Silverberry Restoration.
Silverberry March 2026
Bonsai requires constant vigilance. Attention must be given to each trees water requirements, and their fertilization. You need to be on the lookout for pests, or damage, or weather shifts, and you need to keep up with pruning and maintenance. It’s easy for any of these requirements to be overlooked from time to time, life simply gets in the way. (I doubt there is a group of people that dreads going away on vacation more than us bonsai folks.)
HISTORY
This Silverberry came to my garden after a period of neglect. The tree originally belonged to Richard Brustlin of Santa Barbara California. After falling ill in 2016 Richard donated it to the Clark Collection near Fresno. It stayed in their collection until I acquired it at the Fresno Bonsai Society Fall Sale in November 2024. During the time that the tree resided with the Clark Collection it was maintained by the volunteers there, and the tree was kept healthy, but little was done to progress it.
ACQUISITION
Here we can see the tree as it was when I purchased it in November 2024. The trunk is old, with nice subtle movement, aged bark, and old hollows. The tree looks healthy and appears to have nice foliage and a decent canopy. However, closer inspection reveals the flaws. The pot is lackluster, there isn’t any branching or foliage engaging with the lower part of the trunk, and the branching is coarse. Additionally, as a result of being hedge pruned, much of the apex and canopy is made up of suckers that are shooting straight up from the lower branching. Some of these issues can be fixed quickly, but rectifying the coarse branching and poor structure will take much longer.
SPRING WORK 2025
January 2024 the tree was repotted into a Nao Tokutake pot using a 2:1 mix of Akadama:Lava. A new front was selected, nearly 180° from the original front. In March 2025 it was defoliated, pruned and wired for the first time. As mentioned before, the silhouette of the canopy didn’t look too bad before, but oncethe tree was defoliated and I could see inside the canopy, the branching was less than ideal. Much of it it was tangled together with knobs everywhere from improper pruning, and much of the apex was made up of runners from the lower branches. This is how I know it had been hedge pruned.
I tried my best to untangle everything and over the next few years the goal is to refine the branching, increasing ramification and taper.
EARLY SUMMER WORK 2025
May 2025. Partial outer canopy defoliation. Extension growth was cut back to two or three leaves, and oversized leaves were cut down in size. Some branching was cut back to newly formed shoots on the interior, which were wired into place. The original aluminum wire from March was still on the tree and some slight adjustments were made to fill gaps after the cutbacks.
MID-SUMMER WORK 2025
The aluminum wire needed to come off, but getting inside the canopy to remove it would be very difficult. I made the decision to fully defoliate the tree for the second time in a year. Usually, I wouldn’t push a tree that hard, especially after repotting in the same year, but this tree showed extreme vigor. After defoliation and unwiring the work was much the same as it was in Spring. I rewired the tree with copper, (aluminum would have been fine, but the tree was going to be displayed in exhibitions in the Fall and I have a preference of not showing trees with aluminum wire.) The lowest branches were again brought down, even further this time, with guy wires that were anchored to the hollows in the trunk. New shoots were wired into place and coarse branching was again cut back to newer shoots wherever possible.
Guy wires anchored within the hollows of the trunk.
Fall 2025
On display at the 2025 Chino Bonsai Club Exhibition and the 2025 GSBF Rendezvous, October 2025. Leaf size is much smaller than where we started in Spring and the canopy is much improved. The design interacts with the lower section of the trunk and the first branch accentuates the rightward direction of the tree. The tree won the Best Broadleaf Evergreen category at the GSBF Rendezvous All Club Show.
On display at the GSBF Rendezvous, and Best Broadleaf Evergreen award.
SPRING 2026
The Silverberry at the beginning of March 2026. Density is improving, and the tree is beginning to push extension growth. This year the tree will again be defoliated, but the plan is to cut back hard. The branching needs to be completely redone from the inside out. This April I will perform this work as a demonstration for the Baikoen Bonsai Club.
Some might question the decision to set back this tree by cutting back hard and rebuilding. After all, the tree doesn’t look too bad. The shape of the canopy is nice. But the tree will never be truly great if the long taper-less branching is left in place. Really excellent bonsai is more than just a pleasing arrangement of greenery.