Sep 10 2011

Autumn Colour Creeping In…

I noticed a little more colour in the garden today.

This little spiraea is turning lovely shades of pink.

Josh’s Beech Forest is well on the turn now.

This was it 2 weeks ago.

A cotoneaster

and a wild pear.

Still no sign of colour in any of my Japanese Maples, can’t wait of it to kick in 🙂

Sep 7 2011

Bugger!!!!

Very annoying!! I was standing about 10 feet away when a freak gust of wind caught this Juniper and launched it off the bench. It was my sons tree, I haven’t told him yet 😦

Luckily no branches were damaged. Big drop in temperature here today, is this the start of it?

Sep 7 2011

Does this count as a Triple Trunk?

I noticed today that my little potentilla had sprouted some fungi right at the base. Never one to miss a photograph opportunity, here they are.

Don’t know why, but I just love finding these little guys lurking around my trees.

Sep 5 2011

Longer Leaves on Fuji

I had posted earlier in the year about my Fuji Cherry. HERE and HERE.

I had experimented with it this year by defoliating. I wanted to see how a cherry would react to this in it’s growth and if the Autumn colour would be better. It also helped me de-wire as I couldn’t see the wire among the dense foliage.

After it came back into full leaf I thought that the leaves were slightly longer than before. Not bigger, just more pointed. It was until I took another Fuji of the same variety into holiday care that I noticed the difference. Both are ‘Kojo-no-mai’.

The top leaf shown here is a normal shape, the one below is my one after defoliation.

Some Autumn colour is starting to creep in but it still looks fresh. Guess I’ll have to wait and see how it goes.

Sep 4 2011

Cotoneaster Pot Virtuals

Following on from my last post, I have done a few quick pot virtuals. Having neglected this tree in terms of styling and design for years, it’s about time I did all I can to improve it. I could just sell it and be done, but, being one of my first trees, I just can’t do it!

Anyway, here are a few virtuals. I have also added a little foliage to fill out the image slightly.

I did these 2 with shallower ovals, as per Peter’s comment suggestion on the other post. Both improve the overall image.

However I think the shape of this pot suits the tree better. I suppose personal taste comes into this. I even added a few extra berries 🙂

Having done the one above I decided to shrink the pot a tad. This , I think, is the best of the 4 options I tried.

Sep 4 2011

Taken for Granted…

This Cotoneaster was one of my first trees. Previous Post

As stated previously, I’m not happy with the look of this tree. I have been over looking it on purpose for a while but yesterday I tweaked it a little to try and hide a few faults.

This was it yesterday morning.

Three faults that I tried to tackle where:

1. This long straight branch showing under the main pad of foliage.

2. This ugly curving branch.

3. These 2 visible branches that catch the eye.

I was able to hide number 1 by adjusting the foliage of the pad with wire dropping it to break the line of the branch. Straight lines in an image catch the eye.

Again, number 2 was concealed by dropping the foliage from another branch down in front of it. Further growth will be needed to complete this.

Fault 3 was solved by a little wiring in the apex to move the foliage to create a nicer apex but also stop the eye being drawn ring through the image to the straight back branch.

I then decided to play about with the position of the primary branch by using a guy line to pull it backwards.This is hard to see in a 2D image. I may decide to change this again.

It is amazing how different a tree looks in a photo. Some new growth will be needed to complete what I started.

As this is one of the first trees I ever carved, I should really pay more attention to how it looks. The longer a tree sits on your bench, the more you take it for granted. It’s hard to always look at a tree with fresh eyes. A lesson I’m trying to learn.

Sep 2 2011

Korean Hornbeam

This Korean Hornbeam has been a fast grower this year. I gave it a trim today just to tidy it up for a show next month. No sign of Autumn colour as yet.

Sep 1 2011

Old Joe Yew

When my Uncle Joe died I was allowed to collect this yew from his garden. That was 4 years ago. It is nothing special but has great sentimental value. Joe was a great gardener and loved to talk about my bonsai. He would love to be able to see what I’ve done with this.

I removed the wire from it’s first styling back in the Spring and I have allowed free growth since then. Today I gave it a thinning out removing foliage that was growing in the wrong places. I haven’t rewired anything as yet.

Before trim

after trim