Francesco Santini » Benvenuti nel mio Blog

Nov 19

by Francesco Santini in Preparation 0 comments

Juniperus Chinensis ‘Muscolino’.

The ‘Muscolino’ juniper. Story of a Juniperus formosana grafted with Juniperus chinensis var.Itoigawa. The story of this formosana juniper, commonly known as “Taiwanese”, begins in 2006 when it became part of my collection. The plant has excellent vegetation, green and vigorous. However, the feature that caught my attention right from the very beginning was the dead part and in particular the long woody appendage on the right which spirals out. Unfortunately the wood shows clear signs of decay. Many of the wood fibres are spongy and without consistency. Even with the use of resins to consolidate it, it would have remained a wood with a porous appearance that would have given the feeling of a temporary, non-durable wood. The only thing left to do is to be patient and clean it. As always, I prefer to use hand tools, avoiding cutters and power tools. Using gouges and chisels, all the weak wood is removed until the wood fibre is firm and compact. It is important to always work moving the tools in the same direction as the fibres in order to respect and highlight the natural movement of the wood. When working with dry wood we must always aim […]

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Nov 19

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CUPRESSUS SEMPERVIRENS “Cypress’s new twist”

This cypress became part of my collection in early 2014. It was the thick black bark, typical of the Tuscan cypress tree, that drew my attention. Needless to say, these elements of ageing are fundamental. If we imagined the same tree without this bark it would be immediately obvious the minor evocative power this tree could transmit. So, with the same style, when we have such obvious elements of ageing we are in front of a tree with a much more potential. Unfortunately the cypress also had two important con elements: the very distant vegetation and a Nebari consisting basically of a cylindrical and large root. A solution to these problems had to be found. All at the right time. One step at a time! Here is the plant as it was in 2014. A few months later, I decided to immediately face the first problem: the distant vegetation. I don’t like very much trees with artificial and excessively forced bends made to place near the trunk the vegetation. The latter is definitely not my style, so in this case I opt to make a narrow bend downwards to bring the branching closer to the trunk. From here […]

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Nov 19

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ON THE WAY OF LIGHTNESS – PINUS SYLVESTRIS BONSAI BY FRANCESCO SANTINI

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Nov 19

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Cupressus Sempervirens

Salvatore Mameli, a very good friend of mine entrusted me with the styling of this cypress . The tree had already had previous shaping and the necessary branches and pads had already been selected. After an proper preparation of the vegetation, Salvatore asked me for the style giving me complete confidence…or carte blanche! The main feature of this cypress tree is undoubtedly the bark: dark, old and cracked….it looks like an oak! The vegetation is strong and vigorous and, apart from the flowering, the scale has a good colour and texture. The sore points though: the trunk is quite straight and the main branch grows horizontally within a curve. To overcome this problem I decide to change the inclination of the plant and proceed to lower the first branch. Once this is done I rearrange the vegetation trying to use as little wire as possible, using small guy wire but especially the use of pruning. In order to highlight the accuracy of the lines lines and of the black spaces, each pad is finished with a careful cleaning of the silhouette . Finally the softness of the foliage is obtained mainly with scissors, leaving the natural vertical growth of the […]

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Nov 19

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scots pine “EVERLONG”: the VIDEOs

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Nov 19

by Francesco Santini in Preparation 0 comments

SCOTS PINE – PINUS SYLVESTRIS

DECEMBER 2018. AFTER PRUNING FRONT DECEMBER 2019 FRONT RIGHT SIDE BACK LEFT SIDE