Nov 2 2011

El Tim Blog speaking out

I thought I would mention this Spanish Bonsai Blog that I’ve been following for a while. I’ve just added it to My Favourite Blogs sidebar.

I understand that reading translated Spanish can be a bit of a chore, Google Translate is far from perfect! But sometimes its worth the effort.

If you click on the image link below you will be taken to a recent post about the collection of yamadori in Spain. It is an honest look at the devastation, dare I say rape, of collecting sites in Spain. I have collected yamadori myself, always in manageable numbers with permission. I understand the temptations to go mad and take risks with trees, I’m not blameless in this either. However, the wanton destruction of top quality yamadori as described here is totally unacceptable! Non-collectable trees should be left for everyone to enjoy in-situ.

This isn’t just a Spanish thing either, it’s happens everywhere when there’s money to be made. In my view, it’s bonsai’s dirty little secret. I have no doubt that some day, some news reporter on a slow news day will twig on to this and it will make National News. ‘Bonsai Butchers ruining the environment’, or words to that effect. What a sad day for bonsai that will be! 😦

Oct 28 2011

Futter with Trees

A few months back at the start of the Summer we got a new club member. Michael came to us after having gone through a few wilderness years with his trees. I had a few years like that myself and was keen to get him up and running again. I’m delighted to say that not only has he jumped back in with both feet, he’s even started his own blog! He’ll probably hate me for posting this link to it but, if he even gets a fraction of the enjoyment from it that I have gotten from mine, he’ll forgive me 😀

By way of explanation, ‘futter’ in Northern Ireland, roughly translated means, ‘to play around with’, not to be confused with some of the other global meanings out there! I googled it and was rather surprised!! As I call myself an eejit, I can connect with his regional blog name 😀

Anyway, here’s a link to his blog, give him some encouragement and lets hope he’s still talking to me after this 😀

Oct 27 2011

Larch Pot

One of the trees I looked at in Stephens garden the other day was this lovely little Japanese Larch.

We have discussed a different pot for this for years. It’s hard to source pots over here and we chatted about what might be suitable. We even measured what we thought might be a good size. A semi cascade pot about 6 inches square and 5 inches deep.

It dawned on us that another tree in the same garden was in a pot that might fit the bill. This pot had a Hawthorn in it. It’s a little fussy for the Larch with the band on the pot but not too far off the mark.

I did a virtual. A bit messy but enough to get a feel for the look of the pot tree combo.

The cascading branch can be adjusted and extended slightly to fit the new look.

The only problem for Stephen is that that the pot doesn’t belong to him 😀 It’s a loner he borrowed off Phil. Let the negotiations begin 😀

Oct 20 2011

…Mike and Stephen

Following on from my last post, here is what Mike and Stephen got up to.

Stephen brought along a Yew to dewire. It was getting rather tight even though it was only wired back in May. See my previous post HERE. Stephen got to work. It was rather cold in the garage and Stephen found that marching on the spot really helped warm him up 🙂

I also had to explain to Stephen from a Health & Safety point of view that we had several tables on offer, all at different heights to suit the size of the tree.

The tree after dewiring. It has back budded very nicely since it’s haircut in May. Next year should see some strong growth for this tree.

Michael brought along a Japanese White Pine. This tree had lost a few branches in the last few years and it made the original front hard to work with. This was the original front.

The first part of the trunk line was interesting but the straight top section was a problem. Also, the first branch to the left was heavy and straight and had also suffered die back. We discussed a few options and Phil even took some time out from bark striping to have a look too.

We had a few options. One was to make a shohin tree by taking it back to a low branch. If it had been a Scots Pine, I might have considered this, but not with a Japanese White here in NI. You rarely see a happy vigorous tree of that species here. People allow them to receive far too much water. This new option would require strong growth and the tree would bleed sap profusely from the major wound.

There was a semi cascade option as well with deadwood involved but, we opted for another option that suited Mike’s tastes. This was to be the new front.

This front had a few benefits. The movement in the upper trunk was better and the straight lower branch was now a back branch that couldn’t be seen. The nebari isn’t just as good but there was marginal. The branch layout created a better and more convincing image. I thought that the tree was too tall and that a new lower apex was going to be needed. The biggest problem, and one that can’t really be seen in the photo, was going to be the fact that the apex leaned back slightly. We discussed this and decided to add a guy wire to pull it forward.

We got to work and very quickly got the rest of the tree wired so we could place branches. We ensured that all buds were facing up, important on a JWP. We added another guy line to bring the apex more over the base of the tree. As it sat, the flow of the trunk line was annoying me. By applying these two guys the height of the tree was reduced sufficiently for us not to bother with reducing the height of the apex by removing branches. This was it after wiring.

Mike had to shoot off at the end and there was a few other tweaks that I wanted to do. That branch near the top on the left needs to be lowered to match the rest. However I think we made a better tree out of it in the end. Here are the before front and the after front side by side.

This is a virtual showing a little extra growth and a different pot.

This is how we attached the guy line. Mike hadn’t seen the eye loops used like this before, however he was first to suggest using a wood screw. Sometimes this is the only option as there isn’t anything suitable there to guy too.

This is one of the pads. Where foliage would allow, we rounded out the pad to make a fuller image.

Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed the company in the garage 🙂

Oct 19 2011

Funtime Frankies

Yesterday I popped over to Frankies house to meet up with Phil, Frankie’s son and one of my bonsai muckers [that means friend].

Phil had put up a poly tunnel at his Dad’s to take care of the Winter storage for his and his dad’s bonsai collection. I’m thinking of getting another one to ensure all my own trees get protection. This will also double up as a recovery area for collected trees You can see photos of the Tunnel getting erected on our club site NI Bonsai Society .

While I was there Phil and I looked at a few trees that he has been preparing for work over a number of years.

This is a Scots Pine, one of the short needled varieties. It had been grown in a pot by a neighbour for over 40 years. Phil managed to get his hands on it about 5 years ago and has been getting the roots and growth sorted during that time. He’s considering a first styling next year.

This big Hornbeam was field grown for 8-9 years. It has been in this pot for a few years not just getting a clip and grow approach. Next year will see some clearing out done to define the future structure.

Some of Frankie’s and Phil’s trees in the garden. I haven’t a clue who owns what, so I’ll just put them all together. Some are still pretty raw and have yet to be styled. Phil likes to get a compact tree before doing the initial styling.

A few bits of Pine material

Pyracantha

Scot’s Pine

Yew

Large Juniper

Chinese Elm

Japanese Larch

Small ones on a gravel tray.

The Next generation, trays of cutting from some of the best varieties.

Oct 18 2011

Mario’s Korean Hornbeam

An update for Mario in the U.A.E. Your Korean Hornbeam would seem to be rather confused! It must think that it’s with you in the desert!! Look at the late growth in the last week or so.

Oct 14 2011

Larch Progression in 2011

I have just added this post to the NIBS club site about a Larch that has been worked on by a club member this year. No point in reproducing it here, just click on the image of the tree below to view the post.

Oct 13 2011

Frankies Juniper

This Juniper was worked on last weekend. It belongs to Frankie but his son Phil is the main man when it comes to it’s care and styling. It was styled last year but not to Phil’s satisfaction. The extreme bend was proving hard to incorporate into the design with the current deadwood. A weak branch to the left had died. This photo shows the tree the the weak branch alive, just.

Now that the branch to the left was dead Peter Snart suggested that part of the deadwood should be removed and the bend bent down further with a clamp. This is it clamped down a little but the jin is stopping it going any further.

Jin removed, cranked down further and tied off with 2mm copper wire. Even this stretched with the pressure but there was no sign of any cracks in the bend.

This now opens up many new options for styling and creating an unusual tree, but that will have to wait for another day. Next step will probably to create a bend in the next section of trunk line to add more movement and bring the foliage back over the centre of the tree.