"Hello there! So, how do you feel about wiring a ‘starter’ tree, and just how long do you think it’s gonna take you?…”

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean just applying a piece of wire to a trunk. Like, say, take for instance, a 60cm [23 ½”] long trunk of a Juniperus rigida (Fig. 1) that has been selected for, let’s say, a three-trunked-slanting styled tree!

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Fig 1. Juniperus rigida (Click to Enlarge)

I actually mean, how long do you consider it, and how long does it take you before you’re satisfied with your results? I’m thinking 3 years, 5 years, or maybe even less?

Or, does the tree in front of you sing to you, almost telling you what you want to hear, like right now, immediately!?”

You’re familiar with the species; you think you understand its drawbacks and you feel pretty darn sure you know just how much it will tolerate, the bending back’n’forth and twisting to’n’fro that you need to do to accomplish the results that you think for the moment that you wish to end up with.

Take a long pause, turning the tree this way and that. Yes, all the necessary tools are at hand, much needed and knowing patience is tuned, the wires are good, the chosen gauges are correct [at least you think so], this fresh, virgin, starter tree - already repotted for the first time just yesterday - is just now about to begin to take on an aspect of my your identity.

No longer nervous, as you once were when you made your very first attempts, how many years now? [Does that really matter?]

Fig 2. Acer Palmatum Katsura (Click to Enlarge)

Fig 3. Berberis thunbergii (Click to Enlarge)

Standing now at arm’s reach, this new tree, this Juniperus rigida, bid successfully and won along with three others (an Acer palmatum Katsura; a Berberis thunbergii - green foliage; and a Juniperus chinensis Itiogawa Shimpaku) in an auction held by ‘Goyomatsu’, a bonsai club in the North of Holland, recently. For the first time, it will be given a whole new direction, perhaps with distinction, and yes: you've got to know the pot is wrong, but it’s the only one you have at the moment, so you can’t be judged on that!

Now, confidently, you begin, firmly plunging the lower ends of the wire into the soil against the base of the trees trunk then gradually turning the tree about, now firm, but not too tight, you begin to bind the trunk, in an upward direction, coiling 45 degree curves [or there abouts], all the way up to the tree's apex.

Fig 4. Itoigawa Shimpaku (Click to Enlarge)

And as you wire, it’s like your finger tips know to echo sinuous bending curves, to develop the composition, and who said, "There are no straight lines in nature!", sure, you’ll avoid those as best you can, go with the flow from base to apex, a harmonious whole. Eventually you already know that you’re going to nit-pick the slightest of curves, and that, Dear Reader, is where when the time arrives: the need for serious patience is at hand!

As you go on and upwards along the trunk, you’re tempted to make perhaps a few tentative finger-pinchings to some of those distracting drooping tips of the outer branchlets. A sudden new view, older needles showing their silvery colours, and from some little experience, with surety, you believe that you’re going in the right direction.

And now for all of those branches, a long [and needle-sore] day will soon be ahead of you, not to be confused with a masochistic-trip, and you ask yourself, “Why do I love these visciously-pointed foliaged trees?“, but there’s no time to ask that, as you know that you just do.

The slender curvature of the trunks gives you a buzz, yes, sure, you’ll stick to your preferred taste for the Chinese manner, tripping lightly over and away from any of the strict and severe Japanese rules.