Bonsai Umeå 2015 - my workshop tree

I participated in the workshop with Takahiro Mori on Saturday. I had brought this pine, seen here from two different sides. It has a nice trunk with rounded curves, but an ugly root. (Very common among my trees collected from rocky areas!) At the moment it is growing almost horizontally. I have never been able to decide what to do with it.

First I was instructed to clean the tree, take away all old needles. On each tip only a small tassel of needles is left. Mori put the tree in a box to look at it more upright.

I wired the tree while Takahiro worked on the other trees.

Then he put it up in an upright position like this again. There is a straight part in the middle of the trunk which he means should look shorter if the tree is positioned so the straight part is pointing backwards rather than to the right or left.

Finally he put the branches in shape, and this is the result. A bunjin tree. The pot is standing on one side, so when I repot the tree next spring I have to put the tree in this upright position. The ugly root is supposed to be taken away. In the long term...

Picture of the tree taken in sunshine when I came home.

I will be needing one more bunjun pot!

Bonsai Umeå 2015 - exhibition

Here are some pictures from the exhibition from this past weekend. All trees belong to members of the Swedish Bonsai Society. A few of them are mine! (None of these small ones.)

I don't have a picture of every tree in the exhibition, here are only a few.

We asked Mr Mori to give suggestions for improvements. He gave many suggestions for improvements but mostly on how to display bonsai, how to choose the right accent plants and so on. Not as much on the shape of the trees.

There were many pines, it is the sort of tree that grows best in this area. And a super tree for bonsai.

... but only one ficus! That was a species that Mr Mori had never heard of. He thought this tree should have a higher stand. (I agree on that - this solution was only better than the alternatives available.)

For my twin trunk pine he suggested I should turn the tree a little, and I can agree on that too. I will do it when I repot it next year.

A rowan with nice colours to mix with all the dark conifers.

A birch, brought to Umeå by a member from the south of Sweden. I didn't bring my own birch because I thought it was too ugly at the moment.

A pomegranate and a small pine.

More pines.

And a spruce.

This was Mr Mori's favourite in the exhibition, unfortunately not my tree!

This pine is mine though. I got the feeling he wasn't very impressed by this tall and thin tree, he only said it should have a shallower pot. He can not know, of course, that I am happy it has a pot at all.

Neither was he impressed at all by the grey wood I had put under the pot. I like it very much!

Another of my pines, this one too is tall and thin (and has the same kind of old wood under the pot). I have had an idea for some time that I should take away the long branch on the left side, but I havent really dared to do it. What if somebody should say "you damaged the tree". But it would make the tree more of a proper bunjin, and the direction of the tree would be more obvious. Now Mr Mori suggested the same idea. So guess what. I did it today. I took away not only one but three branches. Now the tree looks like this:

Some wiring needed of course, but how much less it is to wire and keep in shape! 

Then I only need a round pot for it!

Takahiro Mori

 I have had a full bonsai-weekend! The Swedish Bonsai Association has had its annual meeting and this year it was our turn in Umeå to arrange the meeting. It has been a full schedule from Friday to Sunday, putting up the exhibition, following the workshop and demonstration.

With some help from the EU-Japan Fest Committee we had got Takahiro Mori to demonstrate for us.

 Here are pictures from the demonstration. The demonstration tree was a spruce, collected from the forest by one of our members. It is growing downwards like this. Mr Mori turned it around to look at it from different angles. He could not decide which side should be the front of the tree.

Then he started work without telling us which front he had chosen. He asked for help with the initial cleaning of the tree, taking away unnecessary shoots and dead parts so the branches would become visible.

 

There is a pointy dead part sticking out from the trunk. You can see the difference between the picture above, =before, and the picture below, =after carving.

Started wiring.

Started shaping.

The foliage is divided into layers.

 

The finished result!

And which side did he choose for the front?

The answer is he made the tree with two fronts - picture above and below. 

For the love of trees

 

That's why we do it, isn't it? For the love of trees.

Picture from last Sunday's bonsai meeting
and "wild trees" from my neighbourhood.

Cancelled meeting

To meet with friends that share your interest is nice, for example in a bonsai association! When I go to bonsai meetings it is in Umeå, and it was meant to be today, the first meeting this year. The weather stopped us again! (The cold temperature stopped us in February 2012.) Today it is not particularly cold but it's snowing, and has been snowing all night - together with strong winds it makes roads and streets difficult for traffic... At first I planned to go anyway ("nothing will stop me this time"), and my husband went out to clear the way down from the house - then my bonsai friend called and told me the weather was too bad also in Umeå.

Instead I have repotted a maple that was beginning to grow, see first picture: you can see a few small leaves coming out! It is the tree that was attacked by rodents in the autumn - I can just hope it will survive, but I really don't know.

Snowdrifts up the windows...

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!