Jun 11 2014

2014 Nashville Regional Bonsai Expo

Always happy to reblog a Show or Exhibition post.

The 2104 Nashville Regional Bonsai Expo will be held on July 12-13^th at the Cheekwood Botanical Garden, in Nashville, Tennessee. Over 50 bonsai from the southeast will be displayed along with kusamono.

Guest artists for the event are Jim Doyle, Young Choe and Owen Reich who also heads the event. In addition to lecture/demonstrations by Jim Doyle and Young Choe, two kusamono classes will be conducted along with a collected Engleman spruce workshop. A bonsai refinement workshop will also be offered. Jim Doyle will conduct a critique of the displayed bonsai and Young Choe will critique the kusamono.

Jim Doyle

Confirmed vendors for the sales area include: Fedducia’s Bonsai, Bellota Enterprises, MC Squared Ceramics, Glass Art by Jacob, Kusa Farm, Bonsai Unearthed, Lynnwood Gardens, Turnbull Creek Bonsai, Nature’s Way, The American Bonsai Society, Cedar Bog Bonsai, New World Horticulture and International Bonsai.

Young Choe

The general…

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Jun 11 2014

Accent – Gunnera!

No, not one of the hugh leafed Gunneras that we see blotting the landscape. This is one of the small varieties that hails from New Zealand I think. I don’t have the full botanicial name for it and if one of you plant nerds can ID it, I’d love to know. I can’t remember seeing one as an accent before but I’d love to be proved wrong on that point. I got this one from Pat in Waterford in a plant swap session. Cheers Pat, I love it. Pot is a Wallsall Ceramics creation.Again, it’s going to take a while to fill out but I’ll keep you posted with how it matures.

Jun 10 2014

Welcome Home Old Pal

Peter Snart kindly delivered my Root Over Rock Trident Maple back to me a few weeks back. It had been over at Willowbog Bonsai for the BSA Exhibition. This is it as I got it back. A little over grown but in fine health as you’d expect 😉

I had to address the overgrown shoots that had now overly thickened some of the outer canopy. The only way I could do this was by defoliation and then thinning out of the fat areas. This was it after defoliation.

and again after thinning out, you can see I’ve also removed the moss, I want to be able to keep an eye on the watering better and the moss was obscuring my view of this and also taking some of the water for itself.

In hindsight I have missed an opportunity 😦 I should have left the bottom few branches untouched to allow them to fatten further to get a better balance in the tree. Ah well…

Jun 10 2014

Spectacular Sierra junipers

Jun 10 2014

Kusamono – Juncus, Papyrus, Hosta,Sisrinchium

Another Kusamono made up for a new pot, this one by Stone Monkey. I love this pot with the green glaze in the rim. I wanted to plant something that would allow this to be seen but still match the planting.

I opted to go for a cool feel to the planting using light greens in the foliage to link in with the pot colours. I added a Sisrinchium to add just a splash of darker colour but still a cool feel with the purple flower. The other plants are, at the higher level, Juncus effusus, then a middle level with a mini Papyrus and sisyrinchium E.K. Balls, and a hosta Iced Lemon at the bottom level.The hosta will grown to break the line of green around the pot but the majority should still be visible.

Jun 9 2014

Wrong Tree Mate

This young blackbird snuck into my garage on Saturday past to get away from the heavy rain. It perched on top of the wrong tree 🙂

I had to catch another on in the poly tunnel before it done itself a mischief! Another smashed a pot in the greenhouse!! Found a few plants ripped out of the pots too, but you got to love them all the same 🙂

Jun 9 2014

Video

BSA 2014 Exhibition Part 2

Here’s Part 2, this time Valentin Brose takes us on a tour of the exhibits. Valentin has got to be one of the nicest artists in the European bonsai scene.

Jun 9 2014

Kusamono -Rose, Epimedium, Astilibe.

I wan’t to get this new pot planted up and I opted to do a little combo kusamono using a white flowering rose, Epimedium akebono and a dwarf Astilbe. It will take a while to mature but I think it should make a good mix.

This is the pot, made by Alberto Vignori from Milan I believe, I just loved the quality of the finish and the colour.

And this is what I put together. I was aiming for the three levels within the planting, ‘Heaven, man and earth’ as tends to be the aim with these. The rose is the tallest element and is light enought to look the part. I then picked the Epimedium akebono for the middle level, again it’s got a small leaf and I love the form of the plant. Last is a little Astilbe that can hardly been seen at the moment but it will grow. It gives me the lowest element. I topped off the pot with some moss just to give it a more finished look and to keep the soil from washing away until the plants bind together. I look forward to seeing this one when the rose is in flower. I feel that all elements flowering at once would be too much but I think that each should flower at a different time allowing this to be used multiple times in the year.

Jun 8 2014

Image

2nd Magical Bonsai Accents Exhibition

Jun 8 2014

20 Days to Go!!

Leinster Bonsai Club’s meeting fast approaching!! Have you RSVP’ed yet? We’d like to know if you are coming so we know how much coffee to bring 🙂

Leinster Bonsai Club

Only 20 days left to go before the first meeting of the Leinster Bonsai Club. You can even follow the countdown in the sidebar 🙂

We hope to have a good turnout at the first meeting at Ballbriggan Community Centre on 27th June @ 7.30pm. We have quite a few people already confirmed as attending.

Owen, John and Elisa all made the trip up the the NIBS School at the end of May and have set the ball rolling for a close working relationship with both the Northern Ireland Bonsai Society and the Munster Bonsai Club all under the umbrella of ‘Bonsai Ireland’.

Are you coming to the first meeting? If you haven’t been in touch already or haven’t been in touch for a while, please let us know if you can make it. We have about 10 so far confirmed via email and Facebook Page but feel free to

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