Mar 30 2015

I’m Back!

I think that’s officially the longest I have ever went without posting on the blog! I have been meeting myself coming back in work of late, with every minute taken up doing more important things than blogging 🙂 Yes, I do have a life lol.

I did find time to go collecting on Sunday with Phil and Mark. Not great timing with the clocks going forward for BST. It meant that after a couple of hours sleep we had a 5 hour drive followed by a 5 hour collecting session, followed by another 5 hours back home, followed by 3 hours potting up session, followed by a double shift in work today!! I’m feeling pain in every muscle after humping up and down the side of a mountain, but you know what? I wouldn’t have missed it for the world 🙂 Mark had it easy, he only had a 3 hour drive from Cork to get to the site lol.

A wee cup of tea before heading home.

The sort of ground we had to collect over.

Trees, Scots Pine and Lodgepole Pine, all now potted up and under cover. Not a lot of photos taken either but more to follow soon perhaps.

Mar 24 2015

Image

Bang Goes the Neighbourhood!!

Mar 23 2015

Hostas Baby!

Yes! Been waiting patiently for signs of Spring so I can assess what accents have made it through the Winter months. A good few of my mini hostas are showing signs of growth now. I can feel some splitting coming on.

Mar 22 2015

Group Workshop

Saturday was a group workshop hosted by myself and Phil. Eight people signed up for the day and you can see one is hiding his identity for employment reasons 🙂

The usual talk though of workshop trees at the start of the session.

Jamie’s Scots Pine before.

Ian B’s Scots Pine before, sadly no after shot.

Mark’s chunky Elm before.

Everyone getting busy.

Maciej’s Larch before.

Alan’s White Pine Before.

and After

Maciej’s Larch Afterwards.

Jamie’s Juniper there for advice and a cut back. This is now going to be a squat heavy trunked tree as we opted to removed the straight section which lacked taper.

Ian B’s Larch after some detailed wiring.

A possible new front.

Piotr’s Juniper afterwards. Should have taken a back shot as I think that’s a better option showing off more of the deadwood.

Owen’s Juniper before

Piotr’s Juniper before.

Mark’s Elm after some branch placement and a repot.

No where near enough photos taken, but in our defence, we were busy! Apologies to those whose trees missed out on photos especially the after shots.

Everyone seemed to enjoy their day with some great work carried out by all.

Mar 2 2015

One to One: Repotting Session

Saturday was another one to one session for me this time helping to repot some tricky trees.

This Hawthorn collected from a garden by Ben a few years back was one of the first trees tackled. A decision had to be made about a heavy long root that would dictate what pot it would fit into.

First this tree moss covering the lower trunk had to be removed. I hate this stuff. It gets in under rough bark and can cause it to lift off.

We then had to wash out the old mix and any original field soil. This allowed us to see exactly what had to be reduced and allowed us to see that the heavy root could be removed without putting too much stress on the tree. It had done well under Ben’s care and plenty of fine root was in evidence.

My handy root washing system 🙂

And this is the tree potted up at it’s new angle.

Next is a Shohin Cotoneaster. The current pot is too heavy and clunky for the tree.

Ben has this little Epimedium accent in a nice Erin pot and he thought it was a better option for the Cotoneaster.

I think he was right, works for me, especially as the tree fills out further.

This little pine was moved from a flower pot over into this new home. Early days but interesting project.

This Larch from a previous one to one styling was brought along to be repotted at it’s new angle.

This big Juniper was actually first one repotted. It’s a real odd ball of a tree but has been fun to play around with.

This literati Pine also got a move from a flower pot. Early days again for it but going to be really nice in a few years.

A busy but very productive session.

Mar 1 2015

One to One: Zelkova

I helped out with the development of this Zelkova on Friday night. The owner has just bought the tree and wanted to get it moving in the right direction. I know this tree well and have seen it pass through the hands of 2 other club members over the years. It originally came into Northern Ireland from Japan back in 2002 I think. Below is it when it can in and also sitting on the bench in the background in the nursery in Japan.

This is the tree now. It’s had an up and down life here. After some great work early on it went through a period of neglect due to the owners personal circumstances. At one point near death, it was bought by another friend of mine who did a great job of getting it back to full health. Many of the original branches had died and in some places new branches have started to develope.

It has a great nebari, probably the best feature of the tree, and some very old bark on the trunk showing the age of the tree.

Although the image as it sits now looked good from a distance, there was a lot of issues with heavy branches high up the tree, new thin branches lower down that need to be grown on to fatten, and some ugly pruning wounds that need reduced now. We picked a slightly different front that the last owner to improve the trunk line and taper.

This is it after pruning and reduction of wounds, Some branches have been left uncut to allow extension and thickening.

And this it it after some wiring to reposition branches. Still a way to go with this one but give it 5 years of good care and it will be a very nice tree.

Also done in the same session was this little Shohin Japanese Maple. It needed a repot and into something a little larger to allow for development.

This Shohin Korean Hornbeam also got a repot and a serious thinning out of the foliage too. Sorry no before photo. Typical of mass produced imported material but with some effort I think it can make a nice image.

For anyone interested in a one to one, click on the tab at the top.

Feb 24 2015

Bonsai Europa 2015

Can’t wait 🙂

Feb 20 2015

Accent Season Approaches

Delighted to get home yesterday to find a parcel. Wasn’t expecting anything but Xavier, who I swap with every year had surprised me. Not just plants this time but a very nice wood fired pot as well. Some new hostas and a Sisyrinchium Alba that I’m looking forward to seeing in flower. All now potted up, some put straight into Magic pots too 🙂

Feb 19 2015

Oak Air Layer Update

Thought I’d share this Oak Air layer update with you. I see many people on forums etc asking if it’s possible to layer an Oak with a lot of conflicting answers. This one was removed from the parent tree back in April 2012. At the weekend I decided to repot the tree properly for the first time.Here you can see that it’s done well in the interim.

After a combing out of the roots and removal of any of the moss used in the original layer.

Some work carried out on some large cuts.

The underside of the trunk gets some whittling as well.

And now potted up in it’s new pot. Some carving required to tidy it up but no rush.

Feb 11 2015

Bonsai Eejit is 4!

Today marks four years of blogging as Bonsai eejit. Hard to believe to be honest.

That’s 2327 posts and over 1,320,000 visits. I’ve been a bit quiet lately, mostly due to real work getting in the way, but as the season warms up I’ll have more to post.

Thanks to everyone for showing an interest in what I share here. Looking forward to meeting more bonsai friends before the 5th Anniversary.