https://www.apexbonsaistudio.com/blog daily 0.75 2026-03-31 https://www.apexbonsaistudio.com/blog/silverberry-restoration monthly 0.5 2026-03-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/680d1056e6856406a8411f70/046f6063-8486-4a21-8be3-8194adc9d35a/banner.png Blog - Silverberry Restoration. - Make it stand out Silverberry March 2026 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/680d1056e6856406a8411f70/72bf16cd-8496-42cc-b4b7-959f348dda08/image0.png Blog - Silverberry Restoration. - 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. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/680d1056e6856406a8411f70/6e00d100-e46c-4f43-b2a9-ff178b8ebe6e/aspurchased.jpeg Blog - Silverberry Restoration. - 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. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/680d1056e6856406a8411f70/ea9ceadf-d86b-4590-bf4e-f828ded96133/firststyling.jpeg Blog - Silverberry Restoration. - 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. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/680d1056e6856406a8411f70/6b8a00e3-2608-4d5e-a008-7e5118d01b5e/backbudding.png Blog - Silverberry Restoration. - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/680d1056e6856406a8411f70/fb69ae0b-082b-46e2-a161-ad20343c5f76/may2025.PNG Blog - Silverberry Restoration. - 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. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/680d1056e6856406a8411f70/90104954-5021-4aec-9ca5-5d21778b4d99/July2025.jpeg Blog - Silverberry Restoration. - 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. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/680d1056e6856406a8411f70/c6a3dfc0-1b89-43ff-985d-7301dbb31c31/guywires.png Blog - Silverberry Restoration. - Make it stand out Guy wires anchored within the hollows of the trunk. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/680d1056e6856406a8411f70/9a58153e-eba7-4f6c-ada4-97106fc1ceea/IMG_0152.jpg Blog - Silverberry Restoration. - 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. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/680d1056e6856406a8411f70/4d4f018e-8080-4502-aa9b-63ddebfcd38c/rendezvous.png Blog - Silverberry Restoration. - Make it stand out On display at the GSBF Rendezvous, and Best Broadleaf Evergreen award. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/680d1056e6856406a8411f70/51955484-476d-494d-8f56-d084bf01d626/finished.jpeg Blog - Silverberry Restoration. - 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. https://www.apexbonsaistudio.com/blog/designing-a-cascade monthly 0.5 2025-06-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/680d1056e6856406a8411f70/10c32644-75ea-4ebd-8522-d38561012ddd/banner.jpg Blog - Designing a Cascade. - Make it stand out California Juniper. (Juniperus Californica.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/680d1056e6856406a8411f70/9d4c719f-2801-4efd-ab4b-648491219156/raw.png Blog - Designing a Cascade. - Before the work. This is a tree that belonged to my Sensei, Master David Nguy of Bonsai Jidai. It caught my eye when I saw it in his garden. Even though it was shaggy and forgotten in a corner, I could see the potential in it. I was drawn to the natural character of the deadwood reaching both up and down, and I imagined a softly cascading triangle of green framing it. So in November of 2022 with the Sensei’s permission I did a first styling. I could see the some of the primaries had been set once before, but everything was still going to need manipulation. The tree was already destined to be a cascade, potted at a decent angle in a Chinese production semi-cascade pot. I conducted the initial styling without even thinking about an angle change. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/680d1056e6856406a8411f70/c3ef1a3b-7333-48d3-882f-50086ee9ac8d/firststyling.png Blog - Designing a Cascade. - Initial Styling. There were a few issues with the initial styling. Firstly, the tree needed to put on a lot of foliage. Even more importantly, that stick straight apex. The perfectly vertical apex branch was an eyesore, and made the foliage seem disconnected from the trunk. It’s a triangle of green floating off in space all by itself. At the time I really wanted to bend that apex to the right to engage with the trunk more. The issue was that there was very little live vein on that branch, it was mostly a spire of deadwood, which would make it risky to bend. Sensei Nguy instructed me not to bend it, and who could blame him? If that branch broke during bending it would be years before a decent tree could be made from what remained. So, six months later I bought the tree and brought it home. Nobody to stop me now… https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/680d1056e6856406a8411f70/bae32b45-7ca6-4f5e-a632-4dcf31a7c190/apex3.png Blog - Designing a Cascade. - Make it stand out Removing the deadwood from the apical branch to prepare for bending. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/680d1056e6856406a8411f70/df495b07-1c9c-4506-9808-cac0cc89238f/bent2.png Blog - Designing a Cascade. - Bending the apex. Spring 2023, at home and unsupervised and as the old saying goes, “Kill it or make it a bonsai.” There was no way I was going to be satisfied with the tree as is, so the apex needed to be bent. I split and removed the deadwood spire from the apical branch and then carved away the remaining deadwood just shy of the live vein. In the six months between the initial styling and this work the tree had exploded with growth and the live vein in that area had grown as well, making the work much less risky. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to make this seem like it was some monumental task. I’ve bent 4" inch thick trunks on California Junipers at Bonsai Jidai, and I felt very comfortable with this little branch, but there’s always some amount of risk involved. A wire spine and raffia will increase the safety margin. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/680d1056e6856406a8411f70/567aba9f-3300-47da-a994-e0b8fdc25ee0/bent.png Blog - Designing a Cascade. - Make it stand out After bending https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/680d1056e6856406a8411f70/22451d38-c862-4c9d-a3ba-86ae8d123d3e/secondstyling.png Blog - Designing a Cascade. - Second Styling. Once the apical bend was complete the whole tree was rewired and styled. The new design makes the foliage and the trunk feel more unified. Compressing the apex and growing the branches in towards the pot help with this. There are whips growing out to be new back branches that will fill in more space on the lower right by the pot as well. It definitely feels like a tree now, not foliage sitting next to a trunk as before. But we still have issues. The distance of the foliage from the pot is still too great, the upper deadwood goes back away from the viewer a bit too much, and I’d prefer the apex to be below the highest point of the cascading trunk. Add to that the Chinese production pot, and I know the next repotting session will bring some changes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/680d1056e6856406a8411f70/136908ea-8a7f-4a82-88d1-6b308d4ac620/show.png Blog - Designing a Cascade. On display at the Chino Bonsai Club Exhibition, May 2024. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/680d1056e6856406a8411f70/06556790-6854-4541-b828-51f72ebb420d/pot.png Blog - Designing a Cascade. - tokutake. In November 2024 I visited my friend Nao Tokutake in Portland Oregon. If you haven’t heard of Nao, you should. He’s an extremely talented potter, one of the best in America, and a mere 15 hour drive from Southern California. Well worth the trip to hang out for a weekend styling trees, talking pottery, and making the new pot I had in mind for my cascade. Nao used a California mined clay that he has blended to his specifications, and made the pot using slab walls and a hand formed lip. It was fired with ash in a gas kiln. Naturally I deserve half of the credit for making this pot, since I was instrumental in making the slip… https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/680d1056e6856406a8411f70/a509eb3b-9791-482e-a956-fa7c8e5616d3/repotted.png Blog - Designing a Cascade. - Repotted. January 2025. The tree had been left to grow freely and now it was time to repot, with the assistance of my friends and fellow Chino Bonsai Club members Nick Romero and Jaiden Lee. The tree was repotted higher in the pot than before, with a counterclockwise rotation and increased downward angle. The increased angle will allow the foliage to be just below the high point of the trunk, and the rotation makes the deadwood more engaging to the viewer while also bringing the foliage in closer to the trunk and the pot, making for a more powerful image. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/680d1056e6856406a8411f70/3bff39c7-6572-458d-95d6-074682717952/final.jpg Blog - Designing a Cascade. - third styling. May 2025. I removed a couple major branches that were no longer necessary and made the pads much smaller this time around. I had to rewire the entire tree because of the angle change. But as the tree grows into the new design it will be less and less reliant on wire. The structure of the branching is much improved over the last styling, and the foliage will grow strongly. The whips I had been growing out as back branches have thickened and matured, filling out the rear of the tree. Work in future will entail increasing pad density and thinning unnecessary branches. 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