Page 155 - Ebook cây cảnh Art of Bonsai

Creating a penjing-style planting 155

Preparing the trees

1 Prune the branches and
shape each tree as if you were
putting it in a pot. Remove
heavy branches to create an
attractive structure. Once the
trees are on the rock, it will
not be possible to do heavy
work; in the future they can
be shaped by a clip-and-grow
method (see p.104).

2 Treat large wounds on
deciduous trees immediately
with sealant. Try to ensure
that any large wounds are on
the back of the trees.

3 Prepare the root balls.
Take off the pots, and
remove all the old soil from
the roots of the deciduous
trees (see pp.130–131). On
conifers, tease out the roots 1 2
and remove some—but not
all—of the soil (see p.151).

4 Untangle the tree roots.
Consider the planting
position and angle at which
each tree will be attached to
the rock, and look for roots Chinese elms can
that might get in the way withstand heavy
or that could help to grasp root pruning
the rock. Prune as necessary.
Aim to compact the root ball
as much as possible but do
not prune so much that there
are hardly any roots left.

3 4