Frosty morning

Night temperatures are beginning to drop to below freezing point almost every night now.

My zelkovas (the ones I still have) will come into the garage one of these days. I have moved them from the bonsai garden to just outside my doorstep.

 Ulmus elegantissima - with missing half on the left side...

Luckily I have put my outdoor-overwintering trees in the ground more than a week ago. I don't have to think about them for six months or so!

Half of our little lake is frozen this morning! It will probably melt during the day.

Green and brown needles

The snow is gone and I can see my outdoor trees again after the winter! The majority looks good.

But two of the pines are all brown, or should I say "rusty". I think they are dead and I will have to throw them away. I can not be sure of the cause, but I believe it is a pine-desease - I should probably worry for the rest of the pines (?)...

The large aspen behind our house is full of flowers! 

I have learned this about aspen: each tree is either male or female, both male and female trees produce catkins - and they look a little different. According to my flora-book the female catkins are 10-18 cm and male catkins 8-10 cm.

But it's impossible to see the size of the catkins when they are so high up in the air! 

Then there is still one thing I don't know. Must the tree reach a certain age before it starts flowering? For I can't remember having seen this tree flowering before. Or I have forgotten. (Does it happen one year now and then? - and not the years between?) The other aspen tree behind our house does not have any catkins - maybe because it's younger???

One other thing I have read about aspens is that they form "clones" - many trees growing from the same root system - genetically identical. Here is one,  for a bonsai enthusiast very interesting, aspen clone I walked by yesterday: heavily grazed by moose to shape these dwarfed trees!

I must go back to this place for yamadori...

My semi-hardy trees can come out in the sun now and then. The nights are still very cold (this night was -6 degrees C).

Here is seen zelkovas and japanese maples.

Spring!

 The month of March: I repot some of my indoor and garage trees now and then.

My pomegranates (above and below) - they are small and thin but at least they are green and alive!

 A cotoneaster that I have also kept in the garage.

 Hanibal loves my zelkova trees... That is: he eats them! Maybe that is because there is no grass outside yet...

 Looking down: on our house from a hill, today. The sunshine has been fantastic!

 Looking up: when I turned my eyes up to the tree-tops I saw a willow tree full of catkins!

 ...and these on an alder: (below)

Spring is coming along, and tomorrow I'm going to Umeå for a bonsai meeting!

I have taken inside some trees from the garage

Spring is coming along.

Not if you look out through the window of course, but in my garage the trees are beginning to become green! I have repotted some zelkovas.

And this lively bush...it is the maple that was debarked by rodents in autumn. It's now growing vividly! Don't tell me it will never look good, I am so happy it's alive. It has survived rodent attack twice in its life!

I have also repotted a ficus natasja that I had not cared for very much before. Picture above is today, picture below is before repotting.

May

May means (for me) taking trees out of the house! I put them on both sides of the house, trying to protect them from most of the wind. The leaves that have developed inside are really weak and soft and can tolerate nothing... Here are my zelkovas, elms, ginkgo and two small cotoneasters. Picture below: maples, growing wild to "gain weight"!

The flowers on my judas tree have developed into seeds! Can they really be fertile seeds? I mean the tree has been "single" - there is no father-tree involved, but maybe it can polllinate itself?

The only way to find out is to sow the seeds!

My outdoor-trees are still in the ground - haven't had time to start with them.

I took this picture to show how fast the spring changes into summer around here: the birch-tree is green before the snow has melted away!

Today: The grass and the birch-trees are green, and the aspen tree will be soon...

Växtkraft!

Repotting is late with all my trees this year. Something wrong with my motivation. This is the smallest ulmus, 24 cm including the pot. That doesn't sound like very small but it strikes me when I take the tree out of the pot how little soil it really has to grow in!

Ligger ständigt efter med årets omplanteringar - de flesta träden har fått vänta tills de är nästan helt gröna. Ovan min minsta ulmus: inklusive krukan är den 24 cm hög. Det låter inte så litet, men just när man planterar om den inser man att det inte är så särskilt mycket jord i krukan.

The largest of my zelkovas was also repotted today - and taken into the house where it is warm to help it start growing. Compare this picture with how the tree looked in march one year ago, when I had cut all the branches totally - below:

Min största raka zelkova har växt ordentligt sedan jag klippte den för precis ett år sedan - det råkar vara på dagen idag faktiskt. Då hade den växt inomhus i värmen en månad redan. Jag var lite snabbare med omplanteringarna ifjol tydligen och planterade om denna redan i februari och tog in den i värmen då. Vid den här tiden, i mars, var den alltså så buskig att jag kunde klippa den till nästan bara en stam: - Det kallar jag växtkraft!

From this to how it looked today (before cutting) is what I call vigor!

These pictures are taken outside, but the trees are kept indoors for two (three?) months more, or so. This is the time of year when I keep them in the windows of the house that we live in. So it is starting to feel a little overcrowded... You can see how light-green the leaves are, almost white, because they have opened when the tree was standing in half-darkness in the garage.

Klippte den i samband med omplanteringen också men inte mer än så här (ovan).

Till slut ytterligare en zelkova (nedan). Bladen är ljusgröna, nästan vita, pga att de slagit ut medan träden stod i halvmörkret i garaget. Bilderna är tagna utomhus men träden får stå inne ett tag till! Det är nu jag ställer dem i fönstren överallt i huset för att de ska ta sig ordentligt. Och huset blir en aning överbefolkat av detta...

Vårtecken: har hört kråkan kraxa och igår flög två sångsvanar förbi, tutande!

Bonsaimöte

This year's first meeting with the local bonsai club. (We were supposed to meet last month, but cancelled that meeting because of the cold weather.) I worked with some of my zelkovas. As you can see the leaves are coming out and I have to repot it!

Koncentration!  Årets första möte med bonsaisällskapet. Vi skulle ha träffats i början av februari också men ställde in den träffen pga det kalla vädret.

Jag klippte lite på mina zelkovor, som har slagit ut så här mycket.(ovan)

A cutting that I got from a bonsai-friend and brought home from the meeting: it is a ficus nerifolia. I have heard that it is very difficult to grow from cuttings, but we will see. I have had luck with many different species before!

Fick med mig hem en stickling av fikus nerifolia, som jag önskat mig länge. Får se om den är så svår att rota som jag har hört.

 I had some questions about my judas tree (cercis siliquastrum) so I took a picture to show you what it looks like. I have read that it is possible to grow in the garden in the south of Sweden, but I keep my tree in the garage in the winter, outside in the summer and indoors (in the house) in the spring. This one is also waiting to be repotted.

Eftersom jag fick några frågor om mitt judasträd (cercis siliquastrum) tog jag en bild av det också. Så här ser det ut för tillfället. Potensai kallar jag den än så länge! 

Bladen håller på och slår ut. Jag ska plantera om den nu snarast. (Liksom alla de andra växterna också!) Jag brukar klippa den i samband med omplanteringen. Jag läste att man kan ha judasträd som trädgårdsväxt i de sydligast delarna av Sverige, men jag har det alltså som ett halv-härdigt träd: sommartid står det utomhus, vintern i garaget med fällda blad, och hela våren står det inne.

Autumn colours

 This year: Not only did we have the hottest summer in many years - now we have also had the warmest autumn (so far). There have been only two or three nights with temperatures below zero.

Inte nog med att vi hade en supervarm sommar - nu har vi också haft en ovanligt mild höst! Det är inte många frostnätter vi har hunnit ha, och vi är redan en bit in i oktober!

Bluebells still in bloom!

 

Blåklockorna blommar för fullt i gräsmattan!

 My zelkova trees with autumn colours. They will soon be brought in the garage for overwintering.

Mina zelkovor har fått vackra höstfärger. Börjar det bli kallare snart så blir det att ta in dem i garaget.

Then there is the hard work of putting down all the other trees in the ground... I actually started this autumn-project today! It usually takes me s couple of weeks because I can not do all the trees at one time. By the end of october I should have them all done. It has often been cold and nasty weather when I do this, not so today though!

 This pine was repotted in this box in the spring and maybe I was a bit too harsh with it and cut too many roots to make it fit in the box - because the tree has been looking bad all summer. I have been thinking it will not survive. But then recently I saw small new buds in the end of the branches, so now I have hope for the tree again. I will see in spring.

Och det värsta av allt: det börjar vara dags att gräva ner alla de andra träden i marken... Jag har faktiskt börjat idag! Slutade tidigt på jobbet och fick för mig att jag skulle orka börja med detta höstprojekt - ungefär lika långdraget som uppgrävningen på våren. Kallt och otrevligt väder är det också ofta när detta ska göras. I slutet av oktober brukar jag ha fått ner alla träden i jorden. (Idag har det dock inte alls varit kallt eller otrevligt på något sätt utan ganska fint.)

Denna tall planterade jag om i våras från en stor låda som den stått i i några år till denna (som väl inte kan räknas som pytteliten den heller). Kanske var jag lite väl hård med trädet och klippte lite väl mycket i rötterna (för att den skulle rymmas i lådan förstås) - den har har sett dålig ut hela sommaren och jag har trott att den inte skulle klara sig. Men så helt nyligen har jag upptäckt att den fått små knoppar i grenspetsarna ändå - så nu har hoppet kommit tillbaka att den ska överleva. Det visar sig till våren!

Zelkova

The trees that were repotted eariest in february are now big and bushy. This zelkova needed to be cut back because all the branches were straight and with bad ramification. After two minutes this is what is left:


Mina tidigast omplanterade träd har växt ut ganska ordentligt. Nu tyckte jag att den rufsiga zelkovan kunde klippas ihop. Alla grenar var ändå raka och ogrenade från stammen. På två minuter blev förändringen ganska stor!

Repotting

I have started repotting! I took these zelkova trees in from the garage and repotted them today in nice new soil. They are now going to be indoors so they can start to grow.

One week ago we had the first bonsaimeeting, but I didn't bring any tree to work on this time. An ex-bonsaiist sold me this pot, which he has made himself. I quite like it! It is 51 cm across, I think I can use it for one of my outdoor trees.

There are too many ex-bonsaiists...


Jag har börjat plantera om! Tog in dessa zelkovor från garaget och planterade om dem i ny fin jord. De ska nu få stå inne i värmen och börja växa.

För en vecka sedan hade vi årets första bonsaimöte (men jag hade inte tagit med mig några växter att jobba på). Fick med mig en kruka hem från mötet som en före detta bonsaiintresserad ville sälja. Han har gjort den själv. Den är ganska stor (51 cm tvärsöver). Jag tror jag ska kunna använda den till något av mina utomhusträd. Jag gillar den lite grova men ändå glaserade ytan.

Det finns ganska många före detta bonsaiintresserade...