Wiring Your Bonsai Trees

Wiring is bonsai and bonsai is wiring. Perhaps you have heard this before, and perhaps you have rolled your eyes when you heard it. It's not far from true. Wiring is an absolutely essential skill in the art of bonsai. Clip and grow methods have their place, and we do a great deal of that type of work with bonsai. But for your trees to reach their best, wiring cannot be ignored.

A great deal has been written about wiring. There are a great many excellent resources on the subject. But until I received some excellent teaching on the subject from Boon Manakitivipart, I had difficulty putting things together for proper wiring. There are many misconceptions about wiring, and I hope to dispel some of them here.

The Guiding Principle of Wiring

Wiring is properly done only when it satisfies two criteria: effectiveness and beauty. Effectiveness is characterized by 1) the ability to bend the trunk or branch into the desired position and have it hold, 2) securely anchored wire, and 3) the minimum amount of wire used to do the job.

1. If your wiring will not hold the branch or trunk in position, it is useless and must be removed. We do not wire for the exercise of wrapping our trees with wire, we wire to manipulate the trunk and branches to style our trees successfully.

2. Wire that is not securely anchored cannot possibly be effective in holding the branches thus wired. Unsecured or unanchored wires must be removed and a secure anchoring point found.

3. Wire that is too large for the branch will hold the branch, but is harder to apply and can damage the bark or break the branch. Wire that is too small must be doubled up and wastes wire. The strength of the wire should be slightly greater than the branch you wish to bend.

Copper or Aluminum?

You have no doubt heard many so-called teachers say that it doesn’t matter, copper is harder to use and more expensive and harder to get, so you should use aluminum wire for all your trees. You may have even heard that you should use any wire you can get, regardless of the type. These are recipes for failure. Only two types of wire satisfy the two criteria of wiring (effectiveness and beauty): Annealed solid copper wire, and copper-colored anodized aluminum. Copper wire will take a patina over time and become nearly invisible against the bark of your trees. Anodized aluminum is more conspicuous, but far better than plain aluminum wire.  But why is there a difference? Why have two types of wire? It is because of the different holding properties of the two materials.

Anodized aluminum wire is softer and easier to use, and its color helps it blend in a little better with the bark of most deciduous trees than plain aluminum with its silver color. Because deciduous trees grow so quickly, the aluminum wire is used and removed several times in a growing season. Its softer nature and larger size makes it less suitable for show wiring, but easier to see to remove. Therefore it is used for deciduous, fruiting, flowering, and some broadleaf evergreens (such as holly).

 Annealed copper wire has quite a different character. It is by nature a more natural color, which deepens with time to become almost black. More importantly, its heat treatment gives it a unique working consistency. It starts out even softer than the same size aluminum, but as soon as it is bent, its molecules align and its holding power becomes much stronger. This work hardening is what makes copper off-limits for many enthusiasts. It is impossible to correct poor copper wiring without completely removing it and using a new piece. With its greater holding power, copper is most suitable for conifers, which grow more slowly and may need a whole year to begin to set the shape for a branch.

Using the Right Wire

How do we decide what size wire to use on a particular branch? How do we know in advance if it will hold that branch? With aluminum wire, the answer is easy. Simply hold the wire you want to use about an inch from the loose end, and push on the branch to be wired with the loose end. If the branch moves, it is strong enough. If the wire moves, use a larger one. 

Copper is harder to determine and must be learned by trial and error. Generally, a copper wire should be about 1/3 to ¼ the diameter of the branch. With time you will learn the flexibility and resilience of different species and specimens.

Handling the Branch and Wire

I have heard and repeated myself that copper wire is harder to use than aluminum. I have even made this excuse to my sensei, who then gave me aluminum wire and let me make a fool of myself. If you handle aluminum wire correctly, you can also handle copper wire. The key is the methods used. After some "intensive" scrutiny, (and about 25 hours of placing wire, removing wire, re-placing wire, re-removing it, and re-re-placing it) I began to learn the proper way to handle the wire. The idea is to grip the previous coil from beneath with your left hand (for righties) between the thumb and forefinger, holding it securely. Your right hand (or left if that's your dominant side) holds the wire loosely, using your index finger to bend the wire around the branch, snugging it up without pulling it against the branch. Here are two views of proper hand placement when wiring a branch. This is so important that it bears repeating: use your index finger to bend the wire around the branch, snugging it up without pulling it against the branch.

As you are turning the wire around the branch, the hand holding the branch and wire together will also be used to move needles and small branches out of the way of your wire. In this way you can keep from damaging the tree as you wire.

Now I know the tree is moving in the video and this is not the best practice. The best practice would be to have an apprentice holding the pot so it doesn't move, but sometimes we have to make do with our own hands. I may have also forgotten to lock the turntable before I asked my lovely bride to run the camera!

Always approach your branches from below. Especially on pines, needles or leaves can be broken or otherwise damaged by reaching in from above. By approaching from below and inside, and working toward the outside, you can maneuver the branches and needles without harm. To move needles and shoots out of the way of your wire, a gentle motion in the direction of growth is least disturbing to the tree. On well-ramified trees, you may need to reach your fingers around another branch to reach the branch you wish to wire. It can be awkward, but it is important to learn to do this properly.

 Wire coils must always be evenly spaced, parallel, and at the proper angle. Many books have insisted that the proper angle is always 45 degrees, but for conifers (especially those with longer branches and gentler curves), the best angle is actually closer to 30 degrees (See below). It is important to understand your species and your wire to wire well.  

Anchoring the Wire

In order for wire to hold effectively, it must be properly anchored. In bending the trunk, this is typically done by inserting the wire into the soil and beginning the first coil at the soil line.  

Branches are usually paired up and wired with at least one full turn around the trunk to act as the anchor. Examine the photos on this page and try to see how each wire is anchored.  Wrap the wire at least one and one-half turns around one of the branches, proceed to the other branch and proceed to the end of your wire. Then return and finish wiring the first branch. Branches very close together should be paired with branches a little farther away, as without a full turn around the trunk, lowering one branch will simply raise the other like a teeter-totter.

 Farther down the branch, as your wire moves toward the branch terminal, you will be pairing up sub-branches just as you did the main branches on the trunk. The exception is that at a V, you will extend the anchoring wire at least one and one-half coils along one branch of the V, then wire both arms of the V with a new wire. If the previous wire does not extend far enough, the branches cannot be anchored and must be redone. Special cases such as orphan branches and extending a wire using a smaller gauge should be taught in person.

When following another wire, your tree will look much better if you keep the wires as close together as possible. This can be done by bringing the new wire almost, but not quite, across the existing wire, and as it goes around the branch, it will align with your anchor wire nicely.

Ending Your Wire

As you reach the end of your branch, the fine wire you are using should be ended by looping it around the bud at the end (on pines) or around the branch. This will allow you to control the direction of the bud growth, and will keep the branch from slipping out of the wire on a windy day. It will also look much neater. Cut any excess as straight across as possible. Sharp wire ends can hurt when you are ready to unwire your tree!

Arranging the Branches

Arranging the branches should be done as soon as you finish wiring each branch. Take care not to disturb them as you continue wiring. Each type of tree has its own typical arrangement of the branch pads. For pines, each bud should be the same distance apart, and growing out away from the tree, not pointing up. From underneath, the branch pad should be flat and horizontal.

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