Apr 7 2012

Ben Bonsai Ben

Yes, two Ben’s 🙂 Both were at my place last weekend and had a tree or two with them. Here’s what they brought.

First up Ben F. A Fuji Cherry

Ben’s Inherited Japanese Black Pine .

The first styling of his Japanese Larch

and Ben B’s trees. His Fuji before pruning.

and after

His Scots Pine, we gave it a little bud selection and removed some old needles. Ben plans to style this in a Peter Warren Workshop in October.

Feb 19 2012

Knackered!

I was seriously considering not posting at all to day but I can’t let a good run end so easily 🙂

Just spend a very busy 2 days hosting our Club Bonsai School and Workshop with Willowbog Bonsai. I’m shattered now and Peter is already away to bed. One of the main reasons was the wiring of Hugh’s Scots Pine. Phil helped a little with it on the day 😉

Before

After

Jan 31 2012

Forest Inspiration

Last Friday, when Graham brought this Larch Forest to my house for some work it was admired by some of the other guys there.

Hugh was one of them and a few days later he sent me this photograph that he took in Connemara. It’s a Pine wood growing on an Island at a place called Lough Clare. Hugh said that the larch group reminded him of this photo and he looked it out for me. If you want to view a bigger image just pop over to my FlickR account, link on the side bar.

As much as I like Graham’s larch Forest, it has a ways to go before it matches this beautiful scene. I feel a Summer trip to the West of Ireland coming on 🙂

Jan 30 2012

Garage Night Tree #5

This is Hugh’s Scots Pine. I sold this one to Hugh about 6 years ago. It was originally collected in Scotland and was the first Scots Pine I ever owned. I was delighted to see it again and help with a restyling.

No after photo as yet as we didn’t get it finished on the night but we’ll keep you posted.

Out of interest, I looked up some old photos of this tree. This first one dates back to 1997.

This is it in 2002.

Nov 9 2011

Hugh’s Pine

Hugh brought his Scot’s Pine to my place today for styling. This was a recent purchase from Willowbog Bonsai and had a little main branch placement at some point in it’s past.

We had removed the old needles last Friday night and most of the prep for wiring had been done.

We wanted to show off the amazing bark and deadwood that the tree had to offer. A lot of the foliage was leggy and will need to be chased back over the next few years. With that in mind, we wanted to set the main structure of the tree but also wanted to leave most of the branches in place to keep the vigour for back budding. Some reduction took place and a number of unwanted branches were removed.

This was Hughs first time wiring and he showed a good aptitude for it. I did notice that by the end he had a ‘lets get this over with’ attitude 🙂 We have all been there when wiring. For some reason I find myself getting rather fond of wiring[never thought I would say that].

This is it after a few bottom branches had been wired.

And after wiring.

Hugh was happy with the result. I would consider a few alterations at some point. As they say, there’s always options 🙂 The bottom branch may be optional, a choice for Hugh at some point down the line. Once the image fills, there are several other branches that can be removed, but, as it sits, I think it’s a good start.

Nov 6 2011

Trees from Friday Night

Here are a few of the trees worked on on Friday night. Some were styled some were discussed.

Phils Scots Pine before old needle removal.

and after…

Hugh’s Scots Pine after needle removal, shown from a few angles.

One of Ian B’s Mugo Pines grown from seed.

and after styling

and another one before.

and after

Michael’s Juniper

A little Yew I worked on.

and after, still work to do but ran out of time 😦

Oct 18 2011

A few more Record Snaps

A few more tree record snaps taken of my my trees. After a few years not bothering my arse to keep decent photographic records, I’m determined to use this blog as a way of keeping them up to date.

Japanese Larch

Scots Pine

Hawthorn

Cotoneaster

Spirea

Potentilla

Cotoneaster

Oct 11 2011

A few other trees ……

… that were for sale or sold over the weekend.

Japanese Maple

Mame Juniper

Japanese larch

Scots Pine

Japanese White Pine

Sep 8 2011

Michael’s Scot’s Pine – Part 2

Michael popped over yesterday afternoon to finish off the wiring on his Scots Pine.

PART 1 in case you missed it.

This was it before and after work.

I’m a bit disappointed with the photograph LOL looks much better in real life.

We discussed the problems that this tree has and tried to find solutions. I wanted to remove the heavy bottom branch to the right and change the viewing angle. Michael agreed that it was a possible future option.

This would have been the new front.

and this would be it with the branch removed and repotted.

A nicer flow to the trunk line, shows off more of the flaky bark and removes a heavy lower branch that will only get heavier. It would also be a better balance of foliage with a tree of that weight of trunk.

Back to the front we settled for,I find the bend on the first branch distracting. There’s plenty of branches in there but the branch structure is poor with many leggy shoots.

I didn’t get time to do a lot of tweaking and some other adjusts are needed. Michael was happy with the final product which was the main goal. All the other options we discussed are still there and I hope that next year before a repot he might consider removing that branch. Here’s a pot virtual just to give a better idea of the final position.

Sep 1 2011

Michael’s Scots Pine

Yesterday was a busy but enjoyable day for me with friends appearing both, in the afternoon, and evening to play with Wee trees. As well as Stephen in the afternoon I had Michael.

He brought a few trees but I was in the mood for his Scots Pine. The last time I had seen it in his garden, it was covered in algae. I suggested a bottle of Algae Remover from Kaizen. He took me at my word and boy did it work. No green bark anywhere on the tree.

Original Front

New front, give or take an inch and a slight tilt.

All 3 of us sat down and picked a front for the tree. I wasn’t too keen on it’s present front and not one of us picked it. Stephen went slightly off centre from the front which was a pretty decent option but I fancied the going in from the other side. As it turned out, so did Michael. It was an interesting tree to look at. Each option had faults and we discussed how to either remove these or hide them. Some of the bends where a tad man made looking but a angle change and a guy line or two would sort this. The tree was collected by Michael from a bog and the bark even on the branches was plating up nicely.

We decided to wire the tree. We knew we didn’t have enough time available to finish it but plans are made for a second afternoon next week..

Some of the foliage before wiring.