Czech Yamadori

For a thirsty birch this pot is a bit on the smaller side.  But I love it and I do not have anything that will suit the tree better.  So another season in small shoes... The only think I can do better -  instead of  a "normal" watering the tree will enjoy frequent submerging in the tub full of water.  I do that with a number of my other trees anyway.  The crown look a bit heavy rihgt now and it will stay that way ( and even worse ) for another few weeks.  One of the side effect of the flat container - it helps to form surface roots with a lot of character.

Busy days with watering as the temps are pretty much like in the early summer and rain nowhere in sight... Just thinking how it will look like to lay flat on my back under this tree.  For sure a pain seeing all these pieces of lava there...  But still,  would be nice to do it.

With 95 cm it is one of my largest tree.   But thanks to its habitus it is still quite light to carry - an important attribute for me as I do like to give my trees a good soak in the tub instead of watering.  For sure it is not something that I do with all my trees all the time, but now and then they will all find their way in the tub.  No exception even for the seedlings.  Takes time, but I believe it is beneficial for my trees and that is a good reason to continue. Pissing on the windward side of the ship is not the only stupid/strange thing that is part of my life... 

I do believe that the size of trees that goes over 60 cm is the most appropriate for bonsai.   And this is why I still keep looking for trees of that size.   At the same time though,  I do realise that handling such trees could be a pain.  (Well, to be fair,  not necessarilly - I have a birch that is now over 95 cm and I can handle it quite easily, but it is a kind of exception).  And it is not just about handling - the big trees need  reasonably large space - and in my case this is another critical factor.  You may add another point and that is related to the speed of development - "building" small tree takes usually significantly less time.  Not important factor for me,  but fair to mention here. As a result and despite the fact I am a big fan of large trees there are more and more small trees that are invading my place. Like this small Prunus mahaleb.   Collected in 2014 - with a lot of expectations that were gra...

Winter?   There was no winter.  Just mild late autumn weather. Spring?   There is no spring.  Just more or less standard late winter  frosty nights ( up to -7°C,  22°F ) with reasonably spring temperatures during some other nights .  Up and down on the roller coaster. Confused.  Forecast?   Pretty much the same till the mid of April.  And then ?  Spring?  Who knows... The blackthorns and the myrobalan plums seemingly believe that everything is OK.   It is their showtime and nothing can divert them from what they are at their best.    Blossoming.

The blossoms have just opened.  Snow white colour at the beggining, but later on they will gradually get a tint of very light yellow.  Just a few hours before the quarantine, we have managed to visit  our favorite place_Czech Kars to see the beauty of blossoms of Cornus in their natural habitat. Remains of the human activity.  There used to be a limestone quarry... A black locust A lot of dead spruces there.   Unfortunately - this is a very common picture across Czech and many places in Europe.

The potted life of this tree has started at the time I have realised there is reasonable thick trunk/root? under the soil level.  An air layer has helped me to remove the long uninteresting part and here we go...