Why do people buy these bloody things!!!
Spotted this one in a clothes shop the other day. The usual Christmas crap. £15 for a plastic pot, a bag of soil and a few pine seeds. I give up!
Monthly Archives: December 2011
Trident in December
This is my Trident pictured during the week. As you can see, it has been reluctant to drop its leaves. The few that are missing is more down to gale force winds than Autumn/Winter. This tree has been outside since March.
I usually defoliate this tree every year but next year I’m planning on a different technique to compare results. I’ll keep you posted.
Batten Down the Hatches
On Wednesday I took an hour and placed the remaining trees that require protection in the poly tunnels. Temperatures are to drop again at the weekend and the wind is getting to dangerous levels! I didn’t want to leave the tunnel door open any longer in case it took off!!!
Here’s the new tunnel. a little space left but I still want to have access to the trees at the back.
Door closed
The other tunnel.
A little space left here too but I have young Jamie from the club’s trees coming for a few months for protection.
I still have a few trees outside tucked under the bigger benches. Nothing that I’m worried about so, do your worst Winter 🙂
Dawn Redwood Group
These are 4 Dawn Redwoods that were field grown for about 8 years. They are nothing special and I thought the best way to make something from them would be to put them together in a group. This is it after 1 year in a pot with basic primary branch structure being created.
Four trees in a group I hear you say… I only had 4 but, as one is a twin trunk, I count it as five 🙂 The pot is totally unsuitable to create the best effect but I’m worried at this point. They have a very long way to go.
I gave it a light trim.
Some carving work required over the Winter.
Quick Removal of Leaves Method
Instead of lifting all my Cork Bark Elms out of the Poly Tunnel for leaf removal, I opted for the fast method. As they have lived a sheltered life, they have kept their leaves to the point were they are brown. Wind would have sorted this long ago outside on the bench. I opted for the garden hose method.
and there you go, it’ll still need to do a clear up to keep the place clean and tidy but it saved me a bit of time.
Japanese Tsunami – Moving On
Smithy on the Wee Trees Forum shared this today.
Great to see things moving on.
Shohin Corkbark Elm
This is the little Corkie that I got back in February. It was repotted and then cut back hard to try and improve the ramification in a more organised way. Here are the photos during the year showing it’s progress.
February
Here’s a close up of the offending moss.
March
Leggy branch structure that needed improved.
May
After pruning…
September
Has been trimmed back several times between May and September.
and now…
It’s a slow process but hopefully worth it in the long run.
$1,000,000 Bonsai, Don’t drop it!!!
How many people does it take to lift a $1 000 000 bonsai?
I make it 7 Japanese and Peter Warren 🙂
First Snow of the Winter
Last night saw the first snow to lie here where I live this Winter. It was only -2 °c last night but it’s only reaching about 5°c during the day.
This was my display area this morning. As you can see the snow was light and I only had one tree remaining on the bench, a stubborn Trident Maple that is refusing to drop leaves! This might make it’s mind up 🙂
Korean Hornbeam Winter Tidy
I braved the garage yesterday to tidy up a few more trees for Winter. Weather has well and truly gone to pot. Last night saw our first snow here.
The Hornbeam was still holding on to a few leaves but this was soon sorted out.
After leaf removal.
Another important step was to remove the moss to stop pests hiding there. I removed it from the Hornbeam and found quite a few leather jackets lurking there. No wonder the Blackbirds where showing so much interest!
The white stuff is Mycellium which I was surprised to see so much of on a Hornbeam.
This was the tree before placement in the poly tunnel for Winter.
Bonsai Eejit 