Mar 14 2011

Brass Neck – Urban Yamadori

After looking at this Japanese White Pine in someone’s garden for the last year and a half, I plucked up the courage [brass necked it] and knocked the door. The lady of the house was home and seemed amenable to me replacing it with a Japanese Maple from my own garden. The Maple is nice but not suitable for bonsai and I have others. This Pine, if it survives could make an interesting tree to play with over the next 10-15 years.

I now have to wait for the husband to give the OK. Fingers Crossed 🙂

Mar 13 2011

Sunday Dander

Here’s a few things I snapped on my Sunday walk with the dogs. The water is Belfast Lough.

Black Mountain looking like Mount Fuji with a cloud top.

Last of the snow, I hope!

Moss or mountainside?

Love the colour

Mar 12 2011

Root over Rock Cotoneaster

I repotted this one a few weeks back and it’s come into leaf very quickly. Flower Buds can even be seen 🙂

Mar 12 2011

Ceanothus one week on

One week after collection and buds are already appearing on my Ceanothus. The higher temperatures in the poly tunnel must have done the job.

This bud is very adventurous being well down the tree. Bodes well for back budding.

Mar 12 2011

Futtering in the Garden

I spent a few hours today tidying up and playing with trees.

I managed to get the last bit of screening up and did a little power washing. You may notice the flowering Fuji Cherry isn’t on the bench. I lifted it in to try and keep those flowers out of the heavy rain. No point in losing them quicker than necessary!

Japanese Larch

 

Common Beech

Raulli

Escallonia

Swelling buds on a Korean Hornbeam.

I had a look at the buds on this Larch group. As nice as the little green shaving brushes are, it was very congested and bud and branch thinning is needed. I lifted it into the garage and gave it a going over.

Japanese Larch

Congestion of buds

This is the remains of the unwanted buds.

I took enough photos to produce a 360 of the group after thinning. I’ll add it to the club 360 page later.

Mar 11 2011

Club Meeting

I’m just back from my club’s monthly meeting. I took my son Matthew with me tonight. He’s been showing an interest in Bonsai of late and I would dearly love to be able to hand them on to a family member some time down the line. He really enjoyed his night and now wants his own tools.

It was great to see that spark of enthusiasm in the new members. One chap walked in with a heavy trunked Spirea that he has collected from the garden. I wish I had started off with this sort of material instead of some of the junk I wasted my time on. Some would say I still do 😦

For more photos click this link. http://www.nibonsai.co.uk/2011/03/tonights-meeting/

Mar 11 2011

Thoughts and Prayers for Japan

My thoughts and prayers are with all the people devastated by the earthquake and Tsunami in Japan and around the pacific.

Mar 11 2011

Surely Not!!

The weather forecast says there might be snow tonight, surely not!! I’ve just spent an hour making sure I don’t get caught out. Anything repotted is tucked away.

Whilst I was looking around I noticed a lot of trees that need some attention. Fingers crossed the rain let’s up tomorrow and I can get a bit done.

I  managed to get some new Fern screening up this morning before the rain. I ripped down the reed screen that I had been using as a backdrop for my bonsai display area. I was going to change to bamboo as the reeds rot very quickly, then I spotted the fern screening which is hardier and a better colour.

Here’s the old reed screen.

This is it with the reed away.

This is the Fern screen, a better colour that won’t fade either.

This is it mostly up. The rain stopped play. I have one section left to do and then power washer time and a good weeding below the benches.

Off to the NI Bonsai Society meeting tonight. Not really a meeting any more, it’s more of a workshop and that seems to be what people want. The last 3 nights have been packed out the door. I’m wondering if tonight will be quieter with the heavy rain. I’ll have to wait and see.

Mar 8 2011

Rowallane Trees

My wife and I visited Rowallane Gardens, a National Trust Property, today. It is famous for its Rhododendrons and has loads of interesting trees to admire and learn from. Here are a few of the things that caught my eye today.

On the main driveway in is a row of old Cedars with lovely hanging branches. It’s a pity that the lower limbs are removed for safety. It would be great to see one this size without man’s input into it’s design.

One of my reasons for going today was to see if the large Prunus Incisa or Fuji Cherry was in flower yet. My small one is but alas, this one has a few weeks to go yet.

Another tree that I liked was this Fraxinus Ornus, a type of weeping Ash I think. I loved the Uro’s.

There was a few maples scattered around the grounds but needless to say, no leaves yet. This is a large one in front of the main house and a nice bit of colour on a Sengo Kaku ‘Coral Bark’ Maple too.

A beautiful flowering Quince has been trained up the wall of the Tea rooms.

Here are some of the flowers and shapes that caught my eye.

 

Mar 8 2011

My Surprise

I started this blog in the middle of February as a way of keeping a record of my ‘Bonsai Activities’ and sharing that with anyone who’s interested. Yesterday saw over 300 hits on the blog! I never thought it would be that busy, that soon. It’s been a busy month for bonsai and I’ve posted a lot and this may slow down a tad. Iv’e been off for a few weeks due to a family bereavement but I’m back to work tomorrow. I’ll keep the posts up as best I can, I go nowhere now without my trusty camera.

Thank you for your interest and please leave a message on the blog somewhere to let me know you’ve been. I have made so many bonsai friends around the world through Blogging and Facebook. I just hope that I get a chance to meet you all sometime.

Regards

Ian the bonsai eejit 🙂