Snaking Azalea

I seemed to have been bitten by the azalea bug. I had just one for a few years now but this year I have 4, I will be posting them soon. The nicest one I have I got this year and my only yamadori azalea(the rest are store bought cheapies). If it survives-which it should- it be quite a sight and joy to develop. It has white flower as well.

I mean look at that trunk and movement, almost snake like.

Has a hollow that has mostly healed over, but could be a cool feature as you don’t really see deadwood in azalea.

Pardon my awesome skillz with a camera here, but the hollow continues all the way through. Not sure if I’ll take steps to accentuate this or help it heal over.

The only thing that I’m really kicking my self for is this bad split. When I was collecting it I fell backwards, dropped the azalea and trying to catch my balance-stepped on and cracked the connecting trunk. Well, what are you gonna do but move forward. In the future I may just add this to the design, since it’s already pretty interesting. All the wounds are sealed and now we wait and see what it does.

Scrub pines and a hemlock

My last post included my trip out into the wilderness and looking for some yamadori. I didn’t however include picture of my findings. Here are the first three, all Pinus virginiana.(apologies as some of the picture are a little out of focus)

First one is small but has loads of character, natural shari’s and interesting shape.

Next one lends itself to a semi cascade style naturally-due to how it gree in a crack in the rock- and has natural shari’s and deadwood. This one seems to the most vigorous as it was growing in the sunniest spot on the mountain. It will be treated pretty soon as the hole could be a borer or something that need to be taken care of.

Lots of dead wood on this small pine!

This one also had loads on baby cones on it-I removed them all so energy wouldn’t be wasted.

This last one is the largest and has a weeping look already to it due to it was growing in a shady pocket. I’m unsure the age but I think it’s rather old judging by the bark and it’s size.

Has some interesting dead wood and shari at a break from long ago.

Old bark and nebari

Last but not least is a 51 old eastern hemlock-has great shape-bark, and spider like nebari. The foliage is out on the ends, but I already know how to chase back foliage on these. Plus grafting is really ez on this species as the heal as fast if not faster then bald cypress.

Just keeping them all healthy and alive is my goal for now. I’ll post an update on these in the summer to see how they are doing, and will be studying them to see where I want to take them. Next up will be that blue spruce you can see in a couple of these pics!

Yamadori Hunt Spring 2015

The great hunt for yamadori this year went great. It was a climbing adventure and without further ado, the pictures!

Day 1

The first thing I ran into was this amazing waterfall! It was cold and refreshing(I didn’t drink it though)

 Some of the cliffs that I went snooping around.

These two where candidates but the roots where close to 10′ before it went into the mountain-Scrub pines

Eastern white pine growing in a random pocket of a rock. I could have lifted it up with one hand but there where no close branches and it was best left where it was

Slightly dazed and confused….

At the top ,taking a breather.

At the end of the day I found an eastern hemlock that is rather fantastic and it’s 51 years old. Was growing on top of a rock and had many fine roots and 3 tap roots, so collection was ez and has a great chance of survival.

Day 2

I was a little more daring and climbed up some cliffs that are rather precarious, but I saw some excellent tree’s that were requiring my attention. It is a rather full and vigorous scrub pine that was the first pine I collect on the trip.

The next cliff was much higher and had lots of pockets to explore. I found a rather old tree,(scrub pine) growing in a small cliff that looked like it had a hard life. The only problem is it was a couple hundred feet up and took a while to get up safely, let alone bring the larger tree down again.

Another issue, is there was lots of caves and poop that either belonged to a bear or mountain lion. We didn’t see anything but I kept my eyes out

Can you find me in this picture?

Little closer….

Closer still…

At the ledge standing on a nearby rock, see something poking out?

Where the old pine sat.

Done for the day, due to exhaustion, and getting late I spotted one more that seemed to wanted to come home with me.

Now…..Wait….

where are these tree’s from this trip? Patience young padawan. I’ll be doing another post very soon that go into full detail on the 3 scrub pines and hemlock I got from this trip.

Juniper-Another big on

I have always admired those large junipers with twisty dead wood. Well I finally going to start my own journey with one. It’s a beast, right at the limit of being able to pick it up, and took a little while to dig up. All that’s left to do now is keep it healthy as it recovers. Enjoy the pics.

Close up of the foliage

Lots of deadwood to work with, and will be worked once the tree has recovered.

I did a quick virtual to see where I wanted to take this and of the few that I did this is what I settled on. I think it would really be something I could be proud of and even show worthy if I can pull this off.  Time will tell but I’m pretty excited to see where this one goes.

Big Baldy

Well I’ve been away for ever on here, BUT I have been working on my collection. Starting with this Large bald cypress. It has really fantastic root base and already leans itself toward a flat top style. I have a few really large tree’s now that I build a new platform for all my huge trees. Much more coming now and lots of new tree’s.

More snow!

I really like snow but after my 3rd storm it seems like spring will never get here.

I haz pots!

Well not that kind of potz, This kind! A couple are nicer from IKER but most are just cheaper ones but will be used none the less!

These couple red ones could look good for a Jade that I have(soon to be written about) what do you think?

For being cheaper pots I think they aren’t to bad.  Another cheaper pot that I could find a use

The next few are ones that came in bonsai that I bought, nothing special but will be used this spring

I bought a couple testers to see the quality from IKER pottery and I’m thoroughly impressed. I will be ordering from there again very soon! The attention to detail is very impressive and the build of them feels very solid.

This next one is not a bonsai pot, as I was given it for Christmas. The problem with it, while very nice and solid, it has no feet, wire holes, and a very small drainage holes. I have a set of diamond hole saws so that part is not a big issue, It’s the feet part. I’m sure I can figure something out but we shall see. I really like the unique shape and color! I’m giving it a testing below 🙂

In other news were having record cold here! I mean it’s cold, low of 4!!! and that not counting windchill. Had to pile on the snow and put some in my garage because that’s just cold! Spring is seeming so far away, ugggggg.

Old man winter is angry!

Usually this time of year it’s starting to warm up around here, not so this year! I’m pretty happy about it because I work at a university so I have the day off, plus I love snow.

Bonsai season is right around the corner and there’s much to do. Can’t wait!

Snow!

We don’t get snow often in Virginia beach but we got a light dusting with the crazy storm that went through the north east. I love snow, so this was pretty exciting for me.

Not a lot going on with the outdoor trees, but I seemed to have been bit by tropical bug. Much to come as I’m building a large tropical display. Stay tuned!

Instant Bonsai!?

Figured I’d give a go at this since where all doing it lately. This is a blue spruce, that I styled the last couple days. I would of had it done in one, but…you know, family and work get in the way of the important stuff :p Any who I left more branches then I need because I didn’t want to remove to much just yet with out in a pot and mulling over the tree more. For now I’ll enjoy it, repot in spring,leave it alone till fall when I’ll decided what I want to remove/keep. Spruce are one of the few tree that you can style and work on in winter. Their sap flow is down, branches are flex-able(though thats a double edge sword with spruce!) and they can take the abuse this time of year-if they have not been re-potted that previous spring. I have a couple more spruce comeing up and a little more pics as I do them to. I’m still working on being a better blogger too! On with the pics! Also please enjoy my awesome photography skillz 😮

Decent front(for now anyway)

From below(don’t mind some of the messy wiring-I’m a real pro in real life;) )

From above

sitting on the bench enjoying some sun finally after all this rain.Look at all those Bonsai that need pots, Gonna be a busy spring this year!

Hate it? Like it? or just meh lol