Gumpo Azalea 1

Gumpo Azaleas are a satsuki hybrid with particularly small leaves, making them lovely for shohin bonsai. Classically, they are white, but pink (light), Fancy (pink flowers with a white margin) and red (dark pink) are available. Though less common in the Northern USA, these have been grown in parts farther south and in Japan for a long time. Usually considered suitable for zone 7 and warmer, we've only seen these little gems available regularly up here in the last ten years or so, as the winters have been slowly warming. They still require winter protection in my area, mostly from drying winds.

Intersting tidbit - Gumpo translates to 'Group of Phoenixes'.

This weekend I was considering a piece of stock I picked up at the end of last season. I got it for a song from the back of a large nursery, along with several of its brethren gumpos. Ostensibly a bush, the base is what drew me, and as I cleared away a lot of the old soil I was rewarded even further.



Originally, the soil line came up above the funny elbow looking branch on the right, with the whole bush being tilted to the right, hiding the root flare on that side. Fine roots had started to grow in the gap between the branch and what has now become the exposed nebari. I cleaned these out, since I had more than enough healthy roots to work with in more appropriate areas. Below are shots of the base and nebari from two different vantage points, both offering very different thoughts about a front for me.


The tree is a little wierd and kooky from this angle. I would actually rotate it slightly, so that the lack of roots on the left hand side is not so glaring, if I were to chose this angle. There *are* roots on that side, just not nearly as flat and spreading as the ones on the right in the above picture.

From this side, the nebari is not nearly as dramatic, but it still has something to offer, especially if I want to go with a heavy cut down and start the branching entirely from scratch. It could make a potentially powerful little shohin, which the leave size lends itself to very well. Less dramatic, more sedate. This was the side originally exposed, and what made me bring it home in the first place.

I will be letting this piece recover from the repotting while I deliberate possibilities. Extensive removal of branches (there are a lot of them that will play no role in any future work) will wait. I intend to remove the flower buds, and once vegatative growth starts up again here, doing light, selective pruning, with an eye on encouraging back budding. If I had a clearer idea of which direction I wanted to take this, I might be more daring with cutting it down, but for now, I am in no rush.

Suggestions and thoughts, as always, are welcome.

All this talk of pots, part 1

There has been a lot of talk of pots lately it seems. Partly, I know, spurned by the reproduction Ming Dynasty pots Robert Steven has available via AOB. (If you are interested in more info/seeing the pots, here you go: http://www.aobkobstore.com/)

I ordered one. Regardless of collectability, I really like the way it looks, and I have a soft spot for Asian history that most think is limited to Japan. Focused on, perhaps, but not limited to. But this post isn't about Steven's pot in particular. Just wanted to share a few pots that I've come across in the last months that I was particularly fond of, for one reason or another, or that just caught my eye.

The first pots were actually posted by Wayne over at http://bonsaibark.com/ , though, unfortunately, we don't know who made the fourth one, or really much about it at all. Time to ramp up learning kanji now that I'm set on hiragana and katakana! The first with the crickets (my favorite of the three, though all of them are made by him) is by Master Potter Gyozan Nakono.

Next set of pots by Andy over at Stone Monkey Ceramics (http://www.stonemonkeyceramics.co.uk/). The last one is one of the pots I purchased from him last year, along with the accent pot from the Thyme post last week.

More to come at a later date I'm sure.

Parsley, sage, rosemary and....

Thyme.

Thyme and three mosses, pot by Andy over at Stone Monkey.

I might retake this shot later, around five this evening when the light will be a bit more diffused. Just to see if it looks nicer. Click on the images, since all of the details are lost in the thumbnails.

A slightly better shot of the pot, because I love this pot....

Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday, your pick

A recently passed birthday has given me the perfect excuse I need to finally purchase some pots from Andy over at Stone Monkey. I've been admiring his pots for some time, and frankly, was overdue to get a couple from him. So while his recent post at Knowledge of Bonsai was labeled as "Merry Christmas", I'm happy to call it "Happy Birthday" in my head.

My photoclient is being all buggy, but you can view the pots here:
http://www.knowledgeofbonsai.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=2924

The very first one (accent plant), and the very last one (the green glazed shohin), are the pots I've ordered, and I am happy as I wait for them to arrive. I hemmed and hawed between the green one, and the grey rectangular pot above it (you'll see what I mean... I love the glaze on that one too). Really beautiful batch all around.

At Last

Ready for repotting. The weather is finally at a point I'm comfortable with for this, my new soil sieves arrived in the mail today (almost a month after ordering them, much to my general annoyance), and though I am hoping to pick up some haydite from Tom of the Eastern Suffolk Bonsai Society sometime soon, it's not something I've previously used in my soil mixture, so I'm ok with not including it in every pot this year.

While repotting bonsai with a small child, I recommend several things:
1) at least one tree that he is allowed to repot, largely on his own
2) soil that you don't need/regular potting soil, a trowel and a bucket that he can go to town with once he gets bored with the trees themselves.
3) A week worth of days to work with, rather than the three days you should normally need.

If I can get an hour of repotting done in a day with the kiddo around, I feel like I've gotten in a good day of it. Ideally, I'd only need a couple days to do all of them, but it'll take up to two weeks likely to actually get them all done. I don't mind this hugely. It forces me to be more personal with each tree, take my time and enjoy just playing in the dirt. Hey, he does, why can't I?

Oh, I almost forgot something:
4) a shower waiting, because he will be *covered* in dirt by the end of it all.

So, what am I using? I'm still working on getting my "ideal" soil recipe down. Will that ever happen? In theory.... maybe. Different trees get different soils, but the general components that are used to make up all of them include:
-Turface (because akadama around here is more than I can afford for the number of trees I'm repotting)
-Lava rock
-chopped Sphagnum moss
-fir or pine bark
-pea gravel/granite chips

Haydite this year? We'll see where it finds a place. Tom and Eric will also be digging up something like 200 field grown trees this year, and I'll admit I'm waiting with baited breath to see what's available and bring something home with me when the time comes. The haydite is just gravy.

In other news, there are two new links on the sidebar to bonsai blogs. I recommend them, drop by and take a wander through. Both have good information, pictures, personal bonsai journies, all of which equals a good read to me.

Forget the Robin....

Haven't seen a robin yet, but for the first time this season, the call of the Redwing Blackbird sliced out over my front lawn this morning as I saw my son off to school. Though the robin is the herald of spring, I have to admit that the return of the Redwing Blackbird is a much more important sign for me. Why's that?

Repotting time.

It's not fool proof, and sometimes the birds get a tad confused and get themselves caught in a late freeze (though for them it's less of an issue than the neo-tropical birds that migrate based on day length, rather than current climate conditions). But typically, within about a week, two tops of the arrvial of these birds, I'm comfortable starting my repotting. Odd way to gauge it? Perhaps.

So what am I waiting for? Beside the slew of bad weather we're slated for this weekened (rain, rain and more rain), the new set of soil sieves I ordered has not yet arrived. I'm not a frequent e-bay customer, it has never really appealed to me, and the tardiness of the delivery isn't making me more of a fan, I have to admit. I've had good luck with Dallas Bonsai for items like this in the past, and I'll order from them again next time, or for that matter, this time if I can find a way to just cancel the order at this point.

Soil ingredients are most ready. The fir bark hasn't come in yet at a regular local nursery, but everything else ready and waiting. I use some combination, depending on the tree, of turface, pea gravel, lava rocks, and pine or fir bark. I'd tried to Oil-dri after a recommendation, but frankly, am less than thrilled with the results. It broke down far more than I'd expected in the few pots I'd used it in, and those test trees are the first things to be getting a repot this year. Root growth on them seems to have been negligible at best, completely static on one. There's been no obvious *harm* done to the trees, but I don't see that a few years in that medium would do anything good for the tree's health. Still trying to find a new local source for sphagnum moss, with Golden Bonsai not in business at the moment, and if I have to I'll order some online as well. I'm constantly surprised by what my local nurseries do and do not carry. Sphagnum moss seems like a basic nursery product to me, considering it's varied uses, but I guess that's just me. I'll be starting several projects that involve the first steps in fixing some poor nebari on at least two trees, and I'd been hoping to start an airlayer on a crab apple out in the yard. We'll see what happens.

All in all, today's a beautiful day. I'd intended on finishing up the species sheets for at least the Olive for KoB, but it might be a day to head down to the Bayard Cutting Arboretem, at least while I've got the sun.