Czech Yamadori

  With the temps in the red zones and the "March look" of the garden,  it is quite difficult to suppress the urging need to get out to collect yamadories or to start with some sort of bonsai activities.  In fact I have brought one of my birches to my workshop just to see how it looks. Within a minute I have found myself with a pruning shears ready to tackle to poor lady...   The temptation was really a great one,  but at the end the common sense has taken the upper hand.   Its January.  Who knows what surprises has the Mother Nature in her handbag ready for us... So lets assume it is a "normal" January.  ( OK, I know, that's really a crap, there is no more such a thing as a normal weather anymore. Anyway...)   Good time for skiing as far as I am concerned.   Well deserved rest time for the  majority of my trees.   A good time to revise  plans for the development of my trees in the upcoming growing season.  Last but not least:  a good time to please my mind

Nearly missed to share a pic of my old friend Spidee.  She is a bit shy, not very fond of going public...  Isn't she lovely? Hornbeam_shohin Height: 17 cm Enough is enough...  Finally,  I have decided to tackle the anchoring tail (circled )  and to grow more surface roots.  But first I need to make sure that the current FRONT is still the most appropriate one.   The longer I look at it the more doubts are crossing my mind...

If you can manufacture with water, then you cannot loose...    This was  a learning that I have got from an old retail practitioner  who made most of his carrier and fortune during the so called socialist era of the country I live. Clearly I wasn't the only one to learn this wisdom.  Definitely not here in CZ.   Water, water and water.   We buy added water with fish, meat, processed food,  salads, bakery products and probably many more others.  Last spring I decided to build a portable smoking chamber to make a home made products I was familiar with as a kid who lived in a small village.  Home smoked hams ( meat from home fattened pigs,  smoked rabbits,  meat saussages... During the years I have lost the original taste of it. The only thing I have remembered was the happiness I have felt observing the preparatory work and tasting the finished products.  No worries that the freshly bought ham from a superstore or local butcher will swim away if you leave it unattended for a whil

The tree is slowly recovering from the problems in 2016.   Still it doesn't look the way that would  give my soul and mind peace.   I think that the best I can do here is just to place the pure beast in the sun in a place well hidden from my impatient fingers and leave it there for a season. At least. Spring 2017 Despite all my mismanagement the tree has flowered nicely.  At least on the remaining branches :( Winter 2017 I have pruned the new growth on the top in a hope to enforce some back budding in this area.  I hope the pure beast will cope with that... The threadgrafted branch started in 2016  has been left untouched. ( you can see it in the middle of the trunk )  It seems it is going to take nevertheless  I will leave it connected to the feeder for another season. Just to be sure.   The sacrifice branches on the bottom section of the trunk are still there to add some badly needed horsepower to the roots. Previous article about this sloe  here

Cornelian cherries are one of the most attractive deciduous trees for bonsai.   Not easy in terms of development ( I should really take some deshi time at Maros's ) and they will always look a bit rough.   But in any other aspect they are just great.  At least for me.    ( Well, one should not take this too seriously. As my wood guru said: "If there is not the timber  I love,  then I love the one that is available here".  ) The wood of  Cornelian cherries is extremely hard. Dense and Hard.  Difficult to carve but very resistant to the rot.  It means the deadwood is a quite natural feature.   The flowers are quite special.  First the flower buds are formed into small but distinctive balls that makes this tree look through the rest of the season different from any other species in our region.    The buds are formed in the summer and they are really very keen to show their unpretending beauty as soon as possible once the first winter snow starts melting.   I do l

How much dead wood is too much???   Well,  if I look on some specimen of Prunus mume I know there are no limits for that.   So lets go and see what the tree will look like in another 5 years from now.  I certainly hope for more visible progress... 😎 2017 Finally,  I have separated the stronger of the two threadgrafts.  The other one doesn't look like it is ready to go without the feeder.  Let see how it goes next season... CURRENT FRONT FRONT_OPTION LEFT RIGHT 2012

Typical Chaenomeles has a shrubby look and this is reflected in a vast majority of bonsai made from this plant.  As the life is not always straightforward,  there are exceptions from any rule.  No surprise there are as an exception also flowering quinces with trunks.  Sometimes the trunk is just made from a taproot that is gradually exposed to the life above the ground.   And this was the case with this plant.  2013 Driving on a highway,  I have spotted some red flowering shrubs on the sideways.   Flowering quinces scattered on the rocky earthwork surrounding the highway.  Roots squeezed between the rocks, no chance to collect without preparation.  I have selected one plant, removed rocks around the thick root and replace them with nice soil.   Then,  during the summer weeks I have stopped there now and then bringing some water.    Spring 2014 Collection.   First few rakes into the soil have revealed a lot of nice tiny roots.  Great!? No.  One of the first things you learned