What’s this got to do with bonsai?
Find out later! What a weird day I just had 🙂
Category Uncategorized
Further to my last….
…about the Tsunami relief, here’s a link to an interesting article in the Mail online about the so called harmony in post tsunami Japan. It does not make pleasant reading and is all the more reason you should send a few shillings to Dru’s Paypal account at kyokomurasugi@yahoo.co.jp to get help right to those who need it.
Mail Online
Here’s the latest email I got from Dru.
“I just got back from Ishinomaki and believe me i cannot ever possibly say “ive done enough” . There is too much to do .We will be in this story until they dont need us . Then we will stop with a smile.The more i go up there the more i see how much they need, especially fuit and veg for the old people and kids. A few people 2.5 months ago said please dont forget us in a few months so we wont.”
Silver Birch
This Silver Birch was field Grown for a few years and has been clipped back for the last year. I gave it another trim today to remove unwanted adventurous shoots and shorten any extension growth. I’ll be doing this for a year or so to build up a ramified image. I will use wire now and again but I have found them to be wire intolerant as they drop wired branches frequently.
Before Trim
After Trim
Two Scots Cascades
Here is my Scot’s Pine Cascade. Some will remember it from the repot photos back at the beginning of this blog. It was slow to extend but now appears happy.
And this is my mate Phil’s one. It was spending a bit of time in my tunnel to recover from a repotting. It’s now further on than my own.
Shohin Elm -Yes or No?
After Peter’s Visit last weekend I have kept a few of his sale trees in case any members who missed the school want to buy them. Most are Maples and one nice raw material Larch. I also kept this this Cork Bark Elm as well. I loved it and tried to get someone, anyone to buy it during the weekend. It is a Japanese one which is obvious by looking at the quality of the interior branch work. I love the trunk line and I can see a wider nebari in there too. The question is, do I move it from the sales bench to my bench 🙂 The photo doesn’t do it justice, which is good as you lot would all want it as well 😛
Japanese Maple Branch Structure
This is a Japanese Maple that I have had for a few years. It has gone through a few years were the growth has been weak and I have lost a branch or two. I have placed it into a training box to gain vigour and it has worked.
As part of the bonsai school with Peter on Saturday we defoliated the tree to examine the branch structure. I had shortened the overall branch length to encourage back budding. It was severely lacking in secondary ramification and I was hoping to find new growth on the interior.
Peter talking through the structure after defolation.
This is the tree now.
Here you can see strong new growth in the interior of the tree. These have been left long to encourage the branch to thicken. A branch like this on the lower limb should be one of the thicker branches and at least as thick as the one on the other side. Ideally we should have left the leaves on it to aid it’s strong growth. We got carried away with the defoliation 🙂
Scottie De-wire
I decided to remove the wire from my new Scots Pine this afternoon. My bad shoulder now regrets it!
It was a great way to see just what condition the tree was in. It appears that my spraying for woolly aphid was mostly successful. A few of the blighters were hiding under the wire. There was a few dead branches here and there but nothing major. The de-wire was just in time as some places were tight but not cutting in.
I placed a towel around the soil surface to stop the wire making a mess on the pot.
I found this poor fella on a branch. It’s one of natures friends. It’s the Larva of a Ladybird who was on the pine to eat the woolly Aphid. Unfortunately he got sprayed as well. I moved him outside as he was still alive. Fingers crossed for him 😦
Pine de-wired and feed and placed outside on a bench to take advantage of an afternoon downpour.
One other small purchase
I did buy one other thing, it was only a pair of scissors 🙂
I usually don’t bother with stainless Steel tools but I fell for these. Stephen has been gathering up a set of these as well and after using his the other week, I decided it was time to treat myself. As Peter forced me into letting him buy the Chinese Takeaway on Saturday night, I invested the money saved into these. This is the one purchase I managed to slip under the wife’s radar this weekend. Pity it wasn’t the Pine 🙂
If you fancy a pair for yourself : Willowbog Bonsai Tools
Hectic!!
Hardly have time to post anything yesterday and today with our club display in full swing. Nursing a fuzzy head this morning after last nights celebratory beers watching the Champions League Final. I’ll have plenty of stuff to add during the week.
I had a great time yesterday doing a tree critique session with some members and the public.
Stolen Bonsai West Yorkshire
Some thieving ‘toe rag’ has been at their work stealing bonsai in West Yorkshire. As many of those following this blog are from the UK, I thought I would add a post about it.
The stolen bonsai can be seen on an IBC thread. Just click the stolen tree below to see the rest of them.
Whoever stole them obvious had an eye for good material as opposed to finished bonsai, so they knew what they were looking for.
Bonsai Eejit 