Bonsai hedge pruning

Having a little fun yesterday, showing how NOT to prune your bonsai. Could be tempting to use an electric trimmer to shape the foliage pads. But it is not how bonsai is done. No shortcuts.

Johnny Eslykke shows the delicate trimming of a 30 year old boxwood and each small twig is trimmed by cutting between leaf pairs, to make the cut invisible. Clipping it like a hedge will just leave ruined leafs with brown edges, and not be the aesthetic appearance as it should be.

Azalea from cutting

Great weather for a sunday meeting at the Fuchi Bonsai workgroup in the garden of Torben Pedersen. Trees trimmed as it is the time for trimming early summer, early June, around  here.

I worked on several shohin that sunny day. One of them was a gift from Johnny, who grown an Azalea from a cutting started around five years ago. Today I took it one step further by cutting it back, restarting new growth with a future semi-cascade in mind. Lets see what happens later on.

Azalea from cutting.

Torben Pedersen.

Johnny Eslykke trimming his thirty year old boxwood.

Johnny Eslykke and his boxwood.

Torben Pedersen.

Torben Pedersen.