Just Wanted To Say ….

Thank you to everyone for all the emails and kind messages. Oh and my biggest single daily hits since I began this ol blog.

So for now I still have two solid granite lanterns for sale, tool caddy with numerous S/Steel and other tools. A Luvverly Buddah, and a rock formation, hard to explain so I’ll take a pic.

The caddy with several stainless scissors, wire cutters (recent purchase £80) and new wire in cellophane plus existing.

Three stands, a solid cherry, solid walnut, solid oak and a large slice that I will give away.

All must go.

Hinoki Cypress

You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.

Richard Branson

 

One of the nicest species I’ve ever worked with is the Hinoki Cypress. I purchased one about fifteen or so years ago and it was virtually identical to the first image below. Clearly it was in a pot and was secured as a bargain basement purchase from a Bonsai nursery. It had come out of its pot and when I bought the thing the root ball was a dry as a chip. This is NOT what you want to find with this species. They will NOT thank you for having dry feet.

Indeed make sure you check they are evenly moist throughout the year. Dry and you’ll get huge amounts of die-back. Anyway, I digress; this image is very similar.

Hinoki

You can do so much with the cypress, as the foliage is already halfway there in terms of fanning. one quick tip, DON’T use scissors to cut unless you remove from source then by all means use scissors. For keeping foliage tidy and how you might like to see it use your fingers. Hold the cloud in-between finger and thumb and just gently pinch with fingers of the other hand. Not using your nails.

Moving on to 2014 I thought long and hard if I should lop the top off and think about a completely different style. As it happens I decided against a ‘chop-job’ and just spent some time seeing if I could get a tree that looked like a real tall grand tree in the wild. I’m initially pleased and the following image as is. i’ve done more, but I need to take another image. still struggling with the Canon 6D but that is another story.

Procumbens All Change

If you look for perfection, you’ll never be content.

        Leo Tolstoy

Not been around in a while as health issues and moving home (we hope) have taken priority. I have however had a good week or two and thought I would spend a bit of time on all my trees.

I only have eight trees now so really I can now actually enjoy spending time working with them rather than thinking of it as a chore. When I first started on the road to Bonsai and over subsequent years I became what I can only imagine as addicted to having more and more trees.

sure I had nothing like the amount as many do and have done over time mostly because pretty much all my trees were large ones. Some so heavy it took two to move them. Thirty-one years later and I’ve gone much much smaller. Sure not Shohin sized but all manageable by one person and don’t need the wheelbarrow to move them.

I’ll upload a few others, but for now my old cascading Procumbens had gone a bit bushy again so figured I sit and think about a future for it. I repotted three years ago after obtaining a rather nice pot whilst up at the Swindon Winter image Show.

Here it can be seen as a Yeti like Cascade.

The pot above was a very heavy one from Peter Chan. The great problem with the Procumbens Juniper is the foliage gets pretty heavy and creating a cascade became difficult for me, as I found the weight of the branch required permanent wiring to keep any kind of shape.

Here it can be seen after a fall in high winds with some branches broken. I threw it in this pot which I quickly purchased from the local Garden Centre. To give an idea of size the slab that the pot is sat on is 40cm in diameter.

Again I figured I would leave it and see what happens. It recovered well and I cleaned it out to see once more if a possible cascade without permanent wire was possible. See the first image. Also this one. Cleaned out and removed from pot to go into the PC grey one.

The root-ball was indeed looking well recovered and so into the PC pot it went. Over time I just didn’t or could not get my head round the tree. I wondered if actually creating something with this one was out of my own skill-set? I’m not to proud to admit at times I’ve wondered if I was capable, and fumbled at times. Oh I thought I’d include the absolute original image of the tree. This was prior to falling and prior to a much needed trim.

Moving on and as I started off saying eventually I had had enough of constant wiring and thus decided enough was enough and into a much smaller more manageable pot. This was the one I spoke about earlier the one I got from Swindon.

And yet I still wasn’t happy! Yes it looked to me a heck of a lot better but balance wise it wasn’t right and I still wondered if it had too many branches. Moving bang up to date from 2011 when I popped it into the pot above, I purchased another pot whilst in Swindon this year at the winter Image Show, and paid the mighty sum of £22.50 for it. Brand new, Chinese, perfect condition and deep enough to get a bit more root growing and also to see how it looks in a more rectangular pot. Incidentally I should say I like the following image very much and it will be my intention to get another rectangular pot but not so deep.

Taken a couple of days ago March 2014 in the new pot. Tree needs an overall tweak bend over to the left by a few mm which i’ll do with the foliage when recovered from the repot.

Thank you if you are still with me and reading; I hope you enjoyed it?

That Funny wee Pine Updated.

Nothing is impossible to the willing mind.      

Books of the Han Dynasty

Did a little more work on the little Japanese White Pine. It’s an odd variety; genetically dwarfed, but with flaky plate bark which is most certainly an indication it is growing on nice healthy Black Pine roots.

I think not! There is absolutely no sign of any graft whatsoever. I will continue to research. My good pal Will B suggested that I consider a lean of the tree to bring the crown neatly over the base of the tree; currently it is not. Funny ol thing styling; one MUST do what one likes. In other words if it works for you then it is job done. Getting on now I find if I like what I see then that is goodenuff for I 🙂

So below you can see what I removed and an image taken today with my new Canon 6D Full Frame camera. Still finding my way round the latter 🙂 The bits I have removed is about half of the original tree / plant. I forgot and the green bins were emptied before I thought about retrieving it.

A Funny Wee White Pine.

All that really belongs to us is time; even he who has nothing else has that.

Baltasar Gracian

When my substantial Japanese White Pine and I parted company and it went to a new custodian I stipulated that the deal should also include a small White Pine. Well small it was and it sat for weeks and weeks wondering what on earth I could possibly do with it!

Well Saturday was a great health day and with sunshine the order of the day I felt it was now or never. Many branches had been pruned very badly over time with quite a few growing back on themselves. I truly didn’t think it had anything going for it.

The tree as it was in its raw state. Excuse the photography; I’ve sold my old 500D DSLR and await my new camera.

After a while I started to make some progress. I’ve now removed about 70-80% of the existing foliage and branch network. More to do but here it is as is today.

Now I just need to get a suitable pot. Fancy a round one at 20-22cm in diameter.

Super Storm on the way

I understand we are about to be hit by a mega super-storm this Monday the 28th October 2013. All Bonsai should be safely down from display benches and you really need to check that you have all in place that you can.

Today we took a nice walk out to the Curry Moor Pumping station; not far from where we live. Just a few 50mph gusts but no real difficulties. This image is looking out to East Lyng from CM.

Be safe and be well.

Tiny World.

At this time of year I am really just waiting to get stuck into the Pines and look to make arrangements ready for winter. The weather has been OK and continues to be so. We are all wishing for an ‘Indian Summer.’ No idea why that name but Mum said it and so did my Nana which is good enough for me!

Anyway, I’ve sold off a few bits and bobs lately and have found that my photography interest has gone on a few steps to yes you guessed miniature stuff! Had to come really. So for now I’ve nothing Bonsai or Accent wise, and wanted to keep the blog alive; maybe others have an interest in this interesting world?  I’m using a Canon 500D with a 100mm Canon f2.8 Macro lens. I’ve some AF extension tubes now so hoping to get closer still.

Thank you for all the kind messages; I really appreciate it. For now then …. a small selection of what I consider to be beautiful bugs!

Momiji

A fantastic blog entry from John Milton in Japan.

John Milton Bonsai

Recently I had this Japanese maple to work on

The picture here is in fact the back. In the rush, I didn’t give it a lot of consideration to be honest and there is no direct back branch which, didn’t make it entirely obvious at a quick glance at the time.
Unfortunately I didn’t get round to taking a pic before it was de-foliated but, this tree has a good leaf character.

A couple of pic’s of the base at its front.

I then cut back the tree (to improve taper and shorter internodes) and proceeded to wire it.

This was the first time that I had wired a Momiji here, i was a little unsure what finish to go for and I tried to go for the more natural image of the branches rising as they reach the apex.

Once I finished Oyakata looked over the tree and did…

View original post 190 more words

Some New Accents.

A firm tree does not fear the storm.      

Dayak

I was fortunate enough to make the Bristol Bonsai Show at the weekend of the 18th. What a fantastic show with absolute applause from me with respect to the organisation, QUALITY of trees and supporting / companion accents, trade stands .. well, the ‘whole nine yards.’ Superb and thank you all. Sadly I had the compact with me and luddite me managed to have it set on 300k per image and not 3 meg 😦

It really was impossible to single any out but spookily I managed a larger image of a stunning Elm owned by Mark and Ritta Cooper. I’m delighted to show it here on my blog. Pot is a ‘Dansai’ and stunning too.

I managed to purchase a couple of new pots from Dan Barton who had quite a remarkable choice to select from. Gwen pipped me on that gorgeous ‘curly-pot’ almost something H.R. Giger about it. Thankfully ‘Dansai’ is going to make me another but smaller. The pot is below.

My own purchases have been potted up and I include them below. The Blue pot is a Delosperma ‘graf reinet’ and was a gift from my good friend Paul B. Thank you Paul. Along with the White flowering variety Paul also gave me another colour and this one happened to be in a tiny pot Paul had made himself. It was a larger plant but I cut a length off to pot up.

This Red pot, also a ‘Dansai’ is now looking after an Echeveria that I rescued. Pot and plant go well together. This pot is a high glaze somewhat different to what I would normally have, hence the appeal.

Finally I had seen Paul with a rather nice Japanese Rose, which he got from Ritta Cooper. Without a moments hesitation I just knew I too would not be content without one. Potted on into a spare pot so now I will see how it does. Leaves are really tiny.

I was very pleased to receive a gift from Dansai which is a Hosta Blue Mouse Ears. It is exceedingly healthy and I will split it next year. Rather like the Dansai pot too. I’ve not done well with miniature Hosta of late and this specimen will be pampered. Thank you again Dan.

Looking forward to Bristol 2014!

Accent accent

No not a stammer, I bought this wee beauty from someone I knew; he makes these and many other things too. Huge amount of skill. The top unscrews and it would be suited to keeping something or things in relatively small.

Anyway I had forgotten that I bought it to use at Swindon 2013 show as part of my accent. I changed my mind at the last moment feeling the ‘hedgehogs’ were more in keeping.

At 6cm tall and 5cm wide and the widest point it is a favourite to use in the future. Thanks to Mark for reminding me it is Boxwood.