6P4A7111 6P4A7074 6P4A7075 6P4A7126

The five judges for the bonsai exhibition met at 8am in the hotel, along with a team of organizers, to review the judging procedures, a very complicated process. Three of the judges were from Taiwan, Shinichi Nakajima from Japan and me from the United States.

JUDGES 2 JUDGES 1

The exhibition was split into two divisions, Phempis and non- Pemphis. The Pemphis is a unique species native to the Philippines and grows near the salt water. Actually, they look similar to the Buttonwoods of Florida, but have smaller foliage with tiny flowers and hard dense wood. All the specimens are collected and are difficult to grow outside their native habitat. Even in the Philippines they are often sprayed with salt water. I found it interesting that some specimens had silvery foliage while others were bright green. After inquiring, I was informed that the silvery foliage is normal because of the salt water spray, while…

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Mar 17 2016

Happy St Patrick’s Day

Hope you all have a Craic filled day.

Mar 13 2016

Collecting…

I got out collecting again a few weeks ago with Phil. We managed to get back on to our old Hawthorn site. As my shoulder and neck are not really up to the task any more, I had Jeff my spade buddy along to help. It was Jeff’s first time collecting and after wind hail and even snow, it might be his last 🙂

Part of the site

Jeff perched on the edge

Dayglo Phil

Hawthorn

Up in the heights

I see him

That one can stay where it is!

Jeff playing hide and seek, he’s very good at it.

The weather moved in. Grim 😦

Hard to light up 🙂

Some of the booty

Just before I dropped my phone in the muck!

Too big but beautiful, and the trees not bad either.

I got some smaller Blackthorn as well as Hawthorn. At the end of the day I had some potted up and black bagged. Giving this a go to see what the results are like.

That was 2 weeks ago, I opened a bag today and the budding is going well.

A big thank you to Jeff for doing the heavy lifting for me. I haven’t heard from him since! Only joking.

Mar 13 2016

Mother and Child Hawthorn

Another Hawthorn wired out before bud break. Not the best time to do this with the sap rising and branches being a little more brittle, but I didn’t want to miss another year. I was stabbed repeatedly even after thorn removal. You never get all the little buggers! This was it before.

And afterwards.

and me for scale

Mar 12 2016

Root Over Rock Trident Maple Repot

I bought this Trident back in 2011. This is the pot it was in at the time. I didn’t like the rectangle and I didn’t like that the rock over hung the left side of the pot.

I opted to change the pot to this Walsall Ceramics pot in February 2012.

And there it stayed until last week. I had another pot come into my hands that I wanted to try out and then of course I found another one as a second option. I tried the tree out in each pot.

This was the blue option

and this was the cream/white option.

After some deliberation I opted for the cream pot. It was my favourite of the two anyway but I was also able to twist the tree slightly more in the pot with the extra front to back space allowing for a slightly new front that shows a little of the rock to the right side of the far right root which I think adds to the image.

Better?

Mar 11 2016

North Coast Hawthorn

I gave this Hawthorn collected up the North coast in around 2003 a rewiring last week. It’s been knocking around my garden for years but it’s finally starting to resemble a tree. In about another 15 years it might actually look the part 🙂

This was it in Spring 2010 when I air layer a trunk off.

October 2010

September 2011, starting from scratch branch wise.

I wired the tree out for the first time in Winter 20114/15 and this was the tree in May 2015 after cutting back the first flush of growth.

And this is the tree now in March 2016 after a second wiring. Just need about 10 times the ramification to make a convincing tree image.

Mar 11 2016

NIBS – Bonsai Auction

I’m a member of the Northern Ireland Bonsai Society and we are having an auction to help raise money to deliver our 30th Anniversary Event Bonsai 30.

All items in the auction have been donated to the club with 100% of money raised going into our exhibition fund. The auction is open to everyone, not just club members so please follow this link over to the club auction page on the website for a look at over 40 lots available. There is a reserve on some items but set way below actual value. I foresee this auction having some absolute bargains even if you have to pay for a little postage!

Thanks for looking, and please help spread the word by re-blogging and sharing on social media.

Mar 9 2016

Fantastic Time Lapse Video – Sabina Juniper

Styling a big Sabina Juniper at Bonsai Sense in Mallorca, Spain. For more information about the school of bonsai at Bonsai Sense, visit http://www.bonsaisense.com

Mar 9 2016

The 11th Annual Shohin Pottery Competition (1)

Japanese Bonsai Pots Blog

Every year I look forward to Gafu Ten and the results of the big pottery competition and exhibition that is held there each year. For articles on the previous exhibitions, click the over to the Table of Contents page under the menu bar.

Lots to talk about from this year’s exhibition, with many images, so I’ll be separating it into two posts. First up, the winners, and the entries from last year’s gold medalists.

Overviews of the exhibition.

Now, on to the pots!

Unglazed Containers

The Gold medalists for the previous year aren’t eligible for prizes(nor are those who have won top honors more than a couple of times), but they are always invited to display in the following year. This was the entry from British Potter Andrew Pearson, of Stone Monkey Ceramics, who took gold last year. This year’s entry features real silver rivets. I was quite impressed with…

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Mar 9 2016

Old Joe Yew

This tree is with me until the end of either it or me 🙂 Perhaps not the best material in the world but I have a sentimental attachment to this tree due to it’s provenance. You can catch up with that here along with other links.

As I’m keeping it, I decided it was time for a better pot. I have recently acquired this Walsall Ceramic pot which I think adds to the negative space required to emphasise the height of the tree. It’s a glazed pot but subtle which I like for this tree. I under planted a few small Japanese Ferns to help hide a few issues and also emphasise the height of the tree.