Jul 25 2012

Proof of Life #3

By now you are thinking that I actually have no bonsai of my own and my garden is full of other peoples trees! You might be right!!

This one is for Valerie. Her Arakawa Maple was in desperate need of major pruning and a major repot at the Willowbog workshop back in May. As the tree was already in full leaf, we opted to defoliate, prune and repot all in one go. I decided to keep it for the Summer for some special aftercare. This is it now. I think you should be happy with this Valerie 🙂

Jul 24 2012

Proof of Life #2

This one is for Geraldine and in a way Mr Snart as well. I have been looking after these two trees since the last Willowbog Bonsai workshop. I just want to update Geraldine on the progress.

First is her Itogawa Juniper. It had been slow to respond after the work done last Autumn and Peter suggested that we repot into a larger pot with a greater surface area to push it on. The old mix was compacted and the pot was restrictive. This seems to have done the trick.

Next up is her Shohin Trident Maple root over rock. It was defoliated and repotted to deal with similar problems to the Juniper. I have already had to shorten extension growth twice since then.

Jul 22 2012

Rose Show

I had the pleasure of judging the bonsai entries at the Rose Show in Belfast yesterday. I small local flower show held as part of the bigger Rose Week event at Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park.

The bonsai aspect was small, our club supports the Rose Society by always getting a few entries in to fill the space and add interest for the public. As far as bonsai go, it’s not what we aspire too in our own displays with the usual low tables and cramped space. For that reason and the poor photos that resulted from inside a marquee, I’ll not bombard you with poor quality photos. I will however share some photos taken from within the park itself showing both the roses and some nice trees.

First, photos from inside the flower show marquee during judging. The rest from within the park Rose Gardens and Japanese Garden. When I show the Rose name it’s because is a highly perfumes variety that my wife is determined to add to our garden.

Jul 12 2012

Mouldy Old Spruce

Stephen and I took a closer look at the Spruce we collected back in February. They have been in a poly tunnel all this time and have been way in the back were it was hard to check. With me being rather indisposed of late, it’s been hard to keep a close eye on what was happening. All looked good from the front, but when we got a closer look, we found that one of the Spruce had a patch of bad mildew due to poor air circulation and high humidity.

Stephen hoses out some old needles that had gathered in the dense foliage, this hadn’t helped with the mildew either.

The other side of the tree is still covered with lush growth.

It had been in the back corner.

Stephen slipped along the side and opened up all the air vents to allow for better circulation. That keg is really starting to get in the way!!

What was good to see was new roots emerging on all the Spruce. They are in pure Sphagnum moss.

We’ve just got the second budding and also signs of good back budding as well.

Jul 10 2012

Back Among my Babies

My good friends Stephen and Vanessa popped down today and as usual Stephen offered to water for me. Good fun checking out the growth in the garden and inspecting some of our recently collected trees. I’ll post a few pics over the next few days. Here is me in among the benches again and even practising my left handed pinching technique 🙂

Stephen hard at work.

Jul 9 2012

Japanese Black Pine

This is the latest addition to my collection. A shohin Japanese Black Pine with a built in Accent 🙂

Jul 7 2012

Elm Update

This is the post about some work carried out on a shohin Cork Bark Elm

This is the Elm now after 3 weeks growth.

Jul 5 2012

Shohin Maple

My shohin Maple leafing out after defoliation.

Jun 26 2012

Kalgoorlie Tree

My sister, who lives in Perth, Western Australia, posted this photo on Facebook recently. She was in Kalgoorlie and took this photo of a tree at Lake Ballard. A strange looking place. I guess she knew I’d like the photo 🙂

You can just see where the tree is to the right at the top of the island.

Some strange Sculptures on the salt flats.

Those Irish get everywhere 🙂

Jun 23 2012

Mario Update

Another Mario tree update. If you haven’t got a clue why I’d be doing this, CLICK HERE

First up is his Satsuki Azalea. It’s a variety called Subaru, so I’m told. I always thought the flower colour was equal throughout this tree, as you can see, I was wrong. Nice shades of pink.

Next up is his Japanese White Pine that has budded strongly this year.

His Korean Hornbeam that got a major haircut to produce back budding on some leggy branches. It’s working.

This is his Japanese Black Pine. It had been in a small pot and I thought that while he was away for a while we could get faster development from this tree by putting it in a bigger pot. I opted for a pond basket to improve the roots.