Apr 20 2011

Muckers Day Out

Mariusz came up from Dublin for the day and, after some time in my own garden, we popped over to Stephen’s place for a look around. We then moved on to ‘fun time’ Frankies with a quick look at Phil’s mountainside thereafter and then back to mine for food and wiring. A great wee day out and about in the glorious sunshine.

Here’s a few snaps of the day.

Mariusz, Phil and Stephen

"That one with chips please"

San Jose Juniper

Scots Pine

Yew

Chamaecyparis

Closer inspection

Apr 19 2011

Worth a watch

Love this little video clip. Very well put together and some amazing bonsai.

Love the sense of humour.

Episode 1 – Fujikawa Kouka-en

Apr 19 2011

Alder Alterations

I’ve had this alder for 12 years and it’s been a royal pain in the ass!! You just start to get it into shape and it starts dropping branches. I was on the verge of getting shot when I decided to give it a little extra room to grow last year. This seemed to work well with plenty of new growth. I took the bull by the horns and gave it a hard pruning to force some more inner branch work to develope. This also worked. I repotted it this Spring into a larger pot than previous ones and this time I have added some bark to the mix. I feel that the usual mix of SC Cat Litter and grit isn’t ideal for this variety, not enough water retention. The bark seems to be making a difference and the tree is growing strongly, probably stronger than usual.

It’s a tad unkempt as I am waiting for further growth before shaping. I had to do a little work on the deadwood area where die back had occurred on the trunk.

The old back and possibly the new front

Deadwood carved and burned but not treated as yet.

The other side

more deadwood

Apr 19 2011

Beech Buds

I’ve been watching and waiting patiently for my Beech to finally get around to opening. Today’s glorious weather must have helped. It is now showing the first signs of green leaves.

Apr 18 2011

Photo Session

Today I went to my mate Stephen’s house to take a few record photos of his trees. Here’s a few that looked particularly nice. A big thank you to Stephen who donated a few trees to my son Matthew who is showing an interest in bonsai. If you are reading this Jamie, between Stephen and myself, there’s a few trees in this for you too 🙂

This was the set up for the photos.

And this is where I talked Stephen into posing with his Deshojo for scale purposes. You would think he’d look happier with a tree like that beside him 🙂

Apr 17 2011

Sequoia Sempervirens

I had a notion years ago of making a Sequoia Bonsai. Mad do I here you say? Probably. I got my hands on a small one and decided that to have any chance, it needed to be big. I popped it into open ground for 8 years and forgot all about it. About two years ago we had to clear the ground and there it was in all it’s glory, throwing down a challenge. I put it into a big black pot and put it in the corner for 2 years.

Yesterday I decided it was do or die time. I always had the notion of trying to style it similar to how they grow in nature, a tall formal upright with sweeping branches. It was a mass of branches and all I wanted to do to get things rolling was, thin it out, and place primary branches.

Here’s the tree before I started.

After a little thinning out.

And after placement of primary branches.

I know that I’m looking at years and years of hardship in trying to get this rapid grower to behave the way I want it too. I always like to have a few weird ones in the collection. I think this qualifies.

Here are a few that I looked at online for ideas.

Apr 17 2011

Little Nasties

A quick inspection of a few trees has brought these issues to my attention.

First up are woolly aphids on a Scots Pine. Only on one pine at the moment but I have given it a spray. I think this is the earliest I have ever had them on any tree in my garden.

A few trees were showing signs of mildew. A crab Apple and a Wild Pear.

All have now been treated. I keep a few spray bottles of insecticide and fungicide at hand for some spot spraying. On the bright side, I checked all my Maples and there wasn’t a black fly/aphid in sight 🙂

Apr 17 2011

Walk in the Woods

My usual Sunday offering. This morning was a walk up to Scrabo Tower in Ards overlooking Strangford Lough. Views of The Mourne Mountains, and even Scotland can be seen. Some nice Spring flowers appearing amongst the nebari of beautiful Beech Trees.

Scrabo Tower

Mourne Mountains

Hawthorn

Apr 16 2011

Elm Forest Update

Here’s an update on the Elm Forest Planting shown here Cork Bark Elm Group

I lifted out of the poly tunnel yesterday for an inspection and tidy up. It’s been growing rapidly in the tunnel and many unwanted shoots have appeared.

I gave it a weeding and trim. A few branches got a light wiring to place them in the right position. If it continues to grow like this it’ll fill out before the end of the year!! Here’s the result of yesterdays work.

Apr 16 2011

Budding Raulii

This will be my first Spring working with this species. This tree was given to me last year as a thank you for holiday care.

It is similar to a Hornbeam but you can see noticeable differences on closer inspection. Yesterday I had a look at the opening buds with a view to pinching out the tip growth. They can extend quite a bit and I want to stop this and produce back budding. I did shorten many of the branches during the Winter but stopped short for two reasons. 1- It was repotted and 2- it’s a new variety to me and I’m unsure how it’ll respond. I can now see some major back budding due to the Winter pruning and will re-evaluate how far to take it back. Some branches are too long without ramification. I took 15 minutes and plucked out what shoots I could get. Some are further behind and the process will need to be repeated next week.

I look forward to making this tree my own. The large carving wound needs work and want to improve branch structure.

This is a bud before pinching out the centre. A few have what look like flowers appearing. I’ll have to wait and see.

Evidence of pinching on the bench.

This is some of the back budding close to the tips. However major pruning is producing adventurous buds on old wood so this might be removed altogether to help fill inner branches with buds.