Apr 4 2011

Back to Front

I snapped a few pics of these two yesterday. First is a field grown Silver Birch. I popped it into this pot last month. It was lifted from the ground 2 years ago and has only been clip and grow to this stage. I’m reluctant to wire too much as they drop branches for fun after wiring. I plan to build up some ramification this year and then work on the deadwood cuts in the Autumn.

Here’s the front and back, you decide which is which 🙂

This little Yew was also field grown. Out of 15 growing in open ground, this one decided that fattening up wasn’t for him. It remained quite small and I have decided to keep it as a shohin. I styled it last year and I’m hoping for plenty of growth this year to start filling out the image. Again, front and back below.

Mar 23 2011

Bonsai School Videos

I spent most of yesterday watching through footage recorded at our clubs recent Bonsai School with Willowbog Bonsai. It was hard to do any real editing as Peter was in full flow and, to cut out little segments here and there, would have made a mess of the whole thing. Therefore, I have put together 4 videos showing extracts of Peters talk and demo. I have added the first two here for you to view. The other ones will be added later in the week. I haven’t even looked at the footage from the workshop yet!!

Mar 21 2011

Opening old wounds, in a good way…

This is a Shohin Japanese Maple I’ve been working on for a few years. It has a few major pruning wounds were the height of the tree was reduced. These wounds are healing well but every year I help it heal a little faster. I open the wound around the edge and re-seal it. This forces the tree to produce more callous that it normally would in the year. I have carried out this technique for years on Maples and other deciduous trees with great success.

This is the same tree back in October.

and today.

The wounds in question

This is the wound after the edge has been opened. You can do this with a sharp blade or as I do for speed, a dremel. Care needs to be taken to just open it and no more. No point removing a years worth of callous with a dremel!

I then seal the wound again with cut paste.

To finish off a add a thin layer of PVA glue over the paste. This makes a better seal and helps deter the slugs. I know a few people who add slug pellets into the paste to stop them eating it.

If you keep an eye on the paste it’s easy to tell when new callous is growing underneath. You’ll see a crack appearing around the edge like in this photo below taken from a different maple.