Apr 13 2015

A Cracking Night!

Last week I had a night at my garage for the guys who do one to ones with me. I needed a hand getting a large Scots pine bent into shape. This was an old tree collected from a bog back in 2012. This is the tree at the time of collection.

This was it a few weeks ago, sitting outside where it’s been for the last 3 years. It’s been chopped back a few times to remove unwanted trunks and branches and to help chase back the foliage.

The idea was to create a twin trunk image from the remaining foliage. However it’s always good to have a Plan B!!

Here we have the tree placed into the workshop after a 4 man lift. Took a coat of paint off the door on the way in!

Some deadwood will need to be worked.

Help from the chaps in getting the raffia applied.

And then my Plan A went out the window lol. When bending the lighter of the two trunks I managed to snap it beyond the point of repair/survival. I was a bit amazed at the time to be honest as I hadn’t applied that much pressure and the trunk had been raffia’d, taped, and cable-tied. On closer inspection later I noticed a weak point where a branch had died previously, but still…

I was quite pleased with how calm I remained. Nothing I could do to change what had occurred, all I could do was look for options within the remaining trunk to create a tree. The original plans for this trunk had to be dropped and the whole tree evaluated to select another styling option. Once done we again got to work and did a little more bending, this time with no mishaps.

This is how the tree finished before the guys had to head home.

As the branches where all hanging at weird angle with buds pointing towards straight down, I felt that it would be better to fire on and get the tree fully wired so all buds were facing up to help with vigour. In some cases this was exaggerated on the weaker buds. This is how the tree turned out. I actually had another smaller branch break, again with hardly any pressure applied. Some trees just seem to be a pain in the arse!

A first step on a long journey, a lot of back budding will be required but the tree is budding strongly this year. I’m pretty pleased with the result, possibly a better image that I was aiming for with the twin trunk image.

Apr 12 2015

Bonsai Exhibition in the Phoenix Park

Owen's Bonsai

Today the two Bonsai clubs in Southern Ireland came together for there first ever Bonsai exhibition and for me it was a real treat. If you think of it the Munster Bonsai Club is only 16 months old and our Leinster Bonsai Club is a mere 10 months old and if I do say so my self we’re doing ok. We still have mountains to climb to be at any outstanding level but everybody starts somewhere 🙂

Not a bad place to start 🙂

Cow Shed ????

On with the Prep work…

THE TREES

Putting the trees into their place for the day is not as easy as it looks and it did take a few goes before it all came together. There is so much involved in exhibition, Tree, Accents, Scroll, Spacing, What tree to put next to this tree or that tree, it really is an art in itself. As this is our first…

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Apr 11 2015

New Arrivals

Another swap session with a like minded accent lover, this time in Belgium and I now have some new varieties in the collection. It did a while for them to get here, post can be really hit and miss these days, some get here in days and others in weeks. It seems to work like that on the return journey too. Be patient, Xavier, Peter and Robyn, your plants are on route 😉

You can see from the potted up pics that the plants have grown whilst in transit and are a little yellow due to lack of light. Given a few weeks, this will sort itself out.

Apr 10 2015

Splitting Hostas

On Tuesday Stephen came to my garage to help me wade through my usual Spring splitting of accents plants. I’m trying to build a nice collection and always like to have spares to sell and swap. A few weeks back I posted about hostas and a blog follower requested that I cover how I split them. This is it 🙂

Stephen hard at work.

A tray full of Soldanella ready for a tidy up.

Some of the recently potted accents.

This one clump of hosta yielded seven plants.

This one was next, ‘Rock Island Line’, originally purchased at Bali Hai Nursery here in Northern Ireland. I have a marking system, white name label, pink label if it’s my stock plant and blue if I reckon it’s ready to split.

Shake off the top dressing of grit. and pop it out of the pot.

A shake out can get rid of most of the lose potting mix.

Then carefully start to tease apart the root mass, in some cases a sharp knife can be used to split down between two shoots.

Split in half, but not finished yet.

Split further…

and again…

and the five plants separated..

potted up in fresh mix

and top dressed with a layer of grit to keep the weeds at bay.

This one is back as stock plant.

This one was selected as worthy of being potted up as an accent. The three shoots will allow for it to bulk out quickly.

A little root pruning can be done, just as in bonsai. This can help reduce the leaf size of the plant compared to being grown in open ground.

A little mix in the bottom of the pot.

Placed in pot and filled around the edges with mix.

And the finished result, label added so I can keep track of what varieties I have potted up. Like the pot, this one by Will Baddelely, obtained as part of a swap with Chris Royal. Cheers Chris 😉

This is a great time to split, however I have had great success splitting in July as well with absolutely no issues with the plants being in leaf.

Anyone interesting in swapping, or even buying a few, drop me an email via the Contact Me tab at the top.

Apr 9 2015

New display !

Bonsai Baker

After clearing my decked area, the BBQ that we never used, I made a few small tables . These are to help spread out my trees, and to make better use of this space.

Now with trees. Sorry about the sun in this photo !

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Apr 9 2015

Airlayer it!

Finally got around to sorting a few air layers this week.

First up was this Korean Hornbeam. This is the front as it sits now.

This will be the new front. However the top of the taller trunk is heavy and needs removed. It will make a nice little shohin clump if layered off.

Layer point marked.

Cambium layer removed.

Layer in pace.

And this Cork bark Elm with poor nebari.

And this Zelkova which will make a nicer broom having removed all the tall leaders.

A Chinese Elm that I’m layering for a customer. The tree came to me in poor health and had lost a lot of lower branches. Best option is to layer off the top and use the nice base as a new tree.

Dis a few more but was on a roll and forgot the camera 🙂

Apr 8 2015

Accents: Crassula and Soldanella

Soldanella ‘Spring Symphony’, Walsall Ceramics Pot.

Early days, Iris, but in it’s new Magic Ceramics pot.

Crassula Socialis in new Magic Ceramics pot.

Apr 7 2015

Root Over Rock Itiogawa Juniper

After waiting to make sure this Juniper was happy after a recent styling, I finally transferred it over to a new pot. Not the final pot, but one that allowed me to adjust the tree to the proper planting angle.

Before styling in February.

After styling in March.

Repotted now.

Apr 6 2015

Artisans Cup submissions are open!

For all my North American friends…..

Michael Hagedorn

~ Flaunt your best ~ As of April 1 the Artisans Cup bonsai exhibition is accepting submissions. The deadline for your entries is June 1! For submission you’ll need:

Four photos of each submitted bonsai
A brief essay of your display decisions
Pot information
Accent information

For full details about your submissions including where to send them, please go to The Artisans Cup. Again, your deadline for your entries is June 1. Submissions received after that will be tragically ignored. Don’t do this to your bonsai. They’re counting on you ~

Three special bonsai will be selected during the exhibition by the judges for the top prizes. First prize ($10,000), second prize ($5,000), third prize ($3,000). There will also be a People’s Choice Award and an award for the Best Companion Planting.

Be a part of the movement to bring bonsai center stage in America. Personally I’m really curious…

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Apr 6 2015

First Swallow 2015

I keep a log here each year noting the date I see the first Swallow arriving for the Summer. The last two years have been on the 16th & 17th April, this year we are ahead of schedule with my first sighting today. A glorious Easter Monday with blue skies. A great way to start the day.