May 23 2011

Cherry Experiment

I wired this Fuji Cherry over the Winter and now it needed it removed due to rapid growth. This posed a problem due to all the dense leaves. I remembered that a few years ago it was attacked by caterpillars in early Spring and it responded by producing new leaves. I decided that I would have a little experiment and defoliate the tree. I could them trim back the extension growth to the first couple of nodes and remove the wire with ease. It had only managed to hold onto one cherry. I left this on for enjoyment.

Here it is before. I had already trimmed back the strongest growth as this stage.

and after defoliation.

I looked as best I could to see if cherry bonsai were ever defoliated but couldn’t find anything online. I’ll be interested to see what happens and what Autumn colour I have this year, if any!!!

May 23 2011

Mildew

One of my trees comes down with a bad case of mildew every year. Don’t ask me what the tree is, I haven’t a clue. Grew a few from cuttings about 12 years ago. The other one rarely gets mildew, this one never fails.

Today I opted to defoliate it and spray.

May 22 2011

Chuhin Yew

I used the Kaizen Algae cleaner on this yew a few days ago and it worked a treat. I did miss a bit but you can see how things have improved.

Missed a little bit here 😦

May 22 2011

Maple Thinning

This Coral Bark Maple has grown rapidly this Spring to the point were the canopy is so full that no light is reaching the inner buds and branches. This needs to be rectified to avoid die back on the inside of the tree.

As it was the last day of the Premiership season with all the ups and downs of relegation, I brought the tree into the conservatory to work on. A rare occurrence in my house.

I took a quick snap before I started in earnest. Notice how little you can see of Sky Sports on the telly.

I then started to trim out any extension growth taking it back to the first two leaves on the branch.

Here you can see the centre shoot removed.

Now to let extra light reach the interior of the tree I remove one of leaves from each pair on the exterior of the tree.

This is the leftovers.

Now compare how much of the telly can be seen through the tree.

and here it is with a clear background.

It’s still early stages as far as development of this tree goes. It will need a major wiring in the Autumn to correct a few issues.

Oh, and I was gutted that Blackpool went down 😦

May 20 2011

A loner

I had a strange request this week. A friend of the family asked if they could borrow a bonsai for a jewellery display stand at a local event. They wanted one about 20 cm tall. I decided to lone them a typical Chinese Elm. It’s what most people [general public] think a bonsai looks like and as it was an £8 purchase from B&Q 2 years ago. Wish I had a before photo.

I spotted it in the store in a bad state. It was reduced to £8 and was mostly yellow leaves. I liked the squat heavy trunk. You can see were I removed the usual lower poker straight branches.

The top of the tree was poker straight as well so I chopped it off and brought up a branch as a new leader that matched the twisting flow of the trunk.

It’s not everyone’s idea of a good bonsai. I bought it to sell on but have grown attached, dangerous habit in bonsai! More filling out required, so I’ll keep it a while longer 🙂

May 20 2011

Signs of life

The Cotoneaster that was collected a few weeks back is showing signs of life.

Small red buds can be seen in many places so fingers crossed.

Alas, the big Ceanothus that I lifted has now been checked and I can pronounce life extinct 😦 It was a long shot and had suffered during the cold snap this Winter. It did try to bud but these soon died. Ah well, nothing ventured, nothing gained!

May 19 2011

Satsuki Flowers

Satsuki Guessing Game

By way of update for the above post, here is the Satsuki in flower now. It looks like the apex is dark pink with the rest of the tree light pink.

Haven’t a clue what variety it is, perhaps ‘Wishinu’ 🙂

May 18 2011

Strength 2 Strength

I checked this Japanese Maple today for black fly. None to be found but everyone else’s maples seem to have them. I had done a major repot on this tree back in the Winter. It was very weak last year and the branch structure was very poor due to a few bits dying back. As you can see it’s responded well.

I moved a few of the little accent pots I had sitting on the soil surface, right in at the corners and this is what I found.

It has responded that well to the repotting that it has produced new roots right out into each corner and was even trying to put roots into the accent pot! It is just loving that open mix of SC Pink and grit. Not fine stuff either as you can see.

May 18 2011

New Case Study

To save me having to look back for old posts about the Cork Bark Elm Forest, I have added a full story/time line to the case studies Tab. I’ll add to it every few months to show the development of this group.

Click on the photo to view the case study.

May 16 2011

Elm Forest Planting

As part of the current challenge on the Wee Trees Bonsai Forum I put together this group planting. Previous posts can be seen here.

Cork Bark Elm Forest

Elm Forest Update

As today was the final chance to update the photos for the challenge, I asked Stephen to come down to my place and give me a hand lifting the group out of the Poly Tunnel.

The growth in a month was great to see.

and as you can see, the weeds grew well too!

After a quick weeding session Stephen and I trimmed back the new growth. This part of the apex in the main tree has yet to fill out to hide the lack of taper and develope the new branch.