The Bonsai Blog of Hans van Meer

APRIL WAS A MONTH FULL OF BONSAI FUN! PART II

Hi, everybody,

This other April highlight deserves a post all of its own! I was really looking forward to having my Bonsai friend Dirk Mundorf over again from Germany, for a long Saturday of, one on one, Bonsai fun! It had been a long time since we have seen each other, so it was good to finally great him back in my garden! Dirk brought his stunning Hawthorn along for its first real styling. This Hawthorn has already some history to tell that made this reacquainting with Dirk and this Hawthorn extra special to me! Let me explain (to the best of my knowledge): Dirk saw this very promising Hawthorn for the very first time, 3 years ago, on Tony Tickle’s stand at the Noelanders trophy in Belgium. From that first moment on, he was in love with the amazing movement of this old yamadori and its beautiful old bark! But it was sad to see that he finally was not able to buy it. Later that weekend the tree was bought by Jeroen. He brought it along to my garden where we discussed it’s possibilities as a Bonsai. It’s future life as a Literati Bonsai was screaming out to me from day one, but I did not want to force my taste in Bonsai on my student. So I told him the other options first and kept the Literati one for last! After I was finished, he asked me which one would be the most special Bonsai? I answered: the one you will pick! I was really glad that he went with the Literati fantasy style! 🙂 This was by no means an easy decision to make because it mends that a lot of large and old branches had to be removed ruthlessly! When this was don some wire and guide wires were used to bend the new main branches into place and then the tree would be left to recover for the next growing season. Almost a year after Dirk had lost his hearth to this old Hawthorn, just a few day’s before the Noelanders, I heard that it was for sale. So I intermediate between the old owner and Dirk and this time when the Noelanders trophy was finished, Dirk drove home to Germany with his Hawthorn by his side! 🙂 So when Dirk decided to bring his Hawthorn along with him for its real first styling…well, let’s just say that it was a great opportunity for me to work with him on this unique Hawthorn! So after our hello’s and some coffee, we quickly started to discuss and plan the work ahead of us. But not too much though, I like to work without thinking to much. And I like to teach or show that way of working to the owner or the student, who trust me to work on his tree, with or with out his help! So we worked in stages, first removing the obvious dead and unwanted stuff! Then the trunk line and branches were selected. Then the selected main branches are shortened, followed by secondary branches. Then everything was loosely wired and all the branches were carefully brought more or less into their desired position. Were necessary, guide wires were used to secure tough branches in their place! Than the deadwood was roughly down sized and shaped with the help of a Dremel power tool.

Below: Front view: before the work started.

Below: Left side view.

Below: Right side view.

Below: Backside view before the work started.

Below: With the help of a blowtorch the fresh deadwood was slightly burned. This removes all fibres and makes the deadwood crack, which makes it look much older! In this picture, you can see that the amazing trunk movement is prolonged in the top section of the tree. This was created and started during the first branch selection 2 years ago.

Below: The burned and darkened deadwood is cleaned with water and a copper wire brush and a toothbrush and then lime sulphur is applied with an old paintbrush.

Below: Left side view after this styling.

Below: Right side view after this styling.

Below: Back side view after this styling.

Below: And finally the front side of this Hawthorn new front side!

These pictures do this unique Hawthorn no justice, it’s trunk movement is so radical in real life! In 5 to 6 years time, when the branches will be filled out and the deadwood will have more age to it…., well than I think, no I believe, that this pre-Bonsai will be an amazing and uniquely styled Literati Hawthorn! Dirk (and I) was very happy with this end result and after a great day of Bonsai and a lovely dinner, we sad our goodbyes. But this time not for so long! In Dirk’s garden, there is a nice Pine waiting for a new image, so he will be back soon for another day of Bonsai fun! 🙂

Hope you enjoy this little story?!

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

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APRIL WAS A MONTH FULL OF BONSAI FUN!

Hi, everybody,

April has been a month full of all kinds of Bonsai fun for me! It started with almost a week of walking through the beautiful mountains and nature of the Slovenian southern Alps! This was truly an uplifting experience for me because of up to 8 months ago, I still believed that I would never be able to do so ever again! My personal mountain was there, waiting for me to clime and I made it to the top! Although not in one go! 🙂

Below: Taking a well-deserved breather along my way to the top.

Below: An example of the stunning views that I enjoyed during these hiking trips.

Many of my trees were repotted, rewired or both!

Below: My Ilex verticillata in his new smaller temporary container. Unfortunately, there were too many thick roots and root stumps hidden under the soil, so I could not fit it into it’s new shallow rectangular brown pot! I will have to wait a couple of years more so that new roots can grow from the shortened thick roots. Only then can I safely shorten the thick roots and root stumps so that the tree will fit into its new home!

On the 10Th of April, I conducted a Masterclass about deciduous European trees, for the Dutch Bonsai Association in ” The Binder” in Leersum (The Netherlands). After conducting a class about Larch and one about white and black Pines, this was already the third Masterclass that I did for them! I like to be well prepared, so I made a short speech on the subject and a lot of drawings to help me to explain my theories! But the major part of this evening Masterclass was spent on discussing the trees that the students brought along! The students and I had a great night and another Masterclass is already in the planning!

Below: Working late at home, making the drawings for the Masterclass.

On the 15Th of April, I gave a Sunday workshop at Bonsai Club Rijmond. This is my former club so working there is like coming home to me! And it is only a 10 minutes drive away! 🙂

Below: Some pics from that nice Bonsai Sunday with friends!

I hope you enjoyed these images of a lovely Bonsai month?!

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

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SUMMER IS ON IT’S WAY! (RAMIFICATION ON MY BIG LARCH).

Hi, everybody,

a few day’s ago I made some pictures of the fresh brightly green new foliage on my big Larch (XL). The new foliage is still immature and short and that makes the ramification look really special.
Below: View of the lower right side branches.

Below: Bird’s eye view of the tree.

That’s why I like Larch Bonsai so much, they change their appearance all year round and that makes them quite unique! But it took me almost two day’s to wire this baby! And that was mostly to blame because of my bad timing and freakishly warm Spring weather! Most of my trees were still in my (now open) winter shelter because I was repainting all of my outdoor tables and fences! That took a bit longer than I expected and while I was struggling to paint the undersides of all those tables, Summer started! A week of short trousers painting followed and I even suffered my first sunburn, on one side of my face! Looked funny, but was quite painful! And then the buds on my Larch started to swell way earlier than last 3 years, and that meant trouble! When I finally finished painting my tables, I brought my Larch outdoor and started to carefully wire, without breaking off too many new buds! Well that was very tedious and time-consuming work, and on top of that, winter had returned as soon as I started to wire, and man it can get cold when you are standing still for hours to wire! And because of the tight ramification that I created my self during the last years, it was now almost impossible to get my big hands in between those branches to wire, without rubbing off a lot of buds!

Below: This one was made just after this branch was wired. You can see how many buds there are actually on the branches all ready, that I needed to avoid as much as possible!

Below: Here I am finally positioning the branches. In the background my freshly painted tables and fens!

It is a calculated risk to wire this tree completely just before the growing season starts! I wired it pretty loose on purpose because I need the branches to grow as much as possible in this fixed position. The wire will be monitored constantly and will be cut as soon as it starts to dig in the bark! Then at the end of this growing season, all aluminium wire will be cut off (that’s another full day of work) and then the tree will be wired with copper wire again, but not the thick branches that are already pretty fixed in their positions. This is all in preparation for the next Noelanders trophy in January 2013. The day before that show all wire except the tiny ones on the small branches are cut off as well! And than hopefully all stay nicely in possition!
I tryed a full day to make a posh video of the work that I did on my Larch, with music, picture in picture and other fancy stuff! Like any 6 year old can do these day’s! But having to remake it all over again for the second time and than to loos it all again…I “###FUZZER RAZZER, RAZZZER FRAZZZER ## …managed to post two, on worked on short bits off video’s, straight on to YOUTUBE. I have to admit that at first I did not even knottiest that it was actually already uploading 2 of my 4 video’s! By the time I did, I only managed to add some info about who or what, but I did not managed or did not know how to change the titles that my new automatic friends at YouTube had come up with! So my first and most likely….last moving pictures of my work in progress that I ever posted for the world to see, are from now on known as……….wait for it……….114-0264.MOV and 114-0271.MOV! AKA “the sequel” of 114-0264.MOV! Ain’t it great, top of the world ma, TOP of the world…114 ##FUZZER RAZZRR##!

It is so funny to now be able to see just how happy I am after finishing a tree like this one! There is just no other feeling like it in the world! Collected in 2004, with not much more left on it than two long and tin branches! And than look at it now, this tree is starting to look huge! At the end of this growing season I hope to have lots of new fourth and fifth year growth on my already established first, second and, third year branches. Those tiny branches will be wired more upwards to fill out the winter silhouette of this proud tree!

Part I

Part II
PS: I discovered, YES all by my self, how to change the title of my video’s! The first one now is named: 115- instead of 114!

Has a better ring to it don’t you think?
No seriously, this is what they are named now: “MY RESTYLED OLD YAMADORI LARCH BONSAI PART I”. And “MY RESTYLED OLD YAMADORI LARCH BONSAI PART II”. Catchy dont you think?

And part III is HERE!! This one is a close up of the ramification on the tree. And still the birds can fly trough!
Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

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REPOTTING MY OLD YEW WITH A LOT OF DEADWOOD.

Hi, everybody, today it finally was time to take my old yew out of its ugly plastic container. I collected it in Wales in Nov 2007 with Tony Tickle and Enrico Savini and his student/friend/translator Ivo from (Italy). It was a yamadori find of exceptional quality and it was really sad to see that it lost most of its foliage during its first years away from its old home. But a small section did survive and over the last 3 years, it got, with a lot of TLC, healthier and started to grow like crazy! So now it finally was time to see what was hidden under the ground and to replant it in a new (temporary) bonsai pot! Below: The yew before I took it out of the plastic container! Look at all that amazing deadwood that I have to shape into an exciting and bold design!

Below: just look at all that amazing deadwood…makes my mouth water!

Below: Here I carefully remove it from its now opened the old pot, making sure that the rootball doesn’t fall apart!

Below: Carefully removing the soil from the outer layers of the rootball and removing all the thick and by now dead stumps, that was left from collecting the tree all those years ago.

Below: Carefully removing the old soil from between the tender small roots.

Below: Amazing deadwood and a very healthy rootball!

Below: In its new pot and working in the soil with a chopstick.

Below: The tree is firmly tight down to the bottom of the pot with wire.

Below: Finer soil is put on as a top layer and that finished this transplant.

Below: The Yew in its new (temporary) home for now. I think that this old yew will make a quite special fantasy tree with a lot of dramatic deadwood on it! I can’t wait to start working on its deadwood and foliage! But first, the tree needs to get used to its new home and I will only start to work when I know for sure that it is safe to do! This tree is too precious to me to risk anything that could harm its recovery! So I need some more foliage for its first styling, so for now I only shortened the long branches before they get too thick to bend anymore. With a copper wire, I pulled the main trunk more towards the centre of the tree. This wire will be tightened bit by bit during the coming season!

Below: As you can tell from this picture, I am pretty happy with the outcome for now!

Hope you enjoyed this little impression of my fun day repotting with a very happy ending!
Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

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A NEW POT FOR MY OLD YAMADORI YEW.

Hi, everybody,

I finally have found a Chinese round pot that is better suited for the new image of my Yew. The repotting went very smoothly, after all those years of root work, the present rootball consists for 90% out of small feeder roots. That made removing the old soil very easily. Although this new pot looks smaller than the old pot, there is actually more room for the roots to grow! This is important because the tree is still recovering from losing foliage and some branches and needs to fill out again! Anyway, I hope you guy’s like this new pot tree combo?!

You can find an earlier post about the history of this old Yew here: http://hans-van-meer.ofbonsai.org/2011/09/06/restyling-my-old-yew/

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

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BONSAI VAN HET WESTEN VI. (BONSAI FROM THE WEST VI)

Hi, everybody,

this is a post about the sixth edition of “BONSAI VAN HET WESTEN” Bonsai event that is staged on the 2 and 3 of June in the botanical garden in Delft (The Netherlands). I have been asked to jugde the Bonsai on display and I will be showing one of my own Bonsai (out of competition).

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Hallo allemaal, ik wil jullie graag uitnodigen om naar al weer de zesde editie van het “BONSAI VAN HET WESTEN” Bonsai evenement te komen dat op 2 en 3 Juni in de Botanische tuin in Delft gehouden zal worden! Ik ben uitgenodigd om de Bonsai in de show te jureren en om een van mijn eigen Bonsai (buiten competitie) te showen. Ik hoop jullie daar allemaal te zien!

Groetjes,

Hans van Meer.

Het evenement ‘Bonsai van het Westen’ in de Botanische Tuin van de TU Delft is in 2007 gestart met Christiaan Yeh als initiatiefnemer. Zijn doel was om een bonsai-evenement in het westen van het land te organiseren, waarbij hij het publiek op een laagdrempelige manier kennis liet maken met de wereld van de ‘Boom in pot’. De tentoonstelling, met in het begin bomen van twee uitgenodigde bonsaiverenigingen -Koya en Rijnmond- vormde de basis van dit evenement. Daarnaast waren er demonstraties en workshops.

Na drie succesvolle jaren heeft Christiaan in 2009 besloten om te stoppen met de organisatie. Vijf medewerkers van het eerste uur (Henk ten Kate, Rob Janszen, John Hoogeveen, Edwin Koppers en Manon Jamin), vonden dat dit evenement niet mocht verdwijnen en namen het stokje over. Vanaf de 4e Bonsai van het Westen ligt de organisatie in hun handen.

Bonsai van het Westen is een particulier initiatief en maakt geen deel uit van de Nederlandse Bonsai Vereniging. Het doel is om ieder jaar weer een betere, mooiere en interessantere show neer te zetten. Nog steeds toegankelijk voor een breed publiek, maar zeker ook een platform en ontmoetingsplek voor de bonsaiist in Nederland en omstreken.

Onze show heeft elk jaar een thema, waarmee we de deelnemers uitdagen een unieke bonsai presentatie te creëren.

Inmiddels heeft ook Vereniging Zuid-Holland een vaste plek in onze show gekregen.

Naast de drie verenigingen worden er ook bonsaiclubs, studio’s en hobbyisten op persoonlijke titel uit het hele land uitgenodigd.

Verder zijn er op beide dagen diverse demonstraties, workshops en natuurlijk een uitgebreid aanbod aan verkoopstands met bonsai en Oriëntaalsgerelateerde artikelen.

Bonsai van het Westen is uitgegroeid tot een gevarieerd evenement waar iedereen een dag met plezier kan rondkijken, meedoen en hopelijk een nieuwe hobby of interesse ontdekt.

Namens de organisatie,

Tot ziens op 2 en 3 juni!

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RESTYLING MY OLD BLACKTHORN BONSAI (COMPLETELY)!

Hi, everybody,

This little tree has been a Bonsai in my collection for well over a decade now. This little yamadori was a gift from Tony Tickle when he visited my house right after we had a wonderful time at the Ginkgo Award in Belgium (those were the days). It took me many years to shorten the very long and thick roots so it would finally fit into a small pot like the one it is in now (picture below). And I have learned a lot from taking care of this little tree! It has given me flowers every year and I really enjoyed how it looked the last few years in its wonderful John Pitt pot.

But there has always been a better option hidden in this tree, I knew that, but it was such a major change and so many well-established branches had to be sacrificed to realize the image I saw! Bellow: These next pictures were made 12-4-2009. I was recovering from my first back operation and could not do much more than to look over some smaller trees and make some future plans. And this Blackthorn was one of them! Here I found more or less the future planting angle and the new design that I would contemplate for a few more years until last week! The red arrow points at the reverse taper section that was very obvious from the old front! In my new design, this bulge will be almost completely removed and the deadwood section and the Jin that will remain are not that disturbing anymore!

Below: Just look how wonderful this natural deadwood looked after I cleaned it that day! This valuable section could not be seen from the former front! The arrow is pointing at a large thick root that over the years got more obstructive and right in your face in the middle of the trunk, seen from the old front! This was another reason to select this new front! And the reverse taper that is very obvius from the old front is less obvius from the new front!

Below: A virtual from my new idea made that same day in 2009. The pot is not finished, but is just there to see how a round pot would fit the future design.

So a few days ago, after I took it out of my winter shelter, I checked the tree over and I realized that I could not longer found any excuses to not drastically change the whole design of this, to me, precious little tree.

Below: View from above before the work started.

Below: Here goes the first branch.

Below: And one by one the branches that I would not need in my new design are removed.

Below: The stump that was left when the branch was removed is converted into a Jin.

Below: Many beautiful old branches were removed! I planted them with some rooting hormone in a pot. You never know if one will survive, but why not try it! 🙂

Below: Yellow arrow points at what is still left from the long root that took me several years to shorten. Red arrow points at were it will be cut this time around!

Below: After a few hours. The pot is to big and the tree is not exactly in the right spot! But that will do just fine for now! I did not want to risk the health of this tree, by cutting of to many roots. The top needs to fill out some more, but that is only a matter of time! I cant wait to see it in boom!

So there it is, a new and rather more exciting image for an already beautiful little tree! I think it was the right choice, what you you all think?

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

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REPOTTING MY LITTLE HAWTHORN NAMED “MAE WEST” AND MY SHOHIN WEIGELIA.

Hi, everybody,

Today is finally a dry day, so I grabbed the change and repotted two of my trees. The first one I did was my Shohin Weigelia florida an urban yamadori that I bought as raw material in 2009.

Below: this is how it looked this Summer.

Below: Free from its former training pot.

Below: In its new temporary pot.

I think it looks really sweat in this pot for now. The bright green colour of this pot will match the deep dark purple/brown colour of the foliage. The coming years I will mainly focus on getting a better ramification and hopefully flowers, we will see, no hurries! 🙂

The second one that I repotted is a Hawthorn that I named, for obvious reasons, “Mae West”!

Below: “Mae West” still in her ugly plastic trainings tub.

Below: There were enough small roots to safely remove a long stump that was left on for safety when I collected this little tree in Wales.

Below: “Mae West” in her new temporary home.

Below: A close up of “Mae West” her pretty nebari dress, draped across the floor like she uses to do in many of her films. “He mister is that a gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me”?! Brilliant!

“Mae West” needs to be wired again but that is for the future! I love the challenge to make something out of not so good material. And that’s why I ended up with a tree full of ….well things that we normally don’t want on a Bonsai, but that is why she is so unique! There is a lot of beauty to be found in imperfection!

For now, she deserves some respect and time to recover! Hope you like these little fun trees?

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

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WINTER IN HOLLAND.

Hi, everybody,

for more than a week now, Holland is experiencing a period of extreme cold weather, with a record low of more than 21 degrees frost! All my Bonsai are safely in there warmed winter shelter and there is no Bonsai work to be don in this freezing weather! In Holland (the Netherlands) young and old are taking advantage of all that ice every were around us and seeing them all having so much fun skating around in beautiful sunny weather, made me deside that it was about time to give skating a try again! During my teen years I played ice hockey for many years and skating became, just as easy as walking to me! But that was more than 28 years ago and I havend skate since than! So I looked up my old rusty ice hocky skates and walked to the corner of my street were a great ice floor was waiting for me. The first thing that I found out is that your feeds keep on growing even after you are in your twenties! My skates were much to small for my feet’s! But realy I wanted to try anyway so I managed to squeeze in my feet! The second thing I found out, is that I completely forget how to stand up strait on the ice with out falling, let alone trying to skate! For the first time in my live, I actually was afraid to fall and hurt my already weak back! But I did not want to give in to that fear and after a few attempts, my old muscles started to remember how skating was don all those years ago! It was a shame that my feeds realy started to hurt in those small shoes and that I had to stop, but it was great to stand on the ice again after so many years. Next year I will buy a new pair of ice hockey skates so that I will be prepared when father ice chooses to come around again!

Below: These next pictures were made a few days ago during a walk along my favourite beach close to my house.

I love winter, it makes the world look so much brighter and magical! I hope you enjoyed this impression of winter in Holland?!

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

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MY WEEKEND AT THE NOELANDERS TROPHY 2012 IN BELGIUM.

Hi, everybody,

last Friday, the day before the show, my student Ed van der Reek came over to my place to prepare our Bonsai for the Noelanders Trophy 2012. Because of a slight mishap when we moved my Larch around, it was no longer possible to show it at this years show! 😦 But my small Hawthorn that I repotted a few day’s earlier with out any problems in to it’s new Horst Heinzlreiter pot, was ready to go! And so was Ed’s amazing looking Hinoki “Chamaecyparis obtusa”. The wire was removed from my Hawthorn and then the soil surface and pots were looked over again to make sure everything was still looking tip top alright.Than Ed oiled up his cleaned pot to give it a nice shine for the show and then we were ready to secure the trees in 2 small crates, so that they were easier to carry and to secure in my car. Some small scissors, cleaning cloth, oil, spray can with water and Ed’s accent plant were packed into those same 2 crates. And then the open spaces that remained, were carefully filled with bubble wrap plastic! After I waxed and polished our tables everything was ready to go! Next morning at half past 5 Ed arrived at my place again, we packed our stuff into my car, enjoyed a quick coffee and drove off at 6 o’clock precisely! We arrived just after 8 o’clock at the venue in Heusden-zolder in Belgium and quickly brought all our stuff inside. Witch wasn’t as easy as it sounds, because there were some mean stairs to climb at the entrance! We arrived there first and it was a amazing view when we walked into the hugs exhibition space, were all other Bonsai were all ready in place. It was still dark out side and the inside lightning above the trees were still dimmed and it was completely quiet when we walked in with our trees…well that was as close to a religious experience as I have ever been! 🙂 Really a over powering feeling!

Below: This picture was made just 5 minutes before the doors opened. I shot it from the other side of this big venue. This is a view of just a small section of all the Bonsai on display. The one in the middle is my small Hawthorn.

Below: My little Hawthorn is accompanied by a bronze crab that I imported from Japan a few years ago. It walks on a piece of driftwood that was a gift from Tony Tickle and his children well over a decade ago now! From the elevated place where I collected this Hawthorn together with Tony, you looked right down at the ocean, so it felt just right to show them as a combo.

Hawthorn Hans van Meer.

Below: Close Up.

Below: Ed’s tree being photographed by Willy Evenepoel. This year for the first time a commemorative book will be made of this Trophy! So that makes it even more exciting! 🙂

Below: What Willy saw through his camera! I am really proud of what Ed has managed to do with this not so easy to maintain species!

Below: Sunday the second day of the show and still happy!

It was great to finally show some of my work again and it was even greater to meet so many of my old friends again, and to make some new ones on the way! I can hardly wait for the next edition! If you have not been to this edition, make sure you don’t miss out on the next one!

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

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