Mar 5 2019

Busy Week on the Road

It’s been a busy week down in the South of Ireland doing some one to one sessions with friends from Cobh, Cork, to Limerick then Dublin. Some good times had and great trees played with. A little styling and refinement and, as you’d expect, some repotting.

Here’s some photos from the trip.

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snow on the way home as usual in Dublin. Thank you to all who supported the road trip. Back again images weeks for another round.

Feb 22 2019

Pauls Place

Tuesday was a first session with a new customer. Paul has been doing bonsai for a while but has decided to up him game. I spent the day helping him with a few projects and some repotting. Paul’s garden is pretty special too. Here’s some photos of the day.

Feb 21 2019

Day With Derek

Monday saw me with Derek sorting a few trees out. Repotting and a little wiring on the agenda.

First up was a maple that had been recovering for a ew years in a box. Now we’ll on the up again we transferred it into a pot. Derek had a few options but most were too small.

We opted to use a round Gordon Duffet pot he had lying around😂 I only wish it were mine. The other gives the tree a little space in which to continue its development

This was the tree back in the late 80s

Next up was a pine, species unknown. He collected the seed from the Botanical Gardens in Dublin many years ago. The tree got a reworking having had some initial work done by myself a few years ago at a club workshop.

The tree was repotted into a Magic Ceramic pot that Derek picked up last year. We even found a nice widening buttress buried in the box. It’s got a longer needle but back buds well and seems to reduce well.

Another repot was this larch which had been a taller tree last year before being reduced to the bottom branch. Pushing hard for a shohin image but it’s on the larger side. It went into another Magic Ceramics pot.

A Chinese Juniper landscape was next. I doubt this tree had been repotted properly in the last 20 years but now under Derek’s care it was time for a freshen up.

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A busy day with Derek but productive and great craic as usual.

Feb 20 2019

Out Clubbing

I only wish I was young enough to go actual clubbing! This time it was a study group session with Leinster Bonsai Club in Dublin on Sunday.

We looked at repotting Theory, how, when and why we repot and what substrates to use. We then got hands on with a few trees to cover the practical side. A big thank to the LBC for supporting my endeavours in this the 5th of 6 sessions.

Feb 11 2019

Trophy Trees

Here’s a selection of photos from the Trophy.

Feb 11 2019

There’s Always One

This was the most used phrase on this trip away with friends 🙂 Folk getting lost, falling asleep, trying to open their hotel room with a credit card, Getting threw out of the demo for eating mustard dripping hotdogs in the front row, breaking a pot on a trader stand, trying to bluff their way into the priority boarding queue for their flight, the list was endless. But what a great few days we had on the road at the Trophy.

Here’s a few general pics of our travels. Photos of trees in exhibition to follow shortly.

Feb 7 2019

It’s Time

The Trophy has arrived. Well, almost, I start travelling early tomorrow to spend Friday and Saturday at the Trophy. I’m normally only there for a few hours in and out on the same day. However this year seven of us are heading over together and meeting up with a few other travelling Irish when we get there. Looking forward to seeing old friends and quality trees. Hope to see some of you there.

Jul 18 2017

Bonsai Club in Tyrone Anyone?

I’ll do whatever I can to help promote bonsai in Ireland, and have done so across the island in recent years, both locally here in Northern Ireland, and in Leinster and Munster. I’ve tried to get Tim up and running in Connaught but the rural nature of the area has made that hard work so far, but we won’t give up. Come on Galway!

So, over the last few months I’ve been chatting with Paul up in Omagh, County Tyrone and he’s keen to try and get a club or small study group off the ground. He’s just made a Facebook page to help garner interest and I said I’d give it a push from this end as well. I’ve committed to helping him get it off the ground with a few sessions and see how it goes. It will be based in Omagh town itself and will cater for those interested in bonsai on that side of Northern Ireland and indeed, Donegal as well.

If you follow this blog from the North West of Ireland and have always wanted a bonsai club in your area, this is your chance, don’t miss it. It takes someone with the motivation to get the ball rolling, and Paul is that man in that place right now!

This is a link to the Facebook Page, go and say hello and express an interest and we’ll keep you up to date with what’s happening as things progress.

Jun 26 2017

Cheers Leinster

A big thank you to the guys at Leinster Bonsai Club for having me down to do a group workshop on Sunday. A great day’s craic. Great to see new faces as well. See you all soon.

Thanks for the photos Max.

May 10 2017

A Middle of The Road Tree

Came across this Beech tree on my travels near Cahir Ireland. It may be a ‘Middle of the Road’ Tree, but it’s a beauty. Sadly probably not long left alive in this world. Some nice block work is helping though.