Obviously Cornwall is the back of beyond so it required a bit more planning and this is where the bonsai community pulls together and before long we had a plan where I could drop my tree off in South Wales ready to be loaded up into the Noelanders van later in the week.
Cutting a long story short the blizzard that caught Devon and shut the roads left me on the one side and the show on the other...but the trees had arrived safely 24hrs before
here is the pre show photoshoot.
and a beautiful picture of my first noelanders entry, a special thanks to everyone involved in getting it sorted.
3 days later I was driving up to Willowbog for a few days I'd been looking forward to for over a year....2 days of workshops and a demo day with Ryan Neil. There was some weather on the way but nothing was keeping me away. Day one was a group talk about pines and work on the juniper I took up - a lovely yamadori japanese tree that had been grafted with itoigawa foliage that was still unstyled. There was such a flow of information and tips and the day was spent selecting the branches, removing and thinning out the foliage and wiring just about every other bit of the tree.
Day two was a talk about juniper techniques then down to some tree styling - It was a perfect opportunity to get some help with my Hinoki as it was sat in the other room following the show so before long we had added a guy wire to the main branch and cranked it down quite a long way to improve the branch angle. Once you move the bottom branch all the others are out of place so the afternoon was spent working up the tree setting new branch angles and thinning out the dense arras of foliage. Now the tree has more light and air penetrating the crown and inner branches so the foliage with improve further. Dealing with the whorled foliage was easy too - i have mostly used fine wire to twist the upright foliage fans flat and just cut off the downward shoots - very time consuming but always looked ok. In the time i've spent with Ryan and Peter Warren one thing above all else comes across and that is to not complicate matters or to make hard work if there is an easier but still effective solution. My hinoki had plenty of floiage so all the upward whorls were cut off, all the downward ones were cut off too, and then all the little shoots that were in the crotches of the branches were removed.
At a guess 15-20% of the foliage was removed but the tree looks better for it. The pruning of the upward whorls will continue whenever they are seen and before long the entire tree will have only flat fans of foliage with no wire. The tree now is getting a well deserved rest from the stress of being made show ready, taken to Belgiumand back then the aftershow maintainance work. The suggestion was to work on the foliage for 4 years and then show the tree again - which sounds like a plan to me.
This weekend was the Swindon show and i was lucky enough to have had a tree selected to display - a chinese elm I've had for 22 years.
The display was chinese Elm, Zelkova accompliment planting, Paul goff scroll and my xmas pressy stand - perfect height for this tree too.
The show was excelent - a real social day and the first main event on the UK calender. Great to catch up with so many friends and blog readers - nice to meet you all. Everyone is looking forward to the shohin show next month Nr Bristol too. That will start another few busy bonsai filled days and nights to see out March....the show is sunday at failand hall, Peter warren is then coming back with me to Cornwall to hold our second set of workshops on the Mon & Tue and finally he is giving a talk at out local club on the wednesday evening. There is one workshop place available for the tueday if anyone wants details just add a comment or message me.
One week later is the EBA event - the European Bonsai Association annual get together that is in France this year. On the Saturday is the European styling talent final and I'm practicing hard ready to represent Britain and Fobbs. We have a bit of a bonsai related project being set up at the moment and I managed to pick up 10 unstyled Itoigawa junipers with chunky and twisted trunks from
2.5cm thick to about 7cm thick so I've got some practice material. Just incase it isnt junipers I got about 15 pines - black, white and a red too to practice on....all have movement in the trunks and unstyled tops so their seems to be wire just about everywhere in the house and unit atm.
As they get finished they are sneaking onto the sales table at the club , ebay, or building up the stock benches ready for the new project. Here is a little juniper done while watching Corrie !
coming soon Bonsai @ 16
A little bit of everything from a little starter pine to a specimen pomegranite
