Apr 4 2017

Mame Fuchsia

A bit of a surprise to see this little one flowering so early.

Apr 3 2017

Go West… And Repot

I posted last year about a great chap living over in the west of Ireland with a collection of bonsai 40 years + in the making. Peter Flint, a long time bonsai enthusiast, now in his 80’s had been working through his trees catching up on some long overdue repotting. However, he had a few that were just to big for him to manage. Derek and myself popped over to give him a hand. When I say popped over, it was a 9 hour round trip for me, but I’d hate to see the trees suffer from lack of hands.

Now, Peter has his own way of doing things regarding mixes etc and even though I didn’t agree with him, who am I to change what’s been working for him for 40 odd years. First up was a tall cedar.

Then a great Hinoki Cypress.

After a fun day with Peter, Derek and I went to check out some great local yamadori, mostly hawthorn and blackthorn. Most weren’t collectable but I did find time to experiment with a few air layers.

Thanks for a great day Peter, and the pizza 🙂 and to Derek for good company on the trip, it just flew in.

Mar 15 2017

Ayr Bonsai

I had the great pleasure to be invited to talk at the Ayr Bonsai Group last weekend.

Popping over on the boat from Belfast on Saturday morning, Jeff Banning, club convener and SBA President, collected me and we spent the day looking at trees in gardens.

A great Scottie in a poor pic on a dull day.

English Elm with great character.

A Blue Cedar, one of my favourite trees from the visit.

Jeff and Ian chewing the fat.

A Scottish National Collection tree brought back into great health by Ian’s hard work and care.

Another Scottish National Collection tree above. Not a great photo in the rain, but a stunning tree.

One of my favourite trees of the visit above. A stunning wee Scottie in an Ian Baillie pot.

A little wet but this didn’t spoil my fun looking at some really nice bonsai. A great meal out with some of the members on the Saturday night at Ayr India Restaurant.

Sunday was the meeting day and Jeff and I undertook the long arduous walk to the hall, must have been at least 200 metres. On the way we past the birth place of Robert Burns some real wabi sabi going on there with the moss on the thatched roof.

The meeting hall hall was also a stunning location to give a talk. This is it before the members arrived.

I was kept busy with my talk on Bonsai design in the morning moving onto a tree critique in the afternoon. I failed to photograph some of the beautiful bonsai brought along for the sesssion. Some trees more than 30 years in the making and showing great age. I did manage to snap a quick selfie as we were packing up sorry to all those I missed in the pic.

A busy day and feedback was great. Hard task to deliver a talk to a group with such a wide range of ability and keep everyone entertained.

A few notes of personal thanks…

Thanks to all those members who attended and brought so many trees for me to see.

A big thank you to Peter and Ian for letting me visit your homes and view your collections. Trees to be proud of.

and best for last, to Jeff and Helen for putting me up for the night and making me feel so welcome.

Feb 14 2017

Viburnum Repot

Another tree repot, this time it’s a shohin viburnum being moved to it’s new home, a nice little Japanese Pot.

This was it last year when I picked it up. Looking forward to seeing it fill out this year.

Feb 13 2017

New Pots From Ian Baillie

I was lucky to have access to a great collection of Ian Baillie pots at a club event this weekend past and I got my hands on some great pots. Sunday saw me repotting a few trees. Here are the results…

A dwarf Willow with a nice heavy base. This is it’s first time in a small pot and is in the first steps of styling this year. Tree is roughly 10cm tall.

A great pot with stunning detail.

This was the old pot and tree as acquired back in June last year.

A shohin Rose

A root over rock Rose. We had fun selecting a pot for this one. It’s a touch large as it sits but should make a stunning image when it produces pink flowers this year.

This was it before and in flower last year.

And a root over rock Cotoneaster in a new shallow pot adding to the drama .

and here in the old pot last September.

Feb 5 2017

Noelanders 2017 Flying Visit

When my friend Harry in the Netherlands kindly offered to collect me from Amsterdam airport and take me to The Noelanders Trophy on Saturday, who was I to say no 🙂 I jumped on an Easyjet flight (other airlines are available) and made my way with Harry over to Genk for all Saturday had to offer. Every year something seems to get in the way of a visit to Europe’s premier bonsai exhibition, this year I was not to be denied.

I spent my time mostly between the trade stands and the exhibition with an occasional look at the demos. At every point in between I bumped into old friends and new. Very much a social occasion as well as a bonsai event. Great to see you all, albeit only briefly in passing on my way around the venue.

I mostly honoured the no photographs rule within the exhibition, only stopping here and there to take a few general shots of crowds viewing the exhibits. I did manage to take a few random shots around the trade halls to capture the feel of the event, and a few in the demo area. There’s loads of photos of the show already doing the rounds of social media that you can view, the best being the official shots on Bonsai Empire. See the winners there.

I will of course buy the gallery book of the event when it’s produced to remember the event. However, with the amount of people openly taking close up snaps of trees at the show and exhibitors doing the same and then posting these on social media on Friday and Saturday, I don’t really see why it’s been banned! Just ask for no tripods and request those taking snaps not to publish them until after the event is finished. I really can’t see this impacting on book sales. Just my opinion of course, we all have one 😉

Anyway, here are some random shots from the event.

A big thank you to the Belgium Bonsai Association for putting on this fantastic event. Well done.

A massive thank you to Harry and Anne for their amazing hospitality this weekend.

Jan 25 2017

Hawthorn Winter Wiring

This Hawthorn has been with me a while. It’s one of the finer growth species and thus not quick to flower as a bonsai. I’m spending a little time to get the placement of primary, secondary right and then build a nice canopy of ramification. The aim with this one was always a natural image of a Hawthorn commonly seen in the Irish Landscape.

Before Wiring

and after

played about with the time lapse app on my new camera and was please with the results. Check out the video.

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Jan 24 2017

Berberis First Wiring

This berberis was ready for it’s first wiring. I wanted to give it a first wiring last year but it budded out before I got near it.

I wanted to make a few further decisions about trunk selection and get the basic branch structure going in the right direction. A very brittle tree to work with and covered in tiny thin thorns, painful. This was the result. Early days with this being it’s first sighting of wire but great potential going forward.

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For earlier posts on this tree see: Just acquired and Berberis Clump Repot

Seen here in 2014

Jan 22 2017

Steve’s Bonsai Garden

When I was over at Suruyama Towers the other week I had the pleasure of spending a few hours with Steve McKee who was visiting. Steve and I have a fair bit in common and it was good to get a walk around the trees and chat bonsai.

Steve picked up a nice Literati Scots Pine from Peter when he was there and I have been following what’s happened since on Steve’s Facebook page ” Steve’s Bonsai Garden”.

This is the Pine as bought.

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