Bonsai Gallery of Walter Pall: European Spruce nr. 39

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European Spruce (Norway Spruce), Picea abies # 39

100 cm high
\nAround 200 years old
\nPot by Horst Heinzlreiter
\nfrom a tree which was collected in Austria in 2002\n

This sprue was collected in Austria in spring of 2002 by Uli Ernst form Germany. He planted it into a raw plastic container right away. I saw it an liked it very much and finally received it from Uli in a trade in September of 2006. What I liked on the tree was the most elegant movement of the trunk, the gradual natural taper, the old bark. The foliage looked healthy and numerous strong branches right on top of the trunk promised enough material to form any sort of good crown. I estimate the age of this spruce to be way over 200 years.\nThe only thing that I do not like was the seeming lack of nebari. There is always some nebari on such a tree, one only has to dig for it. September is a very good time in my area to transplant a spruce. I took it out of the container and shook off the substrate. I then had to work myself into the old debris from the natural habitat. it is good to remove this as soon as possible anyway. The root ball appeared to be very small and the nebari was acceptable. This spruce looked to me like it absolutely wanted to be this high, elegant, literati-like tree with hanging branches, like old spruce have them. The spruce wold look like a very old tree in the mountains that could be admired form all sides. I figured that this would look very good in a very well made round container. I chose the one by Horst Heinzreiter and planted the spruce carefully in the middle. I wanted this to be the final container and the spruce should sit in there for at least the next ten years undisturbed. The upper part of the tree was absolutely unchanged, just as Uli had found it in the mountains.\n In spring of 2007 the new growth appeared healthy , but a bit small. This showed me that the spruce did not mind the transplanting, but needed at least one more year before styling. In spring of 2008 it came vigorously. So after two vegetation periods in then new pot it was ready for serious styling in July of 2008.
September is a very good time in my area to transplant a spruce. I took it out of the container and shook off the substrate. I then had to work myself into the old debris from the natural habitat. It is good to remove this as soon as possible anyway. The root ball appeared to be very small and the nebari was acceptable. This spruce looked to me like it absolutely wanted to be this high, elegant, literati-like tree with hanging branches, like old spruce have them. The spruce wold look like a very old tree in the mountains that could be admired form all sides. I figured that this would look very good in a very well made round container. I chose the one by Horst Heinzreiter and planted the spruce carefully in the middle. I wanted this to be the final container and the spruce should sit in there for at least the next ten years undisturbed. The upper part of the tree was absolutely unchanged, just as Uli had found it in the mountains.\n
In spring of 2007 the new growth appeared healthy , but a bit small. This showed me that the spruce did not mind the transplanting, but needed at least one more year before styling. In spring of 2008 it came vigorously. So after two vegetation periods in then new pot it was ready for serious styling in July of 2008.
In July 2008 I inspected the spruce. it looked very healthy, the new shoots of this year were quite vigorous and had a good healthy color. They were hardened already. so i decided to have a go and do all the styling at once.
first the crown was reduced considerably. A major branch had to go to reduce the optical weight. Then I cleaned all the remaining branches, cutting off little dead stumps and weak branchlets.
Afterwards all the dead stumps were edited. Most were radically reduced. The most prominent jin though was left in full length. While at that stage it looked a bit odd I thought that ti would look right as soon as the crown was finally styled.
It is not so easy to take off the bark from stumps which are already dry since quite a while. I had to use a died grinder with a strong steel brush. it is very important to do this in a way to have it look like nature did it. Well, this is impossible with just a die grinder. So then a torch was used to burn all the dead parts. This looks quite unnatural now, of course. It will take a few years to gain the required patina. The color is too dark and clearly looks like it had been burned. I do not like the bone-white painted look of deadwood on many bonsai. I prefer my deadwood to look natural. This means not only structure, surface and texture but also color.
After all the major branches ere wired they were place into what would probably be somewhat the final position. This starts to look fine by now. It probably was a good idea to have left the huge jin intact. Many bonsai schools ask the students to wire one branch fully, position all branchlets and never touch it again and then continue with the next branch. I think it is much more practical to first wire all thicker branches and put them into position. This is a rough sketch then and one can judge the probable outcome. Now one can edit the sketch and when it is fine the wiring continues. On spruce I believe in 100 % wiring at the first styling. This is just too much for most. A big spruce can occupy you several days with fine wiring. But it is part of the game with this species.
Now the spruce needs good after care: full sunshine but high humidity in the crown. this is achieved with misting as often as possible. It will be watered aggressively and fed right away just like other trees. In spring of 2009 the new growth will be watched carefully. Should it be weak then it will not be touched. If it is strong the new growth will be partially pinched.
The wire will stay on for two years probably. It will be necessary to wire again afterwards, at lest partially. A spruce takes five to ten or more years to be ready for exhibit after first styling.
So what is the front now? Well, I am more and more getting away from the concept of only one front. I believe that a tree must be credible and good looking from all sides. I believe that the artist has to provide several good fronts and it is up to the viewer to decide which one he likes best.
Conventional bonsai schools tell you to style the tree and then look for the right pot. this example shows that exactly the opposite leads to very good results much earlier. If I had fist styled the spruce I col not have repotted it into this container for many years. A recently styled tree is very weak and re potting from a big plastic container into a small bonsai pot can be fatal. This approach requires a good vision of the future tree though.