May 24 2011

Elm Landscape on Corrib Rock

In my previous post I talked about creating a landscape from a dwarf variety of Chinese Elm by planting them on local rock. I grew these trees from cuttings. Unlike normal Chinese Elm, the success rate for this variety from cuttings is about 30%.

The rock is from Lough Corrib in Galway, not on my doorstep but on the same Island 🙂

I thought I would play about with a few ideas today in an attempt to pull something together for the display at the weekend. The public always love the ‘wee trees on the rocks’ and I thought I would try and create a coastal scene. Not a local coastal scene but something more oriental.

There are 3 trees. They used to be on one rock but it broke in half last year!! This has turned out to be a blessing as I can now swap things around and add smaller rocks to the scene.

This was my starting point.

This is the other half.

I also have this rock with moss on it.

When I put them all together it looked a bit cluttered. If I get enough space at the display I might spread it out more, but space will be tight so I started looking for a smaller composition.

Too cluttered

This one was better but still not right for the space.

The rock at the back did help add depth to the composition though.

I took out the ‘two tree’ rock to see what it was like.

Not good, so I put the two back in and took out the moss rock.

This was looking better and not as cluttered.To give it more realism and help tie the different components together I added some grit as beach sand. Not ideal material but I’ll get something better for the weekend. Added a wee boat too 🙂

It’s not great but I’m pretty sure it’ll get the public talking at the weekend.

May 24 2011

‘Micro’ Chinese Elm

Way back in 1996 I bought 3 little Chinese Elms from a local dealer. They had been brought in from Lodders, Holland. I opted to put them together on rock and create a landscape with them. I have since sold them on to a club member who broke my heart with persistent requests to buy them. He lost them in the cold snap in Winter 2009. Should have kept them!!

Anyway, the reason I mention them is that they were a dwarf variety. Ulmus Parvifolia ??? Before I sold them I had taken cuttings and my plan was to create another landscape of my own, this time using locally sourced rock as opposed to the usual Chinese stuff you see all the time and I used in the original landscape.

Here is the original landscape.

The reason for posting this was to try and find out what this actual variety of Elm is called. I’m thinking that it is ‘Yatsubusa’. I know it’s not ‘Hokkaido’ as I’ve seen this before, it’s denser and even smaller. I can vaguely remember when I bought them that they were referred to as ‘Microphyllia’. I can’t seem to find this variety mentioned anywhere.

Here’s a few pics of the leaves compared to a normal Chinese Elm. This first one shows a normal Chinese elm leaf from a regularly trimmed bonsai and on the right is a micro one. 5p for scale.

The reason I say regularly trimmed Chinese Elm is because, when left to grow, the leaf size gets massively bigger. This can be seen in this photo.

1. Extended growth on Chinese Elm

2. Shoot from Cork Bark Elm

3. Shoot from Maintained Chinese Elm bonsai

4. shoot from Micro Chinese Elm.

Amazing the variation in size.

Below you can see the size of the tiny leaves at the start of a new shoot on a micro elm. If trimmed regularly all leaves on the tree can be reduced to this size 🙂

If anyone out there knows the name of this dwarf variety, please let me know. If I get a chance later I’ll post the photos I took today of my replacement elm landscape using local stone.

May 24 2011

My Snapped Air Layer

As the winds died down today I was out with the camera as usual and here’s my sorry looking Air Layer 😦 😦 From chatting with the guys on Wee Trees Bonsai Forum, it looks like I got away light as many have had bonsai trashed by the wind!!

May 24 2011

Janet Juniper Pinching

This Juniper was repotted this year into a slightly larger pot than I wanted but it had grown weakly for a year or two and I wanted to ensure it’s health as it has big sentimental value.

As you can see it has responded well. Here are the before and after pinching pics.