juvenile Horse Chestnut with bonsai ambition

Sometimes, it all starts from a simple seedling. Hard reality, if you want the purist approach to start from scratch and do it all yourself. But, what joy and fullfilment, even if the outcome in 20 or 30 years is not a 'perfect' bonsai.

A Horse Chestnut with bonsai ambition, if you will.
Sown in 2012.

Great fun will be to see the evolution. Within the next couple of years, slowly more training for prebonsai will have to start. More news in... well I don't know yet.

late summer picture of Larix Kaempferi

Random post, with a (august) summer picture of my japanese larch or Larix Kaempferi.

Selfmade (semi?)literati, easy flowing simple elegant feminine shape...
Not all bonsai have to be about big drama...

Started more than 10y ago from young material developed for group planting. So this was nothing more than a young thumb thick stick with lots of juvenile growth.
Has been restyled after a few years into this literati style.

Still needs years of ramification now. Secondary and tertiary branchlets come quite sparsely, since it allready flowers. Need to focus on techniques to stimulate growth a little more.

european Larch (larix decidua) revisited 11.07.2015

I took away my last doubts about my european larch. The windswept-look-a-like now looks even more windswept. Over the last few years it evolved into this style, not really deliberately however. I just went with the possibilities it had (the trunk inclination for instance), and now I'm left with a very sparse foliage. I quite like it now, no further styling or restyling. Next year I will further extend the branch, I am happy with the movement of the branch (dropping then rising slightly again). It adds to the drama of this little larch. I only need to address the dead wood at the top, redesign the old dead top to match the additional dead branches on top (created today). From now on, ramification!

Height +/- 25cm.

Hazelnut revisited 09.07.2015

corylus avellana. Hazel-nut var. 'the Nutty Professor'?

It seems this little bush had no problem transplanting its natural growing power into the pot. Good substrate, good feeding, and off it went. With all that power I'm sure its healthy enough, so I chopped down some of the trunks a bit more last week. Summertime will make sure the healing will be no problem. Collected, and chopped down twice in 3 months time. Growth just continues..

Just a few pictures. Some carving/hollowing out to do, its pretty obvious where.
See the bonsai in the bonsai-to-be? I can.
5 years project to have an acceptable prebonsai ready for ramification seem about right? I think so

bonsai common european Ash (fraxinus excelsior) revisited 09.07.2015

Tiny common European Ash, Fraxinus Excelsior. After partial leaf removal, pruning, some 2 weeks ago, a new flush of green is ready to burst out of those beautiful buds. In a couple of years time there will be an 'acceptable' canopy for this small sized Ash. I dont really need a huge amount of ramification on this one. Ever seen the growth habitus of a European Ash in its natural environment, its rather a sparse and spiky ramification.

Note:
The notorious Ash-disease responsable for possible severe dieback on Ash, called Chalara Fraxinea (fungus) has not stroke this one yet. I hope it never does, because there is no cure and you can only observe, possibly cut back, and hope. On bonsai the threat surely exists as well, but because of the size or our trees, the fungus has more difficulty reaching them offcourse, even in areas where the disease has struck in forests, solitary trees...

Prunus Subhirtella 'autumnalis rosea' update 14.06.2015

Just a little update of still other tiny 'raw material': Prunus Subhirtella, variety 'autumnalis rosea'.

Offcourse still building up.

Wanted to show how the graft I made a month ago, is healing up quickly. This looks promising, good callousing, it looks like this entire wound will be closed rapidly. Maybe there will be succes, lets wait and see in next spring.

Malus bonsai update 14.06.2015

Update of my Malus (pre)bonsai.

This raw material, prebonsai-training, or raw prebonsai?, was repotted this year in a bigger plastic trainingpot. It flushed out a few new shoots, got pruned back here and there and started a new flush about 3weeks ago. A while back in the season, elas my oldest son (5yo) thought one branch was a useful toy and broke it off the tree. Lucky for me (and the tree) there were a few buds left so a new shoot emerged a few weeks later, the one on the lower right hand side.
I only slightly pruned back, and wired a few shoots now they're still soft. Anybody working with apples knows that wiring branches or even branchlets that have hardened off, is very precarious.

Many more years building up ahead! Obviously I have more than 1 good option with regards to inclination. I prefer the first one, maybe level it so that the main roots are horizontal. A too big an inclination reminds me too much of the typical/boring japanese bonsai-look: the triangle, the right-left combination...too boring.