This Huckleberry, Vaccinium sp., was among the first of my trees to leaf out this spring. Not only that, it put on a nice bloom as well. Today I decided to do more editing and a little wiring in order to get my design in place. Granted, the tree looks good in its natural growth state, but keep on reading and you’ll see how seemingly subtle changes can really make a design pop.
Working from the bottom up, I first tackled the low branch on the right trunk and the two lowest branches on the left trunk. With just a little wiring and branch movement and positioning, I’ve made a big change in how these branches contribute to the overall design of the future bonsai.
In this photo, I’ve wired two branches on the right trunk, one that comes toward the viewer and the other a back branch. Again, they’ve been given some movement and positioned in spots that add to the design.
In this photo you can see that I’ve selected my final leader on the left trunk. This involved removing a final piece of the trunk stub with a couple of small branches, then wiring and positioning the leader.
Here I’ve wired a final branch on the left trunk that provides foliage in back, and brought it horizontal. It’s in a great spot now.
The final challenge for the day was selecting the leader on the right trunk. I actually have two choices: one, a thicker branch growing in the right direction; and two, a longer selection emerging from behind the trunk. I don’t have to make a final choice now, so I wired the longer one and put some movement in it, just in case it ends up being THE one. It all depends, frankly, on how strong it grows this year. I need it to be a lot thicker than it is now.
Let me know what you think of this Huckleberry. I’ve excited to continue working on it this year. It should be ready for a bonsai pot in 2020.
