Blog of a bonsai amateur and tree lover

...om mina bonsaier och andra träd

måndag 22 augusti 2016

Last post



As you can see, not much updating here. I have found a "bonsai album" where I can put my pictures and write down notes on my trees. So that is what I have done this summer.


So now I save my notes in this album, and will probably not post anything more in this blog. Blogging was interesting, but mostly in the beginning!


Och alla svenskspråkiga som då och då skickar mig bonsaifrågor på epost, ni kan i stället söka upp Svenska bonsaisällskapet på facebook och ställa frågor där - ni kommer att få massor av svar, och snabbt!


Anna

söndag 5 juni 2016

I have started


I have started repotting my outdoor trees!
 


It is time to get them out of the ground.

 

I am very happy to get this aspen tree in a bonsai pot for the first time. I have had it for long, always only in a plastic bowl or something similar. I think this pot was not too bad for the tree.
 


In the bonsai society we were making pots earlier this spring, and these are my creations. (One is missing in the picture.) I wanted to try different shapes and styles, all the time aware I can't make anything "professional"...



This one was painted with  manganese dioxid. I made the surface rough, then painted with the oxide and washed away most of it before the pot was burnt again. I thought the dark colour would stay only or mostly in the crevices, like a pattern, but the result is more evenly dark coloured. Darker than it looks in the picture.



This one is made in the same way, and see: I have put my small willow in it!
 


I don't know any more which side is the front...?  Here are three suggestions...
 


söndag 29 maj 2016

Green leaves and flowers


Time for the bird cherry (prunus padus) to flower. The flowers only last for a short time, a few days or so. It's a pity the scent can not be included in the photo!



And the sallow - no spectacular flowers, but a wonderful rounded shape.


måndag 23 maj 2016

Annual yamadori with the society


Yesterday was the day for the annual yamadori with the bonsai society. This year we had this fantastic weather! And this fantastic landscape!



We went to a rocky area, mostly looking for pines, as we always do - but finding a little of this and a little of that!



I love these great big old pines.


We collected all together more than 20 trees: pine, spruce, birch, aspen and juniper are represented here.



My own findings (after putting them in soil here at home today!!!): first a pine with a low branch - probably I will save only that branch and cut away the top of the tree.



A super-tiny little pine.



Finally an aspen with two trunks. Perhaps I will keep both trunks and use this as a twin-trunk, or perhaps I will just keep the left one, which is more interesting than the right one.


Putting these three in pots is the only out-door potting I have done so far this year. I really must start lifting my other bonsai from the ground and repotting soon, for the spring is coming so quickly!



PS. TV-programmet "Träden berättar" var ju inte riktigt så spännande som jag önskade att det kunde ha varit... tyckte jag. Jodå jag gillade berättelserna om de två platanerna, men innehållet skulle egentligen bara ha räckt till en kvarts kortfilm... Det kändes löjligt när man fick höra samma historia berättas om igen av en ny person, och det hände flera gånger i filmen!  

 

torsdag 19 maj 2016

Träden berättar



Ikväll ska jag se Träden berättar på Kunskapskanalen. Har ingen aning om det är något bra, det vet man ju inte förrän man har sett. Det ska vara en hel serie med fem avsnitt, jag hoppas på något intressant!



lördag 7 maj 2016

Only changing the point of view



I have been looking at my variegated ficus, hating how straight and boring it is. See the picture below from one year ago. Why should I make a tree like that?  But now I have decided I must change it, I will change the front. In the picture above you see the new front. I have cut the tree shorter and it is much more natural and alive. Now I like it again! Next time I repot it, it will also be put in the right place in the pot.







The last days have been warm and sunny, so the spring has really exploded! The snow has melted away from my outdoor trees, and the great thing is they look good! Not like last year when I had a bad spring-surprise in some brown dead pines.




The wild nature is still very grey,  but close to the house some flowers pop up and brighten up the colours!


And on our lake the last pieces of ice are floating around - will they be completely gone tomorrrow?


Large pine


A large pine of unknown age, I love it. The people that live here say it has always been there!


tisdag 26 april 2016

Little things







These little things are standing indoors so they are my pleasure now as the winter is still going strong outside! I thought spring was on its way, but then we had a bad snowstorm yesterday, and it is snowing again at the moment. So we will have to wait.

One ivy and two pomegranates.

fredag 15 april 2016

Alnus incana

  The ice is gone on the river and the alder is flowering.





















onsdag 30 mars 2016

Bougainvillea



The bougainvillea that I bought last year and cut off is repotted today. I put it in a lower pot and cut the branches again. Above - before. Below - after.




fredag 25 mars 2016

Som ett påskris


 It looks like just a few thin twigs, my judas tree, Cersis siliquastrum.
But it is appropriate for it to bloom today, on Good Friday, while the tv is showing Jesus Christ Superstar.


Som ett påskris ser det ut, mitt judasträd! Några långa kvistar.
Visst passar det bra att den blommar idag, på långfredagen, samtidigt som tv sänder Jesus Christ superstar.








I have got two plants of this species. The thinner and taller one is an air layer of the first one. The first one has never had any flowers. It is probably not very suitable for these trees to live the sort of life it has to live in my home: indoors a long time of year, probably too dark, then outdoors in the summer, probably too cold then. Overwintering in the garage.


Jag har två plantor. Den som jag toppat med jämna mellanrum för att den inte skulle bli hög och smal - den blommar inte, och har aldrig gjort det heller. Bara den andra, som är en luftavläggare av den första, den har blommat tidigare, och alltså i år. Som om blommorna inte kan bildas på de där förkortade grenarna.

Att försöka göra bonsai av den här växten är jättesvårt, menar jag. Varför jag sådde den en gång och trodde att det skulle gå var för att det stod så i frökatalogen. "Lämplig till bonsai" eller "vanlig som bonsai" eller hur det nu uttrycktes. En lögn är det i alla fall. Men den är vida spridd. Frön till judasträd säljs med en bild av en rosablommande azalea-bonsai:



This is a picture often used to sell seeds of Cersis siliquastrum! But it is a tree of a totally different species, an azalea, which should be obvious to most people. (But naturally not to enthusiastic beginner-bonsaiists!)
 Det här är bilden som förekommer runt om i världen i samband med frön till judasträd (Cersis siliquastrum).
Varning alltså! 
Hur duktig bonsaiodlare du än är, hur bra övriga förutstättningar du har vad det gäller klimat eller odlingsföhållanden - du kommer ändå aldrig att få ett sånt här träd av ett judasträd. För det här är ju en azalea.



fredag 11 mars 2016

Spring-winter


 Views change around my house from day to day depending on the weather. Also my trees are beginning to change - to show signs of life. I mean my garage trees.
 My maples had a hard time last summer and were frozen when we had a really cold night in June. Yes I did write about it here. The three maples are now 1) one super-tree, picture above - leaves sprouting out, 2) one hesitating, I can see only a few leaves but think it will live, and 3) one that does not show any signs of life at all yet.

The vigorous tree in the picture is the one that was most severely damaged by rats. It is obviously a superhero.



The outdoor trees are still asleep under the snow, you recognize the winter storing place here under the spruce.



Zooming out, this is he gloomy view of Wednesday afternoon.



Same view, thursday morning! On a day like this, if feels possible to get out of bed.



Still Thursday morning, a bit more to the west. All trees have branches covered in snow!



Finally today, Friday. It was so warm during the day yesterday that the snow melted from the trees. (To the right in the picture are the same spruces as in the previous picture.) From one day to another it changes from looking like mid-winter to looking like spring!