It’s taken a while to get going but my satsuki azalea has reached its peak of flowering.

July 2015

Yes it’s a pic of our club chairman/dogsbody Ian Y sporting his mid life crisis designer stubble at the kid’s corner during the Bonsai Experience on Saturday past. He mumbled something to me about needing a transplant but I didn’t really understand what he was saying.

Take a look here…. 

I’ve received several emails about how to handle juvenile foliage on junipers, and felt like this was one of those discussions that could be useful to a larger group of people.

• Juvenile growth in junipers is when the shoots display needle-like growth on a typically scale growth variety (a few of those are listed below).

This is Rocky Mountain juniper, a scale juniper, showing the past year’s growth as the spiky, juvenile foliage, with the tips transitioning into mature, scale foliage.

Spiky juvenile growth is a response to either too much foliage loss from pinching (don’t do that), overly hard pruning, or sometimes too much fertilizer. Naturally, since mature scale foliage is nicer to look at, and is what the tree grows when it’s content, we might have the impulse to cut the juvenile off.

• Don’t do that. Leave the juvenile foliage alone.
• The problem is, if we cut off the…

British Shohin Bonsai are delighted to announce that the headliner for the Spirit of Shohin exhibition next April will be none other than Taiga Urushibata.

The son of Nobuichi Urushibata,  Taiga is the second generation of Urushibatas working in Taisho-en,  the family nursery in Shizuoka, Japan.

While Taiga grew up immersed in bonsai tradition and art, it was with another Japanese Bonsai great that he honed the skills learnt originally from his father. In 2000 he became apprentice to Mr Masahiko Kimura and in the six years he worked with the great master,  Taiga went on to develop skills at a very high level. Indeed Mr Kimura always rated Taiga as one of the best apprentices he had ever had.

Taiga returned to Shizuoka in 2006 to work alongside his father at Taisho-en.  Now an  established bonsai artist in his own right,   Taiga has done  workshops and demos in Japan…

The National Bonsai Hall of Fame has been established to identify and honor individuals who have achieved excellence in the art of bonsai and who have contributed to the advance­ment of bonsai in the United States. The National Bonsai & Penjing Museum wants to recognize those who have dedicated their lives to bonsai in the United States and to fostering a greater appreciation for American bonsai. This recognition is presented at the annual National Bonsai Foundation reception which includes a plaque and award.

Nominees must have been a resident of the United States and have made significant contributions to the art of bonsai in the country. This is an excellent opportunity to recognize individuals who have sig­nificantly contributed to American bonsai. Nominations for induction into the National Bonsai Hall of Fame may be made by anyone in writing and can get specific informa­tion from curator Jack Sustic at the National…

Another lovely day with Ian and Phil, in lovely spot – Bud garden center , just next door to Bunratty Castle.

Displaying and sallying area.

Some lovely materials for sale

and accents with lovely pots

and as usually we started with trees critique

and then all hands on deck, get to work!!

Sorry I have been too busy  so not many pictures. Even not pictures with trees after workshop 😦