Field Grown #1 Cydonia oblonga?

A few of my field grown trees. Early days but they are starting to shape up. If I had it all to do again I would make a better job of the field grown material. Like most things in this hobby, once you have it sussed, it’s already too late 😀

First up an unknown  species of tree, I have been calling it a Celtis for years but after a little help over on Wee Trees Bonsai Forum recently Alain K produced leaves from a tree in his garden that were identicial. It was a pear tree that had been grafted onto Cydonia oblonga, the common Quince .  I have two of them and have had them both for sale for yonks, but no one wants a tree when they don’t know what it is! I am therefore going to make the best of this one and keep it for myself. (other one still for sale if anyone’s interested :201thumbup: )

I has grown really strongly this year in the poly tunnel and I lifted it out to do some pruning.

As I started trimming I quickly noticed a lot of Caterpillars on the inner leaves where they couldn’t be seen. I have never done a full defoliation on this tree but decided to go ahead and do one now. A safe way of removing the pests and also allowing me to adjust the branch structure and do a little wiring. This is it after defoliation.

and after a little wiring. Aiming for a natural looking image.

Esprit Bonsai!

Got a nice email from my accent swapping buddy Xavier in France the other day letting me know that I was now, in his words, ‘Famous in France!’ He had just received his latest copy of Esprit Bonsai Magazine and they had written a little article about my blog in there. He sent me this copy of it.

article_IanYoung_Esprit_Bonsai_Magazine

 

My French is a little rusty but he was also kind enough to translate it for me too.

Ian Young is Irish and  a member of the NIBS. In just two and a half years, his blog, established in early 2011, has been enriched with hundreds of photos, as well as the history of the trees tfrom his visits to amateur bonsai enthusiasts. These photos show the diversity of choice of species and culture in the British Isles, but also in the United States. Some reports detailing exciting yamadori outputs. Ian Young shows a certain attraction for shohin, or at least reasonably sized trees, which he begins to have a nice collection. Pictures of exhibits, especially in Japan and gathered on friend’s blogs, complete this site. This blog is the official website of the NIBS too.

Bench Reshuffle

I spent Friday morning with my son reshuffling my benches in my display area. I acquired a few extra railway sleepers and was going to do this in a few weeks time. However, my son has to make a promotional video for his Creative Media course at Tech and he’s making one for the club. He has to video me talking about the NIBS and I wanted to do it among my benches. One thing lead to another and well, see for yourself 🙂

 

Bonsai @ Chelsea Flower Show 2013

One of this blog’s roving reporters, (or should that be raving 😉 )  Ben F, was at Chelsea Flower Show today and I asked him to snap a few photos of the bonsai on display. True to his word he has emailed me some nice shots of a few of the stands.

Wilkie’s Photo Gallery

Thought it was time to share this blog with you. The owner is a club member who as well as having bonsai and started getting quite serious about photography. I offered to help get him up and running on a photo blog to help showcase his work.

As well as seeing the odd bonsai portrait of one of his trees, you will see some great action, landscape and wildlife images. Give him a wee hello to encourage him to share and make sure you check out some of his work on the page tabs at the top.

As usual, just click on the photo below to visit, one of my favourite photos from him.

Old Air Layer

This little Shohin Maple was a layering from two years ago. Still very early days but this is it’s strongest year so far and is developing nicely.

Tridents…..

After first trim. Both have grown strongly this Spring and some extension shoots and larger leaves have already required removal. Both have been in a greenhouse up until now but will shortly be placed out on the benches. I find keeping them under glass until the leaves are fully hardened is a safer bet. Over the last few years I have experimented a little with defoliation, partial defoliation and just extension pruning to see how Tridents react. This is part of bonsai, constantly looking to see how trees respond at different times of the year to different techniques, feeding regimes and weather. No two years are the same and it can be hard to reach any concrete conclusions. But if this was easy, we’d all be doing it 🙂

Spring Macro

Koujitukai & Tokujyukai Joint Exhibition

Some more from the Bonsai Days Blog from a local exhibition in Japan.

Walk in Bluebell Wood

Well, It’s not called Bluebell Wood but it should be this week. This is my local Killynether Wood and yesterday evening after finishing a long week at work, I popped home grabbed the good lady wife and dogs and headed for the trees in the evening sun. Was well worth it.