It’s been a few weeks since we had new stock arriving. We have had several weeks where more trees are leaving than are arriving and that bothers me so I bought a few bits to keep me in the right frame of mind. Next week we have a large delivery of trees arriving but for now here are a few VERY LARGE trees we got in this week. A scruffy looking lot but we’ll make something out of them for sure.
G.
For the last twenty-five years I have never had less than a thousand plants in my garden. These days we are moving between fifteen hundred and two thousand plants a year. All told a lot of plants have moved through my hands over the years. To be fair I am pretty crap with names, my mind works in pictures not letters and numbers, even tryping’s not esay fu mi. Very often I get a plant arrive in the hands of it’s owner and whilst I have no idea what it’s called I know exactly how to cultivate it. However every once in a while something comes along I have no idea about.
A few years ago I collected a gnarly old lilac from a spot of ancient woodland near here. It survived Ok and was quickly drowning in weeds and whilst pulling those weeds I discovered this. It sort of grows like a vine and cuttings take really easy. I put a bit in the hedge and it’s doing really well. We have grown a few in pots and they grow like crazy and flower all the time in summer. The stems are hollow and it tends to shed short or cut branches in winter but we are starting to get them quite twiggy. Purple flowers followed by berries that turn red then black. Deciduous and drops after a frost. There’s a definite look of clematis about it
Anybody got any ideas?
G.
Less than half hour, thanks guys. It’s obviously Solanum dulcamara. I’ll never remember that 🙁
Over the next few weeks I have a few dates in the diary. We’d love to see you there and I am always happy to bring orders with me and save you the delivery cost. Just let us know what you need in good time.
Tuesday 21 June Middlesex Bonsai Society – Demonstration and discussion on how to sort out all the elements of styling bonsai trees.
Tuesday 5 July Surrey Heath Bonsai Society – Demonstration and discussion on carving deciduous bonsai trees.
Saturday 16 July Ipswich Bonsai Society – Annual public show. I will be at the show during the morning judging the exhibits.
G.
Following on from my demo’ last weekend one of the club members there (Ian) has posted a video. I had nothing to do with it and it’s a bit long winded……or is that me who is a bit long winded? Certainly not our usual stripped down production but for those of you who have always asked for more detail here it is 😉
G.
Last Sunday I rolled out of my sack at four thirty in the morning, glugged a cold cup of coffee and hit the road. I picked up a couple of compadres and we settled in for the long run south to a little place called Herstmonceux, your guess is as good as mine regarding the pronunciation. The only good thing about being on the road at that time of day is the fact the roads are pretty much empty. I drove nearly forty minutes before I even saw another car. These days I avoid driving at all costs unless my transport has only two wheels. I find being on the road an absolute misery what with all the cameras, grinding traffic and what-not. My ancient dilapidated van does not exactly help the cause either, it’s done nearly a quarter million miles and every single one of them have been hard. There is a word to describe my old clunker but I am much too polite to repeat it here*.
We were on our way to the Eastbourne & Wealden Bonsai Club show, a fair old run from out here in ‘Clod Hopper Country’. I get a great many invitations to travel these days but decline most of them just because I like it here and I hate traveling since I became an ornery old grouch. However once I get to where I am going I always enjoy myself and am left wondering what I was fussing about. I couldn’t say exactly why I agreed to this trip, I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Seeing as I was on a power tool ban and considering the time of year my choices of what to work were a bit limited but, with close to three thousand trees out back there were a few possibilities. In the end I plumped for the juniper I put up on the blog last week. I spent a couple of hours preparing it and then ‘Master of the Wires’ Ramon spent a day weaving his special magic. That left us with a more manageable task on the day. Much to everyone’s surprise the room was packed with standing room only and folk outside in the hallway for much of the day. My guys got their wiring done and I spent a fairly frantic hour or so getting the tree whipped into shape. I have to admit I was not holding out great hopes for the result and therein lies another tale……
Overall I don’t have a lot of confidence in my own abilities simply because I am hyper critical of my own work. So far I have never done a single thing where I could stand back and be content knowing I had done my absolute best. Because I am hyper critical I tend to see the bad in things and because I see things that way it’s hard for me to justify the prices we have to ask these days. I rarely look at a tree, particularly raw material, and think it’s worth even close to the asking price. The net result of my psychological issues are good prices for our customers.
Last week I had a visit from a long time friend and fellow bonsai enthusiast known to a select few of his friends as ‘Grandad’ (as in “Ted” Trotter from Only Fools……). We spent a very enjoyable morning tinkering with his trees and in the course of conversation this juniper came up. The tree has been for sale for the last year right here on our web site, the price was about £600 as I recall. Bearing in mind the tree was going to be worked, we managed to agree a deal involving a number of elements. On the face of it what could possibly go wrong. I got paid for the work on the tree, got more than I was asking and a cool trade in too. What I did not count on was the tree coming out this well, i’ve sold it for half what it’s worth. What an absolute DUMB-ASS!
As I have said here before, good bonsai material is one of the best investments you can make. I have very rarely bought good material, worked it and not doubled my money. Even if you have to pay for help (wiring masters, workshops etc’) there’s still plenty of meat left on the bone to make the whole exercise worthwhile, especially when you consider the value of the experience. Even if you have to put in a twenty hour day like we did last weekend there’s nothing but upside. Keep your eyes open there are a lot of bargains right here!
I would like to offer my sincere thanks for all the hard work the volunteers from Eastbourne & Wealden Bonsai Club and their friends put in over the weekend. Putting on a show is never an easy undertaking but when an event turns out as well as this one did I think it’s all very worthwhile, especially in such a beautiful part of the world. Well done to everyone involved!
G.
* F**ked
It’s a rare day I leave home. The chain around my ankle does not reach out of sight of my desk. I am constantly asked to travel for demonstrations, often to far flung corners of the world. However being from Norfolk (and apparently an uneducated carrot crunching clod hopper) once I no longer know where I am I have to return on account of not being able to read the road signs.
Some time back in a moment of madness I agreed to get involved in an event run by the Eastbourne and Wealden bonsai club. That event has now arrived and so I will be on the road before dawn this sunday with my trusty helpers. Through the day we will be beavering away on this juniper.
