Czech Yamadori

I do not like the  before and after series when it comes to styling a tree.  That is a kind of a shortcut that is more about the person than about the tree.  On the other side  I am happy to accept that series of  pictures  mapping in detail a transition of  a starter pine into a piece of art ( such as we can see with Kimura, Suzuki etc. )  is a great studying material. But for me this is a quite different story.    And what  about sharing pictures that map  a development of the tree in the course of years?  Well, I think it is a bit different  but still  maybe not fair  ( at least  from the perspective of the tree ).    Would you ask Bella Hadid to share  how she looked like at the age let say twelve?  Would you be even interested to see it?    Please meet my Bella Hadid.  I hope  it doesn't mind sharing the pics from its early times in a pot. ...

  What is all this fuss about ?   An autumn?   Gosh. I do not care - I do love spring and my blossoms... This little tree was bought a long time ago as a stick in the garden center with the idea to have a bonsai from it. One day.   After two or three years I have ground it and left it unnoticed for another good number of years.  Last year I have given it another closer look and decided that there is some potential for further development... Potentilla fruticosa_cinquefoil Height: 17 cm Pot: Hugo Studeník Spring 2019_first styling and rough structural carving.  

Height: 17 cm Pot: unknown The size of the pot and the position of the tree is based on the current state of the roots.   I hope it has improved from last check and we will see next spring...

This is the smaller sister of the  scarlet firethorn presented with the flowers posted here earlier this year.  I have tried to remove all the blossoms/fruits on this one - obviously overlooking few of them... Due to the fact that the population of blackbirds was heavily decimated by the infection outbreak last year and the hordes of magpies are still keeping it very small there is much more fruit on trees left untouched.   It still needs some work on the crown and surfce roots but slowly we are getting there.

I do like the flowering qunice as a plant.  Very decorative bush to add something special to small gardens.  Easygoing  species decorated with beautiful flowers and nicely smelling  fruit. But that is not all, the fruits are  great to make a homemade jams... So not a big surprise we have a number of these plants sprinkled all over the garden.   And three of them  as a prebonsai.  John Silver is the largest of them now showing a single fruit off. Nicely smelling I should say. Any time I pass it in the morning I stop there and get a deep breath... You may find an earlier post related to this tree   here  The sacrifice branch at the bottom should stay there for another year or two to get more flare at the bottom.  The surface roots are still covered by the layer of soil and will be revealed during next repotting.  The terminal branch should follow the same time schedule. More or less.  Need to improve the transit...

I have been using  pieces of tubes to distribute  solid ferts ( biogold etc ) for a number of years.  It works better for me than the teabags.  Why?   Most of the time the teabags were far to dry to allow the fertiliser to dissolve properly ( to be fair - my climate and my way of watering - soaking in a tub ). Having some of my plants in an anorganic substrate I was thinking how to reduce the "contamination" of such substrates with remains of dissolved fert - a reason why the teabags are being used.   As a  matter of fact the solution was quite simple.   Well, one would need to invest some time&manual work to start with but once you have this done you can use it easily. And there is another great advantage.  I have started to use the 5 litre sprayer to get more fert to the plant if needed.  Just directing the flush of water to the inside of the tube.  It works, believe me... There is an article on the IBC about it. Jus...

 Hard to believe that I have collected this tree in 2009.    Still trying to figure out what kind of pot should we use...   Looking at the color of leaves it definitely needs repoting in spring.    And I hope that the "invasion" of leaf-cutter bees will find another target.  But frankly I doubt it.  The small bee beast love it.  Maybe as much as I do.  Different reasons, though:)