In the garden today… Iris Gracilipes in Dan Barton pot. There’s a little bit of Spirea in there too self seeded. I’m leaving it to see what it looks like next year.
Tag Archives: photographs of trees
Mother and Daughter Hawthorn
This is my largest Hawthorn, really starting to take shape. It’s been a long road but I’m starting to be a little happier with it these days. This year saw it’s best flowering to date. Plans afoot for a new pot for next year. I think it’s the most protective mother ever 🙂
Arco 2016
A big thank you JP Reitz for sharing these photos from Arco with me, and from me to you.
These are my personal favourites from the exhibition.
Sorbus Reducta Then and Now
I’ve been going through some old photos in preparation for an article or two on the club site looking back at 30th years of the NIBS. Boy have people changed 🙂 As I was browsing I found this photo of my little sorbus going back to 1995 in a club show. I remember buying this as a young plant from Timpany Nurseries in 1994, so probably around 25 years old now.
This is it now.
This is it on the left in 1995, the little branch at the bottom be came the whole tree.
and again in 2000, easier to see where the chop was made in this one.
Wire Trees with a Twist
Twist, see what I did there 😉
Anyway, I was in the local Tourist Board Shop in my town and they have a small gallery display every month. I saw these and thought about all the wire Bonsai we see on the net, but these are a little different and have an Irish Twist. Trees like this are a common sight here with windswept Hawthorn along the coast and on every hillside.
Even a bird! Photos snapped on my phone so sorry for the quality. Enjoy.
A few Accents
A few of my accents from this week. Many have still to fill out but showing the promise of what’s to come.
Allium
Bluebell
Mukdemia Rossi Walsall Ceramic Pot
Rustyback Fern and sedum – Magic Ceramic Kusamono Tile
Orchid Magic Ceramic Pot – can anyone ID it?
Saxifrage sp. Magic Ceramic Pot
Saxifrage Sp. Magic Ceramic Pot
Crassula Socialis Magic Ceramic Pot
Sea thrift gifted to me by Rusted Root Bonsai
Rabbits Foot fern in a Magic Ceramic pot.
Wee Ones
Four of my wee ones.
I started the Sorbus Reducta in 1994.
The Elm has been with me for 5 years but is probably 20 years old in bonsai years. Now in a fantastic Magic Ceramic pot, a great match for the tree I think.
New to me this year, a little horse Chestnut gifted to me by my friend Maciej.
Finally my Juniper growing well since it’s repot this Spring.
Garden Benches
Here’s a few general shots I have snapped in the garden over the last week showing my display area and the training benches along with accents. All change next year with my lawn going hopefully. This will allow my display to be moved into the best area of the garden for natural light.
Walk in the Woods
My walk on Sunday took me up to Scrabo Tower that overlooks my home town of Ards on one side and looks towards my birth City of Belfast on the other side. A great time to visit with the Bluebells in full bloom. I was joined on my walk as always by my friend Stephen aka the Bonsai Baker, and my son Daniel. Oh, and of course, Smudge, Maggie, and Stephen’s dog Rufus.
A Raven decided to sit and watch us for a while before it flew away.
Escallonia – A Change of Home
No not sold, just a change of pot for it to live in. I have enjoyed immensely the journey in taking this tree from from my garden to Bonsai Europa last year. However I was never happy with the pot for any Winter image display. The pot is too large and lacks colour to lift a Winter image display. I have been looking around for a new pot for the tree for a while and this Spring I found what I was looking for from David Benavente.
This was the tree in Bonsai Europa last October.
The tree had been allowed to keep a larger amount of finer branching for the show to show more ramification and also try and get a better balance with the pot size. This resulted in a slightly unkempt image but one I liked. Very hard to prep an Escallonia for exhibition at this time of year.
Back to the present and I wanted to reduce the foliage mass to suit a smaller pot and help reset branches on this species. This needs to be done every few years to prevent inner branch die back anyway. It would also make for a more powerful image with a heavier trunk to branch balance. This is the tree after reduction. You can see how big the original Walsall pot looks now.
And this is the new pot, a pot from Tokaname made by Watanabe Kazuhiro (Ikkou). I feel in love with this one on sight. The glaze with green with an underlying blue, turning blue at the base in drips was just stunning.
Getting the tree ready, time for a proper repot. This tree has always been robust and after a chop back I was confident that a full repot could be carried out.
A watering in.
And potted up in it’s new home.
Top dressed with a moss mix. It will take a few months to fill in again but it will make all the difference to the final image.
Photos don’t do this pot justice. The colours and age of the pot are just perfect. The tree was repotted about 4 weeks ago and the tree is budding up nicely with plenty of adventurous back budding to boot. It next outing, all being well with be our clubs Bonsai 30 event this September.
Bonsai Eejit 