Picea No.2

 During last few days I revived one old project which was on standby in my garden for some time. Tree I was working with is Picea abies, spruce. Tree was collected in spring 2010 and you can find few words about it here. It was first major complete styling of the tree. Now wires will stay for a long time, maybe year or eventually more. More work will be done on top jin and other jins as well when wood will dry. Some of the main branches will be removed later when crown will fill with new growth and smaller branches I would like to keep will be stronger. 

Current stage after wiring and styling. 

 

April 2010. Shortly after collecting from wild. Potted into plastic pot into almost pure zeolite. Branches are sparse and long. They were shortened on transportation minimum, but still way  too long. All inner needles except news fell off in 2010.

Size comparison and detail on empty long branches. Long branches must be cut back step by step, year by year. Tree grown new buds back on older wood and I had to cut back so they have enough energy to grow.

New buds visible on old wood in Autumn 2010.

May 2011 - vigorous new growth after first winter in pot. Growth far from trunk though. 

April 2012 - one year later, growth around the apex. 

Late April 2012 - tree responds with strong growth. Result of  good feeding, watering and maximum sun exposure. 

April 2012 - all bottom growth removed and only those branches left which will be used in final design. In 2011 during Walter Pall visit in my garden when discussing this tree, he grabbed lower branches and says "Cut this off". So, this was easy part. 

Long and healthy shots. Point is always keep only two growing from same spot. I usually remove middle one. 

June 2012 - lots of new growth. 

June 2012 - I decided to pull branches down with guy wires.  I hoped it will help me with their final positioning. later. 

August 2012 - tree was slip potted into new ceramic pot. Not final, and yet too big but made manipulation much easier. 

June 2016- after neglecting the tree for some time, this is stage where it started this year. 

Dense foliage must be reduced. On spots where more shoots grow from one place only two are left. 

Details of the bark. 

Working on jins. 

Carving jin with Dremel and bit made by Rudo Spanko. 

And wiring beggins. 

...and continues. Seems like endless job. 

And this is result after few hours of wiring and styling. Now still too dense, after new buds will appear branches will be further shortened. 

Detail of the lille dry stump, you can see amazing wood density. It is clear tree was growing in harsh condition with very limited resources and was growing very slowly.