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.

Midwinter solstice

Two pictures from yesterday - the shortest day of the year. From now we will look forward to the sun coming back and the days being longer again!

I have two camellias and they developed one flower bud each in the autumn when they were still outside. When it was too cold I took them inside, and in late November one of them burst, the other one fell off.

 

The weather has been really up and down, up and down. The snow has come and gone so many times I can't count them. One day is snowy and cold, the next day is warm and rainy. One result of that is that the roads are slippery like glass!

And for a couple of weeks we have had reindeers around the house. I live in constant fear that they come in the garden... But my bonsai trees are pretty well protected behind the fence!

Last day of october!

October: nature is preparing for winter. All leaves have dropped.

 My outdoor trees are in the ground for the winter. Here you can see the great improvement since last winter: how we have fenced in the bonsai with a high metal net! To stop the moose from climbing over and on the small trees. I hope it will keep the stupid animals out!

It was actually my husbands idea, so I must thank him for that. And even more, I should thank my son and his friend, that did all the hard work!

Maples and elms are in the garage, have been there for about two weeks now. Not all leaves had dropped before I took them inside, but they will fall on the floor...

 And in the house my indoor trees keep on growing. This one needs a lot of shaping and wiring. I hope to have time in the spring to work on all trees that I have neglected this year during my studying.

Here is a flower I got as a present this summer. It's sold under the name holarrhena pubescens "Snowflake". But when I tried to read about it, I found some confusing data... So maybe this is instead a  Wrightia antidysenterica?

Anyway, the name doesn't matter to me, it has beautiful little white flowers, and who knows - maybe it's possible to make a bonsai out of this plant?

I also want to say I am happy to see that people visit my blog even when I don't post so often! I had the intention to post at least once every month, but obviously I missed September - and almost October too...

November

My ficus with electric christmas candles and an orchid. I have defoliated the ficus twice this season, and will do it twice again in the coming year. Now it looks just as normal.

Nu får jag skynda mig om det ska bli nåt inlägg i november... Jag vet att det är ett par dagar kvar till första advent, men eftersom jag jobbar i helgen så började jag leta efter adventsstjärnan redan idag. Hittade den dock inte. En ljusstake hittade jag - och den lyser!!! Det brukar den oftast inte göra när man tar fram den...

Så ni ser att min stora fikus ser ut ungefär som vanligt. Två gånger har den avlövats under växtsäsongen, och två gånger ska jag göra det igen den kommande sommaren.

We have had a long period of rain, rain, rain, fog and darkness... Quite depressing.

Vi har haft en lång period med regn regn regn, mörker och dimma... Det har varit ganska deprimerande.

This picture is from today: It is a little colder and we have snow on the ground... One millimeter or so...

Idag ser det ut så här. Vi har snö - ungefär en millimeter!

The lake is ice-covered.

Is på sjön.

My outdoor trees. The red tapes are still here and I hope they will keep the moose away in the winter! It did work last year!

Vinterförvaring av utebonsaier. Jag har kvar de röda banden och hoppas att de ska hålla älgarna borta... Det fungerade ju förra året! (Ja ja jag vet att jag är en optimist.)

 My two ficus natasja.

Mina två natasjafikusar.

Ivy. I have let it grow in all directions.

Murgröna. Den får lov att vara stor och vildvuxen den här tiden - klipper den sedan i vår då den ska planteras om.

Green inside, white outside

It has recovered, the tree that I left outside in the car two weeks ago. New leaves are coming everywhere except out on the small tips of branches. I have repotted the tree in a new pot. I can see it looks better from the side that I had thought of as the back than from the front... Probably because the main trunk has a little reversed taper which is hidden by leaves in the picture from the back. I will try and do something about that.

Also the pot looks too big, but my hope is the tree will grow.

Jodå, den har repat sig, min alm som jag råkade glömma ute i bilen för två veckor sedan. Det kommer nya blad överallt, utom längst ut på kvistarna. Som tack för att den så snällt kommer igen har jag gett den en ny kruka. Krukan ser lite för stor ut för tillfället, men jag tänker mig att trädet ska växa.

Av någon anledning tycker jag den ser bättre ut från det här hållet (bilden ovan) än från andra hållet som jag egentligen hade tänkt ha som framsida. Jag tror det är för att huvudstammen ser lite inverterad ut, för tjock upptill, och bakifrån skyms den av det gröna - men det där ska jag väl kunna åtgärda med tiden.

Here is the opposite! The pot is in my eyes too small, and the tree grows out of it several times in one season. It dries out so quickly I think I cannot take care of it. I really wanted to try and make a really small tree, and this species (ulmus elegantissima) is so well suited because of its small leaves.

 Det motsatta förhållandet gäller väl denna min minsta lilla alm av den här sorten. Jag ville så gärna prova att ha en som verkligen skulle vara liten, och den här trädarten (ulmus elegantissima) är så himla passande med de små fina bladen! Men nu vet jag inte om jag klarar det, för den torkar redan alldeles för fort.

 

My larger tree of the same sort is also green now. It has lost two branches on the left side during the winter - but it doesnt really show in the picture.

Below some pictures from outside today:

 Mitt större exemplar av samma trädsort är också helt grönt nu. Två grenar på vänster sida hade dött under vintern, men det tomrummet fylls nog ut ganska fort!

Och så några bilder på hur det ser ut utomhus idag. (Jag hade tur som var ledig denna dag och slapp ge mig ut på vägarna.)

On top of the old snow we had 20 cm of new snow this night and it is still snowing.

 Vi har fått två decimeter nysnö inatt och det snöar fortfarande. Och blåser - så drivorna är halvmeterdjupa på vissa ställen!

Where my outdoor trees were beginning to show - now they are completely buried again under the snow !

Där bonsaierna hade börjat sticka upp syns nu igen ingenting...

We were dreaming of spring but instead I suppose I can take out my skis again!

I stället för att drömma om våren får man väl ta fram skidorna igen!

Bonsai activities, at home - and in Umeå

I repot a tree now and then when I can get some time. This ficus was moved to the left in the pot, see below.

Jag tar ett träd då och då och planterar om. Den här fikusen hade jag bestämt att flytta åt vänster i krukan. Nu är det gjort, se nedan, och mycket av höjden försvann också.

Luckily I have a repotting space where I don't have to clean up after every time... (These are the two types of cat litter I use.)

Håller till i tvättstugan med det jordiga arbetet, och där städar jag inte bort efter varje enskild omplantering. (Det ser förskräckligt ut förstås...) De här två kattsandsorterna använder jag och blandar i jorden, de består av granulerad lera. INTE klumpbildande. Den ena har lite större och den andra lite mindre kornstorlek, hoppas det syns på bilden.

The other day I represented the bonsai society and talked about bonsai to a group of students in Umeå. There will be a practical follow-up later. They gave me an interesting plant for this, it is an acacia tortilis. It has beautiful small leaves - and is full of thorns...


 Häromdagen var jag i Umeå och berättade om bonsai för en grupp intresserade studenter. Jag var där som representant för bonsaisällskapet och vi var inbjudna av en grupp som kallar sig dendrologer. De var så intresserade att inte mindre än 18 st skrev på en intresseanmälan om att senare göra en praktisk uppföljningsdag!

Som tack fick jag denna växt, som är en acacia tortilis. Jätteroligt! Den har vackra blad - "upprepat parbladiga" - och är full med taggar...

This is how much you can see of my outdoor trees today: nothing at all!

Så här mycket har utomhusträden tinat fram: ingenting alltså.

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