This is one of the pines collected from a bog two years ago. It has recovered well but now’s the time to remove a few branches that won’t be needed in any final design. I also needed to chase back the foliage so that the tree back buds into more suitable areas over the next few years. Once I have this I can then start to think about styling the tree.
This was the tree being collected
and now before cut back.
A straight bit here needs to be removed.
And after cutting back
With all that was going on at the exhibition, is was easy to forget that just out the door was a bonsai nursery! We were blessed with some sunshine for part of each day and many folk took the chance to have a walk around and see the sale trees and Mr Greedy’s Collection. Here’s a few for you to see.
Had a bit of a session this afternoon dividing up some pines we collected a few years ago.
These are Scots Pine, Sylvestris and were collected from a bog and are typical of that shape. Looking forward to a little styling and pruning at the weekend 🙂
Phil looking all coy, not a typical sight!
I have updated the video of the big Scots Pine that Phil did the bending on with Ryan Neil back in January. After 6 months the wire had to be removed as it was starting to cut in. However Phil left the guy lines in place to maintain the trunk position. There has been strong growth and there are many signs of back budding. The video is below, if you have already watched the workshop portion and want to skip to the update go to 37.30. I have also included the outtake video of Phil attempting to turn the tree for video. It wasn’t meant to be an out take but Phil in his usual style has managed to make it one. See what we have to put up with !! 🙂
I’m now sitting down to sort through the footage recorded at the Peter Warren weekend. I hope to have these up this week.
It was time to repot my Scot’s Pine from my Ryan Neil workshop. I needed to get it into something better than the plastic container that had been substituted after the tree blew off the bench a while back and smashed a rather nice Iain Baillie pot 😦 I had looked for a pot while at Willowbog but there wasn’t a pot that met all the needs. I opted to buy a temporary pot that would do for the next few years and allow me to look around for the right final pot.
The observant of you will notice that the tree still needs to tilt slightly further to the right. I need to make a further slight adjustment but this is mostly down to the wrong angle from which I took the photo!
The last big video out of the Ryan Neil weekend is this one featuring the Pinus ‘Put it back in the van’ Sylvestris that Phil brought. Most would now like to put it in the back of their van 🙂
Ben was busy with the camcorder when all the bending work was being done and we thought it was well worth a share to show the techniques that Ryan used to bend a heavy trunk on this pine.
I have a few ideas for some very short video clips picking out interesting points from the demo instead of having to watch all 3 hours 48 minutes of it. So keep watching the You Tube channel, which has about 100 new subscribers in a week ❗
Part of our trip to Willowbog wasn’t about bonsai, but the friendship and craic [fun] we had during the weekend. What better way to capture this than to have a video as a reminder. Not original in bonsai circles I know with others such as Andrew Sellman and Sebastijan Sandev already covering this. But this is for me and anyone else who was there to help relive good times…
Apologies to any German viewers, You are the only country that copyright has blocked viewing due to the music.
2 of 2. Now making a start on editing the demo footage. Not easy as Ryan keeps the information flow going throughout!
This is the Scots Pine that I’ll be doing in the workshop with Ryan Neil next Sunday.
I did some prep and removed some of the older needles for wiring.
After needle removal
Even remembered to cover up to catch the needles 🙂
Had a few mates around on Friday night to play with trees. Ben here found it hard to comprehend the light requirements 🙂
And the penny drops 🙂 Phil gives his salute to the greater bonsai community as per usual.
Michael was first to arrive with a Larch for wiring.
After Michael and I diligently wired the tree, Phil arrived late and jumped in to do the styling. It’s OK , I’ll fix it for Michael another day 😉
Ben brought a clump of Lonicera collected from a garden. We worked through in and removed a few unwanted trunks and left what will be the basis of it’s future image.
Remaining stumps will be carved away.
John McP brought a Spruce that he tells me has been neglected for a number of years. John’s new to the club but has been dabbling with bonsai for a few years on his own.
The tree has a few issues, leggy branches, bar branches and a few empty areas that will need work. However, this is a great tree for John to learn from. We only wanted to do a little branch selection on the night and get John wiring. We only wired the primary branches to drop them down and create an future, older image for the tree. The green was thinned out and will be left until next year as we try and promote some better inner structure to work with.
Ian B brought along a Scots Pine that he has grown from seed. Ian must be about 150 years old as the bark on this little fellow is very nice indeed. I didn’t get a before shot sadly. After everyone else had left, Ian and I worked through this tree and got it wired. We removed about 50% of the foliage. There were a few options with this one. Ian opted to keep the hanging primary branch. There remains a nice literati option for the future if required.
An enjoyable evening.
Shop for quality bonsai
bonsai and garden
The Kaizen Bonsai Blog
Teaching, Learning, Enjoying Bonsai
The ramblings of an old artist and someone who would like to grow better bonsais trees
my bonsai
My wood creations
Hand Crafted Furniture
Creativity Through Bonsai
dirt leaves flowers
bonsaï | vidéo | Japon - ActuBonsaï
Japan's aesthetic, craftsmanship and spirit
Bonsai with a hint of madness...
"Tibolar-RS. your soil needs it, your plants will love it"
Bonsai Eejit 