Bonsai Thursday update.

A quick update on my post of yesterday.

This is what you can do with a cheap tree and an old piece of bogwood.

The bogwood.

The tree.

Sometimes I wonder where the ideas come from.

Bonsai Thursday with Dave.

I am really enjoying my Thursday's with Dave in the studio, it reminds me of the old days when I had just started my Bonsai journey, The only thing now is Dave has a problem putting wire on trees, so I do most of the wiring, but we still discuss how we are going to style the tree we are working on.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dave had been visiting a garden center and came across this Juniper and thought it would plant in his piece of bogwood, which featured on here a while back, I agreed with him so we got started to see if it would work.

The label says it is good for Bonsai .

The price was right.

Planted and tied in, it looks about the right size.

About half way through wiring and starting to take shape.

Finished for now.

  It will now be left to recover and treated with tender loving care for a while.

A really good couple of hours work.

Workshop with Robert Porch.

I have at the moment four of Ken's trees here in my garden awaiting the forthcoming workshop with Robert in a couple of weeks time. So I have taken the opportunity to take some photos of them as they are now. 

This first one a Chinese Elm [ cork bark ]

Taxus.

Taxus [ golden yew ]

Triple trunk Chinese Juniper.

All of these trees are looking nice, but I am sure will look even better after the workshop.

Then and now.

I have just come across this photo of an Itoigawa Juniper I have had for quite some time now and I noticed how much it has changed over the years.

How it was after the first styling.

This photo taken this morning. Now in a nice Bigei pot.

Looking very good at the moment.

Natter night 26th Sept 2016.

The rain actually managed to stay away for my natter night, so we were able to look round the garden, instead of me running around bringing trees into the studio.

Andy P brought this Pyracantha to be worked on, it is looking beautiful with all the red berries on.

There were three trees in this group, but Andy wanted at least one of them removed, so the smallest one at the back was taken out. This allowed us to see the bigger tree on it's own and think it will look much better as a single tree.

I decided to do a little work on this Itoigawa Juniper, by thinning out only.

This will allow more light to penetrate to the inside.

While looking round the garden I noticed this Hawthorn was changing into it's Autumn colours.

Which is the first sign that Winter is not far away.

Time to prepare for the cold I think.

Bonsai Thursday with Dave.

A really good day with Dave today when we got stuck into the Juniper he brought last week.

Once on the bench we had a good look to see which branches to get rid of.

The big one on the left was first to go.

A change of angle and start to add wire.

More wire and cover a large branch at the back.

Which was also removed.

Almost there.

The basic structure is now formed.

All done in a couple of hours.

Natter night 19th Sept 2016.

A quiet night tonight, with Boxie being in Ireland for the NIBS 30th show, but we still enjoyed the night.

Ken brought his Larch to dewire as it was starting to bite in a little.

He is in there somewhere.

While taking the wire off, this branch just fell off, all on it's own.

I meanwhile did a bit of pruning on this Hemlock.

It now looks much neater after a clip.

I think it is shaping up nicely.

Another project.

Dave has just been and dropped off another project for us to play around with.

A Chinese Juniper, not sure of the variety but there must be a nice tree in there.

It will be a challenge to find it, but a pleasure all the same.

Hawthorn update.

I have just given this Hawthorn a trim, as it was looking a bit shapeless at the moment.

Before.

After

Also thinking of planting in this piece of bogwood.

Bonsai Thursday with Dave.

I had a good relaxing day with Dave at my house today, he brought this Buxus over on Sunday for me to look at and get some ideas of what to do with it.

It was about five foot high.

After removing quite a lot of the top foliage it is now down to about three foot.

The top's of the three trunks were then Jinned.

The trunks were then wedged apart, just to spread the foliage and allow light to get inside.

We will do some more work in the coming Thursday's.

A good project to keep us busy.

Natter night 12th Sept 2016.

A cloudy but very warm night which was good as Boxie brought his electric bark cleaner for John to do his Pine.

John brought this Pine last week to show it's progress and we noticed the algae that had built up on the bark.

A photo before cleaning.

John in full swing.

After washing using only water and no damage to the bark.

Although this machine vibrates and is quite noisy it does a very good job.

I actually managed to do some work on this Procumbens Juniper tonight and think it is now taking shape.

Still some wiring to do but getting there.

Peace.

After the last few weeks of upheaval is this a sign of peace returning to our lives.

I certainly hope so.

Berberis growing well.