Apr 22 2011

Hawthorn Airlayer Update

Last year I layered the top of this Hawthorn Case Study HERE

This is the parent plant today. A few flowers at the top. The apex is going to be removed to a lower branch.

This is the layer!! Growing strongly and surprised me with the abundance of flower. These will be removed shortly so as not to stress the tree .

I honestly think the flowers on Hawthorn are under rated. How nice are these?

Apr 13 2011

Issy Update

Well my little Potentilla purchased from Willowbog in February has produced it’s first of many flowers.

Here’s a few links to other posts about this tree. I should really start to put these together in the my bonsai section.

https://bonsaieejit.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/issy/

https://bonsaieejit.wordpress.com/2011/03/02/little-issy-repotted/

Apr 12 2011

Accent

Spent a few hours in the sun this afternoon tidying up around the garden and cutting grass. I decided enough was enough and got the camera and scissors out and trimmed back some very strong Spring foliage on my trees.

To keep this diary up to date I’ll split up the days work into a few posts. First up are a few accents. The first one is a weed, but a pretty weed.

Next up is one of my attempts at kusamono. It’s made up of hosta, dwarf aquilegia, dwarf Iris and a bit of mud rock. Most of the stuff is still emerging but the aquilegia is ahead of the game.

...

This is a tray of potted hostas that my mate Stephen gave me. About half of them are well on their way. The other half are just starting to poke their noses out. Three different varieties.

Apr 11 2011

De-Flowering Today

Bonsai that is 🙂

My big Rhododendron has started to drop some of it’s flowers and to make sure I get all the seed pods off, I removed the rest by hand today. If you do it at this stage, it’s easy to spot the little red tips and the emerging shoots below are easy to avoid. If you leave it until all the flowers drop of their own accord, seed heads are hard to spot, you tend to knock off new shoots and it stresses the tree even further.

Here’s it before.

These are what I’m removing. Some have already dropped the flower petals leaving the seed heads.

and this is it 45 minutes later.

this is under the bench!

I have given the tree it’s first feed and a good watering in.

Mar 31 2011

Recovering from dog attack!

Last September my dog Smudge took a fancy to the apples on this Malus. He waited for them to ripen first of course 🙂

Here it is before he munched them.

and after…

and the guilty looking culprit.

This is the tree today. A few of the more mauled branches didn’t have any tip buds to open. I have been watching it for signs of new buds and today I founds loads. It looks as if it will back bud strongly, perhaps Smudge did me a favour 🙂

The back budding. Looks like a little pair of but cheeks at the bottom 🙂

and some of the flower buds. I was going to remove them but to be honest the tree is responding that strongly, I don’t think I’ll bother for now. I might remove the fruit if that changes.

Mar 23 2011

Crab Apple Flower Buds

I noticed yesterday that this crab apple was flowering again this year. I waited 15 years for it to get it’s act together and was on the verge of giving it away (who would pay for a apple that doesn’t flower?) when it flowered in 2009. No fruit set that year. In 2010 it had more flowers and it held fruit. Lovely little pea size apples. This year it is covered in flower buds. I even put it in a better pot and restyled it over the Winter. Be good to me and I’ll be good to you 🙂

This was it back in January before repotting but after wiring. I can’t find a photo of it in the new pot, you’ll have to wait 🙂

Mar 15 2011

Sunshine Accent

Someone gave me this little accent plant a few years back. It flowers in the Spring and then the leaves appear. Usually the slugs eat the flower before it’s opened but I have it surrounded by pellets this year! I don’t have a clue what it’s called. Happy to be told what it is. I was told it came from Japan. The flower bud opening is like a little bit of sunshine, and Japan could do with that at the moment.

Mar 8 2011

Rowallane Trees

My wife and I visited Rowallane Gardens, a National Trust Property, today. It is famous for its Rhododendrons and has loads of interesting trees to admire and learn from. Here are a few of the things that caught my eye today.

On the main driveway in is a row of old Cedars with lovely hanging branches. It’s a pity that the lower limbs are removed for safety. It would be great to see one this size without man’s input into it’s design.

One of my reasons for going today was to see if the large Prunus Incisa or Fuji Cherry was in flower yet. My small one is but alas, this one has a few weeks to go yet.

Another tree that I liked was this Fraxinus Ornus, a type of weeping Ash I think. I loved the Uro’s.

There was a few maples scattered around the grounds but needless to say, no leaves yet. This is a large one in front of the main house and a nice bit of colour on a Sengo Kaku ‘Coral Bark’ Maple too.