Apr 13 2015

A Cracking Night!

Last week I had a night at my garage for the guys who do one to ones with me. I needed a hand getting a large Scots pine bent into shape. This was an old tree collected from a bog back in 2012. This is the tree at the time of collection.

This was it a few weeks ago, sitting outside where it’s been for the last 3 years. It’s been chopped back a few times to remove unwanted trunks and branches and to help chase back the foliage.

The idea was to create a twin trunk image from the remaining foliage. However it’s always good to have a Plan B!!

Here we have the tree placed into the workshop after a 4 man lift. Took a coat of paint off the door on the way in!

Some deadwood will need to be worked.

Help from the chaps in getting the raffia applied.

And then my Plan A went out the window lol. When bending the lighter of the two trunks I managed to snap it beyond the point of repair/survival. I was a bit amazed at the time to be honest as I hadn’t applied that much pressure and the trunk had been raffia’d, taped, and cable-tied. On closer inspection later I noticed a weak point where a branch had died previously, but still…

I was quite pleased with how calm I remained. Nothing I could do to change what had occurred, all I could do was look for options within the remaining trunk to create a tree. The original plans for this trunk had to be dropped and the whole tree evaluated to select another styling option. Once done we again got to work and did a little more bending, this time with no mishaps.

This is how the tree finished before the guys had to head home.

As the branches where all hanging at weird angle with buds pointing towards straight down, I felt that it would be better to fire on and get the tree fully wired so all buds were facing up to help with vigour. In some cases this was exaggerated on the weaker buds. This is how the tree turned out. I actually had another smaller branch break, again with hardly any pressure applied. Some trees just seem to be a pain in the arse!

A first step on a long journey, a lot of back budding will be required but the tree is budding strongly this year. I’m pretty pleased with the result, possibly a better image that I was aiming for with the twin trunk image.

Mar 22 2015

Group Workshop

Saturday was a group workshop hosted by myself and Phil. Eight people signed up for the day and you can see one is hiding his identity for employment reasons 🙂

The usual talk though of workshop trees at the start of the session.

Jamie’s Scots Pine before.

Ian B’s Scots Pine before, sadly no after shot.

Mark’s chunky Elm before.

Everyone getting busy.

Maciej’s Larch before.

Alan’s White Pine Before.

and After

Maciej’s Larch Afterwards.

Jamie’s Juniper there for advice and a cut back. This is now going to be a squat heavy trunked tree as we opted to removed the straight section which lacked taper.

Ian B’s Larch after some detailed wiring.

A possible new front.

Piotr’s Juniper afterwards. Should have taken a back shot as I think that’s a better option showing off more of the deadwood.

Owen’s Juniper before

Piotr’s Juniper before.

Mark’s Elm after some branch placement and a repot.

No where near enough photos taken, but in our defence, we were busy! Apologies to those whose trees missed out on photos especially the after shots.

Everyone seemed to enjoy their day with some great work carried out by all.

Mar 14 2015

One to One : Scot’s Pine

Another one to one today, this time helping out with a tricky repot of a Scots Pine. I love this tree! It’s been in a wooden box for a few years to increase vigour after a few years dealing with Needle Cast. I helped with the first styling of this tree back on 11th September 2001, an easy date to remember due to the tragedy that unfolded as we finished the tree.

This was the tree today.

And after a tidy up and old needle removal…

Then the repot

and the result

Over exposure but kinda cool all the same …

It’s been nice to keep a connection with this tree over the years. I even looked back in my files and found some older photos.

September 2001

March 2002

And a virtual image I made back in 2002. Not too far off the mark.

Stephen reworking the tree back in 2004

2011 with Stephen for scale. The tree isn’t really that big, Stephen is tiny!

Being inspected by Peter Warren in 2012

Mar 11 2015

One to One : Zelkova Group

Had another one to one session on Tuesday night, this time helping to get this Zelkova group planting on the right track. This is a very natural looking group put together last year after the trees had been field grown for a number of years by a previous owner. The group needed a serious working through planning for the best approach for each tree and branch. We had some die back to deal with and a few straight branches to sort out.

This was it last April after putting it together.

This was it on Tuesday night. Extension growth has been cut back a few times over the last growing season.

This is it after pruning last night with it’s new owner. Still some branches in need of work but care needs to be taken not to lose the naturalness of this image. Another year in the training box gaining vigour will allow for more detailed work next Spring and perhaps a pot.

Mar 1 2015

One to One: Zelkova

I helped out with the development of this Zelkova on Friday night. The owner has just bought the tree and wanted to get it moving in the right direction. I know this tree well and have seen it pass through the hands of 2 other club members over the years. It originally came into Northern Ireland from Japan back in 2002 I think. Below is it when it can in and also sitting on the bench in the background in the nursery in Japan.

This is the tree now. It’s had an up and down life here. After some great work early on it went through a period of neglect due to the owners personal circumstances. At one point near death, it was bought by another friend of mine who did a great job of getting it back to full health. Many of the original branches had died and in some places new branches have started to develope.

It has a great nebari, probably the best feature of the tree, and some very old bark on the trunk showing the age of the tree.

Although the image as it sits now looked good from a distance, there was a lot of issues with heavy branches high up the tree, new thin branches lower down that need to be grown on to fatten, and some ugly pruning wounds that need reduced now. We picked a slightly different front that the last owner to improve the trunk line and taper.

This is it after pruning and reduction of wounds, Some branches have been left uncut to allow extension and thickening.

And this it it after some wiring to reposition branches. Still a way to go with this one but give it 5 years of good care and it will be a very nice tree.

Also done in the same session was this little Shohin Japanese Maple. It needed a repot and into something a little larger to allow for development.

This Shohin Korean Hornbeam also got a repot and a serious thinning out of the foliage too. Sorry no before photo. Typical of mass produced imported material but with some effort I think it can make a nice image.

For anyone interested in a one to one, click on the tab at the top.

Feb 15 2015

One to One : Japanese Maple Clump

This really nice Japanese Maple Clump came to my place on Saturday for a little work. Already a great tree, it needed a little work to keep the foliage under control and to help improve ramification.

One of the issues with this tree was the trunk on the far right which is a lot stronger than the other. This was going to need a heavier pruning.

We started with the other trunks to build a better structure. This is something that needs to be kept on top of with a decent tree or thickening of branches on outer reaches will occur and years of work can be ruined. Afterwards we removed quite a bit from the fast growing trunk on the right and then sealed all the cuts to stop dessication.

The reduced strong trunk.

Next step was to remove tree moss that was covering the nebari and starting to climb the tree. This was hiding one of the best features of this tree. Initial work done with a toothbrush and fingers but was finished off with a water jet.

The final change was to do with it’s position in the pot and the direction of movement of the tree. The tree was potted a year ago and sat centrally in the pot. However looking at the movement of the main trunk and the nice flow of those to the left of it, we decided that by potting the tree slightly further to the right and giving more negative space to the left would add more interest to the image. This will require the strong growing tree on the right to be kept under tight control. The tree was taken out of the pot and a little root pruning allowed us to reposition it without the requirement for a full blown repot. The roots were fantastic for a years growth.

The tree before and after work. The plan is for the lower left branches to be extended further to help create a more dynamic image over the next few years. Pot is slightly big for this Winter image but perfect for the development that’s required to take it to the next level.

Jan 14 2015

Saturday Workshop

I’ve been taking the easy option and reblogging Munster Bonsai Clubs posts about the weekend but I do have a few photos of my own that help capture the great day we had. I’ve been back to what has been a hectic few days in work and am still trying to recover from the serious travelling and work that the guys down there had us doing 😉 Anyway, here’s a few of my shots.

Dec 20 2014

Image

Burrs X in 2015

Dec 13 2014

Avon Tyrrell Bonsai Workshop 2014 Video

Great video here that captures the moments from this years Avon Tyrrell Bonsai Workshop back in October.

If you are interested in next years workshop running October 16th to 18th then give Dean a shout via email: avontyrrell.bonsai@gmail.com

Dec 10 2014

Ryan’s Back

It’s not looking good for me making it over to the Ryan Neil workshops at Willowbog Bonsai in April. I’m truly gutted about it.

I can’t see Ryan making it to the UK too often and this is a missed opportunity. Having done a workshop back in 2013 I know just what I’m going to be missing.

Here’s a taster from 2013, the videos from the demo day.