A few minor tweaks to this Cotoneaster just to fill out the area top right. Not a big difference now but as the newly wired branches fill out it will make for a better image.
Category My Bonsai
Flowers on my Birthday
Another year gone 😦 so I thought I’d add a flowering Spirea to brighten things up. Not one but two.
Japanese Black Pine
This Japanese Black Pine given to me by a friend has always been a bit of an experiment to see how far I can get it to back bud on leggy branches. This year I have decided to actually place a few branches to start building a structure. A long way to go, but fun to be had in the process.
This is it before and after wiring. A few branches removed.
Decision Made
Back in January I posted about trying to make my mind up about whether to keep this Yew Tall or go for a shorter tree. I talked about the sentimental value of this one and the tall character of the tree suited this.
Last night, being on my own while my wife is in America for a few weeks, I decided to drink beer and listen to 80’s music on the radio while playing with trees in my garage. DAB radio has lots of new stations available and this one is right up my street 🙂
So beer in hand, music blasting I sat this tree down in front of me and explored a chop option. No matter what I looked at, I could find a convincing image. I therefore set about thinning and wiring to improve the taller option. This is the result.
and beer bottle for scale 🙂
and sure I have older photos of this tree somewhere but for comparison, this was it 2 years ago.
As Allie is away, it might be an idea to freshen up the lime sulphur work on this one now too 🙂
Maintenance – Elm & Birch
Two more, both a ways off being mature trees. First a cork bark elm. I normally only get Summer growth like this if they are kept in the poly tunnel.
and after
Birch
after
Maintenance – Hornbeam & Hawthorn
Before, again all new growth post show on 21st July
After
Hawthorn before. The ramification on this one has doubled this year with numerous maintenance done this growing season.
and after
Maintenance – Trident Maples
A few more before and after trimming
Maintenance – Cotoneasters
In 20 years of bonsai I have never witnessed growth on my trees such as I have seen in the last two weeks. I spend some time on Sunday getting them back into shape.
These two Cotoneaster have been trimmed multiple times this year and this is the growth in just the last 2 weeks.
After trimming. You’ll noticed I missed a bit. I’m making a few changes to the image in that area and I’ve left extension to allow me to do a little wiring and improvement.
This was in a show 2 weeks ago!
And now.
The Short Straw
Phil and Stephen were at my place today and one of our tasks was to pick out our trees from last years collected Larches. Yet again I got the short straw and last pick!
Ah well, made for an interesting session watching what other people pick as the best tree.
Stephen as usual drank all my coffee 😉
Phil was trying to count how many trees were on the benches and ran out of fingers 🙂
We also photographed a few trees, more on this in future posts.
This was the back garden as we started out and before the camera went away in the thunderstorm. Four trees each.
Blue Star Juniper
Salvaged this one from my front garden a few years back. Only one branch at the top was alive and it had a live vein that was only 2mm wide at one point.
It has a bit to go before it looks like much but I have enjoyed watching it pull though 🙂
Bonsai Eejit 