Tree full of Jins

I have passed this tree many times on the way to a local nursery and have been meaning to take a photo of it for a while. While out yesterday with my son, i decided to pull in and get a shot of it. Looks like it was taken in the middle of winter not the start of July.

Japanese Maple

Heres a little tree i picked up a few months ago in a local garden center. It wasn’t grafted and I liked the movement in the trunk so i said i would pick it up, Heres a photo of it at the march meeting of the club. 

 

 

After a bit of discussion I wanted to do a bit of chopping with Marks nice new branch cutter. So we cut of the branches we didn’t want and sealed what we cut. Here is a photo of the tree a few weeks later repotted in the same pot but with different medium.

 

 

And here it is last week

 

Amazing Wisteria

I watched this video months ago. But never realised it was the same channel that i am posting all the videos from. Anyway if you haven’t seen this video yet, just watch it in its entirety. The wisteria at night shots are incredible.

Its a Plant you often see promoting bonsai on ebay and on a lot of images online. But the true beauty of this species is immense in this video. A must watch for all into flowering bonsai. And for all who have yet to see this video. Enjoy

New Yamadori

Well had a surprise visit from Piotr (twinsratbonsai) today and he came bearing gifts. We were just discussing the final few details for the club meeting on friday and he kindly brought some material he had dug up earlier. 

 

 

I didnt have any pots but had to make do with one i cut and taped cracks together for the mean time.

 

 

After trying to keep as much as the original soil on the roots i added some gravel and some trusty kitty litter. 

 

 

Check out my classy tape 🙂

Anyway thanks to piotr for the yamadori, And roll on our club meeting Friday night. Shaping up to be a great night. 

Photo of the Day

East Ferry, Cork, Ireland

New Copper Beech

Last week i picked up this at a local nursery. Was just hiding away on its own. Picked it up for 5 euro. Its my first beech and I am quite happy with it. I hope it will make good material down the road.

 

 

Bonsai worth $100,000 Stolen

Bonsai has become a delicacy to thief’s over the past few years. I have seen many posts, blog updates and forums becoming a base of cries for help due to the rise in bonsai theft. Many people wont understand, I don’t even think I understand truly the dedication, time, and passion put into bonsai. This is not a hobby or some sort of way to pass time. This is a way of life for some people, dedicated to spreading the love of Bonsai to the greater community.

I have witnessed post after post asking for help to track down stolen bonsai. This is an article I came across today about a man in Honolulu who had an estimated $100,000 worth of bonsai stolen from his Farm last week. This is quite a high figure and a figure which means nothing to this man, but obviously did to the thief’s. The figure that concerns this man, is the figure of time , hours, weeks, months, years invested in these threes. To wake up some morning and discover them gone must be soul destroying.

Dragon Garden Bonsai spokesman Bobby Liew said the bonsai trees were taken from a fenced display area of the farm. The thieves apparently knew what they were taking. “They took the really, really good ones,” Liew said. Liew said his father, Walter Liew, 80, who owns the farm, regards the stolen miniature trees, known as bonsai in Japanese, as his “children.”

He said his father raised most of them from saplings and brought one of them, a 55-year-old miniature elm, to Hawaii when he emigrated from China in 1975.”It’s been with him for a long time,” Liew said.

“We’re trying to put the word out,” he said.

And again like so many times before the word is being put out for stolen bonsai. I know I am on the other side of the planet but I am willing to spread this story as it may encourage bonsai enthusiasts to implement anti theft devices to their collection, and to show bonsai are being stolen on a large scale.

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Growth

So over the past two or three weeks i have noticed my little trees push out a lot of new foliage. I dont know is this due to the crazy weather we are having along with all the watering but has really increased compared to a few weeks ago.

This Cypress has pushed out very dense foliage pads over the past two weeks alone. And I though this cypress was dying only a few months ago. This has really surprised me and come on leaps and bounds. What do do with it now is the next question, i was thinking of literati as the foliage is all based at the top of the tree.

Here is what it looked like last year.

 

And here is what it looks like at the moment.

 

A bit naked down low but all the other branches where long and had no inner buds. And with these trees gaining a miracle from the Vatican if they bud back i decided to remove them.

A look at the foliage up close.

 

 

With a bit of wire and bending the trunk a bit may make this bushy cypress not a bad literati.

Also pushing lovely new growth…..

 

My little Himalayan Ceder with little back buds.

 

 

And my Sageretia Theezan which was resued from Aldi. Pushing nice healthy growth.

 

And the Juniper which was heavily pruned this summer. What to do with this is another question as i am decideding to let it grow this season and recover from the heavy trimming.

 

 

And to finish off, my little Hinoki. This was also pinched at the start of the summer to allow light to penetrate the inner branches to maintain vigor. After a bit of advice i think i will also leave this one grow for the rest of the season untouched.

 

Great Lecture on Pines from Ryan Neil

On recently acquiring my first pine, i decided to do a bit of research into pines. I found Bonsai Eejit’s video very interesting and Ryan is very informative and clear on his lecture about pines. Especially white, red and Black Pines. Thought this would be a good video to share for others also interested in Pines.

First Video

Second Video

Learning the hard way about defoliation

On defoliating a maple wrongly i discovered the adverse affects it can have on a tree. I thought I could remove all the leaves of the tree whilst in the start of summer, not realizing their was a proper way to carry out this procedure, and that there were guidelines to follow. This is something I am becoming aware of pretty quick in Bonsai, that there is a specific procedures for specific trees at specific times.

I was not aware that the tree needs to be in full health before this procedure can be done. Also when defoliating trimming the petioles was the right way to go. Not trimming branches as i did with most of the tree (this was a big mistake as I didn’t do the relevant research as to what was the right procedure to carry out) Something I would most definitely be doing from now on.

Now even as disastrous as this may sound, I have three new buds emerging. Also The branches that suffered die back had very long internodes and was something i wanted to address anyway. So in the end i am hoping this Acer can come on over the next two months and regain vigor and strength for next year.

Heres a look at one of the new buds on the Acer

The Lesson here for me was not to carry out something i had yet to research. Even though this is a learning tree and a learning curve, it is a good lesson to learn early on in my journey.

Hope this may help other beginners with a simple lesson. Read, research and read again to gain knowledge before carrying out any procedure.