Cutting propogation

And my small collection of cuttings taken this spring. First real try at taking cuttings, never did any when I was "active" previously.

Lots of Quince cuttings from a garden shrub which has beautiful peach/pink flowers in early spring, a few acers  from my original tree and a pink flowering hawthorn collected from the "wild" !

Plan to also take some larger hardwood cuttings from the quince over winter.

Flowering Cherry 1

My last purchase for now. It's an ornamental shrub anyway  Flowering Cherry ("Prunus Kojo-no-mai") and was in full flower at the nursery, so I couldn't resist a bit of instant gratification! Bought a deep but cheap pot to go with it.

Once the flowers had dropped it's been pruned back and I'll just let it grow wildly for a couple of years. Enjoy the flowers and then see where it goes after that.

Just some mild training in the meantime as I don't really know what branches i'll keep or lose at this stage.

Privet 1

Another internet purchase, an "indoor" bonsai. No such thing really, but it seems to do OK. Needs to be at the window to get enough light, but positioned it away from light for a while to get some long growth, which will now hopefully harden off and balance out the look of the tree in the longer term.

This is how it looked when I bought it. Pretty shapeless, but it has potential. Not really a serious long term tree, but again, for a bit of fun.

Spruce 1

My first internet purchase, it was listed as a Scots pine, but I only paid 6.00 for it. Having a bit of fun with some more extreme shaping than I used to do. It's only very small, not sure of it's long term future, but it's a bit of fun for now.

This is how it looked on eBay when I bought it! Slight change! The blue pot is from my "original" collection.  A bit deep though was never that keen!!

Cotoneaster 1

I had a Cascade style Cotoneaster in my original collection, but managed to kill it. I still have the pot and want to recreate it. This was bought from a local nursery and happens to have twin trunks. not sure of the final shpe so I am growing it all for now, it needs to gain some weight also!

Hence it is very scrappy in it's styling at the moment, but should come good in a few years, as long as I dont kill this one!

Berberis 1

Yet another bargain bin item, from the same nursery a few weeks later. It looked pretty much dead, but I took a gamble as it had quite a nice looking trunk peeking through all of the unruly growth. The plant was quite raised from it's root structure also, I quite like the effect, and could plant it over a rock in the future. Bit of wire work and thinning of branches has it looking quite nice already. Needs a proper pot.

Cedar 1

Deodara Cedar - had one of these before, wasnt really sure what I was going to do with it and just had a brain wave a couple of weeks ago. Kind of bungin-gi style, but not quite. Will need refiing and probably growing on a bit.

This one was also bought from the bargain bin at the same time as the White Pine. Not sure whether this one will go anywhere. Small jin at the bottom where there were some lower branches that I decided weren't needed with the style I had in mind.

White Pine 1

This crosses over old and new. This White Pine was bought from the bargain bin this winter just gone. I didn't read the label overly closely because it was a fiver and just really an impulse buy to get some quick and cheap material. Turned out is was a Pinus Parviflora Glauca - Japanese White Pine - so I got a bargain for sure!

The old aspect is that I have had an old Yew tree stump that I have planned to use in a Tanuki composition from our old house. Which means I have had it knocking around for around 17 years!!

This White Pine is on a pretty ugly looking graft, so I realised quickly that I could put it to best use with the Yew stump.

Lot of work to do, the front of tree will be the other side, to hide the ugly graft. Not sure it will work out, but it's just started its first new growth of the year, and I'll probably keep it in the bucket for a while, may even field grow it for a couple of years to encourage the tree to grow into the deadwood faster. (it's "mounted" in a groove cut into the stump)

San Jose Juinper 1

This tree is also from my original collection. I have another one that was bought for us as a wedding anniversary present as a mature specimen. This one was bought as a rough and ready item from a normal garden centre and trained from scratch (into a similar style) Bit of guesswork here, but I'd say it was bought in around 1995 and was probably a 5 year old at the time. So I'd say 25 years old as of now.

It needs some work to try to stimulate some back growth, which apparently is hard for these trees. It also needs some branch arrangement, I think it;s a bit top heavy. But not bad for a tree that has been mostly neglected, apart from re-potting, for around 15 years.

Revisiting old and growing a new collection - Acer 1

Despite having had a keen interest in Bonsai since the age of around 15, life and it's various priorities got in the way and I am only just re-visiting this passion now. Over 30 years later! With the wonders of the internet it is easy to track progress. This first entry is a picture of my small collection, which includes a couple of trees from the "old days" - which are getting pretty old by now. There are a few other trees which have been caretaken by my parents, which will come back into the fold soon. I'll dedicate an entry per tree to start with.

From rough memory I'll start with the oldest first, which is a rather grand looking Acer in the process of having the top section air layered:.

This Acer was one of my first serious purchases from a Bonsai nursery in Cornwall in Roughly 1992. It was a reasonable size sapling then, so overall it's probably 30 years old now. It's been grown in a large pot all that time. At one point the roots reaching down into the soil beneath the pot. It's got some nice girth to it, with a fairly nice nebari. This year's task is taking the top part off as an air layer (too good to waste) and working on getting two decent trees out if it. Getting the root system shallower on the original so it can get into a proper bonsai pot soon too.  Then some shaping and stimulate some back budding. A few more years to be a good specimen, but well on the way