Jun 17 2011

The Bonsai Art of Japan Episode 5

Just Uploaded to You Tube today, the latest episode of the Bonsai Art of Japan.

My favourite bit has to be the female voice over. How high a note can you hit when you say ‘SANDPAPER!!’ Love it 🙂

Mr Fujikawa, ciggie in mouth, is also a touch of genius 🙂 Great to have the actual master taking part in the videos. Click on Mr Fujikawa below to watch the video.

Jun 9 2011

Japanese Maple Branch Structure

This is a Japanese Maple that I have had for a few years. It has gone through a few years were the growth has been weak and I have lost a branch or two. I have placed it into a training box to gain vigour and it has worked.

As part of the bonsai school with Peter on Saturday we defoliated the tree to examine the branch structure. I had shortened the overall branch length to encourage back budding. It was severely lacking in secondary ramification and I was hoping to find new growth on the interior.

Peter talking through the structure after defolation.

This is the tree now.

Here you can see strong new growth in the interior of the tree. These have been left long to encourage the branch to thicken. A branch like this on the lower limb should be one of the thicker branches and at least as thick as the one on the other side. Ideally we should have left the leaves on it to aid it’s strong growth. We got carried away with the defoliation 🙂

May 23 2011

Cherry Experiment

I wired this Fuji Cherry over the Winter and now it needed it removed due to rapid growth. This posed a problem due to all the dense leaves. I remembered that a few years ago it was attacked by caterpillars in early Spring and it responded by producing new leaves. I decided that I would have a little experiment and defoliate the tree. I could them trim back the extension growth to the first couple of nodes and remove the wire with ease. It had only managed to hold onto one cherry. I left this on for enjoyment.

Here it is before. I had already trimmed back the strongest growth as this stage.

and after defoliation.

I looked as best I could to see if cherry bonsai were ever defoliated but couldn’t find anything online. I’ll be interested to see what happens and what Autumn colour I have this year, if any!!!

May 22 2011

Maple Thinning

This Coral Bark Maple has grown rapidly this Spring to the point were the canopy is so full that no light is reaching the inner buds and branches. This needs to be rectified to avoid die back on the inside of the tree.

As it was the last day of the Premiership season with all the ups and downs of relegation, I brought the tree into the conservatory to work on. A rare occurrence in my house.

I took a quick snap before I started in earnest. Notice how little you can see of Sky Sports on the telly.

I then started to trim out any extension growth taking it back to the first two leaves on the branch.

Here you can see the centre shoot removed.

Now to let extra light reach the interior of the tree I remove one of leaves from each pair on the exterior of the tree.

This is the leftovers.

Now compare how much of the telly can be seen through the tree.

and here it is with a clear background.

It’s still early stages as far as development of this tree goes. It will need a major wiring in the Autumn to correct a few issues.

Oh, and I was gutted that Blackpool went down 😦

May 16 2011

Another Elm Air Layer

While Stephen was here today we layered his Elm. The apex that looked contrived was going to be chopped off to improve the tree. But on closer inspection we thought it would make a nice twin trunk Shohin 🙂

The apex, obviously made by poor wiring many years ago.

This bit could make a nice twin trunk.

May 14 2011

Old Joe Yew

This is Old Joe, a Golden variety of Yew that I dug from my Uncles garden after he died 4 years ago. It was tall, poker straight and not much to look at but it is my memory of my Uncle, so I’m trying the make the best of it.

I did the basic carving on it last year. This was an attempt to add interest to a very straight and boring tree. After some consideration I removed a tall jin at the top of the tree a short time later. It was just too tall and leaned back too far from the apex foliage.

Today I wanted to try out the new carving bits and decided to do the basic carving required at the chopped jin and maybe do a little refinement work on last years work.

This was it last year.

Today with a little more growth.

This is the chopped jin to be worked on.

Tools at the ready…

The chop after basic carving and a coat of Lime Sulphur.

A little more detail added lower down.

May 12 2011

Cork Bark Elm Air Layer

I took a notion to create a broom Style Cork Bark Elm. (Doesn’t he already have one!) Yes, I have one but I want one slightly bigger 🙂 I’m not exactly short of Cork Bark Elms see next pic, and I have one that I had styled but didn’t have great branch placement. I was going to chop the top but decided to air layer instead.

Some Corkies in the Tunnel.

This is the one selected for layering.

I removed a few branches and marked out the area to ring.

I used a sharp knife and cut top and bottom of the planned ring.

I removed the bark in between with side branch cutters.

It’s amazing just how thick the bark is one this variety.

Sphagnum moss is then applied arounf the ring and held in place with cling film.

To finish off I wrap a strip of pond liner around it to keep it dark to encourage roots. his can be removed to check for white roots inside the cling film.

It’s back in the Poly Tunnel and has had a good soaking to ensure the moss is evenly damp. I’ll keep you posted. I think this should issue roots quite quickly.

May 12 2011

English Elm Development

This is an English Elm I spotted at Stephen’s yesterday. After it initial flush Stephen pruned it back in an attempt to get back budding, I think we can say it worked. Just look at those buds popping.

I like this tree except for the apex which looks man made with the contrived bend. Although it would set the tree back a bit, I would chop this and regrow the apex in a more natural looking form. Being the apex of the tree and the most vigorous part, it should fill out quickly.

This was the tree back in May last year. A full image but the branch structure was a mess with poor secondary branching and most growth at the branch ends and no internal growth.

This was it at the start of April this year after it’s first flush of growth. Stephen had worked on the tree last Summer and you can see an improvement in the branches from the photo above.

This was it yesterday after responding to a heavy trim 3 weeks ago. You can see the buds popping along the primary branches were there was very little secondary branching. This will improve the quality of the tree.

May 9 2011

A little bit every day

Jamie commented on one of my posts yesterday and asked if I worked on trees every day. I replied that it felt like it at the moment and that it mostly depended on my work getting in the way.

This got me thinking about what is required to keep on top of a collection. I’m the first to admit that I have far too much sitting about the place and sometimes my better trees miss out on that next step of refinement. I find the best way to stay on top is to do that little task every day. I’ll water everything and then look for something to do that fits the time I have available.

Today I trimmed back a Cork Bark Chinese Elm, trimmed a few extension shoots from my Korean Hornbeam, shortened in the second flush of shoots on a hawthorn and took a few photos of my Cotoneaster in Flower.

Here’s a few photos from today.