Apr 18 2016

Experience Japan in Dublin

Had a great day with friends in Dublin on Sunday at the ‘Experience Japan’ Event.

Together with members from 3 bonsai clubs in Ireland we displayed a few bonsai and had a catch up. The trees were from a wide range of people all with different levels of experience. It was great to catch up with a few old faces as well.

For more photos CLICK HERE and visit the Bonsai Ireland site.

Mar 31 2016

More Magic Pots

I’ve just uploaded a new selection of Magic Ceramics accent pots to my FlickR Album. Some fantastic pots from Maciej Targosinski including some Kusamono dishes, tiles and even bonsai pots these days. It always pays to support local talent. Prices are given on each photo description. Give me a shout via Contact Me if you are interested.

Mar 20 2016

Auction Beech Trees

I know I’ve probably mentioned the auction being held by my local club before, but for those who missed it be sure to check out the new trees just added, among them are a few very tasty Beech trees that have been developed over 25 years.

All the auction trees are now residing at my place and can be viewed here before the auction, just contact me first as climbing the fence results in dog bites and a lead injection 😀

Here’s the beech, and the auction page can be checked out HERE.

Mar 19 2016

Berberis Clump Repot

I had hoped to get to this Berberis Clump sooner to do a little initial wiring but the tree had other ideas. As it’s been in this big plastic training pot for a few years I decided it was still ok to repot now and make it a little more manageable around the garden. I also wanted to get a closer look at the base to help me make my mind up on a front. For some older posts about it see, HERE, HERE and HERE

This was one option for the front. I’d chatted with Peter Warren about the tree when he was last here. He liked this option but said it would always look like a garden tree. He pointed out another option.

This is his option which I also love. Either would make a great tree. Time for a closer look.

Plenty of fine root in there

I didn’t have a lot of pot options but this one actually fitted the bill ok. Loppers show scale of this big fella.

A few alterations

and a few more…

And this is the final result. An even better base that I thought, still loads to do to make a bonsai out of this but I think it’s a keeper.

Mar 13 2016

Mother and Child Hawthorn

Another Hawthorn wired out before bud break. Not the best time to do this with the sap rising and branches being a little more brittle, but I didn’t want to miss another year. I was stabbed repeatedly even after thorn removal. You never get all the little buggers! This was it before.

And afterwards.

and me for scale

Mar 12 2016

Root Over Rock Trident Maple Repot

I bought this Trident back in 2011. This is the pot it was in at the time. I didn’t like the rectangle and I didn’t like that the rock over hung the left side of the pot.

I opted to change the pot to this Walsall Ceramics pot in February 2012.

And there it stayed until last week. I had another pot come into my hands that I wanted to try out and then of course I found another one as a second option. I tried the tree out in each pot.

This was the blue option

and this was the cream/white option.

After some deliberation I opted for the cream pot. It was my favourite of the two anyway but I was also able to twist the tree slightly more in the pot with the extra front to back space allowing for a slightly new front that shows a little of the rock to the right side of the far right root which I think adds to the image.

Better?

Mar 11 2016

North Coast Hawthorn

I gave this Hawthorn collected up the North coast in around 2003 a rewiring last week. It’s been knocking around my garden for years but it’s finally starting to resemble a tree. In about another 15 years it might actually look the part 🙂

This was it in Spring 2010 when I air layer a trunk off.

October 2010

September 2011, starting from scratch branch wise.

I wired the tree out for the first time in Winter 20114/15 and this was the tree in May 2015 after cutting back the first flush of growth.

And this is the tree now in March 2016 after a second wiring. Just need about 10 times the ramification to make a convincing tree image.

Mar 9 2016

Old Joe Yew

This tree is with me until the end of either it or me 🙂 Perhaps not the best material in the world but I have a sentimental attachment to this tree due to it’s provenance. You can catch up with that here along with other links.

As I’m keeping it, I decided it was time for a better pot. I have recently acquired this Walsall Ceramic pot which I think adds to the negative space required to emphasise the height of the tree. It’s a glazed pot but subtle which I like for this tree. I under planted a few small Japanese Ferns to help hide a few issues and also emphasise the height of the tree.

Mar 8 2016

Beech Repot

Have you ever had a tree and you just want a change? I have had this Beech since 1999 and for most of that time it’s been in this pot. I like the pot, I like the tree, especially in Winter image. However I just fancied a change.

I was changing another tree over into a new pot on the same day and decided to use the pot from that tree for the Beech. It’s an old Lancashire Pot I’ve had knocking around for years, a nice pot.

and here’s the Beech in it’s new home, for a few years anyway, until I get bored. When I was listening to Boon on one of the Bonsai Empire videos recently, he mentioned about experimenting with pots, making changes to see how things look and gaining experience in what pot suits what tree. I guess it stuck with me.