Bonsai in the old stable

In the village close to where I live is a happening once every summer called "Speaking-in-the-mill-day". It is music and entertainment in an old mill, and usually some small art exhibition in the stable beside. This year it was bonsai instead of paintings in the stable. As you can see the walls are partly old and partly new, painted white, and they make a very nice backgound for bonsai!

I brought the trees that looked "the least bad" at the moment. I got compliments from surprised villagers that have never seen bonsai at all... And then there was one plant rights defender, a person that feels sorry for the poor bent trees and want to liberate them and take them back into the forest. I thought we had "informed away" those opinions by now, but obviously not!

Ficus nerifolia or ficus sikkimensis

Once I wrote about a ficus with narrow leaves, ficus nerifolia. I got a cutting of the species from a bonsai friend, and tried to root it. "I have had luck with many species before" I said, and was confident. For example I once rooted a podocarpus, which is a conifer and should therefore be difficult to root. OK. But this ficus I did not have success with, it just withered. Instead my friend proved to be a better gardener than me and had success (but she says it took long time) - and rooted a new cutting that she gave to me! This plant is still very small and thin. Now suddenly it has got these interesting small flowers or fruits! They are just a few millimeters in size, and look like small lemons. Interesting to see what will become of them!

This species is difficult to get to buy in Sweden. My friend bought her plant from Beck Bonsai, Germany.
They call it ficus sikkimensis. I don't know if there is a difference, but I am happy as long as it is a ficus with narrow leaves.

(The podocarpus died later, but I promise it had a lot of roots when it died. I think it died from bad care from its owner. Me that is.)

Short notes from this summer (for the future)

 Notes from the summer -2013:

It has been warm and sunny so far. Flowers and everything has come much earlier than what is normal.

Many of my pines had big brown parts in the needles. I don't know the reason for this, first I thought I had been too late with taking them up from the ground, but when I checked it was the same time as last year and in fact as every year. (Or OK, almost every year, for in 2010 I had it all done in may...) But maybe the very hot beginning of summer made them dry.

Started digging

Finally I have got time to start taking my trees out of their winter storing in the ground. 

After three weeks of super nice, super sunny, super hot weather we had this bad weather yesterday when I was out digging! Thunder, heavy rain and hail! My normal luck I guess.

(Wheather has been better today.) Here is one of today's achievements: the spruce. After many years in plastic or other scrappy growing container I have today put it in a bonsai pot! Maybe not the perfect one but better than anything I have used so far for this tree. Now I hope I haven't cut off too much of the roots... You can see the big cut-off part hanging out to the right - I think it looks quite good as it has the same direction as the branch.

I tried to count the rings on the cut-off part of the root, and I think the tree is over a hundred years old...

I have had it since 2004, when I found it on a nearby mountain.

Rhododendron and davidia involucrata

I have been to Göteborg for a short visit. I am glad I had the opportunity to see the botanical garden in this time of year, now I have seen the rhododendrons in bloom.

It was also the right time to see the handkerchief tree (Davidia involucrata var. vilmoriniana) in bloom.

But I must hereby declare: The well organised, well cared for, neat and tidy plantings of the botanical garden, the fantastic colour compositions, the spectacular handkerchief tree - it was all beaten by the experience of the "azalea valley" in Slottsskogen (close to the botanical garden). I had never been here before, but it was totally surreal:

To walk in this forest, with the  great oak trees high above, and be surrounded by these flowering bushes on all sides - it's not really possible to describe, must be experienced!

Yamadori 2013

Pictures from this year's yamadori with the bonsai society. Great day!

 The tree that I brought home. Still alone in my bonsai garden.

Almost alone.

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...