Jun 10 2011

Club Night

Just back from another busy club night. Must have worked on 15 trees! It was great to see so many members so enthused by the Spring Display and the Bonsai School in recent weeks. I’ve made some great friends through bonsai and this circle has really grown in the last few months. I even appear to have adopted son!!!

What an infectious addiction bonsai is!! 🙂

Jun 10 2011

For Peter…

… and the rest of you as well. 🙂

I had been chatting at the weekend about the photos my niece took during her family tour of America’s West Coast in May this year. Trees seem to have played a big part in their journey. Here are some of my favourites from her 2500+ snaps!!

My Bro 🙂

Tree Stump dance floor!!

My favourite, yamadori heaven

and Lisa, the photographer

I think we can say she has got the hang of that camera 🙂 West Coast USA is now on my ‘to do’ list.

Jun 10 2011

Caught in the Act!

The moss around my trees seems to magically disappear. Last night I spotted the culprit out of my window and got photographic evidence.

I was spotted and she opted to feed on the ground instead.

Jun 10 2011

Two Scots Cascades

Here is my Scot’s Pine Cascade. Some will remember it from the repot photos back at the beginning of this blog. It was slow to extend but now appears happy.

And this is my mate Phil’s one. It was spending a bit of time in my tunnel to recover from a repotting. It’s now further on than my own.

Jun 9 2011

Shohin Elm -Yes or No?

After Peter’s Visit last weekend I have kept a few of his sale trees in case any members who missed the school want to buy them. Most are Maples and one nice raw material Larch. I also kept this this Cork Bark Elm as well. I loved it and tried to get someone, anyone to buy it during the weekend. It is a Japanese one which is obvious by looking at the quality of the interior branch work. I love the trunk line and I can see a wider nebari in there too. The question is, do I move it from the sales bench to my bench 🙂 The photo doesn’t do it justice, which is good as you lot would all want it as well 😛

Jun 9 2011

Cotoneaster Air Layer Update

My root over rock Air Layer was checked today for roots. No sign as yet but it’s early days. As you can see, it’s growing vigorously below and above the layer. I took a few minutes to trim the extension growth below the layer. I left the growth on the layer itself to aid in the production of roots.

After trimming.

Jun 9 2011

Japanese Maple Branch Structure

This is a Japanese Maple that I have had for a few years. It has gone through a few years were the growth has been weak and I have lost a branch or two. I have placed it into a training box to gain vigour and it has worked.

As part of the bonsai school with Peter on Saturday we defoliated the tree to examine the branch structure. I had shortened the overall branch length to encourage back budding. It was severely lacking in secondary ramification and I was hoping to find new growth on the interior.

Peter talking through the structure after defolation.

This is the tree now.

Here you can see strong new growth in the interior of the tree. These have been left long to encourage the branch to thicken. A branch like this on the lower limb should be one of the thicker branches and at least as thick as the one on the other side. Ideally we should have left the leaves on it to aid it’s strong growth. We got carried away with the defoliation 🙂

Jun 8 2011

Scottie De-wire

I decided to remove the wire from my new Scots Pine this afternoon. My bad shoulder now regrets it!

It was a great way to see just what condition the tree was in. It appears that my spraying for woolly aphid was mostly successful. A few of the blighters were hiding under the wire. There was a few dead branches here and there but nothing major. The de-wire was just in time as some places were tight but not cutting in.

I placed a towel around the soil surface to stop the wire making a mess on the pot.

I found this poor fella on a branch. It’s one of natures friends. It’s the Larva of a Ladybird who was on the pine to eat the woolly Aphid. Unfortunately he got sprayed as well. I moved him outside as he was still alive. Fingers crossed for him 😦

Pine de-wired and feed and placed outside on a bench to take advantage of an afternoon downpour.

Jun 8 2011

East Meets West Photos

My friend Mariusz attended the East meets West Bonsai Exhibition in Poland a few weeks ago. As usual he took some fantastic photos. Here are a few of my favourite trees from the display. As you can tell, I’m in Pine mode these days 🙂