Tops Weekend, 2013

September 20, 2013 in Bonsai Shows, Nurseries and Events | Tags: | 2 comments

This year I was lucky enough to have been invited to demonstrate and conduct workshops along side Robert Stevens at the Tops weekend that is hosted by the Illawarra Bonsai Society. I had always heard good things about the weekend and had been meaning to go for a number of years but it was not until I saw it for myself that I realised just what a great bonsai weekend it actually is.

Demonstrations, rolling workshops, suiseki daiza making, individuals working on their own trees and a good deal of socialising all makes for an outstanding weekend.

The view from above Stanwell

The view from above Stanwell

Add to that a fantastic venue and stunning location and you have a great event well worth the drive/flight/etc.

The view from breakfast.

The view from breakfast across the valley.

As per usual, I took far less photos than I intended. As a result I only have a couple from my demonstration. The stock was from Bonsai South and i was quite surprised at the quality of stock available.  There was a great range of ground grown material at reasonable prices.

I ended up choosing a juniper that I later found out was from the reject pile as it was a little wild and unusual. This is part of the reason I chose it. I enjoy a challenge and there was something about the material that kept me coming back to it.

Prior to any work.

Prior to any work.

Prior to any work from the other side.

Prior to any work from the other side.

As is often the case, time was a little limited during the demonstration so the end result was a little rushed and only main wires were applied. That said, the basic shape was found and I think it should grow into an interesting tree in the future evne if i would have like to spend another couple of hours on it.

The "finished" result.

The “finished” result.

The tree was raffled later in the weekend and knowing who bought it I have a good feeling I will see the tree around the traps in the future. It will be interesting to see how it develops and matures.

I was fairly busy most of the weekend so I didn’t get much time to see Robert Stevens work but I was able to see two of his demonstrations.

Robert at work.

Robert at work on a buxus group.

Robert had some very interesting ways of approaching styling. The beauty of his approach is it can be applied to different aesthetics. I definitely took a few new things on board as I am sure most others that were watching did.

All in all I had a fantastic weekend. I caught up with old friends and made some new ones, all while talking, discussing, styling and working on bonsai.

For anyone who has ever thought about going but has not yet bit the bullet and gone, I would definitely recommend the weekend. I had a ball and I am sure anyone else interested in bonsai would also.

 

 

Australian Orchids.

September 5, 2013 in General Bonsai | Tags: , , , | 1 comment

I am currently growing two species of Australian deciduous orchids. Both are known as ‘green hoods’ although they vary in habit a little from one another. I think they both show great promise as accent plants as they are interesting without being too bright or showy to take away from a tree they might be exhibited with.

Pterostylis curta is an upright form that sends up flower spines of about 20cm upon which small flowers sit.

Pterostylis curta

Pterostylis curta

Pterostylis nutans on the other hand sends up slightly shorted spines and has flowers that bow over or nod which is why they are also refered to as the nodding green hoods.

Pterostylis nutans

Pterostylis nutans

The best part about these orchids is how easy they are to care for. They are deciduous and require very little water over their growing season and none whilst they are dormant. They also reproduce easily and produce new bulbs each year which you can separate at re-potting time to make new plants. They seem very happy in pot culture which is another plus for the species.

Pterostylis nutans

Pterostylis nutans

Potted up they make interesting accents although once this pot fills with a few more tubers it will make for a better display.

Interesting shapes.

Interesting shapes.

Close up they are very pretty.

Close up they are very pretty.

You often find these orchids available  at orchid shows and specialist nurseries, but as they reproduce so easily if you can find someone who has them chances are they will have some spare at re-potting time.

Well worth a look if you are after a native accent.

Root grafting

August 19, 2013 in Re-potting | Tags: , , , | 2 comments

I have been busy re-potting in the last few weeks and finally managed to get around to doing a project tree that I have been growing for a couple of years. When I first acquired the tree I placed 6 or so root grafts onto the trunk. 3 took and 3 failed. Since then I have been meaning to replace the failed grafts but for what ever reason, every time I have had this tree out of its pot I havent been able to do the grafts.

The arbortech and the faulty nebari in the back ground. You can see the two verticle scars from last attempt.

The Arbortech and the faulty nebari in the back ground. You can see the two vertical scars from last attempt.

The first failures were all down to the fact that the channels that accepted the new shoots were too shallow. As the approach grafted seedlings thickened, they simple pushed away from the trunk instead of fusing. I originally cut the channels with a knife and was only able to cut so deep.

This years remedy was the Arbortech! I do very little machine carving but this tool does get a bit of work this time of year as it is excellent for cutting graft channels.

The four new grafts.

The four new grafts.

The process is dead simple. It is much the same as any other approach graft except instead of using a branch from the same tree you use seedlings as your grafting material.

The basic idea is that you cut a vertical channel in the trunk where you would like some new roots. You then insert a seedling into the channel and adjust it until the seedling’s roots are at the same level as the existing nebari. Then you fix the seedling into the channel (I used big map pins), seal it all up with cut paste and let it grow. Soon enough the seedling will thicken and fuse with the trunk. Cut off the top of the newly grafted seedling and you have new roots where there were previously none. For a better breakdown of the general theory see these two posts. Post 1, Post 2.

This year, the seedlings look a little strange as they are all from the batch of seedlings I bent the year before. Having said that, the bendy little trunks were very useful as I was able to use the first bend to create a good angle for the new roots to leave the trunk from.

The bendy seedlings are care of a project i started last year.

The bendy seedlings are care of a project I started last year.

The new grafts were generously coated in cut paste and then the whole lot was potted back into its training pot.

I imagine that by the end of this rapidly approaching summer the grafts should have taken and I will be able to shorten them back before then some time the following year cutting them flush with the trunk.

Hopefully I remember to take a few pictures along the way.

Bonsai Northwest Winter Show.

August 8, 2013 in Bonsai Shows, Nurseries and Events | Tags: , | 1 comment

This year, Bonsai Northwest decided upon holding a winter exhibition. This is a bit of a rarity due to most Victorian shows being held in the spring or autumn. It was great to see many familiar trees out of leaf with the structure bear for all to see. I enjoy seeing trees that i have got to know over the years improve each time i see them come out for a show and this year was no exception.

Unfortunately the moody lighting didn’t translate very well into the photos I took with my cheap camera so I was only able to get a handful of non-blury shots which are below.

Enjoy.

Elm
Trident Maples
Japanese Black Pine
Trident Maple
Japanese Black Pine
Elm
A small Chinese Elm?
Desert Ash
A nice suiseki.
Japanese Maple
Chinese Elm
Chinese Elm ramification
Japanese Maple
Elm

Ground grown stock.

August 2, 2013 in Bonsai Shows, Nurseries and Events | Tags: , , , , , , | 2 comments

I often hear people saying they wish they had access to good stock and or that they cant find any stock worth purchasing. Often the journey to find good stock can be difficult but there is definitely good stock available if you know where to look.

A couple of weekends ago I visited a friend on the outskirts of Melbourne to see how his ground grown stock had progressed this year.

A trident slipped from the grow bed.

A trident slipped from the grow bed.

As you can see from the above picture, the stock was going very well indeed. There is no real secret about how to produce these results as they are a simple a matter of spending 10 years applying good technique and working the root bases each and every year.

Another great base.

Another great base.

Each year the trees have been dug up and cut back hard to encourage a fine, flat root system. Digging each year coupled with the excellent growing conditions in the grow beds results in good yearly top growth without roots getting too thick and creating faults. This makes for trunks with great base flare and very small scars which in many cases are healed in the ground.

A Japanese maple from the same beds.

A Japanese maple from the same beds.

When out of the ground, the most important cuts to the roots are in removing those that are downward growing and scarring the base of the trunk to further thicken the base; and with this stock, this has been done with great results. In fact, I was so impressed with the quality of the material I put my name on a couple that might come out of the ground in the next couple of years.

The roots on the underside of the trunk being removed.

The roots on the underside of the trunk being removed.

For those not willing to spend 5 years working out the techniques and then a further 10 growing trunks luckily this grower also sells some of his stock.

His trident maples are available through Chojo Feature trees in Mount Evelyn.  Jeff who runs the place is an extremely nice guy and I am sure could help out those interested in a trunk and or other bonsai related products.

New tree.

July 12, 2013 in Bonsai Maintenence, Re-potting | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

I have been trying to keep my collection from growing any larger with mixed success over the last few months. What makes it especially hard is when you help friends dig stock out of their growing rows at their nursery.

This years visit to Shibui Bonsai was much like last years in that a lot of nice stock was dug (which I am sure a lot will be featured in the coming seasons catalogue). Although a lot caught my eye, I was well-behaved and none of the ground grown stock came home. That is not to say I didn’t bring anything back to the benches…….

For a while now I have been meaning to grow some small twisted mini’s to use as accents in 3 point displays. On the benches at Shibui, Neil had a range of interesting little chinese elm root cuttings that I thought would be perfect for the project so I brought one home.

The cutting out of its original pot

The cutting out of its original pot

Today I wired the cutting to enhance some existing curves and then re-potted into a much smaller container in which I plan to start to grow a small crown from.

Often working out how to secure a small tree into a small pot which only has one drainage hole can be difficult but I have found the method shown below works well.

tie-in wire seccured to a larger wire.

tie-in wire secured to a larger wire.

Mesh installed and tie in wires ready to accept the tree.

Mesh installed and tie in wires ready to accept the tree.

The pot itself is by no means a museum piece but it is a well made Marufuji production pot. Being a little on the large side will serve it well to help the tree establish some new ramification. Once I am happy with how the ramification is progressing I will look for a more suitable pot anywhere up to half the size of the current container.

The roots were reduced accordingly.

The roots were reduced accordingly.

For such a small cutting the tree had grown a number of large roots all of which I removed and or shortened to fit into its new home.

Potted up but before i trimmed the tie in wires.

Potted up but before I trimmed the tie in wires.

After half an hours work the tree had found its new planting angle and its new pot. It is by no means a masterpiece but I think once I can develop some ramification it could make an interesting companion to a larger tree.

I think this little tree will make a nice addition to the collection in the coming years and being so small it shouldnt effect the space I have too much. In fact I probably have a whole lot of room for trees of this size.

Good bud, bad bud.

June 17, 2013 in Bonsai Techniques | Tags: , , | 3 comments

Over the years while growing black pines I have always strived for more buds. Each year i tried to get back buds to form and most times I was successful although sometimes the tree I was working on would show signs of promise and then wave them in my face as it took them away again.

What am I talking about? I am sure you have all seen them; those small buds that form and give you hope, only to swell but never open, and then after a few seasons growth, wither and die.

A few of the buds in question.

A few of the buds in question.

As far as i can work out, these are needle buds and or weak adventitious buds that for what ever reason can never really get themselves into gear. Even after candle pruning the rest of the tree theses buds often still sit and do nothing. The most frustrating thing about these buds is they always seem to appear right where you want them which makes seeing them die all the more difficult.

I have tried a number of methods to awaken them but none have worked. I have had them in both shaded locations and spots where they get full sun, on bottom branches and in the apex, on strong growth and on weak. Nothing seemed to work no matter where they occurred or what I tried.

But there is still hope. At the convention a month ago Ryan Neil talked about these buds and passed on a technique I had not heard of before. He said these buds could be awakened by slightly damaging them with a scissor cut done at the same time you candle prune. That is to say that when you cut the candles, you also make a small incision into these sleeping buds. He said it was this damage that would trigger these buds to put out a flush of growth at the same time as the cut candles re-grow their second flush.

As we in winter at the moment I have not yet had the chance to try this method out, but I look forward to trying it this coming summer. Hopefully it is the answer to this annoying sleeping bud issue.

 

Ryan Neil, AABC 2013.

May 24, 2013 in Bonsai Shows, Nurseries and Events | Tags: , | 4 comments

At the recent Australian Association of bonsai Clubs (AABC) convention in Canberra I was lucky enough to see Ryan Neil both demonstrate and conduct work shops over the course of three days.

Ryan works on a juniper.

Ryan works on a juniper.

For those that didn’t make the convention, you really missed out. We are very lucky in Australia in that we have a large number of foreign demonstrators and teachers visit. In fact, during a conversation at the convention we counted 5 foreign bonsai demonstrators alone this year who were coming over the pond to share their bonsai skills and passion.

What set Ryan apart from most other demonstrators I had seen was the clear way in which he explained concepts. All the demonstrators on the world circuit are capable of creating good trees, but very few of them are as excellent at communicating their ideas and methods. Ryan was excellent at this as well as his obvious skill in bonsai itself. In fact he talked non-stop throughout his presentations and demonstrations while moving between the tree he was styling and a white board, where he would draw diagrams to further make clear concepts.

Ryan and a red pine from the National Bonsai and Penjing collection.

Ryan and a red pine from the National Bonsai and Penjing collection.

Ryan’s skills obviously did not stop at presenting, he had a confident and logical approach to styling, wiring and bonsai health that he was also able to convey both through his work and interacting with the audience.

He worked on 3 trees over the course of two days which my camera only really captured the final image of one well. He styled a Juniper, a scotts pine and an old red pine from the national bonsai and Penjing collection.

The red pine after some structural wiring.

The red pine after some structural wiring.

I think it would be safe to say that every one in the crowd learned a lot and thoroughly enjoyed the weekend. Ryan has certainly left Australia wanting more and hopefully we will see him return at some stage in the future. Perhaps he can revisit this red pine once it has seen some further refinement in his absence.

The finished Red pine demo tree.

The finished Red pine demo tree.

The results obviously speak for themselves. Ryan put on a great show and openly shared his knowledge over the course of the 3 days. For any one that has the chance to see him or learn under him I would suggest you take up that chance, I certainly will again should I get the opportunity.

AABC 2013 Exhibition.

May 23, 2013 in Bonsai Shows, Nurseries and Events | Tags: , | Leave a comment

This weekend past I was lucky enough to see Ryan Neil at the AABC national convention in Canberra. This is a national convention that is held in a different city around Australia each year. The exhibition is one of the key components of the convention and I look forward to seeing what each city has to display each year. Unfortunately my camera didn’t deal well with the low light in the exhibition so only a few pictures were in focus and those are in the gallery below. Enjoy.

More needle work

April 30, 2013 in Bonsai Maintenence | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

As the season rolls on I am slowly getting to the end of my needle work which in turn will mark the time to begin preparing the deciduous trees for winter.

The tree below is another that has been slowly developing over the years and with another wiring and another years candle pruning I think it will be close to exhibit-able.

The tree has appeared on the blog before HERE where you can see the progress it has made and the ramification it has gained. It also makes obvious just how much it needs a re-wire.

Before the work

Before the work

After a the needle plucking.

After a the needle plucking.

Yet another of my trees that desperately needs a re-wire, it will have to get into line behind all the others that I plan on doing this winter.

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