Czech Yamadori

Birch_Do I really know where I go?  After the collection the little birch has spent some time in the ground.  Just a tiny layer of soil sitting on the rock bed.   That was my way of building a flat nebari at that time.  After a couple of years the tree has been potted.  The little bit indistinct suspicion that the tree is  "out of proportion" appeared in the most naked form. I had to drop the idea of a graceful a bit formal upright format  and the main trunk has been removed. Well,  if I start to overhaul something than it is difficult to stop me. You know that kind of itching urge " what about to change it a little bit here and there?"     So we have ended up with a number of root and branch thread grafts.  You remember the tree with the carry on handle don't you... Jan 2016.   I have started to fulfill one of my New Year's resolutions - Use your bonsai tackle wisely... No...

Another day in a woodland... I  have spent few hours in the nearby woodland today.   While the single target for the day was quite  clear: go out and find some decent blackthorn(s), I could not resist to make few photographs... Beeches are ready for the winter.  Nice thick bedding to cover their roots. I have never seen such buttress roots on a native tree.  Much more typical for a rainforest then for a mixed forest in our country  Wood ear   Auricularia auricula-judae - ready, well nearly, for the harvest:) Finally. after spending a good amount of time mostly on my knees pushing my way through the blackthorn undergrowth  I have found this massive trunk.    As mentioned somewhere in one of my earlier post.   To find a sloe with a good potential is quite difficult in my area.  Difficult but possible:) To bring it home and keep it alive - well, that's another story......

Golden glow Gingko. An "Old Faithful".  A species that never fail to deliver such  great colours...

Crassula ovata_blossoms The plant has spent most of the season on a balkony with a regular doses of sunshine, water and a fertiliser. As the temps got closer to the 0°C it has been moved to the inside. Now it is paying back...

Even with a small punch you can make a big show... said a Czech tennis player Barbora Strýcova asked about her feeling after the Czech ladies  have won  FED Cup  match against France.   Barbora is a great lady, very active and straightforward, who can match any sailor in the world when it comes to the use of  language.   In this specific conversation she has used a phrase that  expresses a fact that even a man with a small  penis can  make a big performance.    That was exactly the case in that match.  Barbara with her 164 cm of height looks very small in the world of ladies over 180 cm.   But her performance on the FED Cup was really great. I do believe that she has made the decisive turn around in the match and destroyed  the hopes of the French team to win the Cup.  I do admire the French ladies for their endeavor  and skills,  but I am very happy that the Czech team could make it. AGAIN.  A h...

Yamadori_Prunus manaleb_Cascade_First year of styling This  Mahaleb has been collected from my favourite P.M. golden pit in Central Bohemia in the spring 2015.    The first few months of our relationship  were not so positive as I hoped.   All the roots,  but one  have died off.   The only remaining one is emerging on the side of the trunk. It was a pencil thick,  but it seems it was strong enough to feed all the shoots with early spring flowers as you can see on the first pic.    As the tree shown a strong determination to make it - I have not resisted the temptation to do some homework on the dead wood in the course of last summer.  And as the tree was sitting in my small workshop I have made a basic pruning and wiring at the same time...   I guess another example of my a bit stupid approach: "to pull a devil by the tail"  just to test his reaction.  Luckily, the little hero has a strong motivation...

Prunus mahaleb_The dancing snake The story about this mahaleb was my first post on this blog two years ago...  click here The story has ended with  plans for the next development of the tree: namely get more branches and more weathered look of the dead wood. So how do we stand...? Well, first of all I should stop sharing my plans for future cultivation steps.   It is a bit too binding for a guy with a strong inclination to procrastinate... November 2016 The pictures are a bit busy at the top due to the two threadgrafts.  Well, yes - another threadgrafts in place.  I wish I could cultivate new branches from the buds,  but most of my mahalebs are not budding from the lower part of the trunk. In this case not even from the middle section of it.  So the treadgraft was for me a clear option to build the tree to my liking (+/-) Possible FRONT no 1. Possible FRONT no 2 While it may look for some of the enthusiasts a bit aggressive - there ...