…since we’ve been on the subject of watering earlier this month, why not keep at it?

This one is rather simple to relate. Sometimes, when watering our bonsai gardens, we might notice a tree that is always dry. It seems like minutes after we water it, the darn thing needs water again.

This should set off jangling alarm bells in our heads! Loud, nasty, persistent ones.

When a bonsai dries out this fast, there is often a very simple reason. The interior of the soil mass is not getting saturated. Very old established bonsai sometimes have this problem. It can happen with nearly any soil type, but is very common with Turface, Oil-Dri, and any soil containing peat moss. All of these have rehydration problems when dry.

Clearly the result of mismanaged watering

A combination of issues can cause the interior area to become bone dry:

• soil choice
• erratic watering…

It is with some considerable delight that we announce that there will be a British Shohin Bonsai show in 2016, run in conjunction with our friends at Sutton Bonsai Society.

Entitled Spirit of Shohin 2016, the show will be held over the weekend on April 2^nd and 3^rd 2016, and will offer members and public a chance to see some of the foremost shohin bonsai in the UK.

And even more excitingly, the venue for the event will be RHS Wisley Garden in Surrey.

It is something of a feather in our cap to be able to run our show at such a prestigious location, and we hope that it will mark the start of a long and profitable relationship with the UK’s foremost horticultural society.

Plans for the event are in a very early stage of development, but the organising team are already working towards making…

Primula “Linden Storm Cloud” in a Walsall Ceramics pot

Good news for all bonsai lovers. 20/06/2015 in “BUD” garden center in Bunratty

Just across the road to Bunratty Castle   9 am – 5 pm. Workshop with Ian Young  and Phil Donnelly.

All very welcome. contact Piotr 0867705560

This little azalea some of you will remember if like me in the early days the Book by Colin Lewis was a must. 

The little azalea that featured in the book is owned by a good friend of mine. He purchased it direct from Colin at the wisley hall where we had our show last week. The book first published in 1993 said it was 3 years in training, if it took a year to get to print and it was about a 10 year old then it’s around 35 years old now. Here it is in the book.

Here it is on display at the show, change of front now but still a good nebari.

I wonder where the next 30 years will take this special little tree.