Norwegian Wood

Ribes nigrum

2009-07-09T20:21:00.001+01:00

Here are 2 Blackcurrant stumps from my own garden. One day I decided to take a closer look at a long row of Blackcurrant bushes growing in my garden, they are more than 50 years old and it turned out that a couple of them had very interesting trunks. The diameter at the soil line is about 25 cm. I collected them in the beginning of june when they were in full growth, but it only took a few days after I dug them up untill I saw new sprouts all over the trunks. Now they are covered in new growth. I have never seen one as bonsai before. It will be ineresting to see if they lend themself to that.

Cotoneaster

2009-07-03T09:14:00.010+01:00

I bought this Cotoneaster at the Ginkgo 07. It was dirt cheap, 7 or 10 Euros, I can't really remember. It's a evergreen variety so it doesn't get the nice fall colours.
Here it is as I bought it. I was curios about the roots.
The roots were OK. Not so many thick ones. Cotoneaster can take heavy root pruning so I cut back pretty good.
It fitted in a deep pot, but I couldn't get it quite in the right position. It should have been more to the right.
Other side. I'm not sure what is the front or back. The tree was roughly styled some weeks later and left to grow freely the rest of the year. Sorry, no pics.
This is how it look now. It is developing very well. Next year it going into a different pot.
Other side. It's been the shadow side the last weeks. You can see the new growth is reaching for the sun. Both sides looks fine as a front I think.
Rough virtual of possible future development. Maybe the pot is to feminine and should be greener? Suggestions and victuals are very welcome.

Bending the trunk of a Pinus sylvestris #2

2009-06-11T19:35:00.001+01:00

I need to do one more bend to make the tree compact and ready for 'normal' shaping, but decided to wait untill the tree shows good growth after the two first severe bends. Even if it looked very dramatic to bend the trunk so much the tree has shown no signs of stress. It has kept growing like nothing ever happened and I will do the next bending later this summer. I will report when it is done. Here are some photos from the workshop.A big thanks to Peter Warren for a brilliant demo and workshop!!

Bending the trunk of a Pinus sylvestris

2009-06-11T19:33:00.000+01:00

This is one of my collected Pinus sylvestris.
This spring we had a visit from Peter Warren, he led a workshop in Oslo in May. I brought this pine and wanted to bend the trunk dramaticly. Peter started by drilling a hole in the trunk in the point where the trunk was to be bent and then we fastend a metal rod to the trunk for leverage during the bending. We used a clamp for the bending. It was surprisingly easy to bend the trunk. It was bent more than 90 degrees in one point and a little less in another point.

Big hornbeam doing good

2009-06-10T14:07:00.003+01:00

I bought this hornbeam at the Ginkgo Bonsai Center in 2007. The first picture is how it looked then. Last spring it was pruned back pretty hard and potted in the largest container I had available.
This year it is really thriving and growing well. It is a big tree, about 90 cm including the pott.
This is how it looked when I bought it.
I'm very happy about this tree and it is nice to work with some decent starter material. I prune back the new growth asap.

1000 kg pumice in my driveway

2009-06-09T11:20:00.005+01:00

When I came from home work yesterday a pallet with 1000 kg pumice was greeting me. Rune has come to conclude that moler and crushed leca is soooooooo last year. Pumice is what's rocking this year. So he talked me into getting a pallet of pumice and it arrived just after repotting season is over. How nice.
Since it was standing in my driveway it had to be moved. I stashed it away in 30 min and got a free work out. Rune was of course nowhere to be seen...
Pumice for pines. Not sure if I am going to use it pure or mix it with moler and/or leca or something else. Particles are from 2-8 mm.
Anyway, substrate is the way to go.

PS. 20 liter bag is for sale for NOK 200,-. Pick up only, no shipping.

Nice videos from Kaizen Bonsai

2009-06-02T09:38:00.010+01:00

Graham Potter at Kaizen Bonsai has published two very good and informational bonsai videos.
One shows his work restoring this old Japanese juniper bonsai tree and the other hows some basic bonsai carving techniques on a giant hornbeam. Enjoy!

Graham uses the Terrier™. The Ultimate Wood Carving Tool For Bonsai. Get it here!

New pot for Cork Bark Elm

2009-05-29T08:34:00.006+01:00

I got this cork bark elm late last summer. It's a nice tree but the pot was outrageously ugly!
One month ago I cut it back hard and repotted it in pure moler, 3-5 mm particles.
This is what the tree looked like when I got it last year. Ugly pot!
One month ago, just after repotting.
As of last night. It is growing and budding out like crazy. The picture was taken half past nine in the evening (pm, 21.30). We got long, bright days now. Today sun rise was 04.11 and sunset will be at 22.18 (10.18 pm)

Big pine repotted

2009-05-16T08:01:00.001+01:00

This pine was collected 2 years ago and it has been growing good so it's time to get it into a better pot. I bought a pot last year with this tree in mind.

When I took the tree out of the wooden box I saw that it had produced a lot of new roots since collection, so it was safe to reduce the rootball a little in order to fit it into the new pot.

It looks ten times better in the new pot!

Rune's toolbox

2009-05-12T10:24:00.002+01:00

HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA!

Privets

2009-05-11T08:38:00.005+01:00

I dug an old privet hedge planted in the early -60`s. A lot of great material ! They are just about to start sprouting. Privets are very hardy and these had great rootballs so there will be no problemo. I dug about 11 trees. Guess what family privets belong to? To be continued......

Hawthorn

2009-05-10T18:07:00.005+01:00

Here is a couple of hawthorns I dug last year. I pruned heavily this winter to get closer to the final trunk line. I will let the trees grow as they wish this year and wire/ prune/ carve this following winter. They will hopefully be good trees in a couple of years.

2008

2009

2008

2009

Siberian maple, acer ginnala, coming back

2009-05-06T21:04:00.005+01:00

This tree was badly attacked by mildew two years ago and was not happy about it. Last year it was repotted in substrate and left to grow freely to gain strength. It was heavily fed. I cut it back and now its coming along and it looks very happy. It's may by a little high and there are some very straight sections on the trunk, but I'll let it gain strength before I work on it. Nice colours!

Danger in the woods

2009-04-28T13:36:00.004+01:00

When collecting with Rune I stumbled upon this little fellow. It's a common European viper or Vipera berus. They are not regarded as highly dangerous, bites can be very painful, but are seldom fatal. A trip to the hospital is recommended.

This is one of the pines I found. A pre-made windswept style tree. Just stick it in a pot and call it a bonsai!

Small honeysuckle

2009-04-27T19:29:00.000+01:00

Here is a small honeysuckle I collected yesterday, I really like this little trunk. I have peeled off all the flaky bark and this nice, light brown colour appers

Huge Willow cutting

2009-04-24T07:21:00.010+01:00

Back in 2005 I cut of a big branch from a weeping willow tree. As you can see it's as thick as a mans arm. I stuck it in a bucket with water and after 2-3 days it started to shoot branches and roots!
This is after about one week in the bucket! After a short time I planted the cutting in the bucket using traditional bonsai soil. The cutting continued to shoot and grew happy for another year.
In spring 2007 it repotted in a large mica pot. It needed some extra support because it had no big roots. It was planted in pure Leca 1-3 mm size. I have cut the branches back heavily every year and this is how it looked before styling and repotting.
This is how the roots looks now after two years in pure Leca. Only fine feeder roots.
After a trim it fit perfect in its new pot. It's a Chinese pot.
This is how the branches look.
This is the front, but it could might as well be the back. Most of the branches was wired and brought down to get the weeping effect. It didn't cut them much. Over the years much of the bark has died of and there is now only two live vains on the tree so it needs a dead wood work.
Under and over the trunk the bark is gone but it is callousing over pretty fast.
The tree is obviously quite two dimensional so it is probably better viewed from a 30 degree angle. It is leafing out very fast and seams happy in its new pot. It is planted in pure Moler.
Substrate rules!

New pines 2

2009-04-20T14:24:00.000+01:00

And the rest of my new pines. This was probably my last collecting trip this spring.

New pines 1

2009-04-20T14:22:00.000+01:00

Last weekend I went collecting with fellow blogger Nils Arne. We both found som good trees. This is what I came back with.

New Lonicera

2009-04-18T18:07:00.001+01:00

This is a part of an old hedge close to where I live. I asked the owner for permission to dig a few plants and she kindly alowed me to!

Here is the tre after I cut back the branches, the bonsai is emerging.

Finished digging, it's a big tree and it took me 1,5 hours to get it out of the ground. This is more than enough roots for a Lonicera. It will have no problems to recover.

Here it is planted, the wood of this species is very dense so it's quite heavy!

More new pines 2

2009-04-16T10:45:00.002+01:00

More new pines

2009-04-16T10:41:00.001+01:00

Massive pine

2009-04-15T19:22:00.000+01:00

Last weekend I found this massive pine. It took quite an effort to carry it to the car, but when I look at the result I'm glad I made the effort ; -)

Spring if not summer is here!

2009-04-11T17:48:00.003+01:00

It is definitely spring/summer here now. What a joy. I keep reading that people pitty us norwegians for the cold weather, why? We have been enjoying 15 - 18 degrees for the last couple of days and things are really moving along. Do not forget that Norway is a big (ish) country and we have a wide range of climate from south to north. Anyway, here is one of my maples out in the sun.

Big privet

2009-04-05T16:55:00.000+01:00

Her is a Ligustrum I bought from Graham Potter last year.
Fist a photo of the tree before any work. Graham did the deadwood work and potted it in a bonsaipot before I got the tree.

Here it is as it is now after I have done the first shaping of the tree. It is still in early development.

The trunk diameter is a little more than 30 cm

Hight is 80 cm

2 more pines

2009-04-02T18:23:00.000+01:00

Here are photos of 2 other pines I collected this year.