I wanted to introduce a member of the crew—a Kiyohime Japanese maple.
This was propagated for bonsai, not grafted, and originally trained by Suthin Sukosolvisit.
There has been much confusion about the Kiyohime cultivar.
I’ve seen many trees labeled as such that are upright growers.
It is a horizontally growing tree, so it’s very difficult to establish an apex branch.
Each spring, the tallest growing bud will be the last to open instead of the first.
It still does not have a primary apex branch—I’m not sure it will ever have one.
It’s giving the impression of a triangle this season, which brings some much-needed formality and completeness to the tree.
During its initial shipment, a major top branch broke, so it has been filling back out since.
It has extremely dense branch ramification and an enormous nebari, which practically fills the entire pot.
My plan is to continue refinement and attempt to define an apex branch.
I’ve been recently considering transplanting the tree into a large container since it has such a large spread, such as
this.
I arrived back from a recent vacation and noticed a small branch had broken. I realized I should have reiterated its brittle tendencies to the caretaker. I’ve included a photo, the branch is very small, but it will still take several years to replace. It was very refined with many nodes.
Broken branch
Spring 07'
Winter 07'
Spring 08'
The growth is more compact, the leaves are slightly smaller, and its shape is more pronounced.
