Winter Update

December has seen temperatures as low as -14C, certainly the lowest I can remember (here in Leicestershire).  The weather has improved a little now and I am taking stock to see if any damage has occurred.  So far there is a few cracked pots and two of my Chinese Box trees are showing frost damage (dry, crispy leaves), but all the other trees seem to be ok.  Spring will tell.
Currently busy digging up some nice Larch and a great Silver Birch raw material from the grow beds.
Also sifting and grading the ingredients for my potting mixes in anticipation of a busy spring.  I am making a video  on bonsai potting soil in the next couple of weeks, so check back if interested.  

Winter has well and truly arrived

I have been very busy with my new Job, so my blog had to take a bit of a back seat. Just as well that there was not much to do in the bonsai garden.

After a great autumn with many nice days, winter has now well and truly arrived with sub zero temperatures and a covering of snow (the earliest substantial snowfall for 17 years).
The trees are all ready for their winter rest. The hardiest stay on the benches and the others are either below the bench under a fleece cover or in the cold greenhouse. I have also just picked up a consignment of newly imported Chinese elms, and as they have not had time to acclimatise to our winter temperatures yet, they have the prime spot in a heated greenhouse.

Autumn Colour

Most of my deciduous trees are now starting to change colour. The first on to put on a real show is my Korean Hornbeam Group.

Here is a video to show it in it's full autumn glory.

Enjoy

Styling the spruce video

Here is a video of the initial styling of the competition spruce.

Enjoy

Wee Trees Literati competition

I totally forgot to post this.  The new competition is well on it's way and I have entered two trees.
The competition is about styling any raw stock or pre trained bonsai material into a convincing Literati style tree.

So here are my two entries:

Lonicera nitidia - dug out of the garden beds this spring.

Blue Spruce (I think) - old Christmas tree that has been sitting around in my garden for a while

Here is my progress so far:

Lonicera

Spruce

Greenwoods Bonsai Bash 2010

Last weekend saw the second annual Autumn Bonsai Bash at Greenwoods Bonsai Studio in Nottingham.
The weather was fine and Corin Tomlinson had lined up a demo styling a massive yamadori Mugo Pine.

Unfortunately I could only attend the first day of the two day event, but I had a great time and met many of the members of the Wee Trees forum face to face for the first time.

Look out for the event next year, it free to attend and really is worthwhile a trip.

More photos are available on my picasa page 

Autumn is fast approaching

Well, summer (if that is what you decide to call it, with temperatures as low as 10C and more than twice the average rainfall) is nearly at an end.  The lack of sunshine has meant that many of my trees have not put on the amount of growth I would have liked, but at least there were no losses from lack of water.

Now is a good time to check wires that were applied to pines and junipers in spring, and if necessary remove any that bites into the bark.  With growth now slowing down, I will remove or reduce old needles on my pines and wire branches to allow a maximum of light in to the inner parts of the branches.

This week will also be used to remove any weeds and excessive moss growth from the soil of my trees.  I also generally remove the top layer of soil and redress with fresh soil.

Feeding continues for another two weeks, using tomato fertiliser on all trees that will be repotted next year.  Any that will stay in their pots for another season have been top dressed with bonemeal to give them a good start next spring.

Other than that I am really looking forward to the time when the foliage starts to turn to their autumn colours.