Czech Yamadori

Another year spent on building the surface roots.  So far all the efforts were solely based on the usage of a sphagnum moss.  For the next years to come I will cover the soil with "standard"  moss while adding more acadama to the roots encircling the rock.  I feel that the first root from the top looks a bit strange.  Time to cut it off?  Happy for your thoughts. Happy with this deadwood.  Nice focal point. The roots shouts: " GO! Catch more sunrays, we hold you fast".   So it means a cascading trunk despite the horizontal line of it.  See the second and third pics.  I feel the third one is about right.   And if so I have another problem to find a suitable pot.  I do not like the crescent bonsai pot that one should "normally" use.   I guess I would need to combine something different to please my eyes. Despite the fact I do like semi or full cascades similar to this one I have to admit they a bit of a nuisance o...

 Long autumn evenings, short rainy days - what a great time to spend some time on dead wood carving.   Well, for sure.  There is a lot of other work to be finished before the winter but my fingers were itching so badly that I have no other choice than to grasp a Dremel and few chisels.    Still long way to go but it starts showing the potential...   Airlayered in spring 2020, separated in Sept.   There is more details in the post published on 26th Sept.  Reworked at the end of October Possible new front Need to decide about the direction of the main branch.  Semi or full cascade?  I would prefer a cascade - just a matter of my preferences - but the trees is quite strongly asking for a semi... and much more work on the dead wood. 

Mahaleb cherries are hardworking trees.  At least the ones around my place.  These pictures have been taken in mid Nov and as you can see - bright green leaves, eagerly absorbing sunrays to fill the tank with sugars... It applies to all my mahalebs but it is most visible on trees that were collected relatively recently.  Like the one featured below.  Collected in spring 2018 from the very hostile place.  Because of the scarce water supply the tree is taking any opportunity to grow if there is some water around.   Sometimes loosing its leaves in the summer and starting new ones later on if there is more rain.  Then working till the first hard frost.  And then the leaves fall down without changing color.   It seems though that after a few years in the garden these trees  would get to more standard life pattern - showing some yellow autumn colors.   Is something like that possible in such short time?  Maybe interestin...

Any time I am moving close enough to this tree I can here: POT, POT, POT .  Loud and clear. Can you hear that too? The tree seems to be desperate to move into a proper pot.   In fact that was the plan for  this spring. But after more closer inspection of the roots I have decided to postpone the move  and to improve the root ball in the meantime.  So this is the reason for a sacrifice branch.   Height: +40 cm Pot: Plasthalla Age: Collected in 2015 The open space in the foliage ( see below ) has not been left for birds to fly through.    Somewhere there is a pampered tiny branch that may fill the space one day...  I hope.

Last year I decided to move this semi cascade further on to the full one.   Still not there,  but at least the lowest branch has been extended a bit and now we will wait for next spring to change the planting angle.  Would be nice to have a new pot too, but frankly I doubt it.  I cannot see the one I have in mind around. In the meantime, I am trying to develop more side roots on the massive anchoring root  that goes across the rock.   Still not there. I guess this goes on my account as I cannot keep the place moist... Front And there is another thing that bothers me a bit.  And this is the 'strange' habit of  some species of the Prunus family.  They produce shoots just with berries with no leaves on them.  And unfortunately this results in the loss of the branch.   You can see that in the middle of the crown.  The branches with fruits will be lost by the autumn.  I need to find out how to ...