Czech Yamadori

" ...Not worth the effort...." "A great species for bonsai" Simple statements.  Different weight though if said by a bonsai novice or by someone who has thousands of  admirers /followers.      Birch is  easy to grow.  Give it what it needs for happy life and it will reward you.   Fail with the basic horticulture and the tree will give you a clear feedback.  Withering up of some branches that the tree consider as not important.  Thats it.   Your choice Two of my birches have lost some branches this year.  Something that happened for the first time with these trees.    A random visitor of my place said: Yeahh, thats always a problem with birches " .   NO.  That is NOT a problem with the species as such. It was my problem with not adequate watering in the season before.  Too much of other activities and not enough care of my trees.  Why should I blame the tree for my fault...

 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...

 Collected in 2015 in the Central Bohemia.      Height : 70 cm;        Pot: Martin Ašenbrenner Challenges to tackle: This branch has been pulled down by about 7 cm.  There is a cut at the base and another one in the middle.     Will see if  I can go any further in the bend.  If so I would need to reconsider the presence of the first branch on the left.  It looks a bit redundant even now and with better inclination of the problematic branch it will be even more so. The other one is a real brain teaser: massive outstanding root.   There was a stone between the trunk and the root that has been removed in the course of time.  And now what?   Get a new stone there?  Remove the root?   Try to pull them down under the soil surface?  And what about the reverse taper? Well, we will see.  I hope to start fixing this challenge next year. And anothe...

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....

 Defoliated in early March and since then protected against frost.  The picture below has been taken on 16th April  This one is from 1st June.   You can see the other Pyracantha on the right only with buds.

   Busy spring day.   Late afternoon.   Buuzzzzz.  Head up and looking around. What was that?  Nothing can be seen.  Strange.  Sounds like a large bumblebee.   And again Buzzzzz.    Now I had a chance to spot a dark colored Something that zoomed around my head.   Sized like a large bumblebee, sounded like a bumblebee BUT what about the color?   A bumblebee from Chernobyl?  Or a creature from an eastern laboratory?   Gosh, need to find out.  Right,  let's  try to get a picture of  it first.    Easy to say.    A number of photos that could be labeled  like: - the exact place where the creature was a blick ago or - the place where the creature will be seen in a split of a second   Later on I have managed  to get some reasonably good pictures with nicely sharp backgrounds but blurry image of the creature.  And fin...

  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