This is my satsuki azalea, I have it more for flowers than for bonsai but it gives me pleasure at this time of year. I didn’t let it flower last year to help build strength. It has four flower types but I have only put photos of three below. The missing one is a pale pink flower with a dark pink stripe. Those ones have still to open. The first few photos where taken a few days apart so you can see it opening.
Peter Snart kindly delivered my Root Over Rock Trident Maple back to me a few weeks back. It had been over at Willowbog Bonsai for the BSA Exhibition. This is it as I got it back. A little over grown but in fine health as you’d expect 😉
I had to address the overgrown shoots that had now overly thickened some of the outer canopy. The only way I could do this was by defoliation and then thinning out of the fat areas. This was it after defoliation.
and again after thinning out, you can see I’ve also removed the moss, I want to be able to keep an eye on the watering better and the moss was obscuring my view of this and also taking some of the water for itself.
In hindsight I have missed an opportunity 😦 I should have left the bottom few branches untouched to allow them to fatten further to get a better balance in the tree. Ah well…
At the recent Willowbog Workshop on Sunday Ben brought along his Squamata Juniper for some block carving work by Peter Snart. Peter got Ben to do a little Rip and tear on a few of the finer bits of deadwood first and then he got stuck in with the Makita to do some basic block carving on the heavier areas. Peter reckons he’d need a week to do the tree. If he carves as fast as he walks, I’d believe it too 😉
Current front
Slight adjust at next repotting
This root over rock Cotoneaster is up for a make over. The bottom branch is very low and although it looks fine in it’s bare winter image, it has been bothering me in leaf. It doesn’t get much light and can get a little weak and leggy. I was looking at it a few days back with a view to removing it. One of the benefits would be to show off the root over rock portion a little better. I took this photo and then photoshopped the branch away. I then extended the branch above slightly and think we have found the way to go.
Before
After some extension removal. A very fine branch and leaf on this one.
My newly acquired Berberis clump got a cleaning out on Saturday. It has grown strongly since being lifted and I wanted to get rid of the congested shoots on the inside and shorten some leggy branches.
This was it before
And after, two options for a front.
Before
After
This Trident is quick to get out of shape and dense with leaves putting inner branches at risk due to lack of light. I have removed the extension growth and the leaves from the outer canopy. If you look at the after photo you can now see blue backdrop through the tree. Light can now penetrate.
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