Some may think it strange to mention a blue sky. but it’s a real rarity here! I think it’s now safe to say that Spring has arrived. Plenty of flowers to share. Here’s the usual offering of photos to entice you to the Ards Peninsula.
The second instalment. If you don’t like the music, tough 🙂 I think they’re a class act 🙂
Part 1 of 3. Would have added these earlier but YouTube uploading is being an arse!!
Happy St Paddy’s Day Folks
Beautiful sunny day here, snapped a few of the flowers in my Dad’s garden.
Great post from Tyler about bonsai masterpieces in Japan.
***UPDATE***I’m happy to say that all of the trees we had submitted for the Kichou Bonsai judging were accepted!
About this time every year a judging takes place in Tokyo for the newest entries of bonsai into a select group know as Kichou Bonsai, or Important Bonsai Masterpiece. These bonsai are ones that are recognized as being some of the finest quality trees, ones that have been improved upon year after year to the point where they stand out above most other bonsai. I am told that this judging has taken place over the last 35 years or so and although some of these trees have died over the years for one reason or another, there have been about 750 trees awarded with this honor. A handful of professionals from around Japan make up the group of judges and are typically the same group that has just judged the past Kokufu trees. After a…
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John Brocklehurst, as well as exhibiting at the weekend, also had a trade stand. His beautiful ji ita boards could be seen all over the exhibit stands. One was kindly loaned to me for my accent.
This was his display.
John also made a great double act with Mr Warren during the auction. Here’s Trev and Trev in action 🙂
Who dropped one??!! 🙂
Visit John’s Blog by clicking the image below.
Another trader at the weekend was Andy Pearson aka Stone Monkey Ceramics. Andy’s pots looked great. I was jumping between all the potters trying to find a pot for a Cotoneaster that I have and I was unable to get the right size and shape. [same old story] I have loads of Walsall pots and even a few Ian Baillie ones too. I decided that I wanted a Stone Money pot and the one I liked and needed the most was in the auction! I managed to get it 🙂
Don’t take my word for it, go and see how good the pots are for yourself, just click the image below.
On our return from the collecting trip we made a start to the potting up. Well, Phil and I did 🙂 Stephen starts late and finishes early!! He kept talking about needing some sleep, you’d think he had worked all night before coming out collecting 🙂
This was my garage before Phil and I started. I wanted to cry, totally knackered after the weekend away and a full day humping tress down a mountain!!
We started with the Spruce. They were potted into Sphagnum moss specially imported from Willowbog for the job 🙂
We worked until we were seeing double and called it a night. Stephen came back the following day and we finished off the remaining Larch. This is what greeted us in the garage, only 12 Larch left. Not a lot of photos taken here as it was a hassle taking gloves on and off!
The tunnel was emptied out to make room for the new arrivals and we managed to fill it.
It was good to see trees out again after their Winter protection, albeit rather haphazardly dumped onto benches!!
I’ll keep you posted with how these trees progress or die 🙂 I think we should be successful with most. One very nice Spruce had little root and we expect it to die but you never know!!
Managed to squeeze in a collecting trip with Phil and Stephen on Tuesday. We had planned to spread the collecting out over a few years on this site but the land owner moved the goal posts and we only had one day to get what we wanted! This meant lifting way more trees than we had planned for.
Phil and I set out early, Stephen was joining us after he finished work. A few swans followed us West, I thought birds flew south!!
Phil strides out into the site on the hunt for decent Larch.
First one of the day.
We were delighted that the trees could be lifted in few few minutes. They had rooted into the top layer of moss and no tap roots were going into the poor peat soil below. A quick circle with the spade and out they popped.
We then had a closer look at a few of the Spruce and were delighted to find massive trunks. These were trees that had been cut just above soil surface many years ago but a few had remaining low branches that have developed into squat powerful trees. We thought they would be a nightmare to collect but had this first one out in 10 minutes.
We moved on to this even better one. Probably the pick of the bunch. I had looked at this one a few months ago and couldn’t get my hands around the base. It’s as thick as my thigh. The obvious top leader was removed leaving a nicely tapered trunk.
Part of the view. A cloudy but mild windless day, perfect for collecting. Stephen, Bonsai Baker, eventually turned up once the hard work was done and we had enough lifted to fill his car already. We moved on a little further and collected a few more Spruce with lighter trunks.
We humped the booty down to the main Larch area. Dopey and Happy whistling while they work, the other 5 dwarfs will be along shortly behind them 🙂
We them moved to another area with larch and collected what we thought we could handle and fit in the trailer!
Stephen checks out another one, you can see the shari on the trunks caused by the wild goats that roam the mountains here.
Another Spruce.
We get the trees back down to the car and get the trailer loaded up. Phil gulps down his usual Red Bull and Stephen is either eating a Mars Bar or chewing a wasp!! The stone is actually suiseki size 🙂
We had spotted a very nice Lodgepole Pine and went to investigate.
When we cleared the top moss off we found out that the roots disappeared into the rock. The chances of collecting this and getting it to survive are slim to none. We covered it back up and left it for others to enjoy.
Packed up we moved on. Room forHappy in the trailer 🙂
We found another site for Larch lower down. Still Japanese Larch but much redder bark
Phil found another Pine but alas, it was also rooted through rock.
He then spotted a Spruce and got down for a closer look. So tempted to deliver a size 11 boot to the target presented!!
We even managed to spot the herd of wild goats that had helped us with the shari 🙂
Some nice mature forest too.
Phil decides to try a Le Mans Start for the trip home and some potting up 🙂
We even found a new site for Hawthorn! Different land owner but worth further investigation I think!!
I post photos from the potting up tomorrow.
Plenty of things impressed me at the weekend and not just the Exhibition itself. I was also delighted to have the opportunity to buy from a few of the trade stands.
My first purchases, albeit small ones, were from Suteki, Simon Haddon, Bonsai monkey. He’s even more names than me 😀 He had a small but packed display and I took up one of his great offers for multi purchases. When I eventually get them planted up, I’ll share the results here.
In the mean time, here’s his stand.
This is Simon’s tree, a Lonicera that won a Certificate of Merit.
Click on the image below to go to Simon Pots and Accent Plants.
and this one to visit Simon’s Blog
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