A few more accents flowering today. I was at the rocky north coast last Summer and I noticed a few little Sea Thrifts and other bits and bobs growing among the rocks. This one was growing in a tiny crevice and was easy to pop out into into a pot on my return home.
This is a dwarf variety of Aquilegia. This is actually the tallest I have ever seen it flower!! Usually only a few inches tall.
This Blue Star Juniper was planted in my flowerbed back in 1993. Over the years I cut it back and eventually I pulled it out. It struggled for years loosing branch after branch. At one point I thought it was dead. After removing all the dead branches I was able to scrap away all the dead bark from the trunk. I couldn’t believe it when I saw just how small a live vein remained. It took a further few years to get it to full health.
Detail of the live vein at the base.
Today I decided to style the tree. A few things needed sorting out. Most of the deadwood moves to the right but the bit top left goes against this flow.
I decided to heat the jin with a blow torch and bend it into a more complimentary position. I protected the foliage with tin foil while I heated the jin. I used jin pliers to hold and twist the wood as I heated it. Once I got it to the right spot I held it for a minute or so for it to cool down and set in it’s new position.
As you can see, the heating treatment allows for decent bends to be added and has the benefit of ageing the wood with fire.
After a quick coat of Lime Sulphur I applied self Amalgamating Tape to the upper trunk area to protect it while I applied a bend or two. The upper trunk was bolt straight and I wanted to bring the foliage in tighter to the main body of the tree.
This is it after bending and some basic branch placement. It isn’t very refined as the foliage quite heavy and I wasn’t prepared to pinch it back any harder at this point. I reduced the jins at the base as they distracted from the rest of the tree. These will also be refined further at a later point as they are a bit clunky as they sit now. Further growth will be needed to fill out the image but the basic structure I wanted it there now.
My 2 root over Rock Cotoneasters are starting to flower. This first one is going to have the apex layered off next week. I would have already done it by now but I haven’t been able to get any sphagnum moss as yet!
My little one is one of my favourite trees at the moment. (that changes on a daily basis!!)
Last year I layered the top of this Hawthorn Case Study HERE
This is the parent plant today. A few flowers at the top. The apex is going to be removed to a lower branch.
This is the layer!! Growing strongly and surprised me with the abundance of flower. These will be removed shortly so as not to stress the tree .
I honestly think the flowers on Hawthorn are under rated. How nice are these?
Yesterday my Beech had about 4 green leaves showing. This was it today!!
Guess today’s heat worked its magic.
I’ve been watching and waiting patiently for my Beech to finally get around to opening. Today’s glorious weather must have helped. It is now showing the first signs of green leaves.
I had a notion years ago of making a Sequoia Bonsai. Mad do I here you say? Probably. I got my hands on a small one and decided that to have any chance, it needed to be big. I popped it into open ground for 8 years and forgot all about it. About two years ago we had to clear the ground and there it was in all it’s glory, throwing down a challenge. I put it into a big black pot and put it in the corner for 2 years.
Yesterday I decided it was do or die time. I always had the notion of trying to style it similar to how they grow in nature, a tall formal upright with sweeping branches. It was a mass of branches and all I wanted to do to get things rolling was, thin it out, and place primary branches.
Here’s the tree before I started.
After a little thinning out.
And after placement of primary branches.
I know that I’m looking at years and years of hardship in trying to get this rapid grower to behave the way I want it too. I always like to have a few weird ones in the collection. I think this qualifies.
Here are a few that I looked at online for ideas.
Here’s an update on the Elm Forest Planting shown here Cork Bark Elm Group
I lifted out of the poly tunnel yesterday for an inspection and tidy up. It’s been growing rapidly in the tunnel and many unwanted shoots have appeared.
I gave it a weeding and trim. A few branches got a light wiring to place them in the right position. If it continues to grow like this it’ll fill out before the end of the year!! Here’s the result of yesterdays work.
This will be my first Spring working with this species. This tree was given to me last year as a thank you for holiday care.
It is similar to a Hornbeam but you can see noticeable differences on closer inspection. Yesterday I had a look at the opening buds with a view to pinching out the tip growth. They can extend quite a bit and I want to stop this and produce back budding. I did shorten many of the branches during the Winter but stopped short for two reasons. 1- It was repotted and 2- it’s a new variety to me and I’m unsure how it’ll respond. I can now see some major back budding due to the Winter pruning and will re-evaluate how far to take it back. Some branches are too long without ramification. I took 15 minutes and plucked out what shoots I could get. Some are further behind and the process will need to be repeated next week.
I look forward to making this tree my own. The large carving wound needs work and want to improve branch structure.
This is a bud before pinching out the centre. A few have what look like flowers appearing. I’ll have to wait and see.
Evidence of pinching on the bench.
This is some of the back budding close to the tips. However major pruning is producing adventurous buds on old wood so this might be removed altogether to help fill inner branches with buds.
I spent a few minutes in the garden today shifting trees about from one place to another. I decided to lift a few out of the Poly Tunnel and move a few more down to my display area beside my living room window. This is what I can see now as I type.
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