This Japanese Maple bonsai started life in the Summer of 2002 as an airlayer taken from a full-sized Acer palmatum growing in my garden (that I had also grown from a similar-sized sapling). At the time the image above was taken, the trunk was just 1/2" or 1.5cm thick.

The young tree was planted on top of a tile to ensure a shallow rootball and good nebari (surface roots) and allowed to grow freely in the ground for the next 4-5 years to help thicken up the trunk.

The image above shows the tree just 3 years later during the Summer of 2005. It has been allowed to grow freely throughout each growing season to encourage rapid thickening of the trunk and then pruned back each Autumn to develop a pleasing trunkline.

A close up image of the trunk during the Summer 2006. Various shoots around the trunk have been allowed to extend, each serving a purpose towards the final design; some are being allowed to extend to encourage thickening of the trunk, others will eventually become part of the trunkline itself.

In the Autumn of 2007 the tree was finally lifted from the ground, as is necessary when developing deciduous bonsai, all of its branches were removed and a new branch structure needed to constructed. The tree was first potted into a large black nursery tub and then finally into a bonsai pot in early 2009.

Autumn 2010: the author pictured with the bonsai 4 years later.

New branches have been developed in the past 4 growing seasons; each year the new shoots being allowed to grow freely before being pruned back hard and wired to shape each Autumn. This ensures that the branches have taper and are not a uniform thickness.

Shoots with short internodes are selected each year to encourage maximum ramification in as small an area as possible (for more information regarding Acer palmatum bonsai Pruning Techniques, please see here)

The appearance of the nebari (surface roots) has continued to be improved since the tree has been in a pot; the top image shows the nebari in 2007 just after a young japanese Maple sapling was approach grafted to fill a gap in the trunkbase.The second image shows the nebari in November 2010 with the same sapling now fully grafted into position as a root. In total 5 trees have been grafted to the base of this bonsai so far.

An image looking up the trunk and into the branch structure of the bonsai. The immature green bark of Acer palmatum can take over 10 years to disappear and so I have gently abraded the green bark twice a year with sandpaper to encourage the appearance of mature bark.

Acer palmatum/ Mountain Maple

Spring 2011: The red-orange Spring leaves of the tree open in early April in the South of the UK

The bonsai seen from the left-hand side

Spring 2011: By the end of April the leaves have turned to their Summer green colour

Height 22.5"/55cm, trunk diameter above the base 2.5"/6cm. Current surface root spread 10"/25cm