Reminder

Just a brief reminder of a couple of things coming up soon here at Willowbog Bonsai.

This Saturday coming sees us stage the June session of our regular monthly workshop that is aimed at a wide range of experience levels from complete beginner up to intermediate level. Still a few places left for the day which starts at 10.00am, lasts all day and costs the exorbitant price of £25 which includes refreshments and a snack lunch !! If you interested in learning a bit more about bonsai and getting some help with your trees in a nice, relaxed and friendly atmosphere give us a call on 01434681217 or e-mail  info@willowbog-bonsai.co.uk.

And the last weekend in June is the middle of three weekends per year that leading UK. bonsai teacher Peter Warren does for us.

Although the teaching of the theoretical aspects of bonsai  has always  played an important part in Mr. Warrens approach to workshops, he is interested to find out if there would be a demand for a more focused and intensive way of dealing with specific bonsai topics, be they technique or tree species related. We would like to support him in this so if you think that a slightly different approach to bonsai learning might interest you then check out Peter’s own blog Saruyama Bonsai and then either contact him or ourselves for further information. Oh ! I nearly forgot , due to a cancellation we have a single place on Sunday 30th June workshop with Peter here !! Sign up for it, I promise that you will not be dissapointed !

Today the USA tomorrow Kielder Forest

Well not quite !  although it is true that the illustrious Mr. Peter Warren is currently employed in America, it will in fact be a couple of weeks before we welcome him to this remote corner of Northumberland.

This photo shows his inimitable approach to teaching branch placement , at least that’s what I think he was doing at this BSA show here at Willowbog a year or two ago. Willowbog stages a weekend of Peter Warren workshops over the weekend of June 29th and 30th.  Due to a cancellation we have one place available on the Sunday, so if you want to learn from one of the best teachers around contact us soon, telephone 01434681217 or e-mail   info@willowbog-bonsai.co.uk, for full details.

Last of the bonsai in my [ our ] own collection

Some more of the Willowbog Collection trees,

A favourite native species to bonsai with, this is Ulmus glabra, collected by a friend in the S. Yorks region many years ago. I love the mainly natural hollow trunk. A big Walsall pot complements the image.

Another very good friend covets this Prunus of unspecified species ! I have said that it may be left to him in my will   It may not be to everyone’s taste but I think it look good in that Chinese ceramic ! The next photo shows the bonsai’s unpromising origin !

When it looked like this we had it priced at £18.00 , no takers, for years !!!  so eventually I began to work on it .

From European yamadori origin, this Picea abies must rank as one of the best trees in the Collection. Mostly the work of Marco Invernizzi.

Contained in yet another of our big Walsall pots is this nice Field maple that was very generously donated to the Collection by Mr. John Armitage when he was down sizing to concentrate more on his beloved shohin bonsai. Another good native species for bonsai.

One of two Japanese larch in the Collection. This bonsai featured in this blog a while ago, it is a tree that Jean and I collected back in the dim and distant mists of time but it is very early in the shaping process. This big pot was made by Mark Huntington.

This is a none too revealing photo of another locally collected tree by the Proprietor and myself. It is a clump style Fagus sylvatica, it is potted in one of the biggest Micas that can be obtained !

Not much more than potential bonsai with this big Norway spruce, the mica pot is the same size as the one in the previous picture.

Another tree from European yamadori origin, another Walsall pot, another example of Marco’s work and another bonsai to rank very high in the Collection, at least it will with a little more work , a European mountain pine , Pinus mugo. Photo not really doing it justice !

A pretty poor photo of another Scots pine but this one from Europe. I have struggled a bit with the health of this tree over the past couple of years though it looks better at the start of this growing season. A rare example of all my own work so far but a long way to go !

The final group of bonsai are all Japanese imports starting with this Mountain maple with a great nebari. In a Japanese pot.

A clump version of the same species, again a good nebari and this time another Walsall pot.

One of the smaller bonsai in the Collection is this  Korean hornbeam in the clump style and planted in one of my favourite Derek Aspinal pots.

This Japanese red pine actually is the smallest bonsai featured here, it is also the newest tree to the collection, it is also not paid for yet either [ but the vendor knows that's not my fault ! ] An Aspinal drum pot houses the tree temporarily whilst it grows more branches !

That big Taxus cuspidata that we are all sick of seeing here

Tsuga seiboldii , Japanese hemlock, in a Klika ceramic shell pot.  Strictly speaking not yet in the Willowbog Collection,    but it will be ! A favourite bonsai !

How did that sneak in here ???  This big J. chinensis is not in the Collection , but who knows if  I play my cards …………………

Well that’s finally it , no wait a minute, I have missed out a couple of trees , another time maybe , thanks for looking [ if you have ]

More of Mr. Greedy’s trees

Following on from the last post this one looks at a few more of The Willowbog Collection trees that The Proprietor refers to as Mr Greedy’s bonsai.

A not very revealing photo a yet another beech that I collected myself after several years preparation in situ. This was quite a big tree that I cut down and just about the only styling work that I have done so far is some rough carving of the large pruning  stub. The container is another very nice, large pot by Walsall Ceramics.

This Quercus ilex is sort of in our collection by default. I purchased the tree in Italy just to go on the sale benches. After several years where almost no interest was shown in the tree by prospective purchasers, I decided that it might be quite interesting to make some progress with shaping, recently my efforts have been directed at growing more foliage. How it starts to shape up will dictate if it has a permanent place here.

Another tree with a long way to go on the bonsai journey is this locally collected Norway spruce. Most of the spruce round here have fairly straight trunks whereas this exhibits some interesting movement. I need to make the foliage much more compact before even thinking about shaping but there is a bit of carving on the trunk to do, hopefully this coming winter, it might make an interesting post, just need to remember to have the camera handy when I start !!

This mother and daughter image bonsai is Siberian elm, Ulmus pumila, an interesting species with lots of good characteristics [ like all the elms really ] in particular the bark develops ridges reminiscent of the Winged spindle, Euonymus elata. Yet another of my extensive Walsall Ceramics pot collection is used for this bonsai.

The first of my , whoops , our ! Japanese bonsai that I have featured so far . a Fagus crenata definitely needing a cut back and thin out , pleased though that it is showing the best growth for some years. This pot, that I believe complements the tree so well, is a Derek Aspinal [ the match is more apparent in the winter image ]

Another imported tree, this time a Chinese elm from China. It was donated to the Willowbog Collection by an enthusiast forced to give up bonsai due to personal circumstance. We sold the rest of his collection on his behalf. It is nice to have trees with good sentiment attached ! Potted in one of my favourite Japanese glazed ceramics.

I have a particular attachment to this bonsai . I dug this Western hemlock in nineteen eighty-five, sold it as raw material, bought it back, a have done a fair proportion of the work on it myself. My primary teacher, Marco Invernizzi, has had a significant imput with this, as he has had with many of my trees. Another Derek Aspinal pot.

The final bonsai in this post is a Hawthorn that I imagine was collected in Wales. The previous owner purchased the tree from Kevin Willson who also did the initial styling and deadwood work . That previous owner, one Len Gilbert, who features large in the Willowbog story, developed the tree to more or less the image that you see here. I planted it into this Gordon Duffet glazed pot.

Just enough trees left to populated a final post, tomorrow, the next day, or…………………………

 

The Willowbog Collection

Most of the bonsai in our personal collection are looking pretty good at the moment , here is a look at some of them.

A year or two back I created a special area in which to better display the trees, no, of course it is not yet finished, Japanese tiles to go on the roof for one thing ! Patience is a virtue !

The multi-trunk/windswept larch now growing in a beautiful big Japanese pot, if I could only remember who supplied that pot I could make an effort to pay for it !

The beech that I collected in the mid nineteen eighties and sold to a Teesside enthusiast who has done most of the excellent work to create this bonsai. Decided to keep it when given the chance to buy it back a few years ago. One of the few trees that The Proprietor wanted us to keep !!!

The same bonsaist did most of the initial work on this Scots pine, variety, beuvronensis, he purchased it from Bushukan Bonsai many years back. I recently planted it into this Derek Aspinal rectangular pot. The tree really needs a fine wiring !!

Another Scotty but this one a yamadori from the north of Scotland, this ex Jim McCurrach tree has a bit of history that deserves a post on its own, I will come back to it !

Another European beech that was collected by myself, about five or six years ago, so really quite new to the styling process, but look at that great Walsall Ceramic oval pot !!

A somewhat unusual group of Western hemlocks that is nevertheless one of my favourite bonsai. All the trees planted as part of a commercial forestry crop in nineteen fifty-one and collected by myself in the late eighties, in another outstanding Walsall pot !

To be continued in the next post .

A look at the nursery

I thought that I would share a few images of the nursery now that we finally seem to have got rid of Winter [ at least we hope we have !! ]

This is what you see on emerging from the shop doorway that leads out into the tree sales areas.

I have chosen to feature larch bonsai in this area. It is not in my nature to ” blow our own trumpet ” but I reckon that we have a pretty impressive display of Larix trees in a variety of bonsai forms.

Outstanding ramification on this, just about, Bunjin style.

This was originally a Jim McCurrach tree, not quite clump, not quite informal upright ! what you see is largely the work of Willowbogger, Len Gilbert

The only European larch in the selection. This is a very old bonsai that came from Italy.

The first of two very good cascade trees.

Both in really nice Walsall Ceramics pots.

This slanting style tree was originally Willowbog raw material. The pot is one of Ian Baillie’s specials.

A rather poor photo of the ex Len Gilbert, twenty-seven tree, forest. That is the slate from a six-foot billiard table that it is planted on !

Lastly in this post, a benching bay of larch bonsai, all shapes and sizes.

June Bonsai Chat

It is Willowbog Bonsai’s Bonsai Chat on Saturday coming. I will not be here, so a big incentive to come I would say [ before one of my loyal customers says the same !! ]

There will still be a good number of Willowboggers here to offer help and advice if you want to bring a tree along, or if you just want to chat to someone else who shares your interest in this hobby.

I have it on good authority that this beautiful Hawthorn, now in full flower, will be gracing the studio tokonoma on Saturday courtesy of its owner Ronin Bonsai, thanks Ray !

Loaded up and ready to go.

I have just finished loading the van with all things bonsai ready for this coming weekend. I am going to Bonsai Eejit’s for the Northern Ireland Bonsai Society’s School day and workshop.

As always the problem was deciding what to take , trying to second guess what might sell !

This is the middle of three annual visits that I make to conduct the school day, workshop day and to make sales. The focus of this trip is usually trees rather than ancillaries but we have to try to include a bit of everything. I set off for the ferry about mid-morning tomorrow, weather looks set fair and it should be a great couple of days as it always is amongst the friendly Ulster folk.

Yew update

Someone on here recently asked me to post an update on the progress of the Taxus cuspidata that Ryan Neil demonstrated on back in late January here at the nursery.

As this photo just about shows the tree is doing really well . Lots of new season growth appearing, some branches further on than others but all areas of the tree showing a healthy condition.

This picture shows a closer view of the foliage revealing all that nice new growth . We have lost only two very small twigs following the work done on the tree. Not surprising given that Ryan has a big reputation for carrying out the styling process whilst causing an absolute minimum of stress to the tree.

A good look at that powerful live vein at the base of the trunk. Writing this post reminds me of what an outstanding day it was when Ryan, very capably assisted by Peter Warren, entertained and educated a crowd of about forty enthusiasts who had struggled through the snow to Willowbog Bonsai for that demonstration. In fact all of the four days that Ryan Neil worked here were outstanding, I hope that we can persuade him to come back here sometime !!

The G-Man cometh

Having missed our most recent regular monthly workshop due to family commitments, Peter G brought a few of his bonsai along to the nursery yesterday for a bit of guidance and advice. In the absence of anyone better qualified I ended giving that help and advice.

As Peter’s visit was planned I had thoughtfully taken the camera out to be ready to record bits of the day for this blog. Of course I never touched the camera again so here is an archive image of the man working on his trees.

It reminded me of a time here, only a few years ago, when on every Saturday without fail a group of Willowboggers, all known to each other and friends in the hobby, would turn up, usually before official opening time ! and spend the whole day working on the trees that they brought with them, just chatting about things [ mostly bonsai ] or helping with chores about the nursery. Things move on, folks circumstances change and this no longer happens, to begin with I used to ask myself if it was perhaps ourselves no longer making people feel as welcome here ? but I genuinely don’t think it is that, at least I hope not !!