This little Soldanella, or Japanese Snowbell, is flowering for me. Thanks to Robert Porch I now have a rapidly growing collection of these. I have just acquired a really small variety from him as well.
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Robert Porch @ NIBS Club Night
On Friday we had Robert Porch with us at our Club Night. His lighthearted approach was appreciated by the members, even those he literally dragged up to the front to help with the demo!
The main point made during the evening was that bonsai for everyone watching was a hobby and that we should be doing it for enjoyment. I think we can safely say that we enjoyed our night. As usual some photos.
John’s large Japanese Black Pine grown from seed gets a first styling.
Hugh’s big larch on display.
Small Larch getting styled by Robert
Stephen gets dragged up for his input 😉
Now it’s Graham’s turn
Some great shots of an ancient Yew here on Bryan’s Blog.
Recently whilst on a visit to a workplace I took another opportunity to visit an ancient yew. This time in the village of Overton.
As many folk know, church yards around the UK have very ancient specimen. Many of which are registered on the www.Ancient-Yew.org
Looking at photos is one thing, but being in the presence of a 1000yr+ tree is something else. This set of photographs is of particular importance and the main Tree has been designated one of Wales National Wonders.
Here are some of my photos…
This Yew Tree is reported to be between 1500 and 2000 yrs old.
Other Trees in and around Overton’s Church Yard:
Twin Trunk Scottie Repot
It was time to repot my Scot’s Pine from my Ryan Neil workshop. I needed to get it into something better than the plastic container that had been substituted after the tree blew off the bench a while back and smashed a rather nice Iain Baillie pot 😦 I had looked for a pot while at Willowbog but there wasn’t a pot that met all the needs. I opted to buy a temporary pot that would do for the next few years and allow me to look around for the right final pot.
The observant of you will notice that the tree still needs to tilt slightly further to the right. I need to make a further slight adjustment but this is mostly down to the wrong angle from which I took the photo!
Neil over at Shibui Bonsai has just posted some very interesting results of taking cuttings from Japanese Black pine seedlings.
He essentially is getting two plants from every seedling as opposed to the standard method where the original roots are thrown away. His strike rate has been excellent and with seed in Australia often being scarce doubling your stock shortly after germination is a great thing!
Anyway, have a look, it is well worth a read.
http://shibuibonsai.com.au/japanese-black-pine-cuttings/
Oh and Neil also grows some excellent stock in a range of species which can also be found on his site, http://shibuibonsai.com.au/.
The first NI Bonsai Society School of the year started with a very good turnout on a cold February day. As usual Peter Snart was our guest speaker. The schedule for the day included a general discussion on personal trees and winter experiences and as usual was very interesting. This was followed with some refresher information on wiring and re-potting and even though many would consider this “Old Hat” or “Novice Territory” Peter gave some very useful tips particularly on the subject of preparation when re-potting.
Its always nice to get a pic of Peter looking bemused and non-plussed. It’s never that difficult to get one.
His more intelligent look. This can be quite difficult to get.
Viewing the merchandise at the break
There was a bit of a drama at the break as the handle/lock on Ian’s patio door broke when the door was closed. As this is the main…
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Here is the start of our Sunday Workshop. As alway Peter talks through everyones tree, or trees, that are to be worked on.
It might not look like it, but I can’t wait to get started.
And this is why. My latest acquisition a Japanese Mountain maple in a Clumpstyle.The tree need a repot so this was my,very pleasant, workshop tree.
This is the tree back home the next morning. I will be posting more on this tree over the next few days. But a great weekend, both the school on sat and the sunday workshop. Many thanks to Ian for hosting the school-workshop,and to peter-Willowbog Bonsai for all his effort and his teaching.
Well it really was a great show this year; well to be truthful it is a great show every year. I cannot really imagine just how much work Paul and his team of helpers has to do before opening the doors.
I actually exhibited myself this year. After all these years being interested in Bonsai I had a tree included in a professional event. My first! Seemed quite odd really watching people taking pictures of my exhibit, and to some extent quite humbling really. Well, the time flew by, meeting friends of old and many new ones as well. I managed to keep my hands in my pocket but could not resist a new Tony Remington pot for ‘Stumpy.’ That is the Maple I dug up a few years ago from the garden. I’ll update once I repot in a couple of weeks time.
Oh well, enough waffle; I hope…
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Bonsai Eejit 