Taxus Before and After (5 Years)

The first yamadori I collected and my first born son.

Shohin Hawthorn May '16

Literati Blackthorn in Flower

A literati Blackthorn I collected from Cumbria in 2014 I think, photograph here from a few weeks ago (late March). It is now covered in leaves. Pot by John Ostranica.

Root and Rock Removal

Checking over my trees yesterday I noticed that the large "wrap-around" root on the big hawthorn appeared to have been killed by the recent carving I had carried out. Something made me give the embedded stone a little push and where it was once stuck fast, the dying off of the root had released the grip. The stone popped out without leaving much of a mark on the trunk and so I popped the other two small stones out too. I gave the big, dead root a jiggle and found that it was not grafted onto the trunk as I had previously thought. With a bang from a hammer, the root was removed.

There is a bit of a mark around the back of the trunk, but on the whole I am quite happy with the result and I never expected the removal of the root and rock to be possible.

Before

After

Blackthorn Potting

These two blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) were collected two years ago. Today they went into their first pots. I was pleased to see that they have both grown massive amounts of fibrous roots since collection. I should have got some photos of the root balls, but been a bit lazy recently. The orientation in the pots is not great due to large roots which will be improved at the next re-potting. Anyway, here are a couple of photos of them in the new pots.

Mother and daughter P.spinosa in Erin pot.

Literati P.spinosa in John Ostranica pot.

Semi Cascade Crataegus Display

A little display in my dining room this evening (forgive the nasty Artex wall!).

Hawthorn accompanied by Helleborine Orchid.

Bonsai Europa 2015

Yesterday my wife and I visited the first event of its kind in Bury, Manchester... "Bonsai Europa" hosted by Tony Tickle. Tony had been working hard, organising and publicising the event over the last two years and it lived up to expectations. The quality of both the merchandise on sale and the trees on display were first class. It was also great to meet up with old friends and make a few new ones.

I took a great many photos, but did not manage to photograph all trees on display. Each tree/display bared a number which apparently correlated to the artist responsible for the work, although it seems that I missed this list and so am unfortunately unable to give credit for all the trees. There were however a good number of trees which I recognised - my personal favourites being Pavel Slovák's "Three Snakes" and an excellent juniper by Jean-Paul Polmans.

I believe that Tony is planning a repeat event in two years time so if you missed it, make sure you are in Bury for 2017!

 

 

 

Juniper by Jean-Paul Polmans

"Three Snakes" pine by Pavel Slovák