Czech Yamadori

Waking up with the first thought about the items on the to do list you have prepared  in your bed just before you went to sleep. Quick "inspection" of the new items in the garden to see how they are doing.   Any new development?  New leaves?  Buds?  Great! The tiny leaves are not doing well?  What should I do? Hope and Despair are the two part of the coin.... Repoting .  After the completion of the 10th tree I feel like a robot.  I do hate monotonous work. Health control.  With such density of plant on a spot you have to be very careful Watering.    The weather is far too nice for an April.   Today I have chased off the wild ducks and occupied the pond for a few moments instead. The water  was close to 17°C.  And not to forget the main part. WATCHING.   Rhodohypoxis  Euonymus.  Full of flower buds... Magnolia Beauty and the Beast.  In the mai...

Life is about a change.   And that is a constant. And this is very true in case of this little tree.  After a detailed examination of it and with a respect to natural movement of its trunk and the development of its nebari I have decided that this is it.  So after a period of a slanting tree (  2017  )  I have returned back to a semicascade  ( 2015  ).   Now I need to get a properly shaped pot.  Something between a scoop and a traditional round one.  Less dramatic side.    More "dramatic" one.  Dead wood, rock and roots over it ( now well covered under the layers of moss ) I will never tire of this...

Crazy. Would you believe there are guys who are taking care of similar plants to enjoy their beauty that lasts just few days? Just another few branches, improved surface roots ( I guess an airlayer should fix it ) and more fancy pot. The shape of this one is OK. Just different color.

Or, perhaps? Back pain from the heavy loads of water. Busy for most of the growth season with scissors and wires. Bloodthirsty any time I spot a blackbird tearing off the well pampered moss from the pot. WHY I do sustain all this? That's why...

Some time ago I wrote about visitors to our pond - a pair of wild ducks.     Our koi liked them quite a lot.  Apparently fascinated by the ducks red legs they chased them around the pod.   And the ducks behaved  nicely.  Very different from this year visit.   Just have a look what has happened this time... Such a nice place. Lets have .. a sex here Yuppee The drake ready to take a nap.  Tired.

We need more chocolate, courage and ramification.  The ranking of the first two items is not that much important. A good chocolate is always good.  It helps to be patient. Courage is a must at the time of important decisions: Cut or leave? Ramification is the result of your courage and patience. Obviously, it will take a lot of chocolate to get there with this blackthorn.   As you may see the thread grafted branch is still fully connected to the feeder.   I believe the connection is ready for the separation nevertheless there is no hurry to do it.  Maybe later this  summer or maybe next spring... See below.   Branch dressed up with blossoms. The colour of freshly developed blossoms is brilliant white.  As the time goes, it will get a yellowish tint

Just kidding.  Showing lack of respect for a famous bonsai amateur.   A shame on my old bald head... The true fact is that looking at the weather fcast for this week I have made a quick conclusion: "The spring is just behind the corner - lets start with the first items from  my project list for this season.  Banzai." Root pruning Trying to reduce the size of a root ball with the main focus on reduction of the taproot and other main nowadays useless structural roots to get more space for hard working fine roots... Projects for this year 1.  Still need to work on a better transition between the "old and new" section.  I think I will let the current leader to have another full season of an unrestricted growth.  Once I am happy with the transition I will replace the current leader with the small side branch ( labeled NEW LEADER ) 2. Need to produce some additional branches on the  left and back side of the tree.  ...