Following all the changes around here it’s becoming evident that everything has worked out well. Our output is up by more than 20% with no more mouths to feed than before and I have, for the first time in years, time on my hands. Not that I am looking for something to do. If I had a staff of six JUST working on trees eight hours a day we would NEVER get finished, we just have TOO many plants to deal with. I am the only one that actually does any bonsai work around here and so I have to content myself with knowing I can hardly scratch the surface.
Last week I spent my early mornings and evenings sorting out some of the less desirable trees I have laying around. Even after all these years it still amazes me what a couple of carving tools and a bit of wire can do. There’s nothing here worth a dam other than my paltry wages…
Creating bonsai trees from collected material is a skilled process of knowing when to get involved and when to leave alone. Failure to carefully observe your material and act appropriately generally results in a poor outcome. Too much work is every bit as bad as too little. We don’t create bonsai, we can only point our material in the right direction, it’s the tree that creates the real magic when we are indoor eating corn chips and drinking beer. Getting a good start is important and every good start begins in the engine room, under the soil. Once that’s kicking out enough power we can make small inroads with a rudimentary shaping after which we need to step back and let the tree get on with its job. Most of these are rough as guts but there is always a time in bonsai when things APPEAR to go backwards and this is that time. Next work will be much more refined and fulfilling. Sadly many folk have a problem knowing or understanding this first work business so here are a few images to illustrate Day 1 bonsai training.
G.
Monday – Big old hedge hawthorn. Was cheap as chips but never got a second glance.
Insane orange wood! Hawthorns are brutal to work and require heavy wire in order to get significant movement into their stiff young branches.
Drool over the potential!
Prunus cerasifera as it arrived last summer. One of THE fastest developing prunus varieties.
Rough, but this is only two years out of the ground when it had NO branches at all.
Unloved little carpinus.
Tuesday – Prunus cerasifera as it arrived last summer. One of THE fastest developing prunus varieties.
Blackthorn. Bought this in to throw it away before I took pity on it. Sometimes it really is hard to see past the ugly.
We sold this about fifteen years ago for £125. A couple of years ago I bought it back (for more). In recovery hence the big pot. This was its third break of summer growth.
Another couple of years should see the ramification restored.
Siberian elm ugliness.
Ugliness with extra holes in it.
Wednesday – Clipping this out took all morning.
Thursday – I bought this because it was cheap. Serves me right because I had to actually make something out of it.
2019 has started with a bang around here. The bang was the sound of a backlog of Christmas orders hitting my desk. Because we work every day throughout the year orders normally flow through the system largely unnoticed. At Christmas we go into hibernation for a week and it’s always shocking just how many orders get backed up. Whilst this week has only consisted of three working days we have managed to get out something like two hundred parcels including some beautiful bonsai trees and over a quarter ton of various bonsai soils. Next week looks like being even bigger than that so if you have an outstanding order with us please be patient, we’ll be with you soon.
Despite the above the business of running a business still goes on and this week we have seen the return of a few favourite bonsai carving tools that have been absent for a while. Sadly prices are increasing and you can blame your government for that, we have reduced our profit margins to ease the rise somewhat but there is only so much we can do. I have also been busy on new bonsai tree stock and have managed to secure about a hundred and fifty plants so far this week, some nice yamadori, some part trained bonsai and some exciting field grown stock too.
Finally, as ever, the bonsai tree work must go on and I am rushing around getting a lot of trees whipped into shape before spring. There is a massive workload to be completed before re-potting begins in a few weeks time. Monday and Tuesday before we got back to work I had to prune up close to two hundred little trees I have in the ground in preparation for lifting in spring (no wonder I have tendinitis in my right elbow).
Once we got back to work I spent my early mornings and evenings knocking up this sabina juniper. We sold this a few years back but it returned in PX unworked but potted. I simply couldn’t resist giving it a clean up and then one thing led to another…. as it does.
Sabina juniper as it came back home.
One big branch removed. Deadwood and bark cleaned up.
This really is my last post of 2018. I think I said that before but now it actually IS. After this I am going on holiday. Well, actually I am going into the other room to sit by the fire with the dogs and a glass.
For me the bonsai year really closes out on the winter solstice (shortest day) and that is today. As of tomorrow we start looking forward to another productive growing season. It might be a very long time until spring but for today I can contemplate the last year, my successes and failures and lay plans for improving what happens next year. I shan’t go out the front gate for the next couple of weeks, we’ll unplug the phone and consign my Mac to a locked cupboard. Peace and quiet is a much underrated commodity these days and something I hold in high esteem.
Here’s a few pic’s of the winter solstice sunrise over my Norfolk dog walking route.
2018 started badly with me having to call out an ambulance having all but broken myself in two. An experience that leaves me weak at the knees even now when I think about it. Just as I was emerging from the dark tunnel of that I got flu for the first time in my life. My Mum always said that every time I got sick I was always twice as bad as everyone else. In this case I would agree, that was rough. Thankfully I have good people around me and so business carried on largely as normal.
Now sitting here on our last day of work in 2018 I can only say I have been humbled by the simply inconceivable success we have had throughout the last year. YOUR support this year has been absolutely wonderful, humbling and incredible hard work all rolled into an amazing experience so from us all here at KB THANK YOU!
Part of my job is surrounding myself with amazing bonsai trees and yamadori. I know it’s tough but somebody has to do it. Loving trees the way I do I find it keeps my little life in perspective, being surrounded by yamadori often five or ten times my age and having beautiful bonsai trees that have had decades of skill and experience poured into them. The responsibility of having to be a faithful custodian of this little treasure chest of magic gets me up before dawn every day.
Even though I have some nice bonsai around me I have to say it’s still what I might call the crap that really floats my boat. There really is nothing I love more than a nasty stump that someone has discarded. I often manage to get these for little more than the price of the pots they occupy. On a buying trip last spring I was given this oak. The top of the tree had died and just a single shoot was sticking out of the base. Even at just a hundred quid, which was pretty much the cost of inbound transport, VAT and a drink for me nobody gave it a second glance. This week I got everyone working hard and so yesterday I slipped off into the workshop to have some fun with my little stump.
Have a great Christmas and a restful holiday and sincere thanks to everyone that made 2018 such a great year. I can hardly wait to open the lid on 2019 but before then I have some special bottles of scotch to drain and a couple of very special cigars to smoke.
Best wishes from everyone at Kaizen Bonsai!
G.
Portuguese oak stump after a great summers growth.Leaves removed and ready to work. Wire will need to be heavy, some of those branches are very stiff.A great nebari sets this off a treat. Sorry but it’s not a hundred quid any more 🙁
Around here autumn is a good time for me to get some trees worked. This year has been harder than normal because obviously Rammon went on his way and we have also been insanely busy too. I generally spend the autumn covered in dust knocking holes in big deciduous trees but this year I sold them all so I turned my attention to some sabina junipers that just weren’t selling.
I adore sabina juniper but with my sausage fingers wiring them does drive me up the wall. However it is possible with care to create a very tight refined image. Following a subsequent years growth first work junipers can look amazing. Autumn re-potting where necessary will also encourage strong summer growth as opposed to spring repotting which makes them sulk badly.
G.
We sold this and then bought it back again.Before he left Rammon whipped it into shape for me.This stunner sat around for a couple of years unloved.Yamadori is rarely this easy to work up.Bought this half worked in September. Completely baffled as to how to proceed.Nothing is impossible but I had to dig deep to figure this out and used most every trick in the book too. That low back part is weird but without it the live vein in the front will dry out. An easy tree to Photoshop but a bastard to deal with in the real world.It never ceases to amaze me why folks don’t buy such beautiful trees as this.Not exactly as easy as it looks but a good place to start.
It’s been a chaotic week or two here. Christmas shopping is in full swing and it appears a lot of folk are getting the drop on spring by ordering soil and pots early too. It’s almost shocking how much stuff is going out the door every day. Thankfully we now have a full compliment of hands to man the tape guns and so we’re doing okay.
My first priority around here is always the trees. It’s practically become a full time job just buying enough stock to keep up with demand. It used to be the case a couple of good deliveries a year kept us going but of late we have been needing a delivery every month. This year we have spent a good six figure sum on bonsai and largely bought up everything we can find (at a workable price) and we are STILL desperate for more stock. Sadly because of that great demand and other global factors we are seeing prices rise quickly, that’s capitalism for you. By and large we are seeing folk buy less volume but better quality and in my opinion that’s how it should be.
This week we had a hundred new plants arrive and have also bought another hundred-odd for January delivery but for now here are some new sabina junipers that are a lot more interesting than some we have seen. Again, not cheap but every one is a keeper in my book.
