After attending the AABC Conference in Melbourne, I was motivated to attack my very raw black pine, which was calling out for a drastic work over. The pine had 25cm long candles and required some major reconstruction. I removed the main trunk and a heavy back branch and shortened all the other branches. It had […]
We have our show dates at last and this means we have until mid-September (just six short weeks) to get our trees ready for display. Why not display a tree or two this year and get them ready at our monthly workshop? Everybody is very welcome to attend. We hope to better label the trees
The days have finally started to get a bit warmer, although there are surely some cold nights still to come. For this reason any newly trimmed or repotted trees need protection from the weather, particularly if fresh, soft new growth has started to appear. If any of your plants are showing signs of frost damage
How does one deal with helping students style trees over time? With one’s own trees there is an ongoing plan (hopefully!) and relationship but how does a bonsai teacher keep a tree moving forward that he/she may only see once a term or even once a year? Leong Chong’s solution is what he calls the
It has been such a warm lead up to winter and many deciduous trees are yet to lose their leaves. For these trees a period of dormancy is important, so if your deciduous trees still have their foliage, it should be removed now to give the trees the rest they need before spring.
For this demonstration, Joe used a forty year old Japanese black pine that had once been part of a group setting planted on a slab. He chose this tree as it had character and good ramification with which to work and manipulate. Joe then walked us through how he styles such a tree. Joe works
Now winter has well and truly arrived, it’s time to get going with the repotting of deciduous trees, if you haven’t already started. Some of the species you should be working on include crab-apples, maples, elms, wisteria, flowering prunus of all types and ashes. Bear in mind with flowering bonsai, that any trimming you do
