Apr 6 2013

Blogging From the Bog

I did a live post yesterday from the bog while we were collecting Scot’s Pine. It was a rare sunny day and as usual turned out to be one of the highlights of the bonsai year. Good company good craic, and good results.

Funny story, guess who forgot to put the memory card in the camera? Yep me! Luckily Stephen had his camera with him and I copied his card Phew! This means that I was actually in a few photos and there is evidence that I do actually do a little work.

Highlight of the day for me was watching Phil Fingers stepping into a hole and sinking into freezing water up to the knee. The usual abuse was given only for me to find a different hole a few minutes later. 😀

We cut back a few larger trees to collect at some point in the future. The land owner says that they’ll still be there for a while and we are the only people who he trusts to collect on the site. Therefore we can go longer term with a few of them.

We collected a few smaller ones and finished early enough to get everything potted up in the one day.

Here’s some photos courtesy of Stephen.

Off with it’s head!

Evidence of Saw Fly Larvae attack

Nature’s branch styling

mix mixing

the haul

surprise 🙂

peep-a-boo

tiddlers at the end. [Stephen and Phil 🙂 ]

Mar 3 2013

Four Pot Up

Yes, Stephen managed to find his way to my house, so we had four for the potting up session. 🙂

We had to do some major shuffling of trees in and out of protective cover before we started but space was found for everything. The spruce were potted first and put into a tunnel with last years spruce. Sphagnum moss only seems to be the way to go with Sitka Spruce. Last years trees loved it producing a lot of fresh roots.

We then moved on to the Hawthorn. The first one Stephen lifted bit him on the forehead, opps! We experimented a little with mixes to try out different options, time will tell.

Ben also brought a few trees of his own to get potted and we both finished these off before calling it a day. I didn’t take many photos to be honest, it was a very busy session and dirty hands and cameras don’t mix. You will see a triple trunk in the gallery that I lifted. Bark not very mature compared to some of the others but a nice tree for the future all the same.

Stephen was quick to point out that he was the oldest there yesterday but with all of us mumbling about aches and pains, he said he was the fittest of the four of us!! I would like to point out that he took Friday off by virtue of senile dementia setting in and his failure to find the collecting site when he was half a mile away at one point. Fittest my arse 🙂

Today I plan to catch up with some of my regular repotting on my own. I’m actually looking forward to a little time on my own in the garage with the radio on and wee trees for company. Spring must be in the air 🙂

Smaller Spruce for potting

Think he’s happy?

Spruce from last year and this year together

Potted in situ

Some of the Hawthorn

fittest of the four

Last year’s Scots Pine out of the tunnel

What’s this one like

root pruning

potting up

Rufus on the sniff

It fits

How the hell am I getting a pot to fit this!

Triple trunk

Nice future

scale

beauty and the beast

angle?

Smaller Spruce for potting

Think he’s happy?

Spruce from last year and this year together

Potted in situ

Some of the Hawthorn

fittest of the four

Last year’s Scots Pine out of the tunnel

What’s this one like

root pruning

potting up

Rufus on the sniff

It fits

How the hell am I getting a pot to fit this!

Triple trunk

Nice future

scale

beauty and the beast

angle?

Mar 2 2013

Two and a Half Men

Yesterday we were supposed to be four but we ended up as three, well two and a half as Ben is the baby/new boy in the group 🙂 Stephen was coming late and was last seen throwing his satnav from the car window and returning home 😛

We ploughed on without the baker and managed to get the ‘all important’ permission from the land owner. Not easy to track down as everyone who seemed to own the land was either dead, moved, or was a millionaire recluse!! After a chat with the owner about, cattle, pigs, money grabbing sisters and how to tell the difference between spruce and fir, we managed to make a start in the first of two fields.

I got off to a flyer by ripping my hand on barbed wire fencing! The Hawthorn we were after were hard to collect. Rocky ground and deep roots meant that many were not worth the effort. We did however collect 7 before lunch. We had to stop as Ben’s stomach was making noises that were scaring the local wildlife!

After lunch we moved to the other field which proved to be better. There is even scope for a return visit for further collecting. At this point we knew Stephen had given up and buggered off back south to Belfast. We wanted to make a return visit to our old Spruce site to see what we had missed. When we got there, we found 3 spruce worth the effort, 2 of which are rather special, for us any way. We had great success with these last year only losing 1 of the 5 collected and it was rather short of viable roots. These three root wise are looking good. Part of the site had been bulldozed and if we hadn’t lifted the ones last year, they would have been destroyed. Lucky break!

Anyway, here’s the day in photos. Might even do a trip video for a laugh 🙂 Potting up tomorrow.

On route, collecting Ben

Driver for the Day

Misty Mountains

Misty mountains

Not how you are meant to recycle!! Some people!!!

Morning session begins

Phil straight in

boulder mover

and out she comes

Ben’s first, popped his cherry 😉

and he looks happy

Hurry up Phil

My first of the day

old grass and moss cleared

and out she comes

plenty of root

loppers out

Keep at it Ben

the first 7

don’t think he likes the camera!

now that’s just not nice!

dual carriageway?

Afternoon session

rock splitter

our work bench

typical hawthorn

the fingers from a distance!

setting the table

a closer look

but not collectable

an amazing shohin once chopped

moving on to the first spruce

checking roots

second spruce

height reduced after collection

a great day

and a full van.

Mar 1 2013

Four Go Collecting

This morning Phil, Stephen, Ben and I go collecting Hawthorn, we hope! It’s a new site, and we hope the quality is good but we still have to get permission. We have a good track record with permission getting so fingers crossed for tomorrow. We do have a plan ‘B’ just in case. No, it’s not just steal them!! We have another site nearby. This is the field we hope to be wandering around at about 10am 🙂

Sep 6 2012

Sorry Spruce

After our collecting trip back in February we came back with some rather nice Spruce. Most came with good rootballs and are still thriving well into there second flush of growth this year.

This one was always going to be touch and go as it had very little root. It went to Phil’s poly tunnel were it spent some time on his heat bed in an attempt to stimulate enough growth to survive. Sadly it didn’t make it. What a pity, it would have made a tasty tree.

Jul 27 2012

Hardening Off

I decided yesterday to do a little shuffling of trees that had been collected in the Spring. Well, when I say me, I mean my two sons working under my direction.

Most where still in poly tunnels and I wanted to get them out to harden off a bit. The foliage as you can see here shows that most have responded well after collecting. There was a mixture of Scots Pine, Spruce and Larch.

I’m running rather low on space!! Had to add a few temporary benches to facilitate them.

All squeezed in! With trees visiting on holiday care it’s a tight fit!

Jul 12 2012

Mouldy Old Spruce

Stephen and I took a closer look at the Spruce we collected back in February. They have been in a poly tunnel all this time and have been way in the back were it was hard to check. With me being rather indisposed of late, it’s been hard to keep a close eye on what was happening. All looked good from the front, but when we got a closer look, we found that one of the Spruce had a patch of bad mildew due to poor air circulation and high humidity.

Stephen hoses out some old needles that had gathered in the dense foliage, this hadn’t helped with the mildew either.

The other side of the tree is still covered with lush growth.

It had been in the back corner.

Stephen slipped along the side and opened up all the air vents to allow for better circulation. That keg is really starting to get in the way!!

What was good to see was new roots emerging on all the Spruce. They are in pure Sphagnum moss.

We’ve just got the second budding and also signs of good back budding as well.

Jun 2 2012

Happy Snapping

We had a bit of a photo session the other week. Hugh can down to my garage with a better camera and some lighting. The plan was to photograph some trees with a view to submitting them for selection in the Best of British Exhibition next year. You never know a few might be selected but we had good fun anyway taking the shots.

These are some of the trees we shot. Some mine, some Josh’s, some Phil’s and some Stephen’s. Bar the shohin, all show front and back.

May 23 2012

Blog Post of the Day

This one is a belter! Once you get the Google Chrome translate going, sit back and read a very well structured post from El Tim [The Team] on what to look for and what to watch out for when buying yamadori. It’s a long post and you’ll maybe want to skip the funnies at the start but stick with it.

Buying Yamadori Guide

May 4 2012

Arse About Face #1

I was looking at a few of my bonsai with Robert last week and as is usual with Robert, he came up with a few other possible options with trees that I have had for many years.

I love it when I get the opportunity to discuss trees like this. It lets you know that you can become complacent with trees that you see every day and you should teach yourself always to look at your bonsai with fresh eyes whenever you can.

One of the ideas that Robert came up with was using the back of this Yew as the possible new front. [hence arse about face :-)] I bought this tree from Robert many years ago and I think he would like it back. Not happening !

Here is the original front as selected by Marco Invernizzi back in 2004 during a workshop.

The tree will be getting some work done sometime this year as a few of the branches are rising and some structural work is required. Sometimes I look at this front and feel there is too much white wood in your face. The base is also boring with a flat section of deadwood and a fat live vein.

Robert suggested that the back might be another option. The base is better and the image looks fuller but still has interest and character. There would need to be some branch adjustments, but I rather like the idea. I now have it turned to this aspect so I can view it from my window and see it every day. The potting angle would need to be changed. As with most trees at this point, there are points for and against the new front. Just need to decide on balance which is the best option. What do you think?