Bonsai Video of the Week #4

This week we have a great video from Mike K. of MiKo Bonsai. He discusses the styling of a garden juniper, and then shows the techniques used in the process. A great illustration of seeing the potential in a tree and then some of the techniques necessary to realise this.

Enjoy :)

The frosts have hit

The frosts have most definitely hit now in the UK. My area is lucky to escape the snow for now, but I believe it will be on its way sooner or later. My bonsai are now frozen solid in their pots, despite mostly being in the greenhouse. Although the greenhouse does not offer much rest bite from the frost, it does give me a better chance of monitoring the trees watering needs over the winter, I can easily see when they are drying out, and also do not have to worry about excess water from rain over the coming months. These severe frosts have come very early this year, so it may be that we are in for a long winter, all I can say is, hurry up spring!

Bonsai Book Review

As I have mentioned before, winter is when I do more reading and study around the subject of Bonsai. With this in mind, I thought I would present some short book reviews of books in my collection. This list will be by no means exhaustive, and there will be many for which I cannot review due to not having actually read them. Each review will just be a summary of my general opinion of the book and what it has to offer, others may have different opinions to mine.

I will start with –

The Bonsai Pocket Encyclopedia – by, Harry Tomlinson

This book was one of my very first bonsai related books. I bought it right at the start when getting interested in the subject. I was initially attracted by its small dimensions yet abundance of pages. This book immediately became my bonsai “bible”, with a large array of information and guides around the subject. The first part of the book covers the different aspects of bonsai, ranging from the art form itself, traditions, where to find stock and draw inspiration from. It also discusses the design principles of bonsai, whilst at the same time, offering a multitude of examples and pictures to help the reader visualise what is being discussed. The seasons are talked about and how they offer different opportunities and dynamics to our bonsai trees. After this section, begins an extensive species guide section, where well over 60 common species used for bonsai are set out. Within each species there is a magnitude of different information to be found including, general information, suggested styles, full cultivation information, and all of this is accompanied by at least one photo of the species as a bonsai. This whole section is very easy to follow and find the exact information you are after, the tree species are placed in alphabetic order which also makes navigation very easy. I use this section of the book often still now, when I come across a species I am unfamiliar with, I will always turn to this book to see what it says about that tree. The next section talks about the styling and maintenance of bonsai trees. First the distinct styles are outlined for the reader, and each one discussed. Then bonsai pots and tools are talked about, again, with many accompanying pictures to illustrate points. After this, many techniques are talked through including, pruning, wiring, and creating specific styles. At the end, general pests and diseases are outlined, and the prevention and treatment also given. The very last section is a dictionary of species suitable for bonsai, this time instead of supporting pictures, a more concise format is taken, giving the cultivation information, and some general habits of the tree. A large number of species and varieties are outlined in this section.

In summary, this is a really excellent book to both beginners and more advanced practitioners. There is a wealth of knowledge contained within the pages and the array of pictures and different bonsai trees are useful and inspiring to look at. This book started out as my “bible” and it still is to a degree now.

If you are interested in this book the ISBN number is – 978-0-7513-0139-7

Useful Bonsai site links

I decided to compile a list of useful websites I use on a regular basis. This list consists of both, information and guide type sites, and also online retailers who I use. I will add to the list as and when I find new sites to share.

You can find the links on the page tab on the side of this page, and also via this link - Useful Bonsai links page

Bonsai Video of the Week #3

This week's video is episode 3 from Lindsay Farr's World of Bonsai series 2. In this episode he has a look around some Japanese bonsai nurseries, and talks to the owners about some of the trees. There are some really stunning bonsai on show. The episode is split into two parts, so be sure to watch both!

Enjoy :)

Bonsai inspiration during Winter

Now we are getting into the cold months, the majority of bonsai are shutting down and going dormant until spring. This means there is less work to be done on the bonsai, and just simply monitored for watering to keep them just moist. I like to use this time to have a good think about my trees, and begin to formulate and plan the styling of trees that currently do not have any particular direction. This is not always easy, trying to envisage the style of a tree has been one of the hardest tasks I have found in this hobby. It requires sound knowledge of bonsai, horticultural expertise, and also a good degree of creativity. A method I have found particularly useful in helping this process, is the collection of inspiration. By this I mean both natural trees and finished bonsai. Whenever I go for a walk out in the country I am constantly on the look out for interesting trees, and when I find them I always have my camera ready to capture them. These photos can then be kept in a special folder on my computer and used to give me ideas on how to style some of my trees. During winter, this works even better for deciduous species, because they are devoid of leaves. This means you can really see the structure of the branching. As well as taking inspiration from naturally occurring trees, an important source of ideas comes from looking at as many bonsai as you can. This is where the internet plays a huge role. You can easily, by a couple of clicks, find many thousands of images of other people’s bonsai they are displaying on the internet. I find this very useful to look at, especially when you can search for a specific species and see examples of them. I regularly look at the galleries of as many bonsai artists as I can, and seeing this high level of bonsai really helps to see what can be achieved. Indeed, it has been said before, that an artist must first be able to mimic a master before they can become a master themselves. So by drawing ideas from other people's work, you are improving your skills in the hobby. Once you have done this enough, your own ideas and creativity will come to you a lot easier.

Bonsai Club Auction

Tuesday of this week marked the date of the annual club auction at the National Bonsai Society. Having never been to an auction of any kind, I was really looking forward to it. I had also been waiting for some time to add some decent stock to my collection. So I attended, not knowing what to really expect. When I arrived I could see a vast number of trees all layed out in the centre of the room, so I made my way over to have a good look around. I was astonished at the variety of material, ranging from very small, raw material, and even well established show-quality bonsai. I made my way round and ear-marked any trees which I would like to bid on. There was one tree which immediately struck me, this was a large Chinese Wisteria. I decided this was my main target, and settled down to wait for the auction to begin. The auction began, and people began spending their money. I was surprised at the reasonable prices at which a lot of trees were selling, it really was a good source for obtaining new material at a decent price. So the time came for the Wisteria to go on sale, at first a couple of people began to bid on it, I left them to get on with it, already with a figure in my mind on which I would go to. The bids began to slow down, so I jumped in, and managed to secure the tree after a couple of bids, and way under my top limit.

I am incredibly happy with the tree, I think it is a real stunner. I was informed also that the tree is a regular flowerer, which is what Wisteria are grown for essentially. They can take upto 20 years to begin flowering, so this news was most encouraging.

So here is the tree, it stands around 66cm tall, measures about 5 inches at the base of the trunk, and has a root spread of about 7 inches.

 

 

 

This tree is now easily my largest bonsai in my collection, it is probably also the further along it's bonsai route. I am really looking forward to next year to see if it flowers. It is also a good chance for me to enhance my skills by looking after a tree with different needs to anything I currently own. I will clean up the base and remove the moss, and carefully remove any bits of moss from the trunk. I will do this to ensure there is no risk of rot to both roots and trunk!

Bonsai Video of the Week #2

This week we have a video from Graham Potter of Kaizen Bonsai, styling a yamadori Oriental Hornbeam (Carpinus Orientalis). Always interesting to hear his thoughts on styling, design, and then see the process take form. As always, there is some carving to see too!

Enjoy

Ficus Bonsai Leaf Drop

When I first got interested in Bonsai, my first couple of trees were all bought with the intention of keeping them indoors. My further reading and research around the subject soon led me to the conclusion that this was not the ideal growing environment for the majority of material used for Bonsai. So with this new knowledge, some were moved outside where they were immediately happier, however some were less lucky and did not survive this early mistreatment. This said, there are a number of species that are used for Bonsai that are sub-tropical and therefore would not survive outside in our British weather, and so need to be cultured indoors. Now, a number of years after my initial indoor blunders, I became curious again as to whether I could now grow and indoor Bonsai and keep it both alive and healthy. One species common for indoor growing is that of Ficus, they are a sub-tropical species and like warmer temperatures, usually nothing less than 12 degrees. They are mostly evergreen, and are usually grow quite well in less than perfect growing conditions.

So the subject for my experiment was to be a Ficus. I found myself a cheap little Ficus Microcarpa, and set it up in my bedroom. The tree was ordered over the internet and when it arrived it seemed fairly healthy. It was however in a very small pot, and poor growing medium. The tree was also clearly pot-bound, with roots coming out of the drainage holes at the bottom. So my first job was to repot the tree into a more suitable sized pot and better, free-draining, growing medium. This done I gave it a drip tray underneath filled with a layer of moist gravel to increase the local humidity, which the tree would thank me for. It was placed by the windowsill in my bedroom and left there to settle in.

Ficus, although forgiving, can often be a little temperamental, and when they are moved to a new position, or repotted, can throw a bit of a wobbler and begin to shed leaves. This happened often with my first few trees, and being less experienced I presumed it was something to do with watering and then proceeded to over-water them, resulting in their demise. So when this begun to happen with this new tree, I knew my watering was correct and so had to assume it was just temporary. It is still alarming when any tree loses it’s leaves unexpectedly and so I wanted to remedy the situation as soon as possible.

I had recently read an interesting article by a forum member, who had stated the same problem and actually come up with a solution to the leaf drop problem. The solution found is to cover the tree completely with a plastic bag. This traps in the moist air and provides a humid atmosphere for the tree. So with this new advice to hand, I proceeded to cover my tree with a plastic bag. I left the bag on for a week and have now removed it. Before the bag went on, there were perhaps one or two new yellow leaves daily which then fell off. Now after the “bag treatment” I am yet to see any yellow leaves and the tree appears to be stable again. This has been a very useful technique, you can read the full article here - http://www.mariusz.andrzejak.biz

Winter Care and Protection for my Bonsai

Over the last week, the temperature here has dropped dramatically. This spurred me into starting to get some of my bonsai ready for the coming winter. Hopefully this winter will not be as bad as last, which was the coldest in memory. We do not generally get much snow here due to us being on the coast, but last year we had a thick covering for well over a month and temperatures staying firmly below zero. With this is mind, I will offer some of my smaller and more fragile bonsai some added protection this year. Included in these will be the small japanese maple seedlings which sprouted this year, as these are by no means ready for a winter outside yet. This will be in the form of an unheated greenhouse, I also have a small polythene greenhouse which can accommodate a few extras. Protection of native species is generally unnecessary as this is the weather they are used to, having said that I did lose a yamadori European Larch last year, but it was possibly on the weak side already. I had a few other losses but these consisted of species that I should of really protected, namely, a katsura Japanese maple, and a group of dawn redwoods. So not taking any chances, this year, I begun to prepare some of the trees. This mainly consisted of weeding them out and removing any moss that had appeared on the surface for the time being, the weeds and moss will only make monitoring the watering that bit harder. The moss can also offer a hiding place for creepy crawlies over the colder months. This also gave me the chance to have a good look at them, and see how they have got on this year. Most of my deciduous are now without leaf, all bar a little Japanese larch which is hanging onto its last needles, and also a trident maple which is planted in the ground, and still in full leaf. With the drop of needles on another larch of mine, the chance to wire it presents itself. Wiring a larch while it is covered in needles is almost impossible and possibly even detrimental. So wiring of these occurs strictly at the start of winter. My Chinese elm have for the last couple of years acted like evergreens, they never seem to drop their leaves for winter and carry them all the way until next spring, and the new growth. With all of the trees prepared, all that is left to do is to bring them into the greenhouse over the next month, when I see a considerable and consistent drop in our temperatures.

Bonsai Video of the Week #1

Thought I would share a random bonsai related video each week. This week it is an interesting interview allowing us an insight into the thoughts of a very renowned bonsai artist, namely Walter Pall. Sharing his thoughts on the perceived differences between Western and Japanese bonsai.

Enjoy

Selecting Material for Bonsai

Since I started growing bonsai, probably my single biggest source of both frustration and disappointment has been related to the material. For the first couple of years I was determined to create masterpieces out of completely unsuitable material aka "stick in a pot". This could only lead in one direction, that of frustration and eventual disenchantment with the hobby. I believe I have now come out of the other side of this time period, and feel a lot more realistic now when looking at potential material for use as bonsai. I mainly became frustrated with my benches being filled with very juvenile plants decades away from anything near "bonsai". This is not to say that this juvenile stock should be avoided, I do see it as a very cheap way to gain species to work on, but only if you don't mind waiting and are realistic about how to grow them in the mean time. On forums especially, I see countless new people to the hobby looking for help with either growing trees from seed or from very young plants, and countless more experienced members giving them a reality check. As a beginner myself, I can see now that, whilst it is fine to grow young trees, it is important for you to have something a little more established to work on in the mean time, so as to keep your interest in the hobby.

There has been a lot of talk recently on the Weetrees forum about this subject and some very useful criteria set out. This is helpful to new people to the hobby, to avoid the frustrations which many people suffer. This said, my problem has always been lack of disposable income, and in general, older and more developed stock comes at a higher price. However, if you look around enough, good material can be sourced from many different places, sometimes at little to no cost. Neighbours clearing out gardens are an excellent source of unwanted and usually quite established shrubs and trees, the so called "garden yamadori". Also commercial building work can throw up certain opportunities, whereby they may be clearing some land to build something new on it, and you can ask to remove any trees which may be there already for them.

All in all, I feel I can now start from a new point in my hobby, and cease buying unsuitable material, and look out for more suitable stuff.

Maple Air-layer update

So I was tidying around some of my trees over the weekend, and I couldn't resist having a look inside the air-layer I have previously mentioned on here. I thought, I may as well check before I go to the trouble of wrapping it up and protecting it over the coming winter months. So I began to unwrap the plastic covering, and as I did so, my worst fears were realised. It appears the layer has been unsuccessful, as underneath the layers of plastic and moss, there were no roots, but an abundance of callus material and healed over cambium at the layer site. All I can attribute to this is that, when I originally did the layer, I did not fully remove all of the cambium layer, and so it has been able to heal. I cannot say that I am not disappointed by this, but on a plus, it is of no real issue to the tree, it is still perfectly healthy. All this means is that instead of being able to remove the top of the tree next Spring, I will have to recut the layer, probably in April/May, and wait again. I feel this is another positive on the virtues of airlayers as a way of propagation, as it can be seen that even if it is unsuccessful, you get a second chance. Something that is impossible, with say, cuttings. Anyway, a slight set back but not a major one. It has served more in a lesson of attention to detail, and less haste to get things done.

Weetrees Bunjin Competition

On the Weetrees forum there was proposed a Bunjin/Literati tree competition. Entrants had untill the 31st of September to enter a piece of material, which would then be worked on and developed into a literati style bonsai. Entrants would have from the 31st of September untill the 31st of December to work this material and then submit final shots of the tree, which would then be judged on by the forum members in terms of the finished result and how this was achieved from the starting stock. After searching in a couple of local garden centres, I couldn't find much suitable for the task. I eventually chose a small Cedrus Deodara "Feelin Blue", I chose this because I liked the foliage, and it looked to have fairly good small branching in place giving me more choice.

Here is the tree, as bought.

As you can see, it had a good amount of foliage. It already had this leaning over style which I thought could be encorporated into the final design. It would however need extensive styling to come near to constituting and bunjin style tree. Work at first was slow, I was unfamiliar with this species and have not owned any Cedrus before, so I did not want to make any obvious mistakes.

The first job was to clear out any foliage that would obviously play no role, any small twigs, and also have a little dig down at the base to see how deep it went. Whilst doing this I examined the substantial branches which were mainly at the top of the tree, to begin to decide what would stay and what would go. Next, on some of the branches I had decided would go, instead of removing them completely, I stripped them of foliage to later use them as jins.

The foliage was fairly sparse on the lower half of the tree and mainly consisted of a few very weak shoots. This was probably due to the bulk of the foliage up top drowning out all light for anything below. This unfortunately left a large area of trunk devoid of any interest either from branches, movement, or foliage itself. This was a problem. I decided to leave a low branch on and make a jin out of it for now, just so there was something in that area.

The stripped branches were then cut roughly to the length I wanted them as jins, and I begun to strip the bark off them to reveal the wood below. I have never done any sort of deadwood or jins before and so this was a new skill to try out. The branches I was using were quite small so this kept the task simple for now. Also the bark was fresh and came away from the wood quite easily with a little help. Here are the jins freshly stripped with a little wire to shape them while they dry.


















After this stage I had to make a choice on which branches would be kept and used at the top, and which would go. What I had left was basically three branches. I had two at the very top, and one slightly lower down pointing towards the back.

The two top branches can be seen from this picture. My problem was that both branches originated from the same spot on the top of the trunk, this meant that if both were left on, swelling would occur around that point on the trunk and cause ugly inverse taper. So one had to go. If I chose to keep the red circled branch, it would currently be pointing forwards which wouldn't look right. So I decided to go with the blue circled branch and go and remove the other. I figured I had to keep the lower down branch to add a bit of balance and depth to the design.

So this done, the two remaining branches were trimmed roughly to the size I wanted, and some wire applied. The jins had also had chance to dry out and set in place. So the wire was removed and the jins applied with lime sulphur to give them a aged white look. Again, another procedure I was doing for the first time, and boy does it smell!

Now, all that was left was to give it a new pot and some minor tweaks and refinement to the pads of foliage. I was unhappy with the two upper jins so these also got shortened at this point. Most trees are usually repotted in the Spring, but it is fine to repot a lot of evergreen species in Autumn time.






This is how it looks now, it will be left to settle in for a while now. I have over a month untill the competition ends to make any minor tweaks or take more photos but it will probably stay the same as it is here. Next year it will be allowed to grow and hopefully I can gain some nice compact foliage in the pads and develop them further. Looking now, it could also be slight rotated clockwise in a future repot.

From this process I have been able to try out some new techniques, gain more practice in evaluating and styling trees, and gain more experience in techniques I am already accustomed with. Overall I have enjoyed the journey from the raw stock, and this is what we do this hobby for. Whether or not you end up with a show stopping piece (in my case not even nearly lol) is irrelevant.

You can follow this tree and all of the other entrants into the competition at the WeeTrees Bonsai Forum

Southport Flower Show 2010

I completely forgot to post this up in August, but here we are, better late than never. August saw the arrival of the annual Southport Flower Show, a much anticipated event by myself and one that promised a good bonsai turnout. So I got my ticket and headed down on the Saturday, and I was not disappointed in the least. There were a number of different bonsai exhibit stands in the show tents from various clubs and societies. With some really great trees on show. The main one there was that of the National Bonsai Society who are actually based in Southport. This being my local club, I took this chance to introduce myself to some of the members there and enquire about attending the club. This was brilliant to have the chance to talk to some like-minded individuals and discuss bonsai face-to-face, instead of behind a PC monitor to which I was accustomed.

Here are a couple of trees from the show plus a link to the full set of images.


















































SLIDESHOW

Enjoy :)

Wood work #2

After the successful completion of my first bonsai wood work project earlier in the year, I was spurred on to try and create something again. Untill this point, all of the bonsai wire I owned was simply coiled up and lying in the bottom of a tool box, this was both impractical and unefficient. So I decided my next project would be to create something to tackle this problem, and this meant a wire caddy. I have seen many different types of wire caddy around on the internet and club meetings before, and I always liked the look of them. Rather than buying one I decided to break out the tools again, find some unwanted wood, and attempt to create another recycled project. I chose quite a simple design to ensure maximum ease during the creation process. I then gathered together bits of wood which were unwanted in the shed, these included items such as parts of an old chest of drawers, a cricket stump, and childs snooker cue, wind-break pole, amongst others.

So I took my time over a few days to measure, cut, and fix my wire caddy together, and this was the finished result.




I would like to point out, the finished article was not without imperfections, but overall I was pleased with the outcome and it's use. These recycling projects I have undertaken have been immensely rewarding, and also cost practically nothing, so it is worth a go!

Wood work #1

In April of this year I decided that the scattering of trees around the yard would benefit from a bit of organisation, in the form of a dedicated display bench. Now not being any kind of craftsman, I thought my first project would be better to be a recycling job. So I acquired a sorry looking indoor table which had been left outside for some time and suffered. I planned roughly what I wanted the finished bench to look like and and begun to take the table apart. My plan was to use only the wood which currently constituted the table, but I ended up using a couple of extra offcuts which were also lying around.

Here is how the table looked before hand, as you can see, in a bit of a poor state, and would benefit from a revamp.



So I begun to take the table apart to see how much wood I had to play with. Once this was done I then started to piece it back together in the design I had in mind. From the outset I had envisaged a two-tier arrangement, with the top tier set back from the lower, also with space underneath the top tier for some possible protective space for small trees. Now the bench was always going to be of modest proportions due to the amount of wood I had available, but as my current collection wasn't huge this suited it fine.

So here is the bench after much tinkering, I was pleased with the end result and all it needed was a coat of exterior stain to seal the wood and protect it against the elements.

Maple Air-layer

Back in June, I decided that I would attempt my first air-layer. This technique is much like taking a cutting except the part being layered is left on the tree untill sufficient roots have formed. At this point the branch is then removed and potted up by itself. I had a largish japanese maple which I had been allowing to grow freely for a couple of years. I decided that I would like to shorten this tree before it began bonsai training, but rather than just cutting the top off, I would air-layer it and get two trees for the price of one.

The spot on the trunk was selected and a ring of bark was removed from around the trunk at this point.









I carefully removed all of the "pithy" wood from the area which is the cambium layer of the bark which transports food within the plant. If all of the cambium is not taken off then there is a chance the area could just heal back over and the layer would fail. I have seen people suggest that leaving a "bridge" of cambium across the area might help, but I think this would just increase the chance of it failing. I applied a small amount of rooting hormone to the top edge of the layer and then prepared the sphagnum moss which would be used to cover the air-layer and facilitate a healthy rooting environment. This was done by simply soaking it in a bucket of water for a short while.


Clumps of the sphagnum moss were then taken out of the water and rung out to remove excess water and leave them moist. These clumps were then arranged around the prepared area and held in place with plastic wrap.


A final layer of black plastic was used to cover the clear plastic wrap, this was to reduce the amount of light getting to the new roots and hopefully help them to grow. I would need to check on the layer frequently to ensure it did not dry out, I could provide it with moisture via a syringe and a small hole in the plastic covering.

The layer has now been on for 4 months and on inspection I am unsure whether there has been much root growth. Unwilling to disturb it I will provide it with some Winter protection in the form of some garden fleece, and leave it on over the Winter to inspect it again in the Spring.