Sumac

Frosty morning.

 

This is my sumac (rhus). In June, I put the five plants that survived the strange last winter in this blue pot. During the summer they have grown together.

Origin of the plants is from seeds that I got in 2011.

Straight pine

Yesterday I was in Umeå with the bonsai society. I had brought this straight pine to the meeting, but never really got time to work with it. The only thing I did  was to cut off one branch - leaving a stump to make a jin.

Then I wired the tree when I came home, cut off two more branches, and jinned the top!

The cut-off branch left the tree a bit thin on the right side.

Which I think will be balanced in the next season!

New pots

I have still some inspiration left from the meeting in Göteborg (when I saw Kobayashi! last weekend). So therefore I would like to show here two pots I took the chance to buy when I was there. The first one is for this pine, that is in need of a pot a little larger than it has today. I will repot the tree in spring.

 Var naturligtvis tvungen att köpa ett par krukor när jag hade chansen (när jag var i Göteborg i helgen, se mitt inlägg om Kobayashi). Den här kaskadkrukan från Bonsai & trädgård köpte jag till "tallen med klumproten", som ni ser. Den kommer att bli omplanterad i den nya krukan till våren. Man ska ju inte ha krukor med såna där tecken på, som tallen står i för tillfället, har jag fått lära mig. Dessutom är den krukan faktiskt för liten.

The second pot is not for a special tree, I just liked it. It looks a little like crocodile skin, so maybe it would fit one of my tropical indoor bonsai?

Sedan kunde jag inte låta bli den här från Gramming pots. Den är inte köpt till något visst träd, utan bara för att jag tyckte den var snygg. Eftersom den ser ut litegrann som krokodilskinn kanske den passar till någon mer tropisk växt? Jag har ju ett antal sådana också.

Pictures from the exhibitions in Göteborg

Här endast några bilder från utställningarna på Botaniska i samband med bonsaisällskapets årsmöte, se mitt förra inlägg om Kobayashi. På bilden ovan syns idegranen som stylades av Francois Jeker 2011. Roligt att se den igen och att den ser så bra ut, frisk och grön och att den har hållit formen!

Detta är bara en bråkdel av alla träd som stod utställda. Jag lämnar bilderna okommenterade, men som ni ser så är det en blandning av större och mindre träd, av barr och löv. Alla är skapade av medlemmar av Svenska Bonsaisällskapet.

Så vitt jag vet kan man se några av träden några dagar till, så alla som är i Göteborg har fortfarande chansen!

Kobayashi

The Swedish bonsai society has had its annual meeting in the past weekend. We were in Göteborg, in the botanical garden, and as usual I had to start my visit with a walk in the park. I was first surprised to see these blue flowers everywhere, to me they look like crocus which you only see in spring. I learned that they are called tidlösa in Swedish (autumn crocus, meadow saffron or naked lady) - Colchicum autumnale. 

Another plant that caught my eye was this: with big leaves and something that looks like blueberries on long red stalks! Very decorative! The sign said Paraplyblad (umbrella leaf) - Diphylleia cymosa.

But the main reason for my visit was of course about bonsai. The botanical garden had invited the Japanese bonsai master Kunio Kobayashi (to the left in the picture) for the weekend. It was a great honour for the members of the Swedish bonsai society to have the opportunity to meet this bonsai master. The public was also invited and there were about a hundred people that had taken the chance to see the master in action.

What you can see in the background is a sort of basic explanation of bonsai, and the difference between bonsai and gardening. Kubayashi meant that gardening (I think he meant growing flowers) is about "superficial beauty" - while bonsai is about "deep beauty". I don't know what I should say about that...

On Friday evening he demonstrated bonsai on two pines. This is the first tree. It is a pine originally found in a bog in Sweden, transformed into bonsai by a member of the Swedish bonsai society. Kubayashi talked about the hard conditions the tree had survived and how the wind and snow had shaped the tree into what it is today. That is "shaped the trunk" - the master meant that the crown looked like it had been growing in a green-house. It did not say the same message as the trunk. To make the two parts of the tree speak the same, he wanted to thin out the crown, let in the light.

He talked a lot about this: wind and sun, hard conditions, how important that a bonsai should show signs of what had happened during the years. To show old age.

He talked about lines - but also about space. The line of the trunk is important, but also the space beween branches. The light should be let in.

So he also did some small improvements on the trunk. Here you can see how he is working with a chisel on a jin. I think the owner of the tree was a little nervous when Kubayashi suddenly started to hammer on the trunk with this tool... And one person in the audience asked why he did these marks in the bark - he answered "I added a few years".

The result is an amazing bonsai!

The second tree was another pine - pinus parviflora or pinus pentaphylla. The tree was originally donated to the botanical garden many years ago. It has not really been bonsai-shaped during all the years.

Kubayashi turned the pot on the side and made the tree into a cascade.  He said the transformation of the roots into a cascade-pot would take two years.

 He had a special way to use three scissors at the same time! Or, of course, he held them at the same time in the hand, and used them separately, but without having to put one down to pick up the next!

...

Some pictures from the workshop on Saturday and Sunday.

One picture for this summer

Pine. I turned it around in the pot when I repotted it this year (it stood "the wrong way" because of the shape of the root).

 = One step closer to becoming a bonsai!

Northern Arboretum

For years I have planned to go and see the "Northern arboretum" in Umeå, it is only eighty kilometers from here. Finally I have been there now! I was there on Tuesday together with my husband, one son and another young boy. If I had been alone there maybe I had stayed all day, reading signs of the different trees and taking pictures... Now we more or less walked right through.

The arboretum is like a planted forest with trees from Europe, Asia, North America and Japan.

I flera år har jag tänkt fara och titta på ett ställe som heter Arboretum Norr som ligger i Umeå, verkligen inte långt härifrån.  Nu har det till slut blivit av! I tisdags åkte jag dit tillsammans med make och två ungdomar.

Hade jag varit där ensam så hade jag kanske stått och läst varenda artskylt och försökt fota skogsbilder... Antagligen skulle jag ha stannat en hel dag då. Nu gick vi mer eller mindre bara rakt igenom.

Arboretet är som en planterad skog med trädsorter från Europa, Amerika och Asien inklusive Japan.

Then when I saw a birch with cones I remembered to take out the camera! For what is this, it really looks a lot like small cones? The name of the tree is Kamtjatka-birch (Betula Ermanii). I searched the tree in a flora and found it is supposed to have "catkins".

När jag fick se en björk med kottar kom jag i alla fall på att ta fram kameran. För visst ser det ut som kottar?! Trädet heter Kamtjatkabjörk (Betula ermanii). I en flora läste jag att den skulle ha "catkins", jag trodde det betydde videkissar?

Up-catkins and down-catkins?

Både kottar och hängen på samma kvist. Eller kissar och hängen då?

One more picture from the Arboretum: a nice "Rhododendron brachycarpum". Beautiful - but what is this compared to the azalea valley I visited last year?...

En fujirododendron (Rhododendrum brachycarpum) kom också med på bild. Men vad är denna buske jämfört med azaleaskogen jag var i ifjol?...

 The weather has been very odd this year. First we had a warm spring and everything happened too early and too quick. Then it changed into cold temperatures - and this night we had frost... In this part of the world you can expect night-frost in the beginning of June and then again in the end of August - but not now - this is supposed to be the warmest time of year!

 Vi har haft en konstig vår i år. Först kom allting jättetidigt och hände för fort, och det var hur varmt som helst. Sedan blev det kallt. Midsommarafton satt vi inomhus medan det regnade och haglade utanför. Inatt hade vi minusgrader ute. Så kan det vara med vädret.

***

 I have done yamadori in my garden and found a cotoneaster, three apples and a "tatarian maple" (Acer tataricum). A small substitute for the trees that died last winter...

 Jag kan slutligen berätta att jag gjort lite yamadori i trädgården. Kanske för att kompensera för de träd som dött i vintras? Yamadori i trädgården kan man göra om man några år tidigare planterat någonting där som går att gräva upp... Jag har grävt upp tre äppelträd (från kärnor som jag satt) en cotoneaster och en rysk lönn (Acer tataricum).

Above is the tatarian maple. I have also a big specimen in the garden, which is flowering at this time, below:

Ovan den ryska lönnen, nedan en stor buske av samma sort, som jag har i trädgården, och den blommar just nu:

Ha en skön sommar, hoppas de flesta har varmare än vi!