Nov 8 2018

A Review: Online Shohin Bonsai Course by Morten Albek

Morten Albek has a very relaxing voice perfect for introducing you to Shohin Bonsai, that combined with VERY high production values and detailed content make this course a pleasure to watch and understand.

The course starts with a 4-minute video overview of the course contents and from this short introduction, you quickly realise that the course will bring your shohin to a high level.

Pretty much most aspects of Shohin bonsai care and creations are covered including; Repotting, Pot selection, Wiring, styling, display and so much more.

I particularly liked the section on pot choice, Morten humorously stated that as bonsai artists we always buy beautiful pots even when we do not have a tree available to plant in them, this is so true! Did you know that the thickness of the pot wall affects the health of the tree due to heat retention? Morten explains in detail why!

Exhibiting bonsai seems like a ‘dark art’ to the inexperienced this section alone is worth signing up for. You can do that by clicking HERE

Sep 6 2018

Further work on a Yamadori Yew ‘Pagoda’ style

This tree was collected over 5 years ago, this is a tall thin English Yew (Taxus Baccata), it has a shari that runs from top to base. Its never been re-potted out of this washing up bowl and it is now ready. The first work was done in December 2017 you can see the blog post HERE, not actually styling but formulating the branch structure and foliage locations. No wiring, no styling no branch positioning, the tree was left to grow. All I will do over the next 12 months watch out for wire cutting into the branches. The tree will be re-potted in February 2020.

Dec 1 2017

First work on a Yamadori Yew ‘Pagoda’ style

Its always exciting when you tackle a piece of raw material for the first time, the element of discovery (and sometimes disappointment) seeing the image that you have in your head appear before your eyes is great.

This tree was collected over 4 years ago, this is a tall thin English Yew (Taxus Baccata), it has a shari that runs from top to base. Its never been re-potted out of this washing up bowl and it is now ready. The first work is not actually styling but formulating the branch structure and foliage locations. No wiring, no styling no branch positioning, the tree will be left to grow. All I will do over the next 12 months is clean the tree and tidy up the cuts.

Jun 8 2017

Desperate times call for desperate measures

The Myrtle before the die back

Creating good bonsai is not an easy task, doing it properly building ramification, branch structure and foliage mass all takes time. I love using native British trees because they thrive in my location, I am after all British and living in the cold wet North of the UK.

I have worked other species from the Mediterranean, trees from as far south as Sicily, Olives from Spain and Pistachio from Croatia. I have a heated glass house that over winters these trees and I have had moderate success. NOTHING like the locals where these trees originate because I do not have the all year round heat or UV levels. In January this year I saw that a Myrtle was look looking well, lots of random branches were dying, some areas stayed green. After posting photos on Facebook Warren Radford my buddy from the South of England (he has a rather special Myrtle) told me to cut the tree hard back and it would recover… So I cut back hard, removing all the branches that were clearly dead… and today you can see the tree has indeed recovered. Apparently the problem was lack of water, I really don’t water my trees much in winter (it rains rather a lot where I live) but in the glass house I should consider watering a bit more…Thanks Warren!

The Tree at the time of purchase

Myrtle cut back

The tree has recovered

Mar 3 2017

Repotting to Bigei Pot for Kifu Taxus

I collected this Taxus Baccata in 2004 and it has been through many iterations before arriving at the Kifu size (Ian Warhust always said that the tree should be a small one)

Take a look HERE at a possible early pot selection from Tom Benda, or HERE or HERE for a progress post.

The pot that the tree has been in for the last two years was purchased when I was judging a show in China and it’s the right size for sure. BUT the quality is not great, it’s a good training pot but not good enough for exhibition. I intend to show this tree over the next three years so a change of pot was required. This Tokoname Bigei Pot is by – Mr. Hirata Atsumi and was purchased in 2016 for this tree.