New addition to the benches, a rather funky Satsuki Azalea variety Gyoten. Large pink frilly flowers of different shades of pink and some stripes here and there.
The tree came in from Japan this year from Akiyama San with the help of Peter Warren.
Needs a pot which will be tricky to source I think.
Once again I’m honoured to get a chance to preview and review the latest online Course from Bonsai Empire. Oscar has done well to keep this one quiet for so long. Back in November he filmed two long format case studies with Master Kimura in Japan, and from today you are able to access this content on Bonsai Empire.
The beauty of the Covid lockdown, if you can find any beauty in it, is the spare time many of us have to soak up more bonsai knowledge from online sources. I should really add the ‘trusted’ to that as we know that there is a lot of poor content online as well. The thing about Bonsai Empire’s content is you know what you are going to get for your money. Namely, lifetime access to top quality, well edited, factual video content. The Kimura Masterclass is no different.
I sat down to watch all four hours of the content last week. Normally time is tight and I skim over the content to get a feel of what the course is like for review, but this time I put the feet up and sat back.
What you first see from scanning the lectures column is that you are getting two demonstrations by Mr Kimura, something that I think will rarely be seen these days. As he says himself in the course, his students do all the world travelling now so he doesn’t have too. Therefore this is a great opportunity for those new to bonsai to sit and learn from a master who in all likelihood you have heard of but most likely will never have the change to seen in action.
The first demo is a yamadori Japanese White Pine that Mr Kimura transforms into a windswept image in his own style. It’s an educational process and gives some insight into his design process as he progresses with the tree. Techniques are discussed and used throughout.
The second demonstration is the creation of a rock planting using six Itiogawa junipers. These have become one of Mr Kimura’s mainstays with many being seen in Europe at exhibitions. We get to see a rock he created by carving being transformed into a really stunning image that many now try and emulate. Lots to learn from his step by step process starting with how to prepare and attach trees, their placement to give depth, the mossing and then styling of the trees to give us the finished image.
Foe me one of the most interesting elements was watching how his apprentices worked for him trying to anticipate his every move and be one step a head.
Bonus video content takes you on a walk around his public and private gardens and we get to hear him speaking about some of his most famous trees featured in his books.
In all you get 4 hours of content to watch again whenever you want. The open demo format gives this course a different feel to the previous Bonsai Empire courses, perhaps not as concise and loaded with carefully thought out dialogue from the like s of Michael Hagedorn or Bjorn Bjorholm, but I don’t think anyone buying this corse would have expected that same format. We get to watch Mr Kimura preform and we can follow along with clear subtitles and enjoy seeing his decision making.
The course is available from today for $79.99 for lifetime access.
Here is a short trailer to give you a feel of the content.
Well done Oscar, I look forward to seeing where Bonsai Empire can take us after this 🙂
In an attempt to get into a routine of posting on the blog again I thought I’d share this Rhododendron Blue Diamond here.
You’ll notice the one branch at the front without flowers. It’s a weak branch which gets weaker every year. There is a very thin live vein on it and I had removed the flowers from it for the last few years to try and strengthen it with no joy. Enough was enough. It had its chance so time to remove and redesign.
The ideal time to remove the flowers and more importantly the little seed pods at their centre.
Below is how the tree came to me in 2002.
I picked up this Pinus Nigra back in 2014. It had previously been a bonsai but when the owner died it spent about 5 years in open ground before being transferred into this large pot and kept as you see it for many years.
below we see the tree being removed from the pot. No easy task as the owner wanted to keep the blue pot intact which caused us to have big issues getting it out with roots attached!!
This is the tree potted up and removal of some unwanted branches.
This is the tree in September 2019 after several years getting it to regrow roots and start the process of back budding.
And after a wiring of the primary structure and another chasing back of terminal buds to induce further back budding.
A few trees in close up from European Bonsai San 2019
Some of the accents that caught my eye at the show.
I’ve put most of this up on social media during the exhibition but I wanted to record the event here on my blog with a few words about the event.
This was my first time attending EBSS and I was blown away with the standard of the exhibition but more so the relaxed atmosphere in which it is run. Others exhibitions could learn from this. You could walk the display area and take photos and not once did I feel others doing this was an inconvenience to me. In fact I think photos being shared on social media probably attracts more of a buzz around the event and gains more visitors year on year. I know I was one of them this year.
Here is a rather large gallery of photos from the event all taken off my phone. Apologies if the odd shot was taken from someone else on social media as I saved a few to my phone. I’ll do a few separate posts covering the demos and accents etc just to split it up a little. Enjoy.
On Sunday I cooperated in an event with Boundary Brewing in Belfast. ‘Beer and Bonsai’ brought together two of my favourite things and helped spread to word about both in the local area. This was not about sales or money for me, just friendship and promotion. Starting at 4pm I arrived a little early and set up trees for those attending to view. I had three large window spaces to fill as well as wanting people to get up close with table displays. I selected trees for the tables that I knew would be robust enough to take some handling but I need not have worried as everyone was well behaved.
I did a demo on a raw Scots Pine in a corner which saw most people coming up and asking questions. The tricky part was wiring and styling a tree as it got darker under poor light conditions and under the influence of some pretty decent craft beer. I think in the circumstances it turned out alright.
Below is a gallery of photos taken at various points during the night and some cleaner photos of the trees used.
My Sitka Spruce got another wiring, the second time this year. I’ll not be wiring it in Spring again that’s for sure.
2017
2018
2019 before wiring
and after
and back in 2012 as a reference.
and before collection.
some recent tweaking and tidying up with Adam’s trees.
Japanese White Pine before and after.
Chinese Juniper before and after
A few others.
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