MY WORK – Page 6 – The Bonsai Blog of Hans van Meer

A completely new design and front for my old Mugo Pine named “Little chapel”.

First a short history recap: Way back in 2004 I discovered and collected this little old Mugo Pine on a high mountainside in Austria. I only had to cut a few roots and then could literary scoop it off of the giant rock it had grown on for so long!

It was collected high in the mountains close to a little chapel and that’s where she/he got her/his name from Little Chapel!

Below: 2007: With the progressive styling story of this same tree, which covers the complete progress right from my collecting it, right up to its first styling, I won the first AoB professional online styling competition back in 2007.

**And I am proud to say that the winning article about this first styling was featured in famous Bonsai master Robert Steven’s Bonsai book “Mission of Transformation”!**

**This is how it looks after its second restyling in 2010.**

Above: And in Oktober 2012. First to clarify to those that wonder: On the backside of that to the left protruding deadwood, right at the left end there is a thick large rot growing straight into the ground! The bottom red arrow is pointing to the dying root that feeds the life vein that runs over the top of the left deadwood section. The top red arrow points to the dying left side of the trunk! Today in 2020 only the section to the right of the white line is still alive!

Above: 19-3-2015 Here the root visually still looked alright…but I knew that it was dying back slowly or already dead! So my initial front slowly lost its main attraction! Meanwhile, the tree was allowed to vigorously grow out of shape and to produce many new small branches and foliage pads for me to use! And the more I looked at it, the more I realist that a big change was needed for my new future plan!

Above: And this will become the new front side! It will be planted sloping to the left like it is struggling to hold on to the mountainside it is growing on! This way the dead root/trunk enhances the story of its struggle. All (eye) movement in branches and foliage will be pointing to the left, creating a lot of visual speed and a feeling of a tree that is proudly holding on for dear life above a lot of open space. It will be styled in a natural-looking way enhancing the beauty of its years-long struggle! Hopefully more like a Lil’ Tree than an overly styled-looking Bonsai?!

Above: Branch to the right of that white line and a few back branches need to be removed! I really love how its cascading branches will be hanging above all that empty space beneath it in the future in a yet-to-be-found/made pot! PS: it has been in this pot for 13 years now…yes without repotting it once! We repot our evergreens way too much!

Cheers and stay safe and healthy,
Hans van Meer.

Wiring and reposition my big larch named XL.

Hi everybody,
yesterday the last day of January was the warmest on record and today it was even warmer here in Holland! There is something seriously wrong with Mother nature of late…but that does not mean that there is something wrong with doing some wiring work in the warm sun! So after a long walk on the dyke along the sea just a few minutes away from my home, I was refreshed to start wiring and repositioning my big larch named XL in the warm Winter sun! Good Times indeed!!!

I will post the end result in a few days if the weather stays this nice?!

Have a nice weekend everybody!

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Pictures of my small Hawthorn.

This little Hawthorn was collected by me in 2007 in Wales (UK).
Below: Here are two before and after pictures from 2008 when I had just cut off all but four branches in its first styling

Below: This picture was made just after her very drastic haircut! All wounds were sealed with cut paste!

Below: This is the picture that I shot this afternoon in the makeshift photo studio in my living room. The custom-made pot is by my dear friend: John Pitt. Height: 43cm

Why am I so proud of this little Hawthorn? Wel not only because it has turned into a well-established Bonsai in such a short time, but more because of its amazing ramification! I have several collected older Hawthorns from the same Wales aria in my collection and they are treated and pampered just like this one but none of them comes even close ramification-wise?! Hawthorns are notoriously slow branch growers, so this little one is probably that famous one in a million! And I am not complaining! I hope you like the picture as much as I do?!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

Wiring my big Larch ‘The Elephant’.

Below: The last couple of days were cold but with some sunny weather so I made some good use of this opportunity to rewire and reposition the branches on my Big Larch! So dressed warmly and with plenty of strong hot coffee, it took me off and on some 2 days!

Below: I have to admit that I am a bit proud of the ramification of this Bonsai! It has nice tapering and hardly any cut scares. The way how a Larch grows and profoundly back buds make this possible and make them such ideal material for Bonsai!

Below: It is not the most flattering of pictures, but I do hope that it shows just how mature the foliage and Bonsai look by now! I can’t wait to see how it will look in a few months with its new fresh green foliage and I so hope to be able to show it in a big Bonsai show this Sumner…but that is for later I hope?!

Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

Some inspired Bonsai winter work.

Hi everybody! It has been a while, I know! But a lot has happened healthwise during the last months so I did not get much work done! Don’t get me wrong though I kept my babies healthy and happy! But styling work was kept to a minimum during that time! But things are finally looking up lately and I started to do some more styling work and a lot of hard pruning and wiring! It is a pleasure to see that my Prunus mahaleb trees are starting to look better and better and it is time to start hunting for some nice pots for them at the next Trophy in Belgium!

I got my inspiration for this first Prunus mahaleb from the very old Linden tree that I saw in front of the famous cave castle Predjama in the Slovenia village of Postojna!

Above: Did you know that according to legend a bold robber knight named Erasmus once lived in Predjama Castle?
After quarrelling with Emperor Frederick III of Austria, Erasmus held out for more than a year against a besieging army, until he was betrayed by one of his own servants, who lit a candle in the window of Erasmus’s bedroom. This was a signal to his enemies, who then bombarded him with stone cannonballs.
Erasmus’s grieving sweetheart is said to have buried his body in the centre of the village, outside the church dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, and to have planted a linden over his grave. The tree still stands there today, identifiable by its venerable age and hollow trunk.

So I created this Prunus as a remembrance of all my trips to wonderful Slovenia, my dear Slovenian friends and Erasmus’s amazing Linden tree! All branches are new and almost all deadwood is natural! I hope you like where I am going with it?!

The second Prunus is one of my favourites with all its natural scorched deadwood running from her top right down to that right (future) cascading bottom branch! Again I chose a natural look for this tree to honour its natural beauty!

I think that I have to let a natural-looking fitting pot be made for this unique tree! I think it will look pretty amazing in the future with more fin ramifications on its branches!

Below: This third more massive Yamadori Prunus has a story of its own! The (Yellow) left side was air-layered in May 2016 and separated successfully just a few months later!

That stunning (Yellow) left side new Literati tree full of amazing deadwood was given to my dear friend Tony Tickly when he visited my garden in February 2018, for everything that he has done for me during the last almost 3 decades.

Below: The right (Red) side stayed with me and looks like this after completely wiring it last week.

Above: All but tree branches are new and need a few years more of thickening and ramification! The new top needs to thicken a lot more and will then be shortened considerably and the deadwood on the left and along the top trunk needs more refinement! But nevertheless, I am really happy and excited about her progress in such a short time! And it is strange to realise that half of her now lives happily in the U.K.

Below: This Chinese Ulmus parvifolia has been part of our household for as long as I am doing Bonsai and that is almost 30 years now! Over this long time, she has developed a truly amazing root base and stunning flaky bark and breathtaking ramification! She is really easy to maintain and I can recommend this species to Bonsai enthusiasts from all levels! She has even been shown in the prestigious Noelanders trophy in Belgium! I think she looks amazing with her golden-yellow foliage!

Below: The last picture is of my 44cm/17.6Inch high Yamadori Hawthorn Crataegus monogyna. It was collected at the beginning of 2007 in Walles and in early 2008 I started removing all branches, leaving not much more than a bare skeleton! That naked almost perfect moyogi shape allowed me to create a Japanese-style deciduous Bonsai of which there are not that many in existence that I know of?! Posting this next picture and my plans on the online Bonsai forums, there were many replies that Hawthorns are not suitable to use because they are notoriously difficult to create the necessary ramification, especially on such a small tree…well, I think I prove them wrong?! Hawthorns are the perfect candidates for all styles and sizes of deciduous Bonsai!

Above: In early 2008 a year after collecting. The yellow line shows the future plan and what needs to be removed!

Below: A few hours later and the beginning of my Hawthorn Moyogi!

**Above: December 2019 in a custom-made pot by dear friend John Pitt.**

I hope you all enjoyed this little impression of the work I did the last couple of weeks and I promise to post some more of my work soon here on my blog as well as on my Hans Karamotto youtube channel! Happy holidays everybody!!!

Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

New pictures of my old Yamadori Blackthorn and a link to my 2 latest video’s on YouTube!!!

Hi everybody,
it must have been some 20 years ago that my dear old English friend Terry Foster gave me as a gift the even then-old Yamadori Blackthorn from this story. I cultivated and trained this small beauty for many years as a small 25 cm Moyogi but I was always disappointed that the natural Shari/deadwood was hidden on the back of the tree and that there was an obvious reverse taper at the base!

**Here she is still styled as a Moyogi.**

And then some 8 years ago I got a brave idea to turn her around! That meant that I had to cut off a major branch and rearrange most of the existing branches!

**Above: This is the drawing that I made of my plan.**

Above: Just look at that amazing natural Shari/deadwood!
Red arrow points at the twisted Nebari/roots.

Red arrow points at the branch that needs to be removed leaving a small Jin. This will create together with the new planting angle movement to the left and an image of a wind-battered tree!

**Above: Cutting that beautiful but unwanted branch!**

**Above:** **Red arrow: this thick root will be cut right back to the Yellow arrow!**

**Above: May 2012 in its new American? pot!**

**Above: Oktober 2019. And this is how she looks today! Covered with berries and looking just how I had hoped for! I hope you like her as much as we do?!**

I promise to post some more soon so watch this space! In the meanwhile, you can watch my two latest videos on YouTube!

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

The Compleat restyling of several of my Mugo Yamadori is filmed and will soon be posted on my YouTube Bonsai channel.

Hi, everybody,
it has been a while…I know! But I have been really busy restyling several of my older Mugo Yamadori completely and I first styled a rother unique large cascading Mugo that I collected with my Slovenian friends 5 years ago I documented it all and will post it as soon as the last footage is shot and edited on to my YouTube Bonsai channel!!! So watch this space!!! So CU all soon!!!
Here is a sneak teaser of “BIG RON” with his completely new backside!!!

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

THE DARK SIDE OF BONSAI.

Hi everybody,

this is a sad post concerning a darker side of our great Bonsai hobby, namely the death of one of our beloved and cherished little trees. And when it one time unavoidably happens it makes me, even more, realize that I am working and dealing with living beings that totally depend on me to stay healthy and alive…after all, Bonsai don’t commit suicide! They get sick or even die for a reason and they need us to help them when necessary! But sometimes as in this sad case, I just can’t figure out what happened or went wrong with this precious little Yamadori Japanese black Pine cascade Bonsai of mine?! It has been under my care for almost 25 years and was one of the most precious little Bonsai in my collection! Not only was it rare and beautiful, but it was also a (special for these early days) unique and very expensive birthday present from my beloved mother-in-law and that makes it even more painful! I can only guess what might have gone wrong to make it die so fast in such a short period of time?! So there is not even a lesson learned from it?! Yes, maybe one thing…and that is the realisation that Bonsai are very precious to me and mean much more than just a little tree in a pot! And that it is, although in this case painful, also a very enriching feeling and that makes it even more special than it already was to me!!!

Like I said just a few weeks ago to my dear friend Tomaz in Slovenia:

“Little trees cause big things!”

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

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REPOTTING MY ULMUS PARVIFOLIA WITH GREAT 27 YEARS IN THE MAKING ROOTS (NEBARI).

Hi everybody,

here are some pictures I made a few weeks ago when I repotted my old Chinese Ulmus parvifolia that I have been training and styling for some 27 years now. Most of that time was spent on first building a solid and old-looking basic branch structure and that meant letting grow a lot to thicken and then cut. That took at least a full decade to accomplish and then it was more work combined with creating the secondary branch and later even tertiary branch structure! Letting grow and cutting back and sometimes cutting back hard or complete or partly defoliation everything was done during all those years to create a natural and old-looking branch structure that was best seen during the dormancy winter time! And of course, during all those years I worked on the roots and base of the tree! It started with not many roots at all and what was there was too fat or tiny and grew from the back side of the tree! So after a few years of growing as soon as there were new but tinny roots showing I started to wire them carefully into the desired position and from there kept on guiding and coaching them for all those years until I was left with great old-looking roots and a firm root base! Years of cutting back every root that grew downwards made it possible to stay in the same shallow pot that it grew in for the better part of its Bonsai life in my garden and that is great because I really think that this pot suits this Bonsai in colour, shape and size! This species is really a bit looked down upon because they are still associated with indoor and Mall Bonsai (mallsai) and that is a shame in my opinion because they can be shaped relatively easily into very believable Bonsai! They have amazing flaky bark and grow stunning root bases and branch structures! They are winter and summer hardy up to a point and tolerate hard pruning or defoliation without any problem. They are not easily receptive to insects or fungi and grow in almost anything! This little Bonsai was some 10 years ago even proudly shown in the prestigious “Noelanders Trophy”…so it can be done! So my advice: if you can find a nice promising one..give it a try! And I promise you that you will be surprised just how suited they are to live as a Bonsai and just how pretty they can become over time!!!

Below: close-up of the Ulmus back side Nebari.

Below: Backside.

Below: close-up of the front side Nebari.

Hope you enjoyed this little Ulmus story?!

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

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DEADWOOD AND WIRING WORK ON MY OLD YAMADORI PRUNUS MAHALEB FROM SLOVENIA.

Hi, everybody,

two weeks ago we had some record-breaking warm weather so it was a great opportunity to do some wiring and deadwood work on one of my favourite Prunus Mahaleb Yamadori’s from Slovenia. This pre-Bonsai is full of naturally burned and sun-bleached deadwood and I want to recreate that in the Jin and Shari where I am going to work. Almost all of the branches of this tree are newly grown by me and need more fine branching and ageing, but I am not in a hurry! I was a bit laid with wiring it almost completely and had to take great care not to break off any of the new growth that was emerging fast because of the sudden warm weather of the last few days! We went from frost in the night to almost 30 degrees during the daytime in one week’s time…really crazy weather!!! After I finished the wiring and styling it, for now, I started to work on the front Jin and Shari with a power tool. The main focus was on reducing the Jin and Shari because there is a reverse taper and bulging section on it that needs to be reduced and shaped as naturally as possible so that it will fit in with the rest of all the natural deadwood on the tree!

Below: The Prunus Mahaleb after I just finished the wiring. Height 67 cm. I kept it as natural looking as possible and preserved the second small trunk on the left bottom side of my design! I allowed it to grow freely to create a for now still young-looking small secondary tree to accompany the larger tree on the right! I guess you could call it a Mother and child design?!

Below; the red arrow points at the deadwood part that is thicker than the section below it. The Jin is too thick and the section below it is somewhat bulging and forms a reverse taper!

Below: Taking my time and enjoying it while I am taking away excess wood and shaping at the same time. I love this fast creating-a-result part of doing Bonsai!

Below: The result is that the Jin is less bulky now and looks like the remains of a large branch/trunk that has been torn off by a storm that created a long wound that runs down through the bark below it. In that way, the reverse taper or bulge is less obvious! Now the fresh deadwood needs to be scorched with a small burner to mimic the crackly image of the originally burned deadwood on this tree.

Below: after carefully burning the fresh deadwood it looks just like the original deadwood of this tree. I will not brush it to preserve the cracks that look just like the ones on the natural deadwood on the right side of it! There is a forecast of rain for the next couple of days so I will bleach it with diluted Lime sulfur to mimic the original lightly bleached deadwood! I will post pictures of it later.

Hope you enjoyed this little story?!

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

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