May 4 2013

Cavan’s Place

I got a call from an old club member last week asking for some advice. I popped over to Cavan’s place to see what was occurring 🙂

Cavan, when I first visited his garden about 12 years ago had a massive collection of bonsai. He was totally self taught and had been doing bonsai for over 25 years. Since then he has been reducing his collection. They where mostly big trees and like many of us, his back just couldn’t take all the lifting. He still had about 30 – 40 trees left, about a quarter of what he used to have!

This is Cavan showing me a few of his trees.

His main bench area now pretty empty after selling over the last few years.

Still many trees in his growing beds, Elms and Zelkova mostly with a few beech and hornbeam thrown in.

A rare Junper in his collection, mostly deciduous bonsai here.

I have never known anyone to have so many rock plantings especially root over rock! This is a hemlock on a rock

JH Elms on rock, he has a few of these.

Zelkova just out of the ground.

A nice Larch for sale.

His favourite Larch and one of the trees that he’s keeping.

Trident on rock

Trident and rock

Unusual Elm for Mr Warren 🙂

Deshojo Maple

Another Elm on Rock

Root over rock Maple

A greenhouse full.

A monster root over rock Elm!

Larch for sale.

Had a great time looking around. He wanted me to help price a few trees for sale. I even took a few away with me that I thought some club members might be interested in. More on those later perhaps.

May 3 2013

Stephen’s Garden Between the Showers

Popped into Stephen’s house for a cuppa on Monday and enjoyed a look around the garden between rain and hail showers! Amazing changes in the leaves in a few weeks since the show.

May 2 2013

Creating an Elm Forest 2011 – 2013

Thought I’d put some of the photos and video taken of this Elm group together into a video to record its progress.

May 1 2013

Purple Beech Repot

I hated the training pot that this Purple Beech was in and as another pot that was rather tasty looking became available, I decided to transfer it over.

This is the new pot

Apr 30 2013

Mother and Child Hawthorn

I’ve had this tree for about 10 years and have never done much with it. I pruned back now and again, I think I even wired it at one point a few years back. I toyed with the idea of layering off the top at one point last year but opted against it. I brought it into the garage on Friday night past for a look and after some tilting and thinking I decided that it was time for a little work and a repot.

This was it just off the bench. A big lump of wood.

Some nice movement in the trunk line, not a lot of taper but I still like the image.

I changed the front slightly to show the movement off better and tilted the tree into a slightly more upright position.

The root at the right hand side was possibly dead. I wouldn’t know until I repot.

I did some basic wiring and removed some of the unnecessary branches.

Transferred over to the repotting table.

Tools at the ready.

Mix at the ready too.

During the repotting I was able to get a good look at that root and although it was partially alive, it was extremely weak and I was able to remove and do a little basic carving. This can be refined at a later date.

This was the problem root. I needed to twist the tree about 20 degrees to a new front. This root would not allow me to fitr the tree into the pot at the new position.

I was able to remove the fine root from the last few inches without impacting to much on the health of the tree.

This allowed me to remove this portion to facilitate the new position.

About 2 years ago I remember nicking the underside of the baby trunk in an attempt to get it to root. Not a great success but it did root.

Outside for a watering. I had to get my eldest son to assist with the repot as it would have been impossible to do this on my own. He snapped a few shots while I was watering it in.

This is the new position. Pot is not ideal but the only one I had that worked. I now have a basic structure to work with and must admit that I rather like the mother and child image that is created by leaving the small secondary trunk. Not for everyone but I like it. I looks as if Mum is protecting the child. I wouldn’t mess with her, she bites like Suarez 🙂

Now tucked away in the tunnel to keep it out of the wind for a few weeks until it settles down. I see a few flower buds on the tree as well.

Apr 29 2013

Gift of Roses

It must be love. Phil gave me this little dwarf rose when I was at his house last weekend. I popped it into this little pot.

Apr 29 2013

Nishinihon meihin-ten

Some more excellent Japanese Exhibition photos from the bonsai Days blog. This time from Nishinihon meihin-ten.

Apr 28 2013

Sorbus Reducta

I’ve had this little fellow for about 18 years.

Apr 28 2013

Another Maple Layer

This time it’s a mame Trident Maple. I have a stump of maple that is far from attractive. I opted to layer off the little apex.

Apr 27 2013

Escallonia

This Escallonia is now back out on the bench too. It got some work done during the Winter on the deadwood. Peter Snart kept me right with the carving and I took some time to preserve the inner deadwood. Just opening up now and in a few weeks it will be extending everywhere as usual.