penetrating the complete branch of course these cuts that i’ve made in there when they heal they make the bark look more rugged so there is benefit in actually doing it see already i can feel it’s become more bendable you can see it bending more easily so again i will use the rest of this recycled wire and see what happens when i do this many of these projects i do as a challenge because this nordman spruce is not really the top favorite if i had a choice i would much rather work on a scot spine or a juniper why would i want to work on a species which is as difficult as this so sometimes we do it as a challenge and the bonus we get is that it might turn out to be a very beautiful tree so single piece of i think five mil wire and with a bit of luck this wire should go all the way to the top without much waste i’m not showing off but from experience i know that some of these estimates of mine never go wrong okay i’m going to try using this as the leader to see if it will work if it won’t work i’ll undo the wire and do something else [Music] look how pot-bound it is that is really pot-bound that i’ll have to tease out when i come to repotting you always hope it won’t snap on you oh snapped a bit but i think it’ll heal oh okay i’m not trying to bend the trunk too much because i know it might give way i’m not sure whether i’m going to discard that or not i’ll keep it for a while in case i need to use it now i’ve got to follow the path of this wire so i got to figure out how i do this so well some people may criticize me for making this species look unnatural because these trees in nature always grow straight you will seldom find a nordman spruce growing in a curly fashion but remember that in bonacide a lot of people argue with me that oh they don’t look like this in nature i know they don’t look like this in nature but in bonsai we are trying to use one species to create an image of another species like when we work with those blast junipers or chinese junipers we are making them look like pine trees that you would find in nature so you’re not trying to recreate a juniper to look like a juniper we’re trying to make a juniper look like a pine okay i’m using this as a challenge i would have used this as a straight tree okay let me take the top off that’s done there’s no argument and we will now just make it as best we can and change the shape of this tree so already looking quite interesting you must admit and the rest is simple wiring so the point of this exercise is just to show that we don’t become a bit boring so let’s wire the branches together this is where i have to judge the thickness of wire this might not be ticking off that might be wasteful so this thickness i’m going to use two and a half mil water this is two and a half mil remember i’m cutting the wire with my ferco secateurs so i’m not blending the blade i’m using that little notch that is in the felco because that notch is for cutting wire so again in case you folk are wondering what i’m talking about if you look at that you see that little notch there that bit is for cutting wire someone had to show it to me years and years ago because i didn’t know what it was for i’m not an agent for felco secretaries in case you think i’m advertising for them it’s just that i still believe that it’s the best secateurs you can buy anywhere in the world there are a lot of copies a lot of copies made to resemble them in red but none of them are as superior as the proper filco it’s a beautiful tool to use not cheap i think they sell for like 55 pounds or something that’s certainly not cheap but they’re good and we’ve got the four branch situation i will use that as well that should work so this is really to prove the point i always make that there is very seldom what we would call an impossible tree any tree can be made into a bonsai within reason certain species are difficult but by no means impossible i don’t know whether to keep that or not i may keep it although it’s a bit low i will decide when i finish doing the whole thing i will keep these to go as well keep that to grow probably i’ll keep them all for the time being well while we’re talking about norton spruce i did have a letter from someone in america saying that they had bought a huge spruce 1.2 meter tall and he asked whether he could make a bonsai with that uh and because spruce tends to be a bit coarse as they get older and bigger i don’t think that was quite appropriate for anything a tree of that height didn’t look right so i had to tell him that it wasn’t really suitable in that situation i think that doesn’t look right there now the back branch i’m doing a link here about an inch too long a piece of wire and this is proving to be quite a lovely tree so i’m glad i took the decision to use the side branch as the leader as i said just to show you a different principle on the tree to grow it that tall i can take that leader off and let that grow that way and i didn’t really need to do anything to that so there you are again i’m not sure enough to say how quickly i did it let’s take that one off and that you must admit is a very reasonable looking bonsai so these are all projects for those of you who are beginning in bonsai to try i know that if you live in tropical countries where you can’t get this species you can’t really try this but for most people especially in united states and in europe these trees are easily available so there you are i use the side branch to remind you i cut that off use the side branch to make the leader that got cut off so the three trees are quite different there’s that one there’s this one and there’s this one so how different is that so three very difficult almost impossible species have turned out very very promising so i hope you’ve enjoyed this one [Music] you
