This is one of the pines collected from a bog two years ago. It has recovered well but now’s the time to remove a few branches that won’t be needed in any final design. I also needed to chase back the foliage so that the tree back buds into more suitable areas over the next few years. Once I have this I can then start to think about styling the tree.
This was the tree being collected
and now before cut back.
A straight bit here needs to be removed.
And after cutting back
I did a live post yesterday from the bog while we were collecting Scot’s Pine. It was a rare sunny day and as usual turned out to be one of the highlights of the bonsai year. Good company good craic, and good results.
Funny story, guess who forgot to put the memory card in the camera? Yep me! Luckily Stephen had his camera with him and I copied his card Phew! This means that I was actually in a few photos and there is evidence that I do actually do a little work.
Highlight of the day for me was watching Phil Fingers stepping into a hole and sinking into freezing water up to the knee. The usual abuse was given only for me to find a different hole a few minutes later. 😀
We cut back a few larger trees to collect at some point in the future. The land owner says that they’ll still be there for a while and we are the only people who he trusts to collect on the site. Therefore we can go longer term with a few of them.
We collected a few smaller ones and finished early enough to get everything potted up in the one day.
Here’s some photos courtesy of Stephen.
![tiddlers at the end. [Stephen and Phil :-) ]](https://i0.wp.com/bonsaieejit.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/dsc_0145.jpg?w=193&h=129&ssl=1 "DSC_0145")
Yes, Stephen managed to find his way to my house, so we had four for the potting up session. 🙂
We had to do some major shuffling of trees in and out of protective cover before we started but space was found for everything. The spruce were potted first and put into a tunnel with last years spruce. Sphagnum moss only seems to be the way to go with Sitka Spruce. Last years trees loved it producing a lot of fresh roots.
We then moved on to the Hawthorn. The first one Stephen lifted bit him on the forehead, opps! We experimented a little with mixes to try out different options, time will tell.
Ben also brought a few trees of his own to get potted and we both finished these off before calling it a day. I didn’t take many photos to be honest, it was a very busy session and dirty hands and cameras don’t mix. You will see a triple trunk in the gallery that I lifted. Bark not very mature compared to some of the others but a nice tree for the future all the same.
Stephen was quick to point out that he was the oldest there yesterday but with all of us mumbling about aches and pains, he said he was the fittest of the four of us!! I would like to point out that he took Friday off by virtue of senile dementia setting in and his failure to find the collecting site when he was half a mile away at one point. Fittest my arse 🙂
Today I plan to catch up with some of my regular repotting on my own. I’m actually looking forward to a little time on my own in the garage with the radio on and wee trees for company. Spring must be in the air 🙂
Yesterday we were supposed to be four but we ended up as three, well two and a half as Ben is the baby/new boy in the group 🙂 Stephen was coming late and was last seen throwing his satnav from the car window and returning home 😛
We ploughed on without the baker and managed to get the ‘all important’ permission from the land owner. Not easy to track down as everyone who seemed to own the land was either dead, moved, or was a millionaire recluse!! After a chat with the owner about, cattle, pigs, money grabbing sisters and how to tell the difference between spruce and fir, we managed to make a start in the first of two fields.
I got off to a flyer by ripping my hand on barbed wire fencing! The Hawthorn we were after were hard to collect. Rocky ground and deep roots meant that many were not worth the effort. We did however collect 7 before lunch. We had to stop as Ben’s stomach was making noises that were scaring the local wildlife!
After lunch we moved to the other field which proved to be better. There is even scope for a return visit for further collecting. At this point we knew Stephen had given up and buggered off back south to Belfast. We wanted to make a return visit to our old Spruce site to see what we had missed. When we got there, we found 3 spruce worth the effort, 2 of which are rather special, for us any way. We had great success with these last year only losing 1 of the 5 collected and it was rather short of viable roots. These three root wise are looking good. Part of the site had been bulldozed and if we hadn’t lifted the ones last year, they would have been destroyed. Lucky break!
Anyway, here’s the day in photos. Might even do a trip video for a laugh 🙂 Potting up tomorrow.
This morning Phil, Stephen, Ben and I go collecting Hawthorn, we hope! It’s a new site, and we hope the quality is good but we still have to get permission. We have a good track record with permission getting so fingers crossed for tomorrow. We do have a plan ‘B’ just in case. No, it’s not just steal them!! We have another site nearby. This is the field we hope to be wandering around at about 10am 🙂
After our collecting trip back in February we came back with some rather nice Spruce. Most came with good rootballs and are still thriving well into there second flush of growth this year.
This one was always going to be touch and go as it had very little root. It went to Phil’s poly tunnel were it spent some time on his heat bed in an attempt to stimulate enough growth to survive. Sadly it didn’t make it. What a pity, it would have made a tasty tree.
I managed to take a few video clips during our bog hopping exploits last week. I’ve thrown them together for my pleasure and hopefully yours 🙂
Yesterday saw us potting up the remaining Scots Pine and getting them into the poly tunnels. As usual I had the camera in hand. Some would say that this is a cunning ploy for me to avoid the heavy lifting, that is not the case but is a rather handy bonus 🙂
Phil considering binning this one!!
Phew, he’s only removing some of the grass from the root ball.
We managed to find a few interesting heathers as well.
and some rather nice lichen with red flowering trumpets.
The watering area before placing into the tunnels
Smudge doesn’t care about the Pines’ ‘Just throw the Ball Phil!!’
More watering
Important to keep watering until the water runs clear. The grit is dusty and all the fine particles need to be washed out of the bottom.
The Old Tunnel
and the new tunnel
the rest went to Phil’s place to go on his heat bed for a month or so. These were the trees with poorer root systems.
This was our last collecting trip this Spring. If all goes well we are looking at further collecting in the Autumn.
Here some photos from our collecting trip today, well, actually it’s now yesterday. To knackered to type much about it. I’ll let the photos do the talking were I can.
You can see that these Scots Pines have been lifted from a bog. They are self seeded and when asking for permission to collect the farmer told me that they are all scheduled for destruction as they shouldn’t be there. We are happy to try and save them 🙂
First one of the day.
All trees are bagged and taped up to stop the roots drying out.
Nice bark on some if not all of the trees collected.
Trees rooted into the top 6 inches of sphagnum moss, no roots go any deeper. Trees can be dug out in a few minutes.
I wasn’t the only one snapping away.
A large but nice multi trunk.
Clipping out some dead bits.
Easy to dig out.
Bagged and taped up.
Phil, the heavy lifter 🙂
Stephen opts for a tiny one.
and another small one for Stephen, see the pattern here 🙂
We decided to leave this one!!
Scattered everywhere!
Too big for today but cut back for future lifting.
Literati?
Another tall one but as it was closer to the car it came with us.
Lots of fine white tips to the roots.
Phil wondering why these new gloves don’t work very well. Finished lifting time to head home.
Back in the driveway.
Grit ready and waiting.
Pines in for the potting up session tomorrow, now today!
Phil doing more heavy lifting.
We managed to get the two biggest ones potted up before we finished for today.
More later, off to bed! zzzzzz…..
I dread to think how I would have potted up the Escallonia last night without help from John, Ben, Michael and Ben. Yes, there was two Bens 🙂
It was getting dark so many of the photos are crap but you get the drift.
Getting a bit of glare off the top of the old shiny head there 🙂
This was it today in the Tunnel. I added a top layer of Sphagnum moss to aid humidity and keep the surface roots moist.
Shop for quality bonsai
bonsai and garden
The Kaizen Bonsai Blog
Teaching, Learning, Enjoying Bonsai
The ramblings of an old artist and someone who would like to grow better bonsais trees
my bonsai
My wood creations
Hand Crafted Furniture
Creativity Through Bonsai
dirt leaves flowers
bonsaï | vidéo | Japon - ActuBonsaï
Japan's aesthetic, craftsmanship and spirit
Bonsai with a hint of madness...
"Tibolar-RS. your soil needs it, your plants will love it"
Bonsai Eejit 