Following the same setup as on Saturday, the four demonstrators and their helpers entered the stage. This time with new challenges as there were new trees.
Unfortunately I didn´t take any photos during the actual demonstrations, but of course I took som before and after shots.
Tony´s tree before the demo started. An English yew that he collected himself. The idea was to execute a windswept design, something that the tree already possesed. This tree also got to be repotted in a stone slab, highlighting the design even further.
The finished tree. One important note he made was to not let the apical jin and the lowest branch be equally long. That would be a visual flaw. Really like these stones, apparently they are from northern England and.
Ryan´s tree before the demo started. He worked on this tree five years ago in Saulieu, but the wires came off too soon and it needed to be worked again.
This time he could refine branches and the apex since there were more ramification, one of the perks of this tree. On of the most important things to do to get more ramification is to spread the branches and let light in. So don´t wait too long with styling raw material.
Finished for now, let´s hope they let the wires stay on until the shape is set. Will be nice to see this on a show some time.
This large Ezo spruce became Minoru Akiyama´s tree. Also an imported tree, it fells like there was a theme? Would be nicer to see him work on local material though. He enhanced the flow to the right and made the branches sweep down, something spruce does in nature as well.
Finished tree and the master himself.
Mr Stembergers tree was this juniper. Originally a Procumbens juniper imported from Japan. He bought this tree as a present to himself upon graduating school. Not a bad gift.
Struggling with the behaviour of procumbens foliage, he decided a few years ago to graft with Itoigawa foliage. He said there were hundreds of scion-grafts made.
This year the tree was strong enough to be worked on, and it turned out to be a nice tree.
I wouldn´t mind owning it as either procumbens or Itoigawa, really nice tree.