Wednesday 24 December 2014

Friday 19 December 2014

Larch Group Planting Progression photos

This group was started in 2000 from nursery stock plants bought at the local garden centre.

Initially it was five trees, but I added more as the group was developed.

2000

2002

2002


2004

2007

2007

2013

Juniper Progression photos

This juniper came from a neighbours front garden.  Had to be removed because they had the front paved over and I was fortunate enough to get my hands on it for nothing.

It's a golden form of juniper, most likely "Old Gold" and the foliage is quite feathery.  Does not make the nice compact foliage clouds you would get from a Blaauws or Itoigawa, but makes a nice image.

I lost most of the pictures of this tree due to a harddrive failure, so these are the only shots I have.

2004

2010

2011

2011

2012

2013

Japanese Mountain Maple Progression photos

This Maple was bought from the "Bargain Section" at Greenwood Bonsai Studio in 2002 at the princely sum of £45.

Not sure why I have taken so few pictures of this tree over the years.

2003

2007

2007

2010

2012

2013

2013

2014

2014

Cork Bark Maple Progression

Not much to do on the bonsai front this month, so i spent some time organising the photos on my computer and found some early shots of some of my trees.

I thought it may be good for some to see the progression over a number of years.

First up my Cork Bark Maple.  This was started from a cutting back in 1988 (if I remember rightly).  It is not as vigorous as a grafted maple and seems to grow very slowly.

It was grown in a large plant pot and then planted into its first bonsai pot in 1999.



May 2000

Sept 2000

2004

2006

2008

2010

2013

2014

Tuesday 4 November 2014

First styling of a Picea Bonsai by Andrea Junger filmed by Merlin

I thought this video well worth of sharing.  Nice material and as all of Merlin's videos the camera work is great.  He posts a lot of good bonsai videos on his youtube channel, so go and have a look https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYPwjZg4XT2pGgrC69v3RRg

All his videos are in German, but the pictures speak for themselves.

Saturday 1 November 2014

What a difference a week makes

It's been a while since I posted on my blog.  Life has a tendency to throw you the odd curve ball, and I had stuff to deal with that kept me away from Bonsai for a while.  Still worked on my trees, just did not get the time to post on here.

Anyway, all sorted now so hopefully I will be able to get back into the swing and keep the blogging a bit more regular.

After a nice summer, Autumn has arrived quickly and the maples have responded with their usual splendid autumn colour.



One week later after a few days of heavy wind the magic has gone.


Tuesday 22 April 2014

Shohin Spring

My small trees are starting to look nice now, having had a spell of nice warm and sunny weather.

Japanese Maple, Chinese Elm, Fern Accent

European Larch

English Elm

Larch and Elm for size comparison

European Hornbeam

Blackthorn

Blackthorn for size comparison

Japanese Maple

Japanese Maple for Size comparison

Korean Hornbeam

Chinese Elm

Silver Birch

Chinese Elm Tanuki






Thursday 10 April 2014

Bumblebee rescue

My good deed for the day.

As most people know, Bumblebees are having a bit of a hard time here in the UK, so when I found this big one walking around on our patio, very lethargic and not able to fly, I thought I give it a bit of a helping hand.

I offered it a drop of honey on the end of a stick and it spent a good five minutes lapping it up.



You could actually see that after a few minutes it started to gain some strength




Shortly after it took off (a bit unsteady from the sugar rush) and headed straight for the cherry blossom on a nearby tree and started to feed and collect pollen.




Hopefully it is going to find a place to settle and produce loads more of these gorgeous creatures.