It pays to keep your eyes open

It's one of  those lucky finds I guess.
Last September, I had stopped to post a letter in a letterbox and saw a man throw a big garden tub, with what turned out to be a maple planted in it, into a skip.
I had a look at the tree and found that all the leaves had shrivelled up.  I knocked on the door and asked if he minded if I took the tree from the skip and he had no objection, saying that it was dead.

I took it back with me and when I took it out of the pot, I found that it was planted in a mix of soil, broken up polystyrene boxes (?) and bits of rock, covered with a thin layer of potting compost.
I scratched some of the bark from the trunk and some of the branches and found that it was still green under the bark.  I washed the roots clean removed as much of the rocks and polystyrene that was wedged into the roots.  Some of the rock had to stay as the tree's roots had grown over them and they could not be removed.

The tree was then planted into a well drained mix of John Innes, Peat and grit, given a good watering and put into dappled shade.  I have just checked, and the tree seems to be ok.  Although some of the finer branches have died back, there are some plump healthy buds on most of the branches.

Time will tell.

Winter Protection.

So, after the early cold of last year, this winter has so far not shown any teeth.  We only just had out first two nights of frost, with temperatures falling to -6C overnight for the last two nights.
Having lost some good trees to the cold last year, I have made provision to protect my trees this year.  Especially the ones that had suffered and had a hard time recovering over the short and miserable summer.

I had a look this morning to see that the protection is adequate and all seemed to be ok.

This first batch of pictures is of the 6'x8' Cold Greenhouse.  No heating is provided, but the twin-wall polycarbonate provides good insulation.  While temps outside read -6C, the minimum temperature inside was -2C, so perfectly adequate for the hardier indigenous stock, pines and junipers.

The next lot of pictures shows the frost free greenhouse.  This is a 8'x12' aluminium and glass construction on a solid slab base.  The greenhouse has bubble insulation fitted and is heated by a parrafin heater when required, backed up with  an electric fan heater with thermostat to hold temperature above 3C.  As an added protection I also cover the trees in this greenhouse with horticultural fleece.  This houses cuttings and recently separated air layers, Maples, Tridents, Satsuki and Chinese Elm, as well as some of the trees that were slow to recover after last years winter.

The rest will have to face the winter outside, but may be moved to one or other of the greenhouses if it turns really cold (hope not!)

Busy, Busy

I have recently been informed that the Garden Centre where I rent some space for my business will not re-open in the New Year (another small, local business falls victim to the recession).
So I spent the last couple of days before Christmas moving my Bonsai, pots and other stock to my house for the interim.  Not an easy task, as I had to dismantle the Greenhouse and move somewhere in the region of 250 Bonsai plus raw material and starter plants, as well as 2 van loads of pots, tools and sundries.
Mail order will run as normal, but anyone wanting to see a tree will have to make an appointment for the time being.
So now I am on the lookout for a new place to work from, and then it all in reverse.
At least I won't be bored in January and February ;)

Merry Christmas

Have a great Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year

Stolen Bonsai-Bristol UK

Yesterday this Blackthorn bonsai was stolen from a collection near Bristol, south west.

A full description of the tree can be found at http://snsyamadori.co.uk/blackthorn then scroll down to Blackthorn 5.

Please be on the look out for this bonsai.

There is a healthy reward for anyone who can give any information which leads to the return of the tree.

Contact Nathan at SNS Yamadori via their web site or Paul at contact@swindon-bonsai.co.uk

Yamadori Hawthorn

This one ( and two others) were a bit of a lucky find.  Earlier this year I was on my way to work and saw some workmen ripping out part of an old hedge to create a new filed entrance.  They basically drove a bulldozer through the hedge, pushing the spoil ahead of them to fill the ditch.
I screeched to a halt and asked if I could pull out some of the bits of hedge out of the pile.  I am sure they thought I was mad, but had no objections.  So while they had a cup of tea I had a rummage through the devastation and managed to pull out six trunks with reasonable amounts of root.
I potted them up in a very gritty soil mix and gave them some tlc over the summer.  Unfortunately only three of them survived, but those have good potential.  Two are still a bit weak and so will stay in "intensive care for a few more years, but one has made good growth.  This is also the one with the biggest potential.
The trunk is nearly 6 inches wide, with a root flare of just under 8 inches.  This one will stay in the pot for another year to see if the growth continues to improve.  I am hoping that this one will not do the old Hawthorn trick of growing for a couple of years after collection and then just keeling over.

Anyway, here are some pictures.

Future projects

Like most bonsai enthusiast, I accumulate all sorts of raw material.  These trees and shrubs usually get put into any old bucket or bowl for further development some time later.
I had a bit of time this week to sort through my potential stock, and to pick out some that can be worked on in the near future.

First one to come out of the pile was this collected Hawthorn.  It had been sitting around for a few ears now and had an airlayer (applied earlier this year) removed in late July.
This is the trunk left after removal of the air layer. The top branch will be left to grow out and thicken to produce a bit more taper, while the bottom branches will be wired and styles over the next two years.

The layer that was removed is destined to become a shohin size tree.  It will be given space in the frost free greenhouse over the winter and I will start work on this in the spring.

The second tree to be taken out is this stocky European Hornbeam.  This had a bit of a hard time last winter and was slow to leaf out in spring.  It was planted into a pond basket to help with root development, and that seems to have done the trick.  It will stay in the basket for another couple of years, but training on the branches can begin next year,

The third one was this little English Oak.  This was a self set seedling the had grown in the flower border and was potted up a about two years ago.  It had grown quite well and put on a lot of growth.  The roots present nicely and I think that it would make a nice small bonsai.  The top will be layered next year so that I can work on the bottom part.

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