Jan 3 2014

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Virtuel Bonsai Blog

Had to share Vev’s blog with you, absolutely stunning drawings of bonsai. Click on the image to visit.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about!

Permanent link on my bonsai friends list in my sidebar.

Jan 3 2014

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Tidal Surge

The last few weeks have been grim here weather wise. Every other day seems to bring in a storm front with high winds. I lost my greenhouse door a few weeks back and have had other minor damage done around the garden, thankfully my trees are ok.

Today I was working near Newcastle in County Down, a coastal town. High winds and a Spring Tide combined to create a tidal surge. I took my camera along on the off change and got a few snaps. I wasn’t getting any closer as a few folk got a cold shower for their efforts while I was watching. A wee video too.

Jan 2 2014

Elm Adjustments

I have been making a few decisions with this field grown Cork Bark Elm. It was styled a few years ago and since then I have been building up ramification and girth to lower branches.

This year saw a lot of growth but a lot of this wasn’t in the right places. The wire had been removed last Winter and during the year they have risen out of the desired profile. The finer growth is too dense in places to the detriment of inner areas.

I spent an hour the other afternoon wiring the primary and secondary branching and thinning out the dense areas to create proper structure. Although this has reduced the size of the overall tree, in a negative way, the structure left is correct and I will be able to quickly replace the ramification. I did manage to snap a little branch near the apex. Didn’t see that pruning wound from last year which had created a weak spot. At least at the apex it can be replaced quickly.

The foliage mass needs to be at least twice as much as it is now, but that’s part of the enjoyment of deciduous bonsai, no quick fixes.

Jan 1 2014

2014

Happy New Year everyone. A bit of a sore head today, took down my Christmas tree but I don’t think that counts as tree maintenance 🙂 Looking forward to what 2014 brings.

Lets do it together….

Dec 31 2013

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Video from Jose

Dec 31 2013

Noelanders Trophy 2014

I wish, I wish, one of these years I’ll make it.

Dec 30 2013

Valerie’s Hornbeam

Another one from Valerie’s collection, this time it’s a Korean Hornbeam that has great ramification but was in need of some structural pruning.

This is it thinned out a bit. Needs a few branches wired to get things into position.

Dec 29 2013

Valerie’s Larch Group

I’m doing a little Winter care for Valerie at the moment and have her collection here with me. This Larch group is one of my favourites. Bought about 6 years ago from Willowbog Bonsai and had previously been part of a large collection of larch owned by an enthusiast in Scotland.

For personal reasons Valerie wasn’t able to get near her trees too much in recent years but is now all guns blazing and is determined to make the best of her collection. I saw this group a few months ago and told her it would need to be wired over the Winter. She took me at my word and had it fully wired for the December meeting. A great effort made with the wiring. A few issues with it as I pointed out to her on the night, a little too much wire and some not applied correctly but the biggest compliment I can pay her is that it was functional, I could place every branch without changing the wire. Many struggle to get this right.

I did a little shaping and pruning and this is what it’s Winter image looks like now.

This was it back in 2011

Dec 28 2013

Normal Service Resumed

Those of you who are mad enough to check my blog daily, and are therefore as mad as me for updating it daily, will have noticed that I have skipped a few days. Well, it’s Christmas, and lets face it, things in the bonsai world have slowed down. However, I am endeavouring to get back on track with my posts.

I had a great/quiet Christmas at home with my family as this snap of an evening in front of the TV shows. Dinner over, fire lit, candles burning, tree lights illuminating, cosy or what 🙂 All that’s missing from this photo is the two dogs who are normally fighting with my son for the spot in front of the fire.

As most of you know I usually have bonsai friends around on the last Friday of the month to play with trees. However December is always a bad month to have one of these evenings as folk don’t want to come out into the dark, wet and very very windy night. I was chatting to Phil and Stephen, my two bonsai muckers, and the idea was floated for a smaller gathering but this time in the afternoon. After a quick email to a few friends it soon became apparent that some people were desperate to get out of the house lol.

I got the garage set up and ready to go.

Now at this point you will be expecting a photo gallery of all that went on… Well guess who was having so much fun that the camera hardly came out?! Yep, me. I have a few trees shots which I will share over the next few days, but very little else. I know Stephen had his camera with him as the flash was going off in my face a lot 😉 I’m hoping he has some nice photos over on his Bonsai Baker blog soon. But knowing Stephen……

In the meantime I will keep linking too and reblogging anything I find of interest about bonsai on the net. It saves you lot having to look anywhere else 😛

Hope you are all having a wonderful holiday.