Czech Yamadori

Fest ival of co lou rs Main characters:  Pyrus pyraster Not as dark/vivid color as it could be but still reasonable good performance of this lady.       Prunus mahaleb   Outstanding performance this season.   For me this is the best performance I have EVER seen from a mahaleb.     Wondering why is that?  The weather this year was not very different from the ones before. Well, yes this year summer and autumn were quite dry and because of my heavy workload I have spent much less time pampering my trees.   Made THIS really the difference?     I did not have any other pot available. There is a plastic mesh  in the middle of the pot to keep the rootball reasonably small.    

Black wiper It was the dark lower section of the trunk that gave this tree its name. Lovely tree, in my eyes at least.    I know.  The thick elbow like branch in the middle is an eyesore. Even more it is just  a piece of a dead wood.  Dead wood on a birch? Are you serious?    And what about the transition between the old and new parts?  Yeah, it doesn´t look very nice rigth now.    BUT If you look on this lady from a reasonable distance, its getting dark and your eyes are not so sharp as they used to be ....    I guess you know  how this goes on...   I have heard this from one of our best actor Mr Jan Werich and I hope he would not mind if  I use it now and then.   Funny,  he crossed the river long time ago but he still there in our minds.  At least when it comes to my generation.   Autumn 2020 Summer 2020   Colour festival in November 2021 Who said: " Not worth the effort" ?

" ...Not worth the effort...." "A great species for bonsai" Simple statements.  Different weight though if said by a bonsai novice or by someone who has thousands of  admirers /followers.      Birch is  easy to grow.  Give it what it needs for happy life and it will reward you.   Fail with the basic horticulture and the tree will give you a clear feedback.  Withering up of some branches that the tree consider as not important.  Thats it.   Your choice Two of my birches have lost some branches this year.  Something that happened for the first time with these trees.    A random visitor of my place said: Yeahh, thats always a problem with birches " .   NO.  That is NOT a problem with the species as such. It was my problem with not adequate watering in the season before.  Too much of other activities and not enough care of my trees.  Why should I blame the tree for my faults?           

 The life seems to be like a fast train.   Weekdays like a stations you pass without stopping and weekends are short stops to see some other people outside...  How different it is at the age  of -teens and now.    I shared this tree just about three years ago.  If interested you can find that post here: https://doriyama.blogspot.com/2018/07/    The tree looks a bit more mature now.  The crown is a bit heavier but I am  still thinking about it much more like a deciduous literati than anything else.   ( Well, I know. It looks  quite heavy in fact, but don't you think that one can see things the way one wants?  First there is the Wizzard of Perspective, second the Witch of Camera and last but not least the Kind Lord of ones Mind ) Total height of the tree above the rim of the pot is about 50 cm while the first branch is at 30 cm.   Very dramatic dead wood feature.  Because of the changed position the remains of the root on the left are now showing the straight cut - some more carving

 Collected in 2015 in the Central Bohemia.      Height : 70 cm;        Pot: Martin Ašenbrenner Challenges to tackle: This branch has been pulled down by about 7 cm.  There is a cut at the base and another one in the middle.     Will see if  I can go any further in the bend.  If so I would need to reconsider the presence of the first branch on the left.  It looks a bit redundant even now and with better inclination of the problematic branch it will be even more so. The other one is a real brain teaser: massive outstanding root.   There was a stone between the trunk and the root that has been removed in the course of time.  And now what?   Get a new stone there?  Remove the root?   Try to pull them down under the soil surface?  And what about the reverse taper? Well, we will see.  I hope to start fixing this challenge next year. And another one.   Different bucket though.  I am really looking forward to fix this one.   Remains of  wood that used to be the main trunk.   It was given the

Crazy world.  It is a summer.  Time to enjoy your holidays and relax.  Reality?  In many places it is just a moment to see your properties and belongings are taken by storm or water.   And this is not even the worst.    Many people were fighting just to safe their bare life.  And many of them have lost.    Terrible... Water and Wind.  Good servants but bad masters.   But is it really just the Nature to be blamed for it?   What is the role of the mankind?  Nobody knows for sure.  But the mankind has been doing a lot of bad things for the sake of Earning and Consumption.   Regadless if we paint these words  into more fancy colours such as amusement, dreams fulfilment, better life or something like this. It is just a shame that all the time we follow the same scenario: Running Problem! Stop running and start thinking ???  Is it no GO?   Never mind. Keep running. .... Gosh. That's it.   So here it is the promised tree Prunus mahaleb Height: 10 cm Width: 28 cm which makes it a kifu size

 Defoliated in early March and since then protected against frost.  The picture below has been taken on 16th April  This one is from 1st June.   You can see the other Pyracantha on the right only with buds.

   Busy spring day.   Late afternoon.   Buuzzzzz.  Head up and looking around. What was that?  Nothing can be seen.  Strange.  Sounds like a large bumblebee.   And again Buzzzzz.    Now I had a chance to spot a dark colored Something that zoomed around my head.   Sized like a large bumblebee, sounded like a bumblebee BUT what about the color?   A bumblebee from Chernobyl?  Or a creature from an eastern laboratory?   Gosh, need to find out.  Right,  let's  try to get a picture of  it first.    Easy to say.    A number of photos that could be labeled  like: - the exact place where the creature was a blick ago or - the place where the creature will be seen in a split of a second   Later on I have managed  to get some reasonably good pictures with nicely sharp backgrounds but blurry image of the creature.  And finally - patience brings roses - few shots with the creature.  Gotcha!   With the pictures and help of the aunt Wiki it was quite easy to find out what it is:  WIKIPEDIA: Xyloco

  One of the early runners.   Lot of blossoms here while some other mahalebs are just about to start showing first flowe buds.  Most of them came from the same yamadori location meaning that their genotype is/should be fairly similar  but they were overwintered on differenet places around my place.  Good for me.   Thanks to that the spring festivity season will last longer... Pot: Hugo Studeník

Being strict with its height of 22 cm above the rim this little mahaleb should not qualify into the shohin category.  With some more needed development I think that  the final height is somewhere around the 25 cm mark.    Repoted, some root work and back into the wooden box.  Covered with shredded sphagnum moss and plastic mesh to keep blackbirds away.   Some females love to use this moss for bedding in their nests...That's above their rutine digging activity.   They make life harder but I do like them.   Nice to watch them taking regular bath in the pond in the early morning regadless the weather.  Winter? who cares...  Lovely to see the young birdies - little downy balls - sitting somewhere in the undergrowth demanding more worms from their parents.   And their parents trying to keep away faddy cats and plundering magpies.  Well yes,  they are a pain in the butt with all that mess they create in the garden looking for food.   But if I look around in the Nature - using slightly di

It would make more sense to solely focus on the ramification as the Chinese flowering quince  Ch. speciosa is known for its reluctance to ramify.   But I cannot resist to keep the blossoms buds on the tree.   At least for this year.    To deal with this clash_ramification x blossom_ I have three blossoming quinces in pots  so maybe I will keep only one to bloom next year.      

 

 ... repotted this spring into new pot from Martin Ašenbrenner.   A bit burned but that is something that may happen in wood fired kiln.    And yes, the pot is a bit oversized in length and height but it was still the best fit from those readily available.  I have something like another 2-3 years to get some more pots to find the right one.   As " my portfolio " of shohin is growing  nicely I need to shop for more pots anyway.     

 The spring is about the joy of new life.  Blossoms on our trees are  cherries on a cake of  the new season.    Blossoms on larches are something special you do not take for granted.   They may come every single year on some trees while on some others it is a kind of special treat if they appear.    Female blossoms & a cone from the last year.  No male blossoms there yet.

There were few days with temps well over 22°C.   Nice sunny spring days.   The weather fcast for next fortnight has looked quite nice - so I could not resist to take trees from their winter shelter and place them on the shelves.   With the Easterns on their way the temperatures went down.   We may get some snow again and temps may go slightly to the red zone.  No major problem for most of my plants. Nevertheless I will move some of them to the non frost area anyway.  Freshly repotted shohins etc.  Physical activity is supposed to extend your life so I do not complain... 2nd April From this angle the lower part looks like a typical masculine feature.  The picture below is from the 24th March 2020.