Page 32 - BSAM 2018 Q4

Top; This powerful Mountain Hemlock won Best in Show at the 2014 Pacific Northwest Bonsai Convention “25th Anniversary Celebration.” Photo: Joe Grande
Bottom; Peter prunes his Red Cedar, which was reduced from 20 feet to 8 feet to current height over several years, with use of carving. Photo: Barb Round.
dead trunk from the swamp. He shows us the growth rings that are too tiny to count with the naked eye. A sample from this tree was tested and found to be over 300 years old.
A now-graceful semi-cascade Mountain Hemlock, which has so much twisted deadwood it is a wonder to me that it is actually alive, was collected from a steep slope where it was sprawling uphill. It was originally potted in that same plane, with the shari on the downhill side, until the pot split, spilling the tree. Seeing this, Peter could envision it working best in the opposite direction. It tolerated additional root cutting in order to realign it in a new pot, and is now thriving once more. It is apparent that Peter studies each of his trees and lets them tell him how best to proceed. (page 18, top)
Peter collects landscape trees as well as bonsai material. Many of the trees are very large and heavy, yet, Peter managed to collect most of them on his own. One tree was collected down a steep embankment, requiring a winch and ropes to pull it up to the side of the road. Many others he packed out, carrying them in his arms as he traversed the rough country.
Peter says, “You can grow a top in a few years, but you can’t grow a trunk, you have to collect it.” He likes to quote Dan Robinson: “The foliage of a tree is today’s news. The branches are old news. But the trunk, that’s history.” To enhance that history for some of his trees, Peter has embraced jin, shari and trunk carving techniques, utilizing chain saw, die grinder and Dremel tool.
The twin-trunk Mountain Hemlock was a massive multi-trunk tree when Peter found it. It was far too heavy to bring back, and not very obviously bonsai material, but he recognized the potential of a couple of nicely tapering smaller trunks, so used a pruning saw to remove several larger trunks on site. Over the years those stumps have evolved into shari which enhance the graceful upright twins. (page 19)
One of his favorites is a Red Cedar, which, when collected, was 15 to 20 feet high, dead on top, but with some lower growth. Initially he cut it down to about 8 feet, waited a few years to see if it would survive in the pot, then began work on it, carving the entire top to give it the appearance of an old snag. (left)
Lately Peter has been slowly paring down his collection, mainly trees that are so heavy he can no longer move the pots. “They are going to outlive me, so I need to find a good home for them.” This summer two of his Mountain Hemlocks were purchased for the prestigious Kennett Collection in Pennsylvania. (Perhaps that visitor from Montreal had it right all
30 | BCI | October/November/December 2018