Happy Holidays!

Juniper restyle

I was asked by a friend to rework his Juniper. He got it as a gift from his wife and daughter a long time ago. They bought it from Marc Noelanders who originally styled it.  

The tree was wired and styled by 2 more people during the years and had grown out of shape. First thing I noticed when I first saw it wat that the foliage was far away from the trunk, it had almost no shape and the 2 trees didn’t look like one in the composition. 

So I started by cleaning the trunk. Remove the old bark and cleaned the deadwood. After that I added one more Shari to give the boring lower part of the trunk more movement. Then I pulled the smaller tree that was lying on the ground more towards the main tree so it looked like a separate tree but still one with the composition.  The small tree almost has the same movement as the main so that balanced the composition a bit more. The branches were already set in the years so I brought them more towards the trunk to compact the whole thing. Mainly because the trunk is slender and to give the tree a more clean look. 

Back on the days the back branch was cut by accident so I had to arrange the foliage pads again to create depth and balance. At last I lowered the apex to give it a rounder and older look. 

I am happy with the result just like the owner and in time the pads will fill out even more. When that happens with good maintenance this tree could be stunning again one day. 

Ficus cascade.

Besides outdoor trees i have some tropical trees too that I keep indoors. They only go out in summer. This ficus was a bargain. I bought it from a guy that buys a lot of them and sells them cheap. 

It’s always a challenge because all the branches are grafted with microcarpa foliage. It’s much denser and brighter green. However they easily break while bending and leaves easily fall off during work. Big plus is they are hard to kill I see them at Chinese restaurants all over the place and they still look good even without proper care. Just make sure they receive enough light. 

The before photo is not the original one but a similar one. 

Before:

Bonsai Yume

Adding a new sponsor to the list. Bonsai Yume a bonsai nursery owned by my friend Steve. A nursery with great trees and starting material located in Zonhoven Belgium. 

He has been providing some of my trees and In my spare time I help him out too in the nursery. Always fun to work on the trees there and there are so many! 

I want to thank Steve Drossaer from Bonsai Yume for the trees and support. 

So go check it out! I will post a link on the blogroll shortly, but for now you van find him on Facebook under the name ‘bonsai yume’. 

Bonsai workshop

Yesterday I was invited by a small club of bonsai enthusiasts to do a workshop. At first someone would come and do a workshop on larch however when they heard I was coming they brought all kinds of trees instead. 

I had a blast these guys are so much fun joking around an d laughing all the time. But in between the jokes and fun we also managed to do heaps of work. 

We started out with some thinning pruning and wiring, this took a lot of time so we couldn’t finish every tree. But lucky me in January I am invited again and than we are going to finish what we started. 

In short, awesome day, great funny crew and good trees. Here is a small impression and the rest will follow in January. 

Kaizuka juniper

This kaizuka Juniper I styled together with my friend Steve from bonsai Yume who ownes it. 

I looked at it so many times and still am not sure about the right lower branch. It has such a weird curve feels out of place. But because Steve is selling it it’s up to the new owner if he wants to keep it or not. 

Update boxwood present for dad.

Earlier in the season I found myself a boxwood. Cheap ball of green common to a lot of gardens around the world. 

It’s always a challenge making something from that material and proves that enjoying bonsai doesn’t always need to be expensive. 

This particular one I bought at the local flowershop for less than €5. The only problem is that the branches and leaves you end up using are the inner branches of the ball. What this means is that these are the weaker ones because they haven’t received that much light. A lot of leaves were yellow when I first styled it even some branches were bare. However with some TLC sunlight and good feeding it looks healthy, strong and green again. 

I gave it to my dad for fathersday because he really liked it and I’m happy it turned out good. 

Next year time for some refinement and the little lovely girl on the picture is my niece. She liked to be in the picture too and it gives a better sense of size. 

First bonsai work at the new garden.

Steve from Bonsai Yume brought me a visit all the way from Belgium 🇧🇪 

He brought me a white pine that could use some styling. 

It’s a grafted one with heaps of foliage and good trunk movement. My first idea was to make it into a cascade (kengai) but after looking at it some more the curves in the trunk made it interesting to place it upright. Because of the heaps of rain we have here during fall I decided to place it on a slab from William van Vlaanderen so it wouldn’t hold too much water. 

It’s not reppotted or rootpruned whatsoever just transferred to the slab and covered. There is a little boxwood on the side and this is the end result for now. 

Next up the demo tree

Earlier I mentioned I had to demo at the clinge close to Belgium at the club Shimpaku. 

Really fun day I brought the big Juniper Steve from bonsai Yume gave to me and the members brought they’re own trees. 

In between the demo we talked and discussed the members trees and I gave some advice on them. Even the press was represent and I made the paper as bonsai master 😂

Here are some photo’s 

It was a great day really liked the vibe and people. And many thanks to shimpaku, tibolar and Bonsaihoek for inviting me. 

Its been a while.

It’s been a while since I posted something on my blog, but i haven’t been doing nothing. 

Let’s start off with the new garden I have with one of nu good friends. 

I still couldn’t find a proper house with a garden so my friend Coen said we could use a hidden garden next to his house to create a bonsai garden. It’s really big and even has a garden house in it. So after some quick mind spinning moments we came up with a plan. 

This winter we are building stuff like a patio and a roof. After that we are gonna paint and make a path. Plant some nice shrubs and adding trees. So probably next season it should all be ready. 

Here is a picture of a small part of the garden for now.