I was starting to think that this maple had forgotten about Autumn this year but a little colour has started to creep in. Another week should see it at it’s peak colour.
Monthly Archives: November 2011
New Tunnel Step by Step Part 2
Yesterday we had a ‘dry’ window of opportunity for a few hours in the afternoon. Stephen came over to give me a hand. Before he arrived I did a little prep on the ground to allow the tunnel frame to sit flat. I then staked the frame to the ground with tree stakes and plastic ties. This isn’t essential but it makes me feel better.
We then had to trench around the tunnel to allow for the burial of the cover skirt. Smudge was paying close attention to Stephens work 🙂
We popped the cover on and attached the velcro straps to the frame. It’s surprising just how effective these are at tightening the cover. The trench was back filled and packed down.
A quick soak down of the interior to wash any soil away into the gravel and we were done for the day. The rain had started!!
Today I will get the rest of the area tidied up and get a few low stands put into the tunnel. I may even start to populate it with a few trees. Tonight I have some mates coming over to play with trees which means I have a lot of clearing up to do before they arrive.
Week by Week Maple Colour
This little Shohin is a pleasure to watch in the Autumn.
October 15th
October 22nd
October 30th
November 2nd
New Tunnel Step by Step
Over the last few days I’ve been getting ready for the arrival of my new tunnel.
This is the area where it’s going to be. The bench you can see is falling apart and this is the time to make better use of the garden.
Bench cleared ready for destruction!
Timber!!
Now the problem is the overly tall Hawthorn hedge to the back of the garden. This will shade out a lot of the tunnel.
The frame of the tunnel was put together yesterday by my son and I. Pretty straight forward and the heavier frame on the Pro version seems to be worth a little extra.
3m x 2m x 2m.
A quick lift over the fence into it’s new home. I haven’t made my mind up what angle to place it at as yet. The wind was strong yesterday so I wasn’t going to chance putting on the cover. That is a job for today.
El Tim Blog speaking out
I thought I would mention this Spanish Bonsai Blog that I’ve been following for a while. I’ve just added it to My Favourite Blogs sidebar.
I understand that reading translated Spanish can be a bit of a chore, Google Translate is far from perfect! But sometimes its worth the effort.
If you click on the image link below you will be taken to a recent post about the collection of yamadori in Spain. It is an honest look at the devastation, dare I say rape, of collecting sites in Spain. I have collected yamadori myself, always in manageable numbers with permission. I understand the temptations to go mad and take risks with trees, I’m not blameless in this either. However, the wanton destruction of top quality yamadori as described here is totally unacceptable! Non-collectable trees should be left for everyone to enjoy in-situ.
This isn’t just a Spanish thing either, it’s happens everywhere when there’s money to be made. In my view, it’s bonsai’s dirty little secret. I have no doubt that some day, some news reporter on a slow news day will twig on to this and it will make National News. ‘Bonsai Butchers ruining the environment’, or words to that effect. What a sad day for bonsai that will be! 😦
Bonsai Disaster!!
After posting about the Common Juniper yesterday were I mentioned briefly about a major disaster in my Bonsai journey, I thought I would share the full story.
Back in 2005 I was busy dealing with other things in my life and bonsai took a back seat. This lasted for roughly 3 years. My one big regret in bonsai is wasting these years. My trees got water, if they were lucky, and every now and again they got feed.
In 05/06 disaster struck! I spotted fertilizer for sale specifically for Conifers, not conifer bonsai, just conifers.. I decided to buy it. It was cheap, I had no other fertilizer left at home and I liked the idea of sprinkling a little on the pots and walking away. I followed the correct dosage, or less that recommended and fed the conifers in my collection. I have since learned from someone who used to work in a similar fertilizer factory that it’s pot luck what’s in the box. Chemicals are added in a hap-hazard manor and rarely in the correct dosage. It would appear that what I got was a very high Nitrogen feed, not what was on the box. A few days later I looked out the window and noticed that a few of my trees where looking a little dull in foliage colour. I didn’t do anything as I was going out to work. Idiot!! The following day I was devastated to see that about 15 of my trees where suffering badly from what I can only assume was fertilizer burn on the roots. I flushed out the pots with running water. Took me most of the day.
It was then a waiting game. I managed to save 6 of the trees. Some of these lost branches but over the years I have worked around this and made the best I can from them. The other 9, I lost. By way of a memorial to them, here they are:
Japanese White Pine ‘Zushio’
Japanese White Pine ‘Zushio’
Common Juniper
Root Over Rock Larch
Scots Pine
Mugo Pine
Common Juniper
Japanese Larch
Japanese Larch
I’m sure others out there have experienced loses during their time doing bonsai. However, I bet not many add them on their blog! I do this to show that we all have our disasters and hope that others might learn from my mistake. Be 100% confident about what you feed your trees. As you can see I lost some rather nice trees and it nearly made me quit bonsai.
Thank God I didn’t 🙂
To end on a brighter note, here are a few of the ones that suffered but survived. All photographed this year.
Exacta Weather – Winter 2011/12 Forecast
Now you have watched this, you can’t say you weren’t warned 🙂 That’s why I’m adding another poly tunnel in the garden!!
Common Juniper
I have a love hate relationship with this tree!! I collected it from a cliff face back in 1998.
After initial strong growth, this was the first styling.
Things progressed well. This is it in 2000.
I got an Ian Baillie pot made for the tree in 2003.
Then it all went ‘Pete Tong’ I had a disaster with a conifer fertilizer that killed 7 of my best trees 😦 A few others suffered but survived. This was one of them. I lost a few main branches at the apex. Needless to say, I wasn’t in any mood to photograph the tree at this point!
As with most Common Junipers collected from the wild, this one has ‘Rust’ Fungus. This became more dominant and I lost a few minor branches here and there.
It was planted in a wash hand basin in a very open mix. This was it in 2009. No styling since 2005. The lost apex branches are there for all to see 😦
I decided to put it back into its Ian B. pot. I kept the tree in the poly tunnel for the last 1 1/2 years and growth has been good.
Last week I lifted it out while I was reorganising things in the tunnel. Of course I forgot to put it back in! That night we had major gusts of wind and when I spotted it on the bench the following day it was at a new angle not selected by me!! I have now added a support and am giving serious thought it transferring it to a bigger pot for a few years. This is it now.
Bonsai Eejit 