Jan 4 2017

A Flying Start….

Well, one more sleep and I get my bonsai adventures in 2017 off to a flying start. This Thursday, bright and breezy, I pop over to London to spend 6 days at Monkey Mountain with Peter Warren. My New Year’s resolution was to push bonsai learning in Ireland as much as I can for the next 12 months. This starts with me 🙂 We should all strive to learn and, having worked with Peter many times before, I can’t think of anyone better to burden myself on for a week. Peter is now offering the option to study with him at his home. Once I heard this, I was on it like a car bonnet and it looks like I beat my way to the (joint) first spot. Really looking forward to my time in the big smoke and making a few new friends, but more on that during the week I think.

Jan 1 2017

Happy New Year

This is a year I’m really looking forward to. I’ve loads of bonsai related trips planned and I’m looking forward to sharing them all here with you. More on that in the New Year.

I’ll just leave you all now and say Happy New Year to all my Bonsai friends around the world. I’m really looking forward to making some new friends on my travels in 2017. Eejit coming your way soon 🙂

Dec 31 2016

Cascade Japanese Black Pine

I finally got around to doing a little work on my new Shohin Japanese Black Pine. I picked this one up whilst on holiday in Tenerife back in October. A visit to Bonsai Centro Tenerife and a chat with Jose Acuna did the job.

This is it as purchased.

and after a little work.

A slightly different angle.

As a large shohin I like the fact that it has possibilities for reversing it in a box stand to fit different displays. Here’s the back.

and the other sides just for giggles.

Jose gave me a few earlier photos of it which I’ll share here too to keeps my records all in one place.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Dec 30 2016

New Toy – Sony 6000

Santa was good to me, I have acquired a new toy and have been playing a little.

sony_alpha_ilce-6000_2014_cp

I now have the Sony 6000 camera. My old Nikon D5000 had it’s limits were video was concerned and I was looking something for up coming holidays that was a little more compact. I’m no camera buff, I know what I need it to do to allow me to capture images and video for the blog, and this little fella fits the bill. I have a few add-ons to get my hands on but so far I am loving what it can do. Mirrorless cameras have really closed the gap with the DLSR range!

Dec 20 2016

Shohin Zelkova

This one is new to my collection this year. An old tree that originally was an import to the UK back in the late 80’s, it lost it’s apex when with the previous owner. I got the tree back in June as I saw some potential in making it into an even smaller shohin tree.

This was the tree as acquired. A bit weak with some dead branching. It hadn’t been fed much in recent years.

when I got it home.

I cut down the height by about 2 inches and cut the leggy branches back quite hard. After a few months free growth it had produced some new fine growth.

I was able to do a little wiring once it dropped leaves for Winter. This is it after work. Some branches left long and will be left for another year to thicken branches as required. New beginnings, we’ll see how it goes. Major repot required this Spring.

Dec 18 2016

Chuhin Japanese Maple

Catching up on a little blogging. I’ve missed a few trees in their Autumn garb. This was one. I like to add them here as my record each year. This one had a bad insect attach a few years back and I lost branches. I’m in the process of rebuilding the apex and ramification.

Dec 17 2016

Beech Winter Image

My favourite tree on the benches in Winter. Shown here with and without leaf.

Dec 16 2016

Korean Hornbeam

My Korean Hornbeam showing the change from Autumn into Winter.

Before trimming.

After trimming.

And in Winter image after dewiring.

Oct 28 2016

Tenerife – Botanical Gardens

About 200 metres from my hotel was the Botanical Gardens. A nice place for a walk and some great specimen trees.

A nice Davilla, the local variety.

A stunning big Ficus in the middle of the Gardens. So many mature aerial roots that are now trunks.

Some stunning flowers throughout the gardens.

Trip hazzard!

The beginnings of new aerial roots on another ficus.

Oct 27 2016

Tenerife – Centro Bonsai Tenerife

Whilst in Tenerife I had the pleasure of finally meeting up with Jose Acuna. Jose and I have swapped a few plants over the years and chatted on Facebook but I never crossed paths with him until now. Jose kindly picked me up from my hotel and showed me around his collection. I had a great few hours with him chatting all things bonsai. Interesting to chat about the major differences in climate, watering, species etc, between Ireland and the Canary Islands. They have heat and light but crap water. We have no heat and poor light but loads of great water lol.

Here are some of Jose’s trees, some fantastic shohin among them.