Four of my wee ones.
I started the Sorbus Reducta in 1994.
The Elm has been with me for 5 years but is probably 20 years old in bonsai years. Now in a fantastic Magic Ceramic pot, a great match for the tree I think.
New to me this year, a little horse Chestnut gifted to me by my friend Maciej.
Finally my Juniper growing well since it’s repot this Spring.
Here’s a few general shots I have snapped in the garden over the last week showing my display area and the training benches along with accents. All change next year with my lawn going hopefully. This will allow my display to be moved into the best area of the garden for natural light.
My walk on Sunday took me up to Scrabo Tower that overlooks my home town of Ards on one side and looks towards my birth City of Belfast on the other side. A great time to visit with the Bluebells in full bloom. I was joined on my walk as always by my friend Stephen aka the Bonsai Baker, and my son Daniel. Oh, and of course, Smudge, Maggie, and Stephen’s dog Rufus.
A Raven decided to sit and watch us for a while before it flew away.
No not sold, just a change of pot for it to live in. I have enjoyed immensely the journey in taking this tree from from my garden to Bonsai Europa last year. However I was never happy with the pot for any Winter image display. The pot is too large and lacks colour to lift a Winter image display. I have been looking around for a new pot for the tree for a while and this Spring I found what I was looking for from David Benavente.
This was the tree in Bonsai Europa last October.
The tree had been allowed to keep a larger amount of finer branching for the show to show more ramification and also try and get a better balance with the pot size. This resulted in a slightly unkempt image but one I liked. Very hard to prep an Escallonia for exhibition at this time of year.
Back to the present and I wanted to reduce the foliage mass to suit a smaller pot and help reset branches on this species. This needs to be done every few years to prevent inner branch die back anyway. It would also make for a more powerful image with a heavier trunk to branch balance. This is the tree after reduction. You can see how big the original Walsall pot looks now.
And this is the new pot, a pot from Tokaname made by Watanabe Kazuhiro (Ikkou). I feel in love with this one on sight. The glaze with green with an underlying blue, turning blue at the base in drips was just stunning.
Getting the tree ready, time for a proper repot. This tree has always been robust and after a chop back I was confident that a full repot could be carried out.
A watering in.
And potted up in it’s new home.
Top dressed with a moss mix. It will take a few months to fill in again but it will make all the difference to the final image.
Photos don’t do this pot justice. The colours and age of the pot are just perfect. The tree was repotted about 4 weeks ago and the tree is budding up nicely with plenty of adventurous back budding to boot. It next outing, all being well with be our clubs Bonsai 30 event this September.
Better late than never!
I had the pleasure of attending a workshop with Jim Doyle organised by the Munster Bonsai Club back on the 23rd April.
Jim was visiting Ireland and the guys got a rare opportunity to to work with one of America’s premier bonsai artists. Jim began with a presentation about yamadori and collecting in the States. Some interesting stories shared and proves that if you want the best yamadori you have to go to great lengths to get it.
Jim then did a run through of the trees that were to be the focus of the workshop followed by some work Photos below capture the day.
We finished off with a great meal in a local pub finishing in the wee hours 🙂
After the success of last year’s Kusamono workshop I am pleased to announce the first of 2 workshops in 2016. In an effort to further the knowledge and interest in kusamono I’m holding a workshop on Saturday 4th June starting at 1pm in Newtownards.
The session will look at accents in general and specifically kusamono, shitakusa and kokedama (mossballs). We will look at examples of kusamono, how they are displayed and how plantings work when displayed with bonsai. Participants will be able to select their own plants on the day, indeed the workshop cost of £30 includes 5 plants (to a max value of £25) from a large selection available! Can’t do better that that!! Feel free to bring your own plants to supplement your options and any pots you want to try. I will also have a selection of Magic Ceramic Pots available for anyone keen to add to their collection. One training tray will be supplied as part of the workshop with others available to purchase.
Last year we found participants also swapped and shared plants that were being split during planting, so you might go home with more than you bargained for.
The workshop open to all, tea and coffee available all afternoon, sign up via bonsaieejit@gmail.com for a fun informal session and walk away on the day with your own special creations.
Here are some photos from last years workshop.
The mucky hands part of the session.
An example of the kusamono created on the day.
Mossballs kokedama created on the day.
All the final pieces.
Magic Ceramics available to buy
In case you haven’t noticed my friend Maciej Targosinski makes accent pots as well as an expanding bonsai pot portfolio. I believe in supporting local talent, yes, I count anyone based in Ireland as local! I have been helping Maciej get off the ground by selling some of his beautiful pots and now we have created a blogsite for him to share his ceramics journey with you.
Please pop over to Magicceramics.com and give it a look and follow his exploits. There is also an email sign up option in the sidebar for you to receive notification of any new posts. Just click on the image below to visit his site. Feel free to comment when there and show your encouragement.
Magic Ceramics are now on Facebook, click on the image below to visit his page and give him a like.
Had a great day with friends in Dublin on Sunday at the ‘Experience Japan’ Event.
Together with members from 3 bonsai clubs in Ireland we displayed a few bonsai and had a catch up. The trees were from a wide range of people all with different levels of experience. It was great to catch up with a few old faces as well.
For more photos CLICK HERE and visit the Bonsai Ireland site.
I’ve just uploaded a new selection of Magic Ceramics accent pots to my FlickR Album. Some fantastic pots from Maciej Targosinski including some Kusamono dishes, tiles and even bonsai pots these days. It always pays to support local talent. Prices are given on each photo description. Give me a shout via Contact Me if you are interested.
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