HV66 Bonsai

Some new pictures of this yamadori Buxus from the Corbieres…

The pot was made by Peter Krebs. Maybe not the most perfect fitting pot for this tree, but it will do for now. I had to make a small concession on the original planned front, but I’m very glad the rootball fitted in this pot like it is now. Perhaps the way this tree is standing in the pot can be slightly changed in the future. The foliage pads should also be slightly modified, making the crown a bit wider, but that’s also for later on.

Just sharing one of my favourite accent plantings, a purple carpet Bugleweed (Ajuga reptans ‘purpurea’)  which is showing some nice colors now… 

The handmade pot (by Jos Jacobs from Hasselt in Belgium) contrasts nicely with the purple leaf color, and enhances the flower color. Bugleweed is a very easy plant to have, therefore highly recommended as an accent plant, whether you’re just using it alone, or in combination with some other plants…

… for a second styling. I potted this tree last year in march in a pot by Paul Verrees, a club member of Eda Uchi Kai who makes some really nice pots. Last year, I removed all the wire, and it has grown well since then. Healthy enough now to push strong new buds, and now it is enjoying the first real sun in spring 2013. Probably I will do some new wiring this year, and work on it’s overall looks …

The current front:

Backside:

Big healthy buds…

My Carpinus coreanum, just after opening buds… on the 5th of may !

A bit late on the season with that strange first part of weather this year, but my Korean hornbeam finally decided to open its leaves. If the tree’s name would be Forrest Gump, I would now say: “Grow Forrest, grow… !”

All the moss of last year was removed, so I could see what is happening with the soil again. The fertilizing cakes will soon be replaced with baskets filled with aburakasu and tamahi in sphagnum moss to keep it damp…

Detail picture of the opening leaves…

Lily of the Valley and Kenilworth ivy (Convallaria majalis & Cymbalaria muralis) in a Japanese pot I got from Maarten van der Hoeven 8 or 9 years ago. Over here we call it ‘meiklokjes’, which means ‘May bells’. If this one blooms, you can be sure it’s May !!! (The species designation ‘majalis’ means from the month of May)

Detail of the pot with two funny figures on it. Some time ago Yvonne Graubaek from Danmark explained me the meaning of these figures: These figures are two Kappa. They are Japanese mythical figures who are living in streams, and are friends with fish and frogs. They like to tease people who are out for a swim or just walking in the water, by pulling their legs. People get scared, and think they will drown. Kappa must go to the shore if they want to eat… and they only eat cucumbers! If the disc on the top of their heads dry up, a will Kappa die…

Detail of the Kenilworth ivy. Over here we call this one ‘muurleeuwenbekje’, which means ‘Wall Lions mouth’…

The blooming flower bells. Interesting fact: The lily of the valley is the national flower of Finland…

On the first of May, there is always the Radio 2 Plant Day over here in Bokrijk, which is a great opportunity to find some plants that can be used for accent plantings. Today I visited this place in the early morning, apparently a bit too early, because most traders were still unpacking. But I avoided the crowd which ensures a hectic bustle in the afternoon, and I scored some plants which stood on my wish list for a while. And with the beautiful spring sunshine upon my head, I then engaged myself in creating some new accents in the afternoon…

The first one is a Saxifraga fortunei ‘Mount Nachi ” in a rather eccentric pot by Jos Vandeborne …

I was able to divide the same plant, and combined it with a Patrinia triloba ‘Nana’ (dwarf gold valerian) in a pot by one of my favorite ceramists Olga López Suárez…

Next creation is a Hypoxis parvula, which I have placed in a moonstone shell from Certre with a strange balance…

This should become a nice spring accent, with most notably the beautiful petals of the Hepatica nobilis var. ‘Rosea’. This kind of common liverleaf is a bit special as it doesn’t have blue flowers like the normal variety, but it flowers in light pink. And I combined it together with the highly colorful fuchsia flowers of this creeping phlox (Phlox douglasii ‘Oxenblut “) in a Japanese pot by Masashi Furumoto …

Another great accent pot by Olga López Suárez, I used it to fill with some rockcress. (Arabis ferdinandi-coburgii) It will have fine long stems with small white flowers. In my humble opinion, the glaze on this pot sublime …

I also placed some Maidenhair spleenwort (Asplenium trichomanes) on a flat tray made by Jos Jacobs, and I added some purple rockcress (Aubrieta) to it…

And with black mondo grass (Ophiopogon planiscapens ‘Niger’) – which I’ve put back in my garden several years ago, and which now has increased a lot  – combined with some of that “Oxenblut” creeping phlox I made the next one. I once bought this pot from Rene Lecocq, but it’s not made by him. I can’t remember who made this one, but below the picture I added the hanko that is inside the pot.

If anyone happens to know who made it, I will buy him/her a beer.

Anyway, I enjoyed myself this afternoon in making these creations, it was very relaxing. Hopefully they will thrive,  to become some nice additions to my collection of kusamono …

A small red pine came into my possession last year. It is a relatively small tree, only 14 cm high. In the longer term it may even get slightly smaller. At least if…

Because this tree has known some problems, you may well see that the foliage is weak, and also the color is not really fresh green. I think the reason is the complete beaten down soil mix of pure akadama, which was almost completely crumbled. It was  very difficult to give this tree water, the root ball didn’t take much water, and was terribly slow draining the water. For this reason, I made several holes in the root ball with a skewer, and from then on it went slightly better to give this tree some water. But the tree had suffered …

Because of  the persistent cold and the frost at night, I waited until now to repot this tree. Repotting in itself is a major operation, and the tree was not in top condition. But I think without repotting this tree will only deteriorate. So I took a risk with this repotting, but I give the tree more chance to survive now, because it had a lot of roots. I have only pruned a quarter of the total amount of roots, and the tree is now in a soil mixture that I will have much more control over.  So it will be ‘fingers crossed’ with this one …

Some shots of the repotting…

You can see this tree has been quite a while in this training pot.  The mycorhizza you can see is of course good, but all the rest was a brown gunk of crumbled wet akadama. Not really optimal for a pine in this climate, according to me. After fifteen minutes working on the rootball with a chopstick, the gunk looked like this …

 After this,  I carefully sprayed the root ball with water, and then pruned the roots lightly, where I have tried to prune out dead roots. Here’s a shot of the tree after cleaning out the rootball…

Then trying some pots …

The smaller Bigei pot that you can see in the picture on the right was too small, and therefore excluded. But the round Emei pot seemed interesting to me. Maybe just a little too big …

Finally I went for this Tanzan pot. Maybe not the best choice for now, but changing pots can always be done later on. Anyway, I prepared the Tanzan pot, anchored the tree, and then filled the pot with a soil mixture of 40% Akadama, 30% Kiryu,  and 30% pumice. Then I  watered it well, and covered the soil with a bed of sphagnum moss …

For now, I placed this tree back in the greenhouse, out of the wind. Let’s hope he will get better soon…

After looking at this tree this winter, I decided to make some drastic pruning on this  Zelkova, with only one goal, to improve it’s future…

Because there were a lot of those annoying bulges developing in the branching, a result of too many branches in the same place. I have only done silhouette pruning until now, and also some branches that were  growing hopeless in the wrong direction, but never some really selective branch pruning. The tree has always looked  nice enough with so much ramification , and the plan was to exhibit this tree late this year or early next year. But during this period there is no leaf on this kind of tree, and you can see all the errors that are inside. So I have decided for myself not to exhibit, and start dealing with  the flaws inside this little tree. You may not see these bulges good in these pictures, but there were a lot of them. So a lot of twigs had to be ‘eliminated’ …

And now a lot of people are going to have to swallow I’m afraid. I did have to do so. But I’ve pushed through with the idea to improve this tree over time…

Unfortunately this means this tree went back in time for some years. I have doubted a long time for doing this, but in the end it is necessary to do. It’s still not perfectly pruned, because there are still a few of those bulges. But I will try to prune them at a later time, otherwise I would have almost nothing left over. This means thistree will now have to make a lot of new branches, and I will have to make some new selections later on.  By doing this, I hope to get rid of  these ugly bulges/lumps. But because it is a Zelkova, I do have some confidence in it, they can branch out really fast.  I will no longer have to display the tree the first few years, but on the other hand I think I’ve made ​​the right choice in the long term. At least I hope so …

Today I searched  myself a place in the shade, and did some maintenance on these Juniperus c. “Kishu”, mainly the elimination of weaker and yellowed foliage. On the outside you can almost see nothing of it, but if you look inside the foliage, you will always find some yellowed and weaker foliage in between. By eliminating this foliage, you ensure that the tree is puts no longer energy in this foliage, and the healthy growth gets some more. And of course, it promotes the passage of light and air inside the tree…

It is a job that -  if you do it regularly – is fairly quickly done, and I think it is a quite important job. You have to be careful not to confuse the yellow shoots with the flowering of the tree, which now also is a bit on the yellow side. I have also given the tree a solid dipping bath with a light dose of liquid fertilizer (Bayfolan in this case) until no more airbubbles came up. The rootball has now been completely saturated with water, which with plain watering sometimes does not happen.

Today I will also clean-up the top of the pot with a toothbrush and some water, and then I will lightly rub it with a cloth with a small dash of almond oil on it. This keeps the pot looking nice. Tomorrow morning I will wash off al the dust and other debris on the foliage, by using a hose with a nebulizer.

What the heck, some people wash their cars, and other people wash their trees.

I think I can consider myself lucky for living only a few miles from the place where each year The Noelanders Trophy is held. I have been going there since I started with bonsai in 2000, I only missed the first edition. This annual exhibiton is getting bigger and bigger each year. I think the success of this exhibition lies in the unique formula of the combination with demonstrations with international guests and the bonsai marketplace with international bonsai dealers.  I think the organising club Bonsai Association Belgium made a very smart move by inviting these professional bonsai dealers to their exhibition,  because lots of people love the fact that they combine some bonsai shopping with a very nice exhibition. I have noticed visitors from all over Europe, and some people even came over from other continents! The loss of the famous Ginkgo Awards exhibitions, and the central location of Belgium in Europe will also have something to do with. And of course the nice selection of bonsai which are displayed…

This year was the first edition I entered a tree for preselection. It was very nice to hear my Kishu juniper was selected to be displayed in between some of the best bonsai in Europe. I hope some of the visitors could enjoy it, as I enjoy it in my garden on a daily base. A big advantage of having a tree selected, is the fact you can enter the building early before the visitors arrive, and things start to get busy. As usual I made a lot of pictures during the weekend. For the first time I decided to make a nice presentation with my pictures with the program Windows Moviemaker. A presentation of more than 48 minutes, so I had to split it up in 6 parts to upload it to youtube. I also added some music I personally like, which resulted in youtube killing the audio and video in some countries for copyright reasons. But for some countries I managed to workaround this, hopefully you can enjoy them. So here they are: 6 parts of the Noelanders Trophy XIII 2012.