I apologize for not posting new material lately but I’ve been dealing with a nasty migraine the past couple of months and work has kept me very busy as well as Bonsai. I recently took a trip to Mr. Jiri Svacina’s place because pine re-potting season is here and I wanted a nice container for the mugo pine that Mr. Pavel Slovak gave me as an assignment a couple years ago.

I really appreciate his style and I always feel like a kid in a candy shop when I visit, not to mention spending an extra hour or two more than I originally planned.

One pot seemed to fit the criteria I was looking for and so, it went home with me along with a couple other baked goodies. Here is the finished result.

I hope you’re enjoying your summer and that your trees are growing well. Remember since the temperatures are going up, it’s time to lay off the fertilizer as it competes with the water uptake in your roots.

Tom

 

A pine that I bought as “light” yamadori from the Sirotný family was from a garden planter that a lady had for about 15 years. This was their rough estimate so it could be around 18 years old now and has some decent bark on most of the tree. I really didn’t know how to create an apex on this tree initially but I believed that with some good horticulture, back-budding would occur and the apex would eventually come.

I’m quite happy with the direction this tree is going in and also the fact that it began as such humble material.

Have a great day.

T.

I apologize for not posting for such a long time. I would like to update you with some images of some of the trees that have changed a bit since how they started out.

A larch that was dig up but wasn’t too interesting. After the initial styling I wasn’t very satisfied and I thought about removing two of the structural branches. This wasn’t the decision that would improve the tree though. It was the angle and some adjustments to the styling. Now I feel that it is moving in the right direction.

Here is a very cheap and simple nursery stock Sabina juniper. For a few years I wasn’t sure what to do with it. Then it had its first repot, then first styling and trim a year later. It was left alone for some time and had another repot into what I felt to be a more suitable container in the spring of 2018. It grew freely until November 2018 when I gave it a second styling.

Here I had some fun with a request from a client, to create a tree for their significant other as a gift. Even easy to take care of Ficus trees can be made to look interesting and I was quite happy with the outcome given I didn’t have much time to prepare this tree.

Here is another tree that just hasn’t received much attention and after years in a plastic container it was re-potted spring of 2018 and was finally styled. This tree is beginning to look like a weeping tree in nature and I hope to improve it further.

This tree is also moving in the right direction and I hope to pull out more of that high-alpine, candelabra look.

We’re really looking forward to give this tree a second styling after it was re-potted into a more bonsai-style Chinese pot. It was nice to wake up and see a fresh layer of snow on this yamadori.

I’ve been enjoying the process this tree has gone through and we’re very happy with the progress in just 9 months that it has been at the balcony.

Early winter photo of the Moravian Forest. We plan on adding more trees to improve this composition, unfortunately there are almost no available Beech trees available at nurseries.

Lastly, I wanted to end with a little project over the holidays. I was inspired by Bonsai Mirai and their Christmas tree bonsai. We picked a nice Nordmann fir at a local nursery and had a great time transforming a regular Christmas tree into something that can be a nice-looking tree in a few years. Firs are awesome and remind me of home while I was working on this. I hope to dabble with more in the future.

Wishing you all the best into 2019 and I hope your trees and collections improve and grow like weeds!

T.

Howdy everyone! It’s been some time since my last post but that’s because we’ve been busy with our new family member and several other things. I’d like to take this opportunity to show some of the changes in the garden.

 

feminine yamadori hawthorn

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll be posting some more things soon. I hope everyone is having a great spring and enjoying everything that has woken up from winter.

Cheers

T.

 

 

Well hi there, here’s my Miyajima white pine I purchased about 4 years ago and how I’ve moved forward with it. When I first bought it, I was going for a classic design and wired and styled it out. However, the next spring revealed that the cambium separated from the sapwood.

This resulted in all of the lower and main branches to die off, leaving me with a tree that resembled a fat person holding an umbrella. Impressive trunk but no asymmetry and bonsai without symmetry is just not as interesting.

I figured that I would at least re-pot it into the front that was proposed and then we’ll go from there in terms of a new design.

A few months later I thought of keeping the bottom branch as a jin and so I tried that

I had completely fallen out of love with this tree and was lost with how to move it back into an interesting direction. The trunk was too straight as this point and I had nothing to cut back to to create some more variation within the foliage.

I decided to just let it grow as much as possible and focus on having health come first before doing any other changes.

This year during the winter I tried a few angle changes to see if that would help.

This shift seemed the best and would definitely be an improvement from the old straight trunk line of the previous design. I also got some helpful feedback from Ryan Neil regarding the new design. That new idea was to create a tesion design. Tension means that the apex/crown and main branch move against the trunk. It’s a simple design that uses angle changes to create more drama when other features are lacking. In March I went through with this new design and I also re-potted into the new angle.

Now I am proud of this tree again and I am really looking forward to where it will go from here. The design idea from Ryan was a great upgrade to the otherwise boring design. Right now it’s happily growing this years candles and in full sun.

Stay cool! And keep your trees happy!

Thomas

 

Hi there. Long time, I know. Been busy. Instead of a boring and long story here are some bonsai trees

This Common Juniper was the subject of my first public demo on the 23rd of June in Poland at the Bonsai Triennale 2019. I was really happy with the result.

Yes, bonsai was being done all year and I’ll continue to do so. See you next time.

T