Display Area

Well, it has been much too long since my last post. It just seems that life has a way of going by so quickly at times. I hope to have some winter views of my trees coming soon, but I thought I would share my new display area with you. I finally got it done after several weeks of bad weather, trying to find the right color for the stands and locating the blue stone. I am looking forward to the plants filling some of the space below. I am not too keen on the brick wall as a background, but my wife won't let me paint the brick. This is the first of many display area's that I will put through out my garden and the garden progresses over the next few years.

My first Bonsai

As promised here are the photos of my first bonsai ever. I was taking the ABS mentor program at the time. My mentor was Ron Martin from SC. Ron passed away a year or so back, but he taught me a lot before his death. Through the class I had to pick out the material, style it, make my own soil, make the decision on the pot and then pot the the tree. It was a good learning experience for me and I would recomend it to anyone who does not have a Bonsai society, or club near by. At the time I did the class I had no idea that the Virginia Bonsai Society even existed. I am glad that I got involved  in the society since having local talent to help is the best opportunity to learn. As you can see this juniper is very primitve, but it may turn into something yet. The front has changed and that is why it is potted the way it is in the last picture. I just repotted it this year before doing a total restyle, so I will wait another year before repotting it again to put in the pot properly. However, it will most likely be going in a different pot when I do repot it.

Study Group Time

Last weekend our study group got together and worked on Junipers. Every couple of months we get together at one of the members house. The host picks the material for study and we will discuss the material and work on them together. It makes for a very enjoyable learning experience. One of our members Chris Schmuck, who is new to our area, is a very talented artist. He came to us from Pennsylvania. He has studied with Jim Doyle when He was in Penn. Chris helped me a great deal that day and I learned thing about wiring, and visually looking at the tree in a way that I had not seen before. The first picture is of my tree that I restyled. Unfortunately, it is not the best angle for a picture and I neglected to take a before photo, but I have been working on this tree for 4 years now and it has seen some changes. In a future post I will give a better chronological showing of the tree.

Trident Maple X 2

Here is a Trident maple that I have been working on for the last 4 years.  Unfortunetly, I don't have any early pictures of this tree that I could find. I aquired this tree from Ronnie Baum at Tiny Tree bonsai just shortly after I started bonai in 2005. It was a nice little tree when I saw it and I liked the twin trunk, it was maybe 3-5 years old when I aquired it. In Feb of 2006 I put it in the ground to get some size to the trunk. I also planted it over a 12x 12 inch  tile to help flair the roots and keep them shallow. It stayed in the ground until Oct of 2007 when I had to dig my trees up because I was moving. It spend that winter balled and burlaped and mulched in a protected corner of my yard. The following spring it was put in the pot that you see now. I have been working on the shape to give it the mother, daughter style. It had some pretty strong branches at the top and I have been reducing the daughter side of the tree since both tunks were originally pretty even in heigth. This past June I defoleated the tree and it produced an much smaller set of leaves. This helped with the over all composition. In the spring of 2010 I will put it in a smaller pot. The existing pot is 4" deep and I want to reduce it to about 2.5 inches deep. I may also reduce the over all size of the pot. Reducing the size of the pot will also help reduce the leaves even more in the future. I also have some previous cut marks that have healed as bulges and I need to fix those. Another project for the spring.

First Post

Well, this is my first Blog. I have done Journals in the past recording my motorcycle adventures and some Bonsai, but this Blog is going to be specifically about my Bonsai experiences. My successes and my failures.

I have been enjoying Bonsai for a very short time. I started in the fall of 2005 and have learned a lot in the last 4 years, however I have many, many more things to learn. My trees are starting to take shape and I will be sharing their progress here. My hope is to learn from my progress and from others in the bonsai community.

What I have learned so far has been from my own study and research, but more over from the members of the Bonsai Societies that I belong. I am member of the Virginia Bonsai Society, the Penisula Bonsai Society, and the Central Virginia Bonsai Society. Through the dedicated member of this societies have helped me tremendously.

Well it is time to go for now. See you soon.