Things are looking up of late for me so I concluded that I had to make good use of that fact and duck up my old camera and lenses once again! After just a 15 minutes walk from my house I reached the many meters high and many kilometres long dyke that protects our house and most of the south-west of Holland from flooding and was just in time to take some pictures of birds settling down for the night in the stunning setting sun! Some turned out so nice that I decided to share them with you all and I hope you like them as much as I do?! Cheers, Hans van Meer.
I will be posting some more Bonsai stories here soon as well as on YouTube! So keep watching this space! Cheers, Hans van Meer.
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!
Below: 2018
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!!!
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 with beautiful flowers.
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!
Sometimes you have to be brave!
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!
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!!!
Just to let you all know that I just posted Part I of the video coverage that I shot at the Best of 20 Years “TROPHY” on my YouTub channel. Part II will be posted soon!!!
yes, I know it is all a bit confusing for me to change between my old and this my new blog! But I was pretty glad that I kept this one running after the old blog that was kindly provided and run for me by the KoB (Knowledge of Bonsai) Forum became unreachable and appears to be hacked?! And I can’t seem to get anybody to respond from there through their website that is still running…but no reply?! Luckily I had a WordPress XML file made of all the content of my old blog when it reappeared the first time it went off the air for months! So after some surfing on the web to find out just how to get this huge file onto my new blog and would you believe…I managed to do it…without breaking anything!🥂🍾👏 Mind you though, I still have to organize everything so that my storeys are easy to find for everybody! I do realize that it will take many months before my old visitors will all have found this new location! But I have stories to tell and can’t wait any longer! So I will be back soon with the story of my Big Larch” the Elephant” trip to the amazing 20Th edition of the TROPHY in Belgium! So watch this space and forgive me for the work that is going on meanwhile!
I just posted on YouTube the short video that I shot last weekend at the 12th edition of the “Bonsai from the West” event that was staged as always in the middle of the beautiful Botanical garden in Delft (the Netherlands). This yearly event revolves around the care and presentation of Bonsai. The goal is to inspire and motivate Bonsaïsts and to introduce a broad public to this unique hobby. In addition to the Bonsai exhibition, there were various activities, including Bonsai demonstrations and workshops, taichi, shinkendo, ikebana and a large Bonsai market where everything that has to do with Bonsai could be purchased! The Bonsai on display are from several Bonsai clubs and professionals from the Western part of Holland (the Netherlands) and they are challenged to come up with new and innovative ways to exhibit their Bonsai! And I must say that they all did a great job and that the overall show gets better and better each year! And I can’t wait until next year’s 13th edition of this fun event…when I will be demonstrating there! P.S. two more long videos f my trip and demo and workshop in Slovenia and of the exciting “Kei Bonsai Kai” monster event in Gent Belgium!!! So watch this space for that!!! Then I will start to repost here the 10 years of posts that I managed to save from my old blog that was removed without warning suddenly from the web! Such a lot to do and so little time to do it! 😉
and welcome to my all-new Bonsai blog! It now is almost a week ago that I came back all happy from my Bonsai trip to beautiful Slovenia all ready to post about it all, only to find out that my blog had disappeared from the web, without any prior warning whatsoever?! More than a decade of Bonsai adventures history gone without a trace?! After a day of frantic work, I managed with some help to find a site that had saved some 30 % of my latest posts that I will have to cut and paste back here onto my new blog! That will be done in the next few weeks…so at least some of the posts about my Bonsai adventures are saved! So that is good news after all! New posts about my Bonsai trips to Slovenia where I did a workshop and a demo, my visit to the Kei Bonsai Kai Bonsai show in Belgium where I entered my “Elephant” and other Bonsai stuff will be posted soon on this my new blog…so watch this space!!! For now, I would proudly like to show to you a video of my “Elephant” Larch that was kindly made by Evoluzione Bonsai. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do! Thanks, Rodolfo!!!
here are some pictures and the text from the workshop that I gave on the 28 of April at my first Bonsai club “KOYA”. Text by: G. Schwagermann.
It took some surging to find the temporary location of the “Lijm en Cultuur” (glue and culture) building in Delft. But how nice it was that this old building is not yet demolished so that we all could enjoy Hans van Meer’s workshop in this “ART DECO” ambience. The workshop was fully booked with 10 Koya members, jong and old, beginners and advanced but above all, a group focused to learn. Dan Snipes did a short introduction that was followed by Hans presenting himself, he started once upon a time at Koya and now he is an internationally asked Bonsai teacher. Who is, as he said himself: now “back on base”. All trees that were brought in were discussed at length, with in between a lively discussion about the phenomena that brought us all together: Bonsai! After that, it was time to start working on the trees. Hans did his rounds and helped with advice and hands-on action, also there started a spontaneous interaction between different members, typical Koya! It was an instructive and entertaining afternoon that brought us a bit closer to the charm of Bonsai. Koya thanks you, Hans for participating in this workshop.
G. Schwagermann
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Workshop Hans van Meer Delft, 28 april 2018
Het was even zoeken naar de locatie van Lijm en Cultuur aan de Rotterdamseweg 272 in Delft. Maar wat fijn dat ze dit oude gebouw (nog) niet gesloopt hebben zodat wij nu in een sfeer van “Art-deco” de workshop van Hans van Meer mochten ervaren. De workshop was volgeboekt met 10 Koyanen, jong en oud, beginners en gevorderden maar bovenal een enthousiaste groep gefocust om te leren. Dan Snipes gaf een korte inleiding waarna Hans zich presenteerde, ooit begonnen bij Koya en nu een internationaal gevraagde bonsaimeester. Nu, zoals hij zelf zei “terug op honk”! Alle bomen werden met aandacht van de hele groep uitvoerig besproken met daar tussendoor een levendige discussie over het fenomeen wat ons samen brengt: Bonsai. Daarna was de tijd gekomen om aan de bomen te gaan werken. Hans deed de ronde en gaf raad en daad, ook ontstond er een spontane samenwerking van de leden, Koya eigen? Het was een leerzame en onderhoudende dag en zijn we weer een stukje dichterbij de bekoring van Bonsai. Hans bedankt, Koya bedankt voor het ter beschikking stellen van deelname hieraan.
G. Schwagermann
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Below: every single Bonsai is discussed with the owner and the rest of the group. Their plans, ideas, options, health, techniques, timing etc.
Below: many different varieties and styles are on offer and that is always a nice challenge, very interesting and informative for the students and me!
Below: some trees offer a real challenge.
Below: after the talk and discussions of all trees it is time to work.
Below: explaining and helping with an approach root craft to improve the Nebari (root base).
It was a fun day working together with the members of the Bonsai club where I once started my now 28 years old Bonsai adventure and I hope that we will do more of these in the future! Thanks, Koya for this article and the pictures it is highly appreciated!
Next up is my trip to Slovenia for a demo and a workshop and a lot of hiking and site seeing with my good friend Roland! So watch this space!
The Bonsai Blog of Hans van Meer 