Last night I attended a lecture/demonstration by Peter Adams. It had been 13 years since he last visited Cincinnati, long before I joined the club.
For his demonstration Peter worked on a medium sized Chinese Elm. The elm had some previous training, most likely while it was being grown for mass production in China or Korea. The shape was quite pleasing to start with, without the exposed roots so common on imported Chinese Elms of the same size. The pot was a cheap Chinese oval with a new shiny blue glaze. Peter commented that the pot was too “young” and detracted from the beauty of the tree.
Mr. Adams spent a great deal of time talking about the shape of deciduous trees. He was very engaging while discussing the sweeping branches and the flowing movement. “Have the courage to make your branches grow upwards,” he said. “Look at the deciduous trees in nature, the branches may grow downwards, but then sweep up,” he added.
Chinese elms are most definitely not pine trees. They have a decidedly different shape. There is a delicate quality to a well shaped elm tree. Mr. Adams brought out his sketch pad to show the attendees two options that he saw while studying the tree. His background in art showed through in his drawings. He was able to pick two different trees with incredibly beautiful lines. He asked the group for a consensus and then went to work.
With deciduous trees much of the initial work is correcting the flaws developed during the growing phase. Many branches were shortened or removed. Knots were thinned to make a better overall shape. The top 1/3rd of the tree was removed and a new branch brought up to create a new top. Wire was applied to form the basic structure of the branches.
Towards the end of the demonstration Bonsai with Japanese Maples by Peter Adams was passed around. This wonderful book cemented the ideas that Mr. Adams had been sharing with the group. Wonderful drawings, pictures, and descriptive texts are found within. Briefly flipping through the pages was enough to convince me that this will be my next bonsai book purchase. He truly has a knack for deciduous bonsai.
The finished tree looked incredible. With most of the demonstration material it will be raffled off at the meeting next month. Be sure to buy your tickets!
