I potted up the tree using good quality bonsai soil (without
any peat!) into a much smaller mica training pot that would stop
the soil from staying wet all the time.
It
was then time to start pruning the tree into shape. It was at this
point that I realised that while the tree had great ramification;
the majority of the twigs (and therefore the foliage during the
Summer) were at the tips of the branches. Where the tree had been
incorrectly pruned for many years, the primary (main) branches were
bare except at their very tips.
As
can be seen in the image above, by the time I had shortened back
the branches to a respectable length, there was little ramification
left!
By
this stage I had decided that the second trunk was unsuitable for
use and had to be removed. This could have been done during dormancy
but its complete removal was left until midsummer when the resulting
wound would heal much more quickly.
Around
this time I happened to speak to Ken Shalilker of Pinewood Bonsai
who was aware of this Beech tree and its history. To my amazement,
he explained that it had quite a chequered past and some pedigree.
It
was originally collected as one of a series of young trees, and
assembled together as a group planting, in the late 70's by Craig
Coussins and Peter Adams (both renowned UK Bonsai Masters and authors).
Craig later told me that at the time he and Peter made many Beech
group plantings of which this was only one.
The
group planting had been around for years being bought and then sold
on by a number of bonsai enthusiasts. Finally, it had been doused
with paraquat weedkiller by its last owners' angry wife (!) and
the majority of the trees had died; this, the main tree, had survived
and had been separated away from the dead trees into a pot. Which
is why I found it growing cheaply at the back of a bonsai nursery!
No wonder the thing had so few roots and was so weak.
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