First snow

Finally we got some snow too.
About 35cm which is enough for the bonsai to be well protected from the up-comminc cold.

Best wishes to all

Another semi-cascade

There I go again, making another semi-cascade shohin juniper. I got this juniper in summer. At first glence I saw a nice shihin in it, without the upper part of the crown. Finally the time for styling came.

After thinning the foilage and working on the dead parts. Time to put some wire on.

I'm hoping to find a nice stone to plant it on next year.

Big white in new pot

I decided to repot my big white pine, since the root ball was very compact and my syling 3 months ago was not drastic at all. So I figured it was no problem to repot.

At my last trip to the Czech Repiblic I was fortunate enough to visit the work place of the potter Pravoslav Dorda, who was making pots for Isabelia not long ago. And there I found this nice oval.

First layer is big pumice for drainage.

I cover it with some smaller layer which I use to the top. I mix akadama, kiryu, pumice and chabasai in equal parts.

Time to take the tree out of the pot.

Sadly a no-go, so the pot had to be broken.

Removing the thin but compact outher layer of roots, most of them dead.

Removing some old soil. The easiest way to do this is to use a screwdriver.

The undersite.

And the pine in its new pot. Two photos, black and white background.

I apologize for some photos being of bad quality.

Step foreward

Yesterday I was working again on my friend's mugo pine. It was time to wire it for the second time. We did the first styling on this one last spring after it was sitting in its container for about 2-3 years after collecting, so it was nice and helthy. The progress this tree made in two growing seasons is immense and is already looking very fine. I'm just not completelly satisfied with the second branch on the left. It needs to be brought more to the right. The tree will be repotted in spring in a smaller pot.

Before any work in spring 2013.

China penjing & scholar's rocks

Over the past two weeks I was lucky enough to have good friends who gave me two issues of the China penjing & scholar's rocks magazine. The reason why I was so happy to get them is there are photos of my bonsai in them.

In the first issue there is a report of the 2011 EBA exhibition in Ratingen, Germany, where I exhibited my Thuya occidentalis 'Smaragd'.

In the second one the article is about the 2012 EBA in Ljubljana, Slovenia. For starters my award-winning juniper is on a whole page.

And also my second bonsai, an azalea, is included.

Plus some photos of Tony Tickle's demo where I was his assistent.

Sakka-Ten

This weekend Nippon Bonsai Sakka Kyookai Europe organized another Sakka-Ten exhibition, which takes place every two years. This year it was held in Fiesole, which is just outside Florence, Italy.
The exhibition itself was fairlly small, but most of the exhibited bonsai were of good quality. Outside was also a vending area with a nice selection of pots. But you know...The pot you are looking for is not one of the ones available. :)

Since I was already in Florence, I couldn't resist some sightseeing.

Walking on the road to exhibition

Me and my friend Jože have been working hard for the past two years on this squamata juniper to get it into exhibition condition. Since the first (new) styling last spring the tree made a shocking transformation; in a good way. Today we wired and styled it again. Next spring it goes into its final pot and hopefully it will be ready to be exhibited in summer.