9-11 Memorial Bonsai Forest

This is the story behind the giant forest planting I created in memory of 9-11 with the help of a bunch of  my bonsai students.

 On the night of September 11th, 2001 I like most of the rest of the country was in shock.

That night I dreamed that I made a giant forest planting as a memorial for those that died.

 The next morning I got up and started to build the slab the forest is planted on. Unfortunately I don't have an photo's of that process. Basically I built a frame from galvanized steel pipe, rebar and chicken wire. Over this I laid multiple layers of fiberglass fabric and resin. I added some resin colors and dirt and gravel for texture. I didn't plan this but looked at from above the slab has the same basic shape as Manhattan from about 38th St. down to the tip.

That weekend I went through the nursery and gathered together 110 Foemina Junipers. One for each floor of the World Trade Center. Together with a group of my students over the next couple of weekends, we trimmed,  shaped and wire all of the junipers. They range is size from more than three feet tall to about six inches tall. I also took the trunks of two Foemina bonsai that had died previously and burned and charred them. These were to represent the twin towers.

 A little more than a month after the tragedy the trees were ready to be planted on the slab. A group of us spent that Saturday doing the necessary root work on all the trees. We left the trees overnight soaking in a tubs of water and in their cans. Then on Sunday we planted it on the slab.

 My original idea was to give this to the city of New York as a gift in memory of the events of 9-11. After several years of being bounced around from one city agency to other and being told there was a place for it, then being told there wasn't, I got frustrated with trying to find a home in NYC. At one point people from the Parks Department said they would take it and display it at the park headquarters near Central Park. Then they said sorry we can only take it on a temporary basis. Another city agency told me I'd have to have a $50,000.00 endowment fund to maintain it before they would consider accepting it.

Over the years I kind of gave up on the idea of finding it a home in NYC and its been here at Kimura Nursery since putting it together. There are a couple of public places in Southern California that have expressed a desire to have it a their facilities. I have to replace a few trees this fall but than I'm thinking about having it put on display here in Southern California in a place that get a lot of public traffic.

The following photos will show the process from beginning to end, except for making the slab.

The slab.

110 Foemina Junipers

Working on the trees

The trees ready for the root work

Working on the roots

Ready for planting

The burned dead trunks were put in place first.

Placing the trees.

The planting right after putting it all together.

The planting today ten years later. A few of the large trees died and will be replaced this fall or spring. Other than that that planting is growing strongly and as you can see is in need of a good trimming. Overall the planting is almost eight feet long, three feet wide and contains a 110 Foemina Junipers. Its quite heavy considering we used about 10-15 gallon containers of bonsai soil.

As you read this post take a moment to remember what happened and how it brought the country together. I hope we can find that kind of unity again.

Long term Juniper project-part two

Hello all its been a busy summer. I can't believe that it's over already, it went by so fast.
 Today's post is going to be part two of the Juniper project. If you want to read part one click here. http://bonsaibpsbonsaiblog-bonsai.blogspot.com/2011_03_27_archive.html
 Here is the tree before any of the work.

 Other then water and fertilizing since the work done in the first post the tree has been left on its own. It has recovered nicely from the first drastic pruning and transplanting in March and is now ready for the next step.
 Here is the tree prior to todays work.
Left side-

 Front side-

 Right side-

 Back-

 Today I will determine the branching I want to use and the areas I want to turn into deadwood. There are several reasons for creating deadwood on this tree. Some are aesthetic and others are practical.  John Naka once said "A juniper without jin is like a dog without fleas." Besides the fact that deadwood adds drama and the illusion of age, one of the main reasons to add deadwood to this trunk is to reduce the area of reverse taper about halfway up the trunk. It looks like at some time in the past a branch was cut off which created the right angle in the trunk. Several branches grew in it's place creating an area of reverse taper right in the center of the trunk.

You can see where the trunk is larger right at the right angle turn then it is below there. There were at least six branches growing from that area. The way I'm going to reduce this is by removing some of the wood in that area. The trick is to make it look like something that has occurred naturally . I'll start out by using a trunk splitter to splint off sections and then I'll pull and tear them off with pliers.

After the tearing and stripping it looks like this.

This has gone a long way in reducing the reverse taper  and the severe right angle in the trunk. The angle is still there but with the deadwood on both sides it is much less obvious now. But it will need more before it gets rid of it totally and looks natural. Looking natural is vital . If not then this great material becomes wasted.

The areas marked in black and red are where I'll be doing some additional deadwood work. I'll be using a variety of power and hand tools of create what I hope will turn into a believable deadwood feature.
I also removed all the branches that I decided were not going to be needed for the final design.
I've been undecided about keeping it a double trunk or removing the smaller trunk. So my decision was at least for now to keep both. On some of the branches that I cut off  I left a part of them to turn into jins. On Junipers I'll very often leave more jins in the beginning of styling then I intend to use. They can always be removed later. The series of photo's below show the process of creating a jin from a branch that is alive at the time of jinning it. This will not work on branches that are already dried out.
Using a pair of concave cutters I score the bark around the entire base of the tree cutting through the bark but being careful not to cut into the branch.

 Then using a pair of pliers I squeeze the branch all around from top to bottom with the pliers. On larger branches like this one I use regular Channel lock pliers. I'll squeeze the bark all around several times as hard as I can. The more you do this  the easier it is to remove the bark.

 After squeezing the bark just comes off cleanly with ease.

After todays work the tree looks like this.

That's it for the work today. The next phase will consist of wiring and placing the branches and carving and refining the deadwood. I'm starting to lean towards styling with the idea of the second trunk remaining.
 I'll probably do that work sometime in November then work on the branching  until the spring of 2013 before putting it in its final pot, much smaller than this one.
 I hope you enjoyed reading todays post and look forward to any comments you may have.
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