{"id":3369,"date":"2022-09-21T08:46:15","date_gmt":"2022-09-21T08:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bonsai4me.com\/?p=3369"},"modified":"2022-09-21T08:46:15","modified_gmt":"2022-09-21T08:46:15","slug":"himalayan-cedar-raft-bonsai-styling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bonsai4me.com\/himalayan-cedar-raft-bonsai-styling\/","title":{"rendered":"Himalayan Cedar Raft Bonsai Styling"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"3369\" class=\"elementor elementor-3369\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-3f85322 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"3f85322\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-e52a67f\" data-id=\"e52a67f\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-561249a elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"561249a\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.21.0 - 30-04-2024 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<p style=\"font-family: 'myriad pro'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400;\" align=\"center\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bonsai4me.com\/Images\/ATCedrusRaftStyling\/Cedrus%20raft%20bonsai%20(10).jpg\" alt=\"cedar bonsai raft\" width=\"500\" height=\"414\" \/><\/p><p style=\"font-family: 'myriad pro'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400;\" align=\"center\">I originally worked on this Himalayan Cedar or Cedrus deodara belonging to Faisal Waheedy in the Spring of 2010. The raft planting was purchased from the guy who had collected it in Wales and had planted it on its side. The raft consisted of 7 branches wired upwards so they would form 7 trunks in their own right. If the image above is studied carefully, one side of the rootball as well as the original trunk can still be seen on the soil surface.<\/p><p style=\"font-family: 'myriad pro'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400;\" align=\"center\">The tree (or trees) was not in the greatest of health when I started work on it. The raft hadn&#8217;t been repotted for many years and as a result was very rootbound, the soil itself was very poor and compacted, leading to difficulties watering it. The poor foliage colour also indicated chlorosis.<\/p><p style=\"font-family: 'myriad pro'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400;\" align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bonsai4me.com\/Images\/ATCedrusRaftStyling\/Cedrus%20raft%20bonsai%20(11).jpg\" alt=\"rrepotting cedar\" width=\"500\" height=\"396\" \/><\/p><p style=\"font-family: 'myriad pro'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400;\" align=\"center\">Spring 2010: Faisal and I started repotting the raft. Great care has to be taken when repotting Cedrus species as they dislike root disturbance and can drop their needles as a result.<\/p><p style=\"font-family: 'myriad pro'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400;\" align=\"center\">One objective I did have while repotting the raft was to turn it clockwise in its pot. The trunk of the original tree (now lying on its side in the soil) was long and straight and as a result, the positions of the upright trunks was awkward (see first image).<\/p><p style=\"font-family: 'myriad pro'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400;\" align=\"center\">The image above shows the raft from what I believed would be a better front-view; by turning the tree clockwise the trunks would be bought closer together visually. (Also known as foreshortening)<\/p><p style=\"font-family: 'myriad pro'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400;\" align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bonsai4me.com\/Images\/ATCedrusRaftStyling\/Cedrus%20raft%20bonsai%20(12).jpg\" alt=\"cedar raft bonsai\" width=\"500\" height=\"433\" \/><\/p><p style=\"font-family: 'myriad pro'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400;\" align=\"center\">After a couple of hours work, the raft was repositioned. Due to the front-to-back distance of the pot being relatively narrow, a lot of manipulation of the rootsystem (and brute force) was needed to position the raft as I required it.<\/p><p style=\"font-family: 'myriad pro'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400;\" align=\"center\">With repotting completed, the raft was then left alone (without styling) while it recovered from repotting.<\/p><p style=\"font-family: 'myriad pro'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400;\" align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bonsai4me.com\/Images\/ATCedrusRaftStyling\/Cedrus%20raft%20bonsai%20(1).jpg\" alt=\"himalayan cedar bonsai\" width=\"500\" height=\"403\" \/><\/p><p style=\"font-family: 'myriad pro'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400;\" align=\"center\">September 2011. 18 months later Faisal asked me to restyle the raft for him. As can be seen in the image above, the bonsai was in far better health. The repotting of Spring 2010 and a regular dose of ericaceous fertiliser had encouraged very strong and healthy growth in the tree and the raft had required hard pruning three times through the course of the growing season just to keep it in shape.<\/p><p style=\"font-family: 'myriad pro'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400;\" align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bonsai4me.com\/Images\/ATCedrusRaftStyling\/Cedrus%20raft%20bonsai%20(3).jpg\" alt=\"Cedrus needles\" width=\"347\" height=\"256\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bonsai4me.com\/Images\/ATCedrusRaftStyling\/Cedrus%20raft%20bonsai%20(4).jpg\" alt=\"cedrus needles\" width=\"348\" height=\"254\" \/><\/p><p style=\"font-family: 'myriad pro'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400;\" align=\"center\">Before I could apply wire to the branches I had to remove all the old needles one by one, leaving just those on the youngest shoots.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-daf3f4f elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"daf3f4f\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-865e9d5\" data-id=\"865e9d5\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-24e42ce elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"24e42ce\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p style=\"font-family: 'myriad pro'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400;\" align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bonsai4me.com\/Images\/ATCedrusRaftStyling\/Cedrus%20raft%20bonsai%20(2).jpg\" alt=\"cedar bonsai\" width=\"500\" height=\"425\" \/><\/p><p style=\"font-family: 'myriad pro'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400;\" align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bonsai4me.com\/Images\/ATCedrusRaftStyling\/Cedrus%20raft%20bonsai%20(6).jpg\" alt=\"needles cedrus\" width=\"500\" height=\"374\" \/><\/p><p style=\"font-family: 'myriad pro'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400;\" align=\"center\">As can be seen in the images above; plucking the older needles also thinned the foliage mass considerably allowing me to study the branch structure of each trunk as well as making wiring easier.<\/p><p style=\"font-family: 'myriad pro'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400;\" align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bonsai4me.com\/Images\/ATCedrusRaftStyling\/Cedrus%20raft%20bonsai%20(8).jpg\" alt=\"cedar bonsai\" width=\"500\" height=\"406\" \/><\/p><p style=\"font-family: 'myriad pro'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400;\" align=\"center\">Plucking the needles from each of the trunks took over 4 hours but left a much clearer view for me to style the trees. Notice that I also removed two trunks including a thick one at the back of the group, leaving 5 trunks in total.<\/p><p style=\"font-family: 'myriad pro'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400;\" align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bonsai4me.com\/Images\/ATCedrusRaftStyling\/Cedrus%20raft%20bonsai%20(9).jpg\" alt=\"styling a cedar bonsai\" width=\"500\" height=\"397\" \/><\/p><p style=\"font-family: 'myriad pro'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400;\" align=\"center\">As light faded that evening, I had to stop work with the four minor trunks fully wired but the main trunk still to do.<\/p><p style=\"font-family: 'myriad pro'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400;\" align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bonsai4me.com\/Images\/ATCedrusRaftStyling\/Cedrus%20raft%20bonsai%20(5).jpg\" alt=\"cedar raft bonsai\" width=\"500\" height=\"393\" \/><\/p><p style=\"font-family: 'myriad pro'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400;\" align=\"center\">The following day I started styling again, beginning the session by wiring the primary branches of the main trunk.<\/p><p style=\"font-family: 'myriad pro'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400;\" align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bonsai4me.com\/Images\/ATCedrusRaftStyling\/150911%20016%20(2)%20700.jpg\" alt=\"cedar bonsai raft\" width=\"700\" height=\"519\" \/><\/p><p style=\"font-family: 'myriad pro'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400;\" align=\"center\">After another 3 hours wiring (making a total of 12 hours from start to finish) the raft styling was complete. All that remains now is to find a suitable pot for the Cedar bonsai next Spring.<\/p><p style=\"font-family: 'myriad pro'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400;\" align=\"center\">Cedar bonsai\/Cedrus deodara raft bonsai. Height of main tree approx 24&#8243;\/59cm<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Working on a 7-trunk Cedar raft bonsai.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[29,93,94,81],"master_filter":[16],"type_of_content":[19],"season":[39],"acf":[],"views":611,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonsai4me.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3369"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonsai4me.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonsai4me.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonsai4me.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonsai4me.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3369"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/bonsai4me.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3468,"href":"https:\/\/bonsai4me.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3369\/revisions\/3468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonsai4me.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonsai4me.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonsai4me.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonsai4me.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3369"},{"taxonomy":"master_filter","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonsai4me.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/master_filter?post=3369"},{"taxonomy":"type_of_content","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonsai4me.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type_of_content?post=3369"},{"taxonomy":"season","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonsai4me.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/season?post=3369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}