Out again.

After a very hard frost last night, the sun has decided to shine once more, so I have put most of my trees back on the benches.

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Sunday Bonsai.

I am having a rest day today after a busy day up at Brian's yesterday, but I still go out into the garden to check that all my trees are alright.

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Hawthorn group budding up nicely.

Maple buds almost open.

Hemlock just starting to move.

Two Itoigawa Junipers, from cuttings.

Small Azalea, also from a cutting.

I love Spring when every thing starts to grow.

A day in Brian's garden.

Today Boxie and I spent the day working on trees in Brian's garden

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Brian was removing wire from some of his trees in the shed.

Boxie started to wire this large Larch.

Still removing wire.

I removed the wire from this Hornbeam.

Then I went and helped to wire the Larch outside in the sun.

Still plenty of work to do, but we ran out of time.

If we have the time next weekend we will try to finish it then.

First flower's.

The first flower's have appeared on one of my Larch trees.

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I believe it is a European Larch.

Because of the red colour of the flower it is a female.

Still more to come.

This dwarf strawberry is also in flower.

Spring is almost here.

Bonsai Thursday with Dave.

The task for today was to find out what was in this tub and what had any roots.

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This tub has been sitting in the garden for a number of years and today was the day for separation of the various bits that had been pushed in over time.

After removal from the tub, a good sign, plenty of roots to work with.

The first one separated, this small piece of Hawthorn.

Second one out, a bigger Hawthorn.

Next, a Hazel.

An Itoigawa juniper.

A very small piece of Yew.

Another Itoigawa juniper.

All of these had some nice roots on, so they were potted up with a mixture of Sphagnum moss and compost. they will be kept in a green house for a while to give them a chance to recover.

I like free trees.

Scary time.

Hope you don't get to much of a fright off this photo.

Another Bonsai Night.

I have had another Bonsai night when John R and Tony W came over for some help and advice. Tony was first with a bare rooted Hawthorn that had just been collected, he thought he had not got enough root with it, but I have seen Hawthorn with a lot less survive quite well.

It was potted into a fairly deep pot with some good compost and will be kept out of any frost that we may still get.

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Then John arrived with a Crab Apple that he had air layered about a year ago, which he thought had failed and died.

As you can see, in the photo above, the bottom of the trunk was very straight and John wanted to layer the three branches that were left. But after I suggested layering about two inches below the first branch, so it had a thicker base to start with , he liked the idea better.

So that is what we did.

Before removing the section that was originally layered I scraped a little bark, which was still green and so was still alive. we cut the plastic and found quite a lot of roots on the bottom. This was then placed into a small pot with a lot of sphagnum moss added then watered in. On closer examination the buds near where it was removed were starting to swell, fingers crossed it will be ok.

I thought I had retired last year, but it seems to be turning into a full time { unpaid } job.

I wouldn't have it any other way.