Five more sleeps.

Only five more sleeps until we set off on our trip to the Noelanders Trophy.

From home.

Through France.

On to Hasselt, in Belgium.

A trip of over 1000 km each way.

But what a trip.

Noelanders Trophy 2017

Bonsai Thursday with Dave.

Another nice sunny day here but quite cold outside, however it is warm in the studio.

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This Squamata Juniper was the tree that had some work done today, it needed a bit of a tidy up and a thin out.

After work and back on the bench , all ready for the coming season.

We will not be meeting up next Thursday as I will setting off for Belgium and the Noelanders show.

Natter night 23rd January 2017.

A really good and busy night, which always happens when I plan to do one of my own trees, there was five trees brought along to have some work done.

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I did however manage to get some work done to my Squamata Juniper.

Back on the bench with some of my other trees.

Boxie brought his Hornbeam to be dewired.

Which he had some help from Susan.

You can also see Ken working on a small Hawthorn, with a young Larch on the bench.

This is a closer view of the Larch.

It was transplanted at an angle in this Cascading pot, without disturbing the roots.

Ken then started to wire.

After styling it looks much more mature.It will now be kept frost free until spring.

This is the Hawthorn Ken was working on.

Andy P brought along this Juniper, of unknown variety, to have a clip out.

After thinning out.

Yet another enjoyable and busy night.

My tree for tonight.

Just in case no trees turn up for natter night I have put this Squamata Juniper in the studio to work on.

It needs a trim and some wire removed.

Bonsai Thursday with Dave.

Today when Dave came over we had a look at this Hawthorn tp see if we could correct some of the faults it has.

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The main fault is the center branch on the left, which just does not look right to me.

I tried lifting the end of the branch to make a separation from the lower branch, Not good, so try something else.

A change of viewing angle, better but it makes the thicker part look very flat.

We came up with the idea of splitting the branch to enable it to be pulled up, then lowered the pad to be more in line with the apex.

I think this is a better option once the branch is lifted a little more.

Another clean up.

Today I thought I would do a clean up on my Hawthorn group.

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It is a good time of year to do this work as you can see the branch structure better and remove any growth that can not be seen when in full foliage.

Just by removing crossing branches and any parts that have grown into thick knuckles, it opens up the canopy really well. I also took the opportunity to clean up the surface of the compost. I am also contemplating a repot this spring as this group has been in this pot for about ten years now and could benefit from it.

I also noticed the Black birds are starting to look in the pots for grubs and making a mess of the benches.

It's not as if I don't feed them as I have loads of food out for them.

Natter night 16th January 2017.

A quiet night ,so we spent the night taking wire off some of my trees,not the job I like doing.

The first to be done was this Boulevard Cypress.

The branches have now set, so I can now work on the foliage pads. The weeds were also removed from the top of the compost.

These two Chinese Junipers were also dewired.

As was this Chinese Juniper.

A good job done.