May 14 2011

Elm Recovered

I posted about this Elm last month and my attempt to assist it in recovering from a nasty Winter

This was the tree yesterday before I took it to the club meeting to hand back to the owner. I think I can safety say it on the right path.

I got rid of this one and got Jamie’s sick Larch in return 🙂

May 12 2011

English Elm Development

This is an English Elm I spotted at Stephen’s yesterday. After it initial flush Stephen pruned it back in an attempt to get back budding, I think we can say it worked. Just look at those buds popping.

I like this tree except for the apex which looks man made with the contrived bend. Although it would set the tree back a bit, I would chop this and regrow the apex in a more natural looking form. Being the apex of the tree and the most vigorous part, it should fill out quickly.

This was the tree back in May last year. A full image but the branch structure was a mess with poor secondary branching and most growth at the branch ends and no internal growth.

This was it at the start of April this year after it’s first flush of growth. Stephen had worked on the tree last Summer and you can see an improvement in the branches from the photo above.

This was it yesterday after responding to a heavy trim 3 weeks ago. You can see the buds popping along the primary branches were there was very little secondary branching. This will improve the quality of the tree.

May 11 2011

Hostas and flowers

Stephen’s collection of hostas were just beautiful today and I managed to get a few pics of them and other flowers in his garden. Here’s a selection. Anyone know the name of the blue one? It’s a native bog plant.

May 11 2011

Yew Work, I’ll just Watch

Worked on a Yew with Stephen today at his place. It recently had some basic carving started by Peter Snart of Willowbog. The foliage pads were full looking but the structure was a real mess. It had also been attacked by a little grub that had been working it’s way through the finer branches. We gave it a clearing out and wired some, not all of the pads to create better structure.

This was it back last year.

This was it today after some adjustments.

I’m going to play about with it on Photoshop and try and show how the tree will look when it fills out. It has a lot of filling to do!!!

May 8 2011

Spruced up

I helped out a new club member yesterday with a few of his trees. One of them was this twin trunk Spruce. We talked about the variety and how to encourage back budding. I gave Stan a quick run through on wiring and handed over to him. He would appear to be a fast learner 🙂

Here’s the before and after photos.

Apr 30 2011

Not Drawn to Scale

Not only am I not drawn to them, I hate the little buggers!! 🙂

Ian B was part of last nights royal pruning session. I had been caring for his big Chinese Elm and brought it out for a chat about how I had brought it back to life (CPR & jump leads 🙂 ) When we started examining the new flush of buds we found the biggest Scale Insects I had ever seen!! These where sorted today with a nice spray of insecticide. Before I did this I took a few photos in case anyone hadn’t seen them before. Nothing else seems to have them. I guess they grew super sized in the heat of the tunnel.

Here’s a few of them and you can also see the sticky white stuff they produce.

and evidence of the new buds.

Apr 30 2011

Larch Basic Styling

This was the last tree to be styled last night. Work finished at 1.30am!!

This is Ben’s Larch recently purchased from Willowbog Bonsai as raw material. We worked through it and gave it it’s first basic styling. There are a few options within the tree but this has been left for Ben to ponder for a while.

Ben’s relatively new to bonsai but I am impressed by his eye for a tree and his level of knowledge gained in a short time. He always asks appropriate questions and on a few occasions I am able to answer them 🙂

He wired so fast his arms were a blur 🙂

Apr 30 2011

Turkey Oak

One of my ‘Royal Bonsai’ Guests last night was Josh who brought along his Turkey Oak, Quercus Cerris. This tree was lifted from a growing bed in his garden this Spring and put into it’s first pot. He brought it along for pinching and I took the opportunity to get a photo. I must say that the photo doesn’t do this tree any favours. It’s amazing in the bark, so to speak. The pot is from Walsall Ceramics. Well, via Willowbog Bonsai 🙂

To give you an idea of the size of the Oak here’s Josh for scale.