boosted Little Rowan tree

Two weeks after bud burst, with good temperatures and a lot of sun, this is how the little Rowan tree looks. I gave it a good feeding of organic fertilizer with mycorrhizae added, and watered in twice up untill now with liquid organic fertilizer. Tiny tree but with lots of growing power.

Building ramification is not easy with a small Rowan, you need a lot of patience and you really need to be on top of things when it comes to pruning the strong shoots. If you dont prune strong enough and consequently, you'll quickly mess up the overall image of the tree. A little rowan like this would otherwise not produce as much buds as low on branches, like this one.

bonsai Hazel var. Webs Prize Cobb - update

This common Hazel, or Corylus Avellana, variety Webs Prize Cobb, I bought in 2010 at a local garden center. Unfortunately it did not do all that well in the growing departement the next years and last year it lost a big branch. So I condemned it to a quiet corner of my bonsai benches. I was about ready to let it go but today I decided to finally give it a go once more.
The front will be altered, so I pruned away some branches. No wiring now, branches are still young so except letting it grow I dont plan to do anything with it this year. Next year it will go in a bigger flat training pot for 2 or 3 years with heavy feeding. Then it should be ready to start building ramification on the main branches. It is quite a small size, about 30 to 40cm in height.

Malus prebonsai flowering

I promised a few bonsai friends to post a picture whenever my Malus (prebonsai) was flowering, so here goes. Obviously this tree (as most of mine) is a work-in-progress. Without work, no bonsai fun.

new 'start' material - common Rowan (sorbus aucuparia)

New 'start' material, Sorbus Aucuparia or Common Rowan
This is new material, found and dug out during holiday weekend in Belgian Ardennes. If you read my blog you know I am not a fan of collecting trees in ecological environments. So this one (along with 2 others) I found at the very side of the road in the immediate proximity of the place we stayed, within 50m ever. These parts are mowed every few years to clear the road, either by the owners or by the local community services.

This too is destined for a future as 'pollarded' bonsai-tree. But for now, I just pruned to give it a start, growth needed! Lets hope it survives the brutal habitus change. It is small size, and maybe will end up about 30 to 40 cm in height?

new 'start' material - Common Ash (fraxinus excelsior)

New 'start' material, Fraxinus Excelsior or Common Ash.
This is new material, found and dug out during holiday weekend in Belgian Ardennes. If you read my blog you know I am not a fan of collecting trees in ecological environments. So this one (along with 2 others) I found at the very side of the road in the immediate proximity of the place we stayed, within 50m ever. These parts are mowed every few years to clear the road, either by the owners or by the local community services.

This is 'small' size, about 10 to 15cm of trunk height I guess. I pruned just to give it a start as prebonsai material, no finished idea in my mind yet. But, the common Ash is quite common as a pollarded tree in the region I live, so that would fit and it looks like it has been prepared for that, no?

Lets hope it survives the brutal habitus change.

New 'start' material - common Hazel

New 'start' material, Corylus Avellana or (common) Hazel.
This is new material, found and dug out during holiday weekend in Belgian Ardennes. If you read my blog you know I am not a fan of collecting trees in ecological environments. So this one (along with 2 others) I found at the very side of the road in the immediate proximity of the place we stayed, within 50m ever. These parts are mowed every few years to clear the road, either by the owners or by the local community services.

This was all done in 1 day, at 7.15 in the morning it took 1 hour to dig out the tree (a lot of rocks!). 12 hours later and back home, another half an hour to clear out the dirt and prune the roots to fit the training pot. You can see the few rocks beneath the main trunk (at least for now) that are trapped between the roots. The rock is called 'Schiste' in dutch, typical of the region.

The tree/clump is just pruned to keep it manageable. However I do want to end up with a broad canopy rather than a high one. Equally, I am not sure a prominant dominant trunk would fit the picture. Broad, bushy, natural is the first idea that comes into my mind. Fingers crossed and hope it survives the brutal habitus change.

Birch in new 'old' pot 03.04.2015

Update 03.04.2015 of my Birch #2.

At long last I did not use my selfmade cement pot for my Birch 'enfant terrible', simply because I did not find the time to finish it on time. I'll keep it in stock and make sure it's ready for usage next spring. So I put the prebonsai Birch in the old oval greenglazed pot I used up until recently for my English Oak (now back in the ground).
Will be trained as a weeping birch, obviously I need to wire and/or put guy wires on. The small secondary trunk will be lowered further, and trained equally in weeping 'style'.
The awkward trunk base is now just a little less awkward in my opinion, I put the tree a bit higher in the substrate so the roots on the right hand side produce a bit more visual counterweight. The visual stress on that bulky trunk base is a bit less. Still a a bit enfant terrible on that part, I dont mind.


Toch mijn zelfgemaakte cementpot niet gebruikt voor mijn enfant terrible van een berk (zachte berk denk ik), wegens niet op tijd afgeraakt. Dan maar in de ovale groengeglazuurde pot waar tot voor kort mijn zomereikje in stond (nu terug naar vollegrond). Wordt naar treurvorm getraind; en moet nu opnieuw bedraad en gespannen worden zoals je ziet, ook het kleine stammetje moet naar omlaag, met treurende takken dan nog. Ja die knoert van een stambasis heb ik in tegenstelling tot divers advies eigenlijk nu nog hoger op het substraat gezet, dan kwamen de wortels onderaan rechts wat meer bloot en dat gaf dan wel net weer wat tegengewicht. Blijft een beetje een enfant terrible op dat vlak hoor. Alé, groei nu maar...

how the tree looked back in 2007/2008

Just last year in spring after I cut back it back to half its size, reduced the trunk thickness to half its size and simply 'crack' the trunk to new position and then let it callus over within a good month or so (packed in wrapping foil)