Czech Yamadori

 European wild pear is one of my favorite tree.   Aged bark, wild appearance, blossoms, tiny fruit and beautiful autumn colours make of it a great candidate for  Four Season Bonsai.   Collected in cental Bohemia in 2017, air layered in 2019.  Current height:  22 cm - the top shoot included, target  18-19 cm Width:  24 cm  Front Left side   Alligator skin nicely developed.  Nebari - nothing to see there (YET ), but it is on the way - just look closer. Another five years and it might be there...:)  After the late summer inspection. Wiring, adding new load of Biogold and then back under the plastic cover to keep moss in place.  The moss will be removed in late autumn just before the winter rest to have better control of soil moisture.

I guess that with this yamadori the mother Nature has been inspired by some of the trees made in mass production nurseries.   Well, to be fair, one can still  differentiate the part made by the mother Nature and  me.    Clearly, I have not spent too much time to elaborate what to do with it.   We will see how much time it would take to heal the wound on the trunk and to produce matured bark in the "new" top section.   Just that and I will be more than happy with it.  The lower part has very nicely formed alligator skin partially covered by silver lichen.  The tree as it is: It has survived my problematic horticulture last year ( the problem with overdone MTB cycling ).  This spring I have added few layers of sphagnum moss on the front section of the pot - crossing my fingers in a hope  I can get some new roots there.   Opened the crown to the light to promote backbudding.  Fingers crossed here too.   Backbudding is just starting.  And new roots?  - will see later in Sep

Three years ago I ordered from Martin Asenbrenner a vessel for this cascade.  The year after the container was ready.  I did like the shape and colour but I thought that it is slightly oversized.   Martin was kind enough to take it back and above all he promised to deliver another one next year.  This time the size of the container was OK but I had a feeling that it doesn't express the emotion I have in my mind.  So here we are in 2020 still using the old plastic vessel. The tree has been thinned few days before  the day the pics were taken.   The crown looks a bit empty as some of the strong shoots were cut off to get more light to the inner weaker shoots that are better positioned - I think.   All that makes the ten-jin too dominant ( I wonder it the description ten-jin is correct while it is in fact in the lowest position of the cascading trunk ?  ).   The idea is to cover the straight part as much as possible while leaving the last third of it shining below the green foliage.

Strange... Each year I am buying some new pots.  But when it comes to repoting all too often I cannot find any good one for the tree I am working on... Height:   35 cm Width: 33 cm Collected:   Spring 2012

This small pear is a result of a successful air layer completed in 2019. The vitality of the plant was excellent so I have decided to speed up a little bit and to select structural branches and to carve a section of the trunk to get there some taper.   From now on it is again on the tree to do its part... Current front.  Due to the size restriction there is no chance to aim at natural looking pear tree. I mean a tall tree with relatively narrow crown.  At least that is the way pears look like in this country. The taper of the trunk seems to be OK.  Well,  on the cost of removal of a bit of flesh to be fair... Carved section ( current back ).   I hate to say that as my attempt is always to make 360° trees. AGE! Natural jin The height at the moment is just about 10 cm - up to the cut on the main trunk.  So there is still enough space to fill...

Well, there are not many elms in my neighborhood but I would think about nice tall tree proudly overlooking green meadows.   Now in reality, just looking on few elms at our place,  they paint a quite different picture. Just like this one... Two trunks merged together? Collected in 2017 in Central Bohemia.   Love on a first sight.  I have been passing around this little fella for a good number of years.   Apparently always looking on the other side of the track and not bothered to inspect the surrounding bush more carefully. First styling ( rather a butchery I should say ) on 5th May 2020.   Later on I plan to extend the butchery a bit further - for the time being I plan to extend the uro on the main trunk all along the debarked section of the main trunk.   I guess this plan looks better than the original one  - to remove the double section by an air layer and keep just the part where the both trunks are merged.   Maybe this was not a bad option but for me the

Busy days with watering as the temps are pretty much like in the early summer and rain nowhere in sight... Just thinking how it will look like to lay flat on my back under this tree.  For sure a pain seeing all these pieces of lava there...  But still,  would be nice to do it.

Height: 27 cm from the rim of the pot Pot:  Training I really like this small tree.  The mirrored movement of the top section looks quite special.   Two headed dragon?  Dancing snakes?  Black - white?   Good - Evil?   Yin - yang?   Pretty much in line with the  role that blackthorn played in our history - see the previous post. I hope that now after all that time with one step forward and two steps back I have found a direction to follow.   Well, nearly.  Still must decide how to proceed with the low branch on the right and  select more appropriate pot.  The rest is "just"  a horticulture.     The green mass on the top of soil = a shredded moss to promote growth of surface roots.  Fingers crossed.

I have come across some  extracts from this book.   Interesting reading.  Need to get a copy.   Well, life is not just black or white. And it is the same with a sloe.   It is a pity that we have lost  much of our ancient wisdom about the healing power of local natural products.    On the other side we have managed to keep the recipe how to make a sloe gin or as it is more common in my region the wine made from sloe.   Apparently  shamanism/druidry/ witchcraft  were  percieved by the rulers ( black or red ) as bad while alcoholism was acceptable... I would love to have a small bonsai table made from this wood.    Height: 40 cm Width: 30 cm Trunk diameter: 7 cm Style: Slanting tree