Nov 7 2011

Clean Up and Tuck Away

I started the process of cleaning up a few of the bits of raw material to tuck away into the poly tunnel for Winter Protection.

This little Hornbeam was field grown and has only been the victim of my chop and grow procedures.

Dead leaves removed. I don’t want any hiding places for little beasties over the Winter.

The original chop will need some carving work to look more convincing.

This Wild Pear was also put away. I will be leaving the branches to extend further next year to thicken before cutting back next Autumn.

Nov 5 2011

Before and after

Glad to get this done.

Corner of Garden Before

and After

Nov 5 2011

Chuhin Maple, Colour at Last

I was starting to think that this maple had forgotten about Autumn this year but a little colour has started to creep in. Another week should see it at it’s peak colour.

Nov 3 2011

Week by Week Maple Colour

This little Shohin is a pleasure to watch in the Autumn.

October 15th

October 22nd

October 30th

November 2nd

Nov 3 2011

New Tunnel Step by Step

Over the last few days I’ve been getting ready for the arrival of my new tunnel.

This is the area where it’s going to be. The bench you can see is falling apart and this is the time to make better use of the garden.

Bench cleared ready for destruction!

Timber!!

Now the problem is the overly tall Hawthorn hedge to the back of the garden. This will shade out a lot of the tunnel.

The frame of the tunnel was put together yesterday by my son and I. Pretty straight forward and the heavier frame on the Pro version seems to be worth a little extra.

3m x 2m x 2m.

A quick lift over the fence into it’s new home. I haven’t made my mind up what angle to place it at as yet. The wind was strong yesterday so I wasn’t going to chance putting on the cover. That is a job for today.

Nov 2 2011

Bonsai Disaster!!

After posting about the Common Juniper yesterday were I mentioned briefly about a major disaster in my Bonsai journey, I thought I would share the full story.

Back in 2005 I was busy dealing with other things in my life and bonsai took a back seat. This lasted for roughly 3 years. My one big regret in bonsai is wasting these years. My trees got water, if they were lucky, and every now and again they got feed.

In 05/06 disaster struck! I spotted fertilizer for sale specifically for Conifers, not conifer bonsai, just conifers.. I decided to buy it. It was cheap, I had no other fertilizer left at home and I liked the idea of sprinkling a little on the pots and walking away. I followed the correct dosage, or less that recommended and fed the conifers in my collection. I have since learned from someone who used to work in a similar fertilizer factory that it’s pot luck what’s in the box. Chemicals are added in a hap-hazard manor and rarely in the correct dosage. It would appear that what I got was a very high Nitrogen feed, not what was on the box. A few days later I looked out the window and noticed that a few of my trees where looking a little dull in foliage colour. I didn’t do anything as I was going out to work. Idiot!! The following day I was devastated to see that about 15 of my trees where suffering badly from what I can only assume was fertilizer burn on the roots. I flushed out the pots with running water. Took me most of the day.

It was then a waiting game. I managed to save 6 of the trees. Some of these lost branches but over the years I have worked around this and made the best I can from them. The other 9, I lost. By way of a memorial to them, here they are:

Japanese White Pine ‘Zushio’

Japanese White Pine ‘Zushio’ Common JuniperRoot Over Rock LarchScots PineMugo PineCommon JuniperJapanese Larch

Japanese Larch

I’m sure others out there have experienced loses during their time doing bonsai. However, I bet not many add them on their blog! I do this to show that we all have our disasters and hope that others might learn from my mistake. Be 100% confident about what you feed your trees. As you can see I lost some rather nice trees and it nearly made me quit bonsai.

Thank God I didn’t 🙂

To end on a brighter note, here are a few of the ones that suffered but survived. All photographed this year.

Nov 1 2011

Common Juniper

I have a love hate relationship with this tree!! I collected it from a cliff face back in 1998.

After initial strong growth, this was the first styling.

Things progressed well. This is it in 2000.

I got an Ian Baillie pot made for the tree in 2003.

Then it all went ‘Pete Tong’ I had a disaster with a conifer fertilizer that killed 7 of my best trees 😦 A few others suffered but survived. This was one of them. I lost a few main branches at the apex. Needless to say, I wasn’t in any mood to photograph the tree at this point!

As with most Common Junipers collected from the wild, this one has ‘Rust’ Fungus. This became more dominant and I lost a few minor branches here and there.

It was planted in a wash hand basin in a very open mix. This was it in 2009. No styling since 2005. The lost apex branches are there for all to see 😦

I decided to put it back into its Ian B. pot. I kept the tree in the poly tunnel for the last 1 1/2 years and growth has been good.

Last week I lifted it out while I was reorganising things in the tunnel. Of course I forgot to put it back in! That night we had major gusts of wind and when I spotted it on the bench the following day it was at a new angle not selected by me!! I have now added a support and am giving serious thought it transferring it to a bigger pot for a few years. This is it now.

Oct 31 2011

Shohin Maple Finally Showing Colour

This is it yesterday from a few angles.

And this was it on the same date in 2010 for comparison.

I think about one more week should bring me this colour for 2011.

Oct 30 2011

Down Hill but only half way

As predicted, the collected Escallonia from last week is showing a few signs of death. Appropriate for Halloween!

Original Post

Of the two live branches, one is fading fast. I knew that by cutting a major root that was going under a concrete path, chances were that it would die. The good news is that the other branch is holding it’s own [kiss of death]

This one is on it’s way out

Fingers crossed that this one will make it.