Anyone fancy a short term Bonsai Apprenticeship in Japan??

Peter Tea who is studying at Aichien Bonsai Nursery has discussed the need for such a programme with his teacher and has come up with the apprenticeship as outlined in the link below. Boy, I’m tempted, just no way to do this around family and work at the moment.

Aichien Apprenticeship Programme 

Here’s a few photos from my usual Sunday morning walk. Starting to see many signs of Autumn fast approaching. Where did the Summer go?

Blackberries

Rowan

Buddleia

Speckled Wood

Red Admiral

One man (Stephen) and his dog (Rufus) My home town of Ards in the background.

Scrabo Tower.

Strangford Lough.

Mourne Mountain in the distance.

Mountain Ash Berries ripening.

Who says trees in nature don’t have one branch growing below another? This big Spanish Chestnut disagrees.

Morning sun in the upper branches of a beautiful Scots Pine.

Fuchsia growing wild below the tower.

A cottage in the country.

The North Quarry, long disused. This is where all the famous Scrabo stone comes from and the pink sandstone can be seen on many of the old buildings in the area. It was also exported all around the world. The quarry is now home to Peregrine Falcons and Kestrels.

Ben brought along his berberis on Friday night for advice and a trimming. Personally I think he would rather it was me getting spiked to death with all those spines!!

This is a cracker little clump that we had worked on back in the Spring. He has already had to remove the wire and we added a few more to pull a few new shoots into place. It’s a year or so off coming into shape but with the great care it’s getting, I expect this to be a cracker little tree in years to come.

Before trimming…

and after…

My mate Stephen brought this Elm along last night to get the layer removed. He would have done it himself but I have a nice fine tooth saw 🙂 You can see the layer being applied in the original post below.

ORIGINAL POST

As you can see the tree has grown well since then.

On removal of the black plastic and cling film, we were delighted to see a profusion of new roots within the moss.

After a quick swish of my saw…

Now the contrived apex has been removed, Stephen will be concentrating on developing a new apex in a more natural form to suit the tree. The air layer itself is going to make a lovely little semi cascade. I’ll keep you updated here with how it goes.

I’ve tried to avoid Twitter to be honest but I recently started to use it to follow my sports interests and have become a convert. If anyone is interested, you can now follow my blog via Twitter feed @bonsaieejit

Just had a good look around my trees today and everyone that had decent looking moss has been demolished!! Me thinks this fella has had a part to play in it!! Grr!!

Sorry for the glare on the photo, it was taken through a window.

This little Juniper has been in my collection for many years. Last year it became weak due to it being very pot bound. I transferred it into this larger pot and changed the angle. All I was hoping for was an increase in foliage and health and it looks like this has been achieved. Today I pinched it out to retain the shape until a proper restyle at it’s new angle next year.

Sorry about the blurred photo, I should be ashamed of myself!

and after pinching

Heading out the door to Windsor Park to watch N.Ireland Vs Faroe Islands.

Surely to goodness we can score tonight!!

UPDATE 11/8/11: Northern Ireland 4 Faroe Islands 0

I gave my Scottie Pine a bit of a tidy up today. It was slower to bud after the repot this year but is looking great now. It still needs a few tweaks here and there with the next rewiring but for the moment it is back budding nicely and seems to be in great health.

The history of this tree can be viewed HERE.

and the tree today.