Category: MY WORK

Hi, everybody,

the last few weeks it looked like summer was all ready here with temperatures around 20 degrees and above! Working on my trees in boxer shorts again, getting my first Bonsai related sunburn, while noticing that I have gained a few pounds during my winter hibernation! 😦 I repotted only a few trees this year, among them was my Taxus that my dear friend Tony Tickle once (a long time ago) brought along as a present when he visited my house. It had and still has a reverse taper and looked a bid like a lollipop! 🙂 I managed to grow some new roots higher up the tree bass and later cut off the to long root section! I over game the tapper problem by placing the root base against a nice moon rock from Indonesia that I had lying around, it has been growing like this ever since. Getting it out off the pot was difficult and I had to use some old chisels to very gently lift it out, trying not to break the fragile connection between rock and tree! First the matting roots were cut off with a old but sharp cutter and than the root ball that only consist out off fine roots was gently combed out and shortened by more than half it’s total mass! than it was carefully replaced into it’s old pot.

(click on pictures to enlarge)

The tree will be tinned out to promote dormant and inner back buds that are now starting to swell and to equalise the balance between root mass and foliage mass! Wiring and further styling will be don as soon as the tree is recovered from this repotting. Here is a picture of some off my Shohin in early full bloom ( Blackthorn Prunus spinosa).

My Prunus mahaleb are by now almost all in bloom and I will make pictures off them as soon as possible and post them!!! But now I want to show you guy’s a little trick that I picked up from a visit to the gardens of my Slovenian friends Tomas Kovsca and Roland Petek. They carefully bend down natural occurring suckers to create new roots! When I started I placed mosses all around the root base to extra promote these suckers and than it was hoping for some nicely placed onces that could be used to create new roots!

Picture 1: A new sucker has emerged just above the soil line. Red arrow shows a new root created last season.

Picture 2: A U shaped pin made from a old piece off wire will be used to bend down the thin and fragile sucker. Red arrow shows a root from last season.

Picture 3: The sucker is carefully bend down and hold in place with the U pin. Some soil is removed in the place were the sucker will com to rest, so that it is growing/facing to wards the soil. But leave enough space for the tip to grow for a Little while longer, gaining in strength allowing the new roots to emerging! That tip will be covered with soil later when I am sure it is surviving in this position!

Picture 4: Only 2 pins are enough to hold the thin sucker in place. Knottiest the remains off the mosses at the base of the sucker!

Picture 5: Red arrow: This new root still show the marks from the pins that hold it in place before! This root started a bit higher on the bass off the trunk and was bended down along the trunk line into the soil, looks natural I think! Green arrow: Shows a other new root. I think it is a great little technique to easily improve your root base.

Today whole day indoors because off painters doing the front off my house, gggrrr! But it was a good excuse to post something on my blog!! 🙂 There is much more to gome…but first it is a few days of dewiring 2 big once!!! So there will be some blisters ahead! 😉

Later,

Hans van Meer.

karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

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Hi, everybody,

I would like to share 2 pictures that I made a few weeks ago after finishing rewiring my small Hawthorn again. It took me the whole (sunny) afternoon and I have some splinters of their #### thorns still deeply embedded under the nail of my left thumb today….both sides! Sigh!…….Anyhow, I was sitting in our living room looking outwards and knottiest that the little Hawthorn was still standing in the middle of my garden on its working table that I had used during that painful afternoon wiring session and it did not look half bad or small! I have asked famous Potter and bonsai friend John Pitt to design and make a unique pot for it, I can’t wait to see what John artistry will create to go along with my creation?! And then I hope to enter it into next years Noelanders Trophy in the Chuhin division! Fingers crossed for a good growing season and a beautiful pot (NO PRESSURE!!) 🙂

Below pictures top view: No wonder that I hurt my fingers wiring! 😉

I hope you guy’s like the pictures of my little Hawthorn?!

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

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Hi, everybody,

the last 2 days were lovely warm and sunny, so what could be better than to restyle one of my personal favourites…”Wolfie” the Mugo pine from Austria. This Little tree with just 10 years of work under its belt has like most of my trees a nice story to tell, so is the name “Wolfie” given to this tree in honor of my friend Wolfgang Putz from Austria who so generously swapped it with me for a yamadori Taxus that I had brought along with me when I visited his amazing garden together with Tony Tickle! I was over the moon with this very healthy little gem and I hope that Wolfgang is pleased with how his little find has turned out after some 10 years?! If the tree reacts well to this work than it will be lifted from this pot and will be gently lowered into its new pot! Hopefully without disturbing the healthy rootball to much! I do hope that the pot and tree will be a good combo because I hope to show it at the next Noelanders together with my Small Hawthorn! They are both Chuhin size! I include some pictures of how the tree was just after I got it home from Austria some 10 years ago and a before and after from the present day! I hope you like how fare this little tree has come?!

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Info: karamotto@hotmail.com

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Hi, everybody,

I made some pictures of two of my Hawthorns now they were still showing there lovely flowers! But only just, with every little shake it started to snow a little so I had to be careful! The first one is from my old little Hawthorn in its new smaller Dan Barton pot. I always loved the former combo with the beautiful Horst Heinzlreiter pot that I won in a online styling competition, especially when it was in bloom! But it was a bit to heavy and overpowering during the leafless winter period. During the last repotting I found out that it easily fitted in to the slightly smaller and shallower Dan Barton pot, so that was a no brainier! Now the tree is more equal to the pot and looks much bigger, taller and further away than before! Dan Barton gave me this stunning pot as a surprise gift the last time I stayed in his warm house so I am glad that I found the right tree for his beautiful pot, I hope Dansai likes it as much as I do?! 😉

This rare “Dutch” Hawthorn Yamadori that I collected some were in early 2000 close to where I live near the beach had some difficult to solve problems, like no branches on the lower part of its trunk and hardly any movement on the whole trunk! So I had to create a whole new top area out off new branches that had grown from a thick inverse tapered top stump. This is the drawing that I made for it back in 2005, it’s my take on a “Mother and Child” design! I all way’s wanted one so here was my change and challenge to create one!

Out off a branch that grew from the right bottom section I created a small leaning tree, like a little child that clings on to his towering mother seeking protection from the storm! How poetic! 🙂 It even has it’s little arm around her legs! This way I created some things of interest on and around an otherwise boringly empty and straight trunk line! The straight (like a stick) natural deadwood section along most of the trunk line was shaped with use of a concave cutter. I managed to create the illusion of movement by just removing and breaking off the hard deadwood. Now the trunk has some flow to it and is interesting to look at.

The yellow line better shows the movement of bark and trunk. No more straight section!

And in the present time! The basic shape is already there, now it needs more branch structure to fill out the silhouette. It never had this many flowers and looks and smell great! It has lots of flows, but tons of character, in a year or 5 it will be ready to show (I hope)! 🙂

Something like this is what I see! A fantasy Bonsai?! 😉

Hope you enjoyed the pictures?!

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Info: karamotto@hotmail.com

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Hi, everybody,
last weekend it was lovely weather so I decided that it was time to rewire and restyle my big Larch named the Elephant! I am still recovering from two minor operations so I could not stand up for too long and so I had to work in short sessions, but who is complaining with such weather and such a tree to work on?! Last year the tree was allowed to grow freely and most of the smaller ramification had grown out off position and needed to brought back into place again!
Below: Before the work started! Just look at that tangled mess of branches!

Below: And this is how my Elephant looked after 3 days of on and off wiring!

I had to redesign most off the top section because I was not satisfied with how it had progressed over the last couple of years! It looks much better now, but it still needs a lot of work in the future years to make it the way I see it in my mind! But the tree and I are not going anywhere, so I just enjoy the ride as the years go by! Gives me time to find a suitable pot for the Elephant to live in!

Hope you like what I have done so far?!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

PS: More will be posted soon!

Info: karamotto@hotmail.com

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Hi, everybody,

This little tree is without any wire for a long time now and some of the new smaller branches are growing in the wrong direction and needs to be wired in to place or cut back! The finer ramification that fills out and shapes the outline of the separate foliage pads has more than doubled over this last year and so far I am happy with the lower 80% off the ramification, but the top section needs to thicken some more and fill out a lot more to make me really HAPPY!! 🙂 But they don’t grow much when they are settled in a pot like this one is, so that will take at least two more growing seasons! Maybe just in time for the next Noelanders Kifu trophy?! The result of the root techniques I did last year is still covered with cut paste and soil and seem to do all right?! But we will know after this winter when I will have a closer look at the roots, I will keep you informed. I hope that the finer roots have grown enough to allow me to cut off some major thick roots so that I am able to remove two big rocks from the root ball! Then I can put it in a more shallower and suitable pot than this one. Although more suitable, some people really like this pot it is in now! Tony Tickle who was here last weekend loved the pot and he is not the only one! What do you guy’s think?! Note the pot is dirty in these pictures and normally it has a nice dark patina! I find it somewhat too high or too heavy, but in the future when the silhouette is more full, well than it might look just right?!

                                                              Below: Left side,

                                                         Below: Right side,

                                                         Below: Back site,

                                          Below: And finally the front site.

                                Below: A bird’s eye view of the ramification.

Below: I will wire the tree this coming week and will post the result as soon as I have good pictures!

My next upcoming post will be about the first work that I did one off mine Prunes mahaleb yamadori!!!

Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

Info: karamotto@hotmail.com

Hi, everybody,
here is the link to the Greek translation of my wound treatment technique as posted on the new site of the Greek Hellenic Bonsai Club: HERE
My thanks go out to Alexandra (my nelie) for translating it so quick!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

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Hi, everybody,

I would like to share a picture that I made a few days ago of my Lilac “syringa microphylla” pre Bonsai in extreme full bloom! It smells up the whole garden with a sweet and intoxicating scent, and it looks pretty sweet as well! This Lilac is an urban yamadori salvaged from a soon to be demolished train station and it came into my possession as raw material in 2009.

Below : Lilac “syringa microphylla”  Height: 38 cm/ 15 inch.

Click on the picture to enlarge!

Hope you like the image…but it is a shame you cant smell it!

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

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