Bonsai Thursday with Dave.

Although Dave's visits on a Thursday are quite short, only a couple of hours, we still manage to enjoy ourselves. Talking about the old days when we were just starting out on our Bonsai journeys together.

We also manage to get some work done to trees.

This Yew was potted last week and already you can see the buds starting to swell.

Just a little work to clean some of the deadwood.

Now a look at some of my other trees.

Maple.

Hawthorn group.

Tall Larch.

Shorter stumpy Larch.

All these trees are progressing nicely.

Natter night 25th April 2016.

I am starting tonight with a bit of colour, this very nice Quince has burst into flower.

A close up of the flowers.

Ken M doing a potting up of this Micro leaf Cotoneaster into it's first Bonsai pot.

After it was potted .

A little wire was added and it had a light prune.

Next was this Hawthorn, which is in need of some work.

After wiring and another clip-out, it is looking better.

Also today I decided to place my Acer Palmatum into this much bigger pot and let it grow to create a larger tree.

It may take a few years but I think it will be worth the extra work.

Bonnie Scotland, Bonnie pots.

While on another trip to Bonnie Scotland I returned with yet more pots for my collection.

This first one is not my normal type of pot being a glazed one but I liked it so I bought it.

The stamp.

This is more me another Bigei pot.

Nice signature.

Not sure by which potter but nice.

The stamp.

No marks on this one but a real nice pot.

Looks like I will have to reorganize my shelves again. 

Bonsai Thursday with Dave.

What a great day with my Sensei Dave today, made much better as we could work outside in the garden.

The sun has been out all day and was very warm. Three days in a row, boy I bet we suffer for this.

Dave brought this nice Yew for us to work on, the first job was to repot into some better compost as the soil it was in was holding too much water.It is now in a more open mix,so should be happier in this.

We also shortened and Jinned the apex, it will need to grow some longer branches before it can have a proper styling.

A great days work done in lovely weather.

Natter night 18th April 2016.

As is usual on a Monday I tend to start early working on trees, so today was just a normal day as I did some repotting on a couple of what I hope will be Mame trees.

Same photo with a lighter added for scale, I will wire and style when I know the trees have settled into their new pots.

John G brought his Lonicera for a bit more styling.

With help from Mike R it is taking shape.

It was decided to remove the lower left branch to make it more of a Litterati style.

Ken M brought his Larch to show us how well it is growing. after showing him which new buds to remove, { this being the ones facing downwards } I left him to get on with it.

Next is Ken's Scots Pine, which just needs a small bit of bud selection and a little wire added.

It still needs a bit more wire added but is taking shape nicely.

We got through quite a lot tonight.

Berberis repot.

Just repotted this Berberis and also removed another large branch to refine the image.

I can now concentrate on the foliage and ramification.

An interesting project.

Bonsai Thursday.

I have been having another Bonsai day and decided to work on one of my False Cypress Boulevards.

As you can see it was in need of a good thin out.

Half way through thinning.

Finished removing foliage, just some wiring to do now.

Larch buds are on the move.

As is my Acer.

Another Larch.

Hawthorn also bursting out into leaf.

It must be the amount of daylight the trees are getting that is making the grow so well.

Windswept Hornbeam update.

While doing some repotting at Boxies on Monday Robert gave this Hornbeam a trim back.

This is just after the wiring job a few weeks ago.

Robert in full flow snipping away.

Just a small tweak.

Looks good from either side.

A really nice image.

Juniper first styling.

I said the other day I would start work on this Shohin Juniper as soon as I had some time, well I found some, so here it is.

This is how it was, really two trees, I did not like the idea of removing either side to make a single tree.

It could be a cascade by taking off the branch on the left, or an upright by removing the branch on the right.

My idea was to pull the left branch much closer to the right and form one tree, almost a semi cascade.

This is after a change of planting angle and pulling the branch into place.

I think it is working well and will now leave the tree to regain it's strength before any more work is done/

Natter night 11th April 2016.

A great night tonight, made all the better by having a visit from Robert Porch from Scotland.

Ken M , being the only one to bring trees took full advantage of having Robert here and got a lot of advice off him.

This Japanese Black Pine was the first to be done.

Before.

After, it now looks more compact.

This Common Juniper was next, it had a little wire added then it was clipped.

It needs a change of planting angle at the next repot, as demonstrated in this photo, but is turning into a very nice image.

My thanks to Robert for making the night special.