Natter night 20th Feb 2017.

A really good night once more, made all the better by another visit from Robert, who gave us more instruction in this beautiful pass time of working with small trees.

Andy watching intently as Robert applies some wire to his newly purchased Pine.

This is the Pine as it was before.

After Robert worked his magic and placed the branches.

Meanwhile Ken started on a repot of his Black Pine.

It was more a change of planting angle than a full repot.

But what a difference it made to the tree.

This afternoon I decided to do some work on this Juniper to surprise Robert when he came tonight.

It turned into a very nice image, so much so that Andy bought it off him.

I also gave Margery a hand to wire this small Juniper.

Which also created a nice image.

This dwarf Fushia that Ken brought to repot into a better pot was also sorted.

The pot, a nice cascade by Walsall Studio Ceramics.

When put together looked very good.

Finally My Hemlock after all the wire had been removed by Boxie and myself.

Thanks Mike.

A very productive and busy night, with plenty of really good banter.

You have to have fun and enjoy doing Bonsai.

Workshop with Robert Porch Feb 2017.

Today we had another excellent workshop day with Robert, where the banter was good, but the informative talk was even better.

The day started with a discussion about Susan's Spruce group.

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Some of the trees before the work was started.

Andy's Larch, before working.

David's Larch, before working.

David's Pine.

Susan's Silver Birch raft.

Susan's Larch.

Brian's Juniper.

Ken gained a lot of knowledge about his Black Pine.

After a light prune.

Robert gave Brian's Juniper a clip, then he set him the task of wiring the tree.

Boxie gave Susan a bit of advice about her pre-wired Larch.

Susan is quite new to Bonsai, but made a good job of wiring the tree.

Everyone got to work wiring their trees.

Susan could not bear to look when Robert started to tweak the Larch.

No need to worry Susan he knows what he's doing.

After tweaking the final image is brilliant.

Time for lunch, they took some stopping, but they soon got back to work.

As this Silver Birch is starting to get very close to bud burst, it was decided to pot it into a training pot.

A very nice root ball.

Just enough root was removed to allow it to fit the pot.

A very nice image now.

David's Pine was wired up ready for styling.

Boxie just loves to help out.

After working a very nice image.

Andy did a good job of wiring his Larch.

The final image, this could not be done without wiring.

Meanwhile Brian's Juniper was given a basic styling, but already you can see a nice tree emerging from the mass it was before.

This Cotoneaster, which belongs to Margery, was cut back quite hard to promote some finer ramification.

Ken got started on his second tree, this Larch.

Only the top third of  both trunk's were wired and styled to allow more growth in the lower section.

Susan still working.

David assisted by Boxie continued to wire his Larch.

After styling it looked very good.

A late adjustment.

Aided by a guy wire the branch was fixed in place.

As I have said in the past, it is not all about styling trees,but the knowledge and information you get from a workshop with someone as good as Robert is.

At the end of the day everyone went away happy and a little wiser after a great day.

Thanks to all who came and made it a special day.

And a  really big thank you to Robert.

Damp morning.

The weather has warmed up a little today but that made for a quite damp start with a bit of mist.

At least it makes the trees look nice and fresh.

Bonsai Thursday 2.

While I was cleaning up this morning, I had a good look at the trees on the benches and was shocked to see my Larch are starting to wake up.

The telltale signs are the golden glow on the ends of the buds.

So Spring cannot be to far away now.

As far as repotting goes, listen to the trees and they will tell you when to do it.