Old Fashioned Flower Show

On Saturday I had the pleasure of Judging the Bonsai classes at one of the few remaining old fashioned Flower Shows. Belfast Parks Autumn Fair has been up and down over the years but seems to be undergoing a bit of a revival this year both for the public, who were there on mass and also for bonsai. Our club had done a little bit of a push for members to exhibit this year and they responded with nearly 60 trees on display. It’s far from ideal for displaying bonsai but still serves a purpose to attract the public and recruit new members to the club. Here’s a few general shots of the show. Sorry I forgot my memory card for the camera and had to take these with the phone.

 

The ‘Helix Root’ Limber Pine Styling-

Michael Hagedorn

Until a couple of years ago, I’d never worked with Limber Pine, one of our North American white pines. It’s growing on me. Buds back well, nice short needle, strong. Has a nice name, Limber Pine, which comes more trippingly off the tongue than Loblolly Pine, for instance. And it has great deadwood features.

This Limber Pine was styled in a Seasonal Workshop a couple of weeks ago. It was collected by a student of mine, Steve Varland of Backcountry Bonsai, who was able to be in the Seasonal to help style it. Loads of fun!

Photo essay follows our journey with this tree-

DSC_0267 Limber Pine from one side…

DSC_0270 …and from the other side.

DSC_0271 And a couple of shots of the base, with the ‘helix’ roots.

DSC_0273 Other side.

DSC_0300 We discovered that a large area of the trunk was dead. That is, not obviously dead. We might call it ‘pre-shari’…

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