A thousand and one birch

This is the best time for birch. What I mean is the best time to look at it: the leaves are still fresh, and they have a nice light green colour.

Not far from my home is a birch avenue, known as the longest in Europe, the road of a thousand birches. It is also beautiful this time of year!

Europas längsta björkallé kan man hitta här i närheten: den finns mellan Bygdeträsk och Avaborg i Skellefteå kommun. Jag kör här mellan björkarna regelbundet och hela sommaren är det jättevackert!

...

A little better?

 Salix cascade, today.

Same tree yesterday.

I have made one small change since then: taken away the branch that was lika a second trunk.

Now I like the tree much more!

Pine

One pine from yamadori 2010. Yesterday I moved it from the box and into a sort of a pot! It is still not shaped in any other way than that the top is cut and the annual growth is let to grow as little as possible.

Maybe I can use it for a workshop in September, when we are having a bonsai event?

Below are the pictures from 2010:

(And here and here is what I wrote about the pine then... I can see I got a question about the height of the tree. Today the tree is 70 cm above the soil.)

...

Bougainvillea

For some time I wanted to try and make a bonsai from a bougainvillea. The last weekend of April I bought a large pot with a large bougainvillea on a long and straight stem, maybe 70 cm high. The crown was a round ball of purple flowers.

I'm sorry, I didn't take a picture of the flowers, only when I had already sawed off the trunk I remembered to take the picture.

You can see it is totally bare. It was a gamble, a lot of sap ran down the stump and I could not know if it would just die or so...

But today  it has at least five shoots growing from the stump, and I don't regret the operation.

It is now 13 cm high and 2,5 cm in diameter.

The meaning of new pictures of same tree

 Today

 2010

 There is one reason to take pictures. To see if the bonsai changes for the better (or worse) year by year...

 I always blame the short growing season that the trees don't change very much from year to year, but of course I am aware it's not the only reason. I should really give them more attention and time and hard work. When I showed today's picture of the yew above to my son (who is not even a bonsaiist) he said "shouldn't the trunk and the start of the tree be more visible?") I must admit he is right, and maybe I will go out and do something about it. Hopefully some time this summer.

 Today

 2010

 Today

2010

More trees

I hope to have all of my trees in place soon...

Next thing to hope for is better weather...

Pomegranate

 

Pomegranate.

Granatäpple.

Pine and pine

Nature is a good inspiration for bonsai! This is a pine I have taken up from the winter storing place today (in the rain). I shaped it last summer.

And this is a large (and dead) pine I walked by in the forest some days ago.

Look at the branches - I think they have some similarities!