Hi, Hans, Could you please post the pics you took for your literati haw? Regards.
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Hi, Rui,
Sorry I.O.U all some pictures that I made during the try out of different display possibilities for my Literati Hawthorn! There was only 1-meter space available for my display at the “BONSAI FROM THE WEST” Bonsai show! So I made the display in my try out accordingly to that space. As you will see in the next pictures, most of the display options that I had in mind, needed more room to be right and there for most of the accents that I tried looked too big or wide!
Below: This old wooden plant-tray that I use underneath the tree, is sculpted out of one piece of wood by a Japanese artist/craftsman. We imported it from Japan some years ago to go underneath this amazing pot by Brian Allbright. It was a bit of a gamble, but it worked out perfectly! We think that is! 🙂
Below: The large wooden plate underneath is there to visually lift my display off the ground, in this case, the planks of my benches! Without it, the whole display would visually disappear into the ground! Brown is the wrong colour, at the show the long tables on which the Bonsai are displayed are blue! But this wooden plate is about the same size as the space available at the show and in this case, that is more important! The accent is a small fern like ground conferrer that I found in the local dune forest near our home. I planted it some 8 years ago on this piece of driftwood. It lives on there with out much ground, but it is perfectly happy! I like this option, but they should be wider apart to work. Like this, it overpowers the slender tree too much! And with more space, I would preferably use one of the perfect little scrolls that I have for it! But that option to use any kind of painting is in most of the bigger shows in Europe no longer allowed! This is very sad, but perfectly understandable. Many of perfectly styled tree was overpowered by a too large, wildly coloured and badly made scroll. And the organizers were just fed up to have to ask the artist to remove the scroll. Although this was mostly done, to more or less protect the artist, many of them got (understandingly) really upset! So they banned the use of scrolls completely! Sad, because I really loved to try and find a matching Scroll, Shikishi or Tanzaku painting for my display! When done in the right way, they ad something special to the total display!
Below: This accent is a plant that is found in the North of Spain some 12 years ago. It has tiny little purple flowers and it grows in/on a tower, made out of mosses. And every year this little plant creates the next layer and it will get a little bit higher! It stands on a stone slab from Japan to lift it off the floor and for some contrast. I like it, but again, because of the wildness of the growth, it occupies/claims to much space and therefore overpowers the tree. Would there have been more space to work with, well than I would have tried hard to make this work? I like this accent/combo.
Below: This option is one of my favourites. This multi-layered rock was found by my friend Terry Foster, close to were this Hawthorn was collected all those years ago by me and my other dear friend Tony Tickle. And that same year I planted this Alpine plant, that I had found in Austria, on it. But again the same story, too big for this small space! But the next time I will use it when I can!
Below: Close up of that beautiful stone.
Below: And this is how my display finally looked like, without any wire, at the “Bonsai van het Westen” show in Delft (Holland). The final accent that I used is a Japanese rock slab, with an alpine plant that I collected in Austria, in a globe like pot by Ron de Roo (NL). Even though it turned out that there was even less space available than expected, I still think that this small display looked all right! The Hawthorn got a lot of attentions from the crowd that visited this unique and very friendly Bonsai event, that is run purely by very enthusiastic Bonsai lovers! And even though the Sunday of this outdoor weekend show was wed and extremely cold for the time of year, it was colder (6 Degrees) than it was on the first day of last years Xmas, it was still a great event! And I will be there again next year, as a demonstrator and to show another one of my trees! So I will see you all again the 7Th edition of “Bonsai van het Westen” show!
My excuses for the poor quality of the pictures. But circumstances were poor! I hope you enjoyed them never the less?!
Cheers, Hans van Meer.
Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com
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Hi, Hans.
Beautiful tree, hawthorn is one of my favourite species. What was your feeding regime last year to promote so many flowers? hope you don’t mind me asking.
Hi, Simon,
I am glad you like my Hawthorns!
This is how/what I feed them: As soon as the weather alowes it, I start to feed with a very mild liquid fish emulsion. As soon as the weather stays warm enough, I will start to feed every week! Changing between the same Fish emulsion and (Liquid) Bio Green fertilizer (4-3-6). Around the end of April (depends on the temperature) I will add Green King Fertilizer pallets to the soil surface. But the weekly doses of liquid fertilizer still goes on! Near the end of the growing season, I will remove the pallets and change the liquid fertilizer into liquid PK fertilizer (0-10-10). This is basically what I have been doing for the last two years now and it seemed to have worked wonders for my Hawthorns! I hope this helps you?!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com
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The Bonsai Blog of Hans van Meer 