Czech Yamadori

  Prunus mahaleb Current height:  8 cm Width:  30 cm  with the target 26-27 cm Tree has been collected in 2019 with the plan to make a shohin sized cascade.    Due to the damage of the some important roots during its collection,  the tree has decided to  quit some live veins on its trunk resulting in a massive deadwood.    Air layered in spring 2020 and separated in Sept of that year. Spring 2021.   The inclination of the tree has been moved even further to the  left.  That made a full cascade BUT I did not like it.  It looks too long due to the separation between the trunk and the foliage mass.   IN order to bring the foliage closer to the trunk,  I had to bend the top of the trunk back to the right quite severely.   Step by step in the course of two years we get it in more or less vertical position.  And at the same time span we have used one of the lower branches to create the cas...

  Stupid or Greedy?   Well, why not both... For a good number of years I am planning to reduce the number of my trees.   And yes, some of them have gone, just to be fair with me.   Few of them left for free to my brothers in arms - bonsai enthusiasts and some of them via the European bonsai auction to bargain hunters. Sounds good, doesn't it? But at the same time I have started few projects ( seedlings cutting_Pinus nigra, Taxus cuspidata and Pinus parviflora_Zuisho cuttings, bought some interesting varieties of satsuki...   So at the end there is more leaves/needles than before.   And  NOT enough of that - I was about to give away a little mahaleb that was a honorable member of the Downsize club.  On the D day I have taken it from the shelf with the plan to let it go to some new place with more attentive hands.    I know this is the moment I should close my eyes and to armour my heart...  What do you think?...

Mahalebs are hard working trees.   They tend to keep their leaves till the first harder frost night and then they simply drop them.   At least this is very often the case with mahalebs in our place.  And I think this is also the case for some other species from the Prunus Genus like apricot for one. But sometimes for unknown reasons they could present some splendid colours.  Like this little mahaleb.      Height: 34 cm Collected: 2012

 X-Men?   The Hug Men?  Predator?     Forget it.   My brother in scissors Rasťo has come with the perfect name.   Frankly, I had to look for the meaning of Ent in the wiki but once I saw the picture  I was in love with it.    Perfect.   Thank you, Rasťo.   OK, back to the Ent. I  have made some corrections to lower parts last night.   It still needs some indian ink to blend nicely with the rest. And then few coats of resin to preserve it.    The crown  needs to add some wood.  Not too much though.   I do not like trees that have a lot of deadwood  combined with a flourishing crown full of branchlets.   But that is not a problem of the tree but rather of the person behind it... Prunus mahaleb_The Ent Height: 50 cm Pot: Training China          

 Another fairly small but massive mahaleb cherry with a lot of deadwood.    Height: 44 cm above the rim Pot: Hugo Studeník    

 The first few days of the new year are a bit lazy. So why not to take the advantage of it and share some other trees? The mahaleb Zorro is one of my largest trees.  Well, better to say heaviest ones.  It is not very large, in fact it is just about 50 cm in height and about 70 cm in width.  But the trunk is quite massive and the pot needs to be quite large to accomodate the long surface root.   The shape  is not very typical for deciduous tree but I do like it that way.  And that counts...   Still long way to go...   The "new part" clashes with the old one - just looking like a baby's arse.  Not to mention  a better taper and finer ramification... Hope to find some time later on to repot it and while there to change the planting angle. The left side is right now planted too deep. Height: 50 cm Width:  70 cm Pot: China  

 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 pos...

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....

  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 ...

 Just looking at this mahaleb last autumn I realised  that all my previous attempts to change the angle of the trunk in its last third were just a mere tickling.   I was thinking to fix it  immediately but giving it a second thought I decided to postpone the activity till the time the tree enters the post pormancy period = the level of hormones inhibiting the activity of the tree is low but the tree is not starting its activity ( I mean visible activity  such as the growht of the buds ) because it is kept low till the time of longer days and warmer temps.   Autumn and winter are in my experience the most suitable periods for heavy bends  but the most problematic one at the same time.  Heavy bends mean a tissue damage that could suffer even more because of the winter frost.  So you should keep such trees in the non frost area. Not below freezing point and not above 5-6°C as this is about the right range to keep the trees in dormancy....

If the dogs look like their owners does this also apply to our trees?    The logic is pretty much the same, isn't it.    We tend to select things that are somehow "compatible" with   perception of ourselves.  Prunus mahaleb_Double          If the above statement holds then I am affraid my problem is much bigger than originally thought...    

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...

 Most of my mahalebs are the last to drop their leaves.  Right now ie on the 30th of November there are still four of them with no signs of  changing color or being  damaged by frost ( the lowest temps so far was only -3°C,  27°F ).   While the other species in the garden have started  the colour festivity around early Nov the majority of mahalebs were in the status - what is the fuss about?   With the arrival of first frosty nights some of them have started to change their colour from green to something yellowish but definitely nothing spectacular.   Some others have simply drop their green leaves.  And the last group is still in full swing.  I can hear their whisper : carbs, carbs, carbs.   Height: 19 cm   The target height should be in the range of 23-26 cm.  

 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.