Turning Four Problem Pines into Bonsai 

Peters my mentor!! I started bonsai when I was 23 (3 years ago) and because of his videos I was able to have confidence do just really mess around and find out! I was never scared of wiring after seeing videos like this on his channel. A true mentor and master to all!! Thanks Peter!! P.s I lost about 50 trained trees to a windstorm that tore through my greenhouse set up… I’m back at it after such a loss. Don’t stop the bonsai folks! Perseverance!

This was an awesome lesson on a variety of styles and I don't know who the camera person was, but the way they maneuver the angles and even zoomed in, in every opportunity they got, that was Dope 😎🤘

80 minute video? I love it!!

Feature length bonsai movie 🍿 😁 Hello mid week bonsai breakfast club ☕️🥐🌳❤️

Lots of lessons learned from Mr Peter Chann many thanks.Ernie smith from brisbane Australia

The trunk splitting technique you used is not for the faint of heart. You’re design on the fly approach demonstrates your decades of experience and confidence. I’m sure many of us would love to see a progress visit of this tree in 6 months or so, to see how the tree is doing. Thank you Peter!

Why do Peter’s videos make such compelling viewing? I don’t have bonsai but I love watching these videos. My kind of reality TV 😂

Vers les 30 min ce pin était majestueux ! Il voulait ressembler aux grands pins maritimes sur les collines du sud de la France.

1:05:39 Love the photographer laughing at Peter's decision to cut !

We are in the presence of a Master. Everything he says about the "reforming" of the tree is directly applicable to the human journey of reformation that each of us is on.

2 D screen sure isn't doing those trees justice. I love the 3rd Bunjin 🌴..thx for sharing Peter.👏👍

Bonsaï Jazz !!!!!!!!! Thanks Peter and team !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I appreciate the hard work & dedication Herons Bonsai puts towards delivering premium content.

Stunning to watch..just riveting...Thankyou very much

Peter you bit the bullet several times in this video, each time with great results. Love Josh’s chuckle 🤭 in the video 😆

I was watching and at several points I was smiling and thinking what a mess Peter is making. Then suddenly the genius of his plan appears. What an experienced guy and nerves of steel to split and bend those trunks. Four beautiful trees.

Very nice trees, I am getting an appreciation for the literati, my friend with a nursery keeps giving me hopeless trees and right now I just repot to save them, hopefully they recover and I can style next growing season. Saw my very first raft in the wild, it was a douglas fir, I was wandering off trail (the only way to see interesting trees) and came upon it. Don't know how old it was but it's amazing a tree branch can become a tree without any wire or help. We are lucky to have some old growth forests around me, thankfully someone back in the 1800s decided to save some trees, most were cut to build a burgeoning ships harbor but some had the forethought to save some trees. Thanks for another great video to help expand the mind.

Danke Peter für deine Inspirationen.Das war wieder ganz großes Kino. LG aus Sachsen-Anhalt , Germany...

One hour and 20 mins of pure art and magic! Thx again Peter

Totally awesome kinda liking the raft pine, Thanks.....

I enjoy a great leader being adventurous, bicycles tubes and a cleaver. Different types of boundaries are achieved when you are able to think outside the box. Great video again thank you for sharing.

As ever, humble but insightful instruction through demonstration! So useful!

Thanks Peter and Joshua for the masterclass 👍👍🇵🇷

The older trees in this workshop are so incredibly impressive

And a huge thanks to Josh the cameraman for making sure we get great close shots of Peter at work!

Awesome video this video made me go and make my first bonsai Tree it will be a Juniper tree a stricta ,really excited to start my journey ❤

Could we get an update on the tree you split with the cleaver?

Woow, some cuttings looks so drastic

I wonder if when making a raft you could make a thin scrape in the under side of the bark or some intermittent slashes at the joints to encourage root initiation. Then I would water with a liquid root starter fertilizer once a week for a month or so. Just throwing out some theries. Being spring it should want to make roots.

One more master lesson. Knowledge, experience along with try and error are the keys. Thanks for sharing Peter.

Their all beautiful! Thank you for your time and for sharing and teaching.

"Bonsai is a nice and calming hobby" Yeah I'm watching at 20:00 and almost having a heart attack. I guess with Peters experience living on the edge just comes naturally. Absolute madlad.

Brilliant 🤩👏👏👏👏👍🥇🏆!! Really enjoyed this video! Love the raft😍 thanks Peter, you are the master!

Great video and awesome results looking to follow ups if these don't get snapped up. Thank you for sharing and all the work that went into making that

Lol that poor pine did NOT wake up today expecting to be split open and manhandled like that for sure. Haha love this guy

Amazing on the fourth / last tree I literally thought and said in my mind There's no escaping it ( " it's crying out for littarati " ) At the exact time as you said it 😁 You have definitely influenced and left your imprint on me in bonsai thought process Peter

Oh no the duck cleaver!! But as always just beautiful work by Peter. Thank you for showing us!

I love all of these trees. The raft especially since i did this last year with a juniper. Good to know it will root along the trunk 👍😁

Love to watch all these how-to-clip-n-wire videos. Would like to see how to water indoor/outdoor bonsai, or have I missed those vids?

wanderful trees!! I belive tha the literaty stylei is the most matching style for the pines.Ty for one more time for your saring knolege!

Amazing education, Mr Chan, thank you !!

Hi Peter watching from Australia 🇦🇺 🙏☺️

My first tree was a blue spruce I trimmed a bit much 😅 now its gonna be a simple tree if it lives 😳 learned alot from that one project

You sir, are a master at your craft!

Great watching you work through the trees

Such a treat to watch a master confront a challenge with that Mugo pine hybrid. I wonder if you rounded off the insides of the split if the split would eventually grow out. Or, given time, take a graft from 1 side or the other = 2 trees. That was one of the perhaps most challenging experiences I think I have seen Peter up against since I began viewing Herons videos. This is why we watch.... Thank you, Peter, watching your more challenging adventures in bonsai I believe to be a better educational experience for the rest of us. That tree would have had me contemplating for quite a while prior to happening across any reasonable solution. My only other possible solution to the split issue would be to have filled in the split to hold it apart prior to wiring in the hopes of the tree eventually growing back over time.

The raft is my favorite.

After using a cleaver, banging on it with a wood block and stating "well back to square one", no one is going to convince me about the sedative nature of making bonsai. This video w as a true treat, thank you!

Much respect , your knowledge and energy are always appreciated.

This is amazing to watch! Thank you for sharing your artwork with us!

Awesome! I've never seen the raft before!

“Maybe we’ll just t’row that awayyy!” Made me crack up 😂

Verry nice, great ideas!! Thank you🧘🏾‍♂️🌲

So generous with your time Peter. These are some brilliant ideas and a glimpse into what is possible.

I bought a huge (1,2m) japanese larch two days ago. Since then I am trying to figure out what I can possibly do. Maybe I try my very first Bunjin. Anyways this video is a great inspiration. Thx

Hi Herons! I know I'm late on this question but I do have one regarding the raft pine. What do you do with the remainder of the root ball sitting above grade? I imagine it will just die back and dry up but I'm always loath to leave sections of roots exposed

So Nice long and detailed videos always - can I ask the one tre where u do those “jins” - is the purpose that there will grow new out since it is split up like that and the skin is removed

Fascinating to see your ideas develop as you work.

Love the long videos! Longer the better. More time spent with my good ol bonsai friends! Loved the raft style that was a great way for that tree to be reinvented.

Love this stuff 🙏🏻🔥⚡️

Just excellent!

See eyesight because of judgment beautiful natural geography 🥰🥰

This is why Peter Chen is so popular. He has such an innovative person.

Awesome video.....thankyou

What a great video! I have a pine tree I’ve been looking at for two years wondering what to do with it. Now I’m going to try something new tomorrow. God help the poor pine lol. Thanks Peter, Kim🇨🇦

Great class! Thanks 😊

Peter Chan's most important Tools the Cleaver and works wonderfully.😃

It's amazing and beautiful 👍

Did anyone else's heart jump when he cracked the legs open on that pine? Lol. Settle down ladies. I'm sure he's taken.

Awesome video

Nice sharing videos 👍

We are just like provenance pines we lend ourselves to your long literality Videos

EXPECTACULAR UN GRAN DISEÑADOR ..EXELENTE TRABAJO VI DE TODO PODA TRANSPLANTE DIGNO DE IMITAR...GRACIAS PETER

Nice video Peter, thanks! Just a question about the raft- the actual 'raft' is normally visible but on your pine you have covered it over- was that to try and trigger adventitious root growth (which you mentioned isn't common in pines) or was it just because the trunk was quite straight? What i mean is, it may be technically a raft but looks more like a forest planting. Great tips for leggy pines by the way!

Always a pleasure to watch you perform your art form.

Thank you very much for the beautiful and detailed video. It helps me a lot in my work. ☺

if you split a branch is it a good idea to put some of the sap in the break to keep it from getting diseased?

When Peter pulls out the cleavers, I had to get out my popcorn again to enjoy.

I enjoyed watching Peter making the raft style Bonsai, I think it will look fantastic in the coming years.

omg he brought out the cleaver again! 😂

beautiful

I paused the video when I realized I was sitting on the edge of my seat, suspense.

Thanks Peter. I would never have thought to do a raft.

Bunjingi is great for those pines ❤️ . But I think the first 2 trees would have looked great as a bankan style...it’s a bit of a risk though

Can these bonsai stay out door for entire winter season ?

if you cut a wedge out of a branch and place it between the split-cut, with the nerves going the same way and thén bind it. itll take i think

I borrowed one of your books from my public library! ❤

Thanks Peter.

I'm thinking drift wood and a large limestone all natural cuts put tree on natural curve

Hi I've only been keeping trees since Easter I wish I had your vision I'm trying some of your techniques on my Japanese holly witch was a broom style so wired out the branches let's see what happens

Is there any way i can purchase starter bonsai from his organization? USA also dont use pounds

Love the content

Hi Peter. You mentioned breaking a dormant bud to encourage new needle growth. How do you do it?

Thank you Peter for once again inspiring us with your "magic" ie: experience, competence, generosity. I have a question, not directly related to this video. I have Nandina growing everywhere here in the South of Australia. Can I make bonsai with Nandina?

How often does it hail in England and what do you do with outside trees? I just went crazy moving all mine from unprotected spots 😂 might not be best/possible approach every time there is risk (I’m in Italy) But as I just started with new small bonsai, thought it was risky to leave them there

You inspire me, Master Chan!

do you have any advice for pines with longer leaves? I'm in Texas and the only pine we have is loblolly. I'm just not sure if the pines will shrink up and look proportional to the tree

Respect to the cameraman!!! 💪👍 Surely very exhausting to film so long... maybe he should join a union for cameramen, so that he also gets a break. Or a tripod... 😉😉😉

The weather in Scotland changed from 28c to near freezing and constant rain last week it's never let up yet! Was frost on the car 2 mornings ago I've had to take precautions with my white pines keeping them out this constant rain for next 2 weeks everyday! Gets so depressing can't get anything done! Need to wire a couple trees and do an emergency slip pot of a new imported JWP that came in akadama absolutely rock hard the candles are really struggling! I'm scared abit to be honest at this time of the year I don't know what's best here!? Any tips would be very greatly appreciated from anyone. Thanks bonsai family

Lol Peter could not make a boring video evin if he tryed that is one thing he will never master