Category Archives: Hawthorn

Apr 30 2012

Tickle Tour May 2012 Itinerary

I am travelling through France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, Italy and Slovenia over the next couple of weeks. I will be filming, blogging and recording my tour. I f I have time and a good internet connection I will put some content here on this site. I am hoping to add a lot of new Potters to my showcase series and will feature them here also. So if you see me, say ‘Hi’

Wednesday 2nd Set off at 7.30am
Travel to: Noelanders club Demo, Heusden-Zolder, België 7.30 start

Thursday 3rd
All day Workshop with Stéphane Van Lints:
Leave at 6.00pm Travel to Stuttgart Airport hotel overnight

Friday 4th
Travel to: Arco, Italy Ubi event: Arrive approx: 12.00

Saturday 5th
All day at UBI conference in Arco Exhibit Hawthorn

Sunday 6th
All day at UBI conference in Arco
Monday 6th –Friday 10th Stay with friends in Italy and Slovenia
Friday 10th Visit EBA event and set up: Hotel and congress centre Mons, Ljubljana‎, Slovenija

Saturday 11th EBA event with Demo, Exhibit Hawthorn

Sunday 12th EBA event

Monday 14th Leave Lunch with Walter Pall
Overnight Idstein, Germany

Tuesday 15th
Visit to: Christian Przybylsk, Essen

Visit to: Jean Paul Polmas, Belgium.

Travel Calais Euro Tunnel

Travel to and stay Stone Monkeys, Kent, Overnight

Wednesday 16th Arrive Home approx 2.00pm

Total driving time 47.5 hours
Miles: 2697 miles

Apr 11 2012

Revolutionary methods for establishing newly collected Yamadori

I am working on some revolutionary methods for establishing newly collected Yamadori. I started back in November with five trees using different techniques, two failed but three have delivered spectacular results. Prunus Spinosa and Crataegus producing roots from the whole tree, these photos were taken in February. With this knowledge I set out and collected over 100 trees and these are now thriving. I am busy collecting Yews up to the end of April in the UK then over to mainland Europe for Pines and Picea. This year’s stock will be available for reserve for a deposit of 50% from Mid June onwards.

I have uploaded these photos in hi resolution so you can take a closer look if you ‘click’ on them!

New roots direct from the trunk

The white specks are the start of new roots, two weeks after this photo was take the roots were 2cm long!

A small section of the recently collected Prunus Spinosa and Crataegus, they are triving.

Apr 1 2012

New STRONG growth on Hawthorn heralds healthy growth

I love this time of year when the newly collected stock starts to thrust out fresh growth. There is always a big sense of excitement and anticipation as to whether the tree has recovered from the stress of collecting and transplanting. Here is a Hawthorn that has started to throw out new shoots from a major cut.  I always let newly collected stock thrive unchecked for two years before any work is started.

I will be posting photos of all the new stock from June onwards. Over 150 trees including Prunus Spinosa, Crataegus, Cotoneaster, Taxus and Scots Pine.

root-ball
Mar 7 2012

How I collect Yamadori Hawthorns

Here is a gallery of images from the last collecting trip to collect hawthorns. They are situated on a hillside surrounded by scrub and large trees. Finding them is not easy as they are the same colour as the rocks. One of the best aspects of this site is that most trees have one large tap root but many fine roots in the layer of soil above the rough stone. You can see the difference in the colour of the soil where the fine roots are. This creates a great nebari and once the tap root is cut off the tree can be place in a shallow container.

Hawthorn branch structure 01
Mar 7 2012

Recreating ‘natural’ branch structures in Hawthorn Bonsai

When recreating the ‘natural’ look in the branch of Hawthorn Bonsai it is important to consider the growth habit of the tree in nature. When we create a bonsai we control the growth and ‘force’ the tree to grow as we wish. Hawthorn in the wild grow in a random fashion (unless they are windswept and the growth is usually in one direction!)

If we were to let our hawthorn bonsai grow in a random fashion then they would look like a shrub with no ‘real’ style or design. So the answer is the create a branch structure that is both controlled yet has a ‘wild’ appearance. Kook closely at the branch below and you will notice that the ‘main’ branch is formed in such a way as to support the randomness of the smaller branches however the silhouette remains visually pleasing.

Feb 17 2012

Interview in my garden with Social Media giant @documentally

A couple of years ago I had a reporter visit my garden to interview me about Bonsai, listening to it now there are a few things that make me cringe… but listen to the recording as if you knew NOTHING about bonsai or Yamadori… as this was the audience it was aimed at, its an Audioboo Listen here it’s 9 .21 mins long and make sure you turn your sound up. This has been listened to by lots of folk on the web. It was part of a social networking event I hosted as part of my Digital Consultancy Business and the Reporter was fascinated when he came to my house and decided to do the interview.

If you have a lot of time on your hands check out Christian Payne

Feb 12 2012

How to re-pot a Raft Hawthorn Bonsai

This Hawthorn raft is probably the tree that most people in the bonsai world know me by, I collected the tree way back in 1991 and after establishing in a box for 4 years the tree has only been re-potted 3 times.

In this repot, the angle of the tree was changed by 5 degrees. Rotating to the right the tree presented itself better to the viewer. The left side being closer… however the right side moved away from the viewer, that had to be corrected (that is explained here) The late great potter Derek Aspinall made the pot, its very narrow and perfectly flat, sitting without rocking when displayed on a table/

This re-pot was done exactly 12 months ago, the tree recovered well and is in preparation for a show in Wales later this year.

Feb 11 2012

How to re-pot a Tall Mature Hawthorn Bonsai

I have had this tree for over 20 years, its planted in a lovely Derek Aspinall pot, it was desperate to be repotted, here is a photo story.