Korean Hornbeam stolen overnight at the Bath and West garden show. This fine Bonsai belongs to John Trott, aka Mendip Bonsai.
Please do get in touch if you believe you have any knowledge of its whereabouts, or indeed if you hear anything that may assist John to recover his tree. I have included a picture below for reference purposes.
Yesterday was a busy but enjoyable day for me with friends appearing both, in the afternoon, and evening to play with Wee trees. As well as Stephen in the afternoon I had Michael.
He brought a few trees but I was in the mood for his Scots Pine. The last time I had seen it in his garden, it was covered in algae. I suggested a bottle of Algae Remover from Kaizen. He took me at my word and boy did it work. No green bark anywhere on the tree.
Original Front
New front, give or take an inch and a slight tilt.
All 3 of us sat down and picked a front for the tree. I wasn’t too keen on it’s present front and not one of us picked it. Stephen went slightly off centre from the front which was a pretty decent option but I fancied the going in from the other side. As it turned out, so did Michael. It was an interesting tree to look at. Each option had faults and we discussed how to either remove these or hide them. Some of the bends where a tad man made looking but a angle change and a guy line or two would sort this. The tree was collected by Michael from a bog and the bark even on the branches was plating up nicely.
We decided to wire the tree. We knew we didn’t have enough time available to finish it but plans are made for a second afternoon next week..
Some of the foliage before wiring.
After some wiring. I was starting enjoy my self when our time ran out. 😦
second instalment next week.
I’ve posted on this one a few times this year:
Yesterday, Stephen brought this tree back to my place for a de-wiring! All ready starting to bite in since April.
We looked over tree and the amount of growth and came to the decision that it was time to prune back. Stephen had let the foliage extend to allow the branches to lignify enough to hold the weight of the new foliage. The foliage on this variety, ‘Repanda’, is quite floppy. As you can see from the progression photos below, it has grown well.
In April before work
In April after wiring…
In June with some new growth.
…and yesterday. You can see how the shoots have extended and are now strong enough to hold the weight. They are even beginning to point upwards. Stephen had pinched the apex a few weeks back as it was very over grown and the wire was cutting in.
and this is it after pinching and de-wiring. Some branches will need to be re-adjusted. The pinching wasn’t done too hard as we wanted to allow extra foliage on the tree for health and photosynthesis .
When my Uncle Joe died I was allowed to collect this yew from his garden. That was 4 years ago. It is nothing special but has great sentimental value. Joe was a great gardener and loved to talk about my bonsai. He would love to be able to see what I’ve done with this.
I removed the wire from it’s first styling back in the Spring and I have allowed free growth since then. Today I gave it a thinning out removing foliage that was growing in the wrong places. I haven’t rewired anything as yet.
Before trim
after trim
In a year or two it will fill out into a fuller image. I added some foliage with photoshop to give me an idea of where to go next.
Deadwood.
Another Yew that got thinned out today.
Before
after
You would think I had no trees of my own 🙂 As I have some of Mario’s bonsai to look after for a few years while he’s in Dubai, I gave them a check today to see how tight the wire was. Both his little White Pine and his Juniper needed to have the wire removed. Not a big job, here they are after wire removal.
The very top bit of foliage on the Juniper is a sacrifice branch that will be made into jin to match the rest of the tree once it has thickened sufficiently.
Happy days, I thought they had switched to Japanese Gardens 😀
This is a great one looking at Japanese White Pine. Interesting to hear how they feed them to control needle length in Japan.
Click on the image to view on You Tube.
Now that Josh’s trees are nearly all away home again after holiday care, I have just taken possession of Brian’s trees while he floats around on a Narrow Boat for a few weeks.
He dropped off his trees yesterday, and today I moved a few around the benches to make better use of space. I took this opportunity to take a few photos.
This is his Alder.
Shohin Pyracantha
Chamaecyparis Obtusa
Golden Yew
Brian lives in an exposed spot along the shore and has struggled to keep a few species in good health since he moved there I few years ago. He says ‘enough is enough’ and is now selling a few of them. This Beech is one of them. You can see that the leaves had been severely wind burned this year but the tree has put out another flush. Obviously a strong tree.
He has left them with me for care and to sell. A few others as well if anyone locally is interested. A beech group, a cascade juniper, Korean Hornbeam, Fuji Cherry and a Chinese Juniper.
What a strange year it’s been for our trees. I’m seeing signs of Autumn all around the garden and not always where you would expect it.
This is one of my Crab Apples, well on the way to leaf drop.
This is a Beech Forest that belongs to my friend Josh. One of the stragglers still to make it home after the Summer care. If you are wondering what the yellow bit is, it’s a rope off a kids swing that has been wound around the slate edge for a year to allow loose soil from the repot to mesh together.
This is my Hawthorn Raft already dropping leaves, not much in the way of colour though.
This Rhododendron usually only flowers in March. Over the last week or so it’s had flowers opening. They started at the extreme right and have been working their way back along the tree.
If you haven’t already come across the Kevin Willson Carving videos on Bonsai Basho, you should give them a look.
Not much chat past the first episode but interesting to see his technique all the same.
Here’s a link to Basho’s You Tube Channel. Just click the image below.
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