Never Give Up.

Jan 29, 2015 | General

I have reached that age where I face an ever-increasing past and a diminishing future. Doesn’t really matter because I can’t see shit without Catherine’s glasses. However I have noticed there is one very valuable benefit of being older, one readily overlooked in our youth obsessed culture and that’s experience. Everything I have ever done was self-taught. I spent 20 years in the print industry having taught myself to use a printing press. I have worked on cars and bikes all my life, again entirely self-taught. I rebuilt a mini engine when I was ten years old. It never ran because I only had the engine and was missing the mini but it all went back together with no parts left over. In fact I did a whole bunch of stuff over the years based on a little study and some logical thinking. It’s not that I was some kind of child prodigy. I was broke and had no mates so with time on my hands and an active imagination I found a lot of, non academic, things within easy reach. I kind of fell into bonsai the same way. Facing straitened circumstances at the time it seemed like a cheap hobby I could do rather than building hot rod cars and bikes.

When I was in junior school I had a great interest in mucking about. I did very little work and learned the art of bullshitting my way out of trouble. In the final year at that school my tardiness began to catch up with me. I had a form teacher from the old school who believed a little humiliation was the answer to an obstinate boys idle ways. Standing me up in front of the class and poking me in the chest uttering those immortal words “Stupid boy”, like some Captain Mainwaring wannabe as the whole class fell about laughing. My response? From the very first day I made it my only purpose in life to show that bitter old man just HOW stupid a boy could be. It kind of ruined any hope I had of a career in academia but as a kid I couldn’t find my own arse with both hands and a map. However one good thing came out of this experience, a very stubborn streak. This has enabled me to endure some tough times and also allowed me to swim against the tide when I need too.

Now I am knocking on a bit I have noticed a tendency to be a little more careful and thoughtful about what I do. It’s not that I am worried about falling over and breaking a hip, it’s simply the fact I have noticed our actions have consequences. Just like that shlep along school boy that wanted to fly fighter jets, if you don’t make the right decisions you don’t get what you want. Sometimes no matter how careful we are life throws us a goolie and all we can do is go along for the ride. My experience has taught me not to get bent out of shape when this happens. Disappointment is always a disappointment but a good attitude will always turn things around. Sure I start of with a grumpy Eeyorean attitude but there really is no choice but to suck it up and get on by making the most of a situation.

Cast your mind back about 4-5 years now and you will remember an uncharacteristically cold winter here in Blighty. Where I live by the sea it rarely freezes but that winter we saw -4. Just 10 miles inland and -12 was common and I know of several folk that experienced much lower temperatures. I think we had all become a little blase about such things, it’s decades since we saw a really hard winter. The nett result was a lot of folk with dead bonsai. Many of the species we cultivate seem fine at minus single figures but get much below that and problems set in with a vengeance. We noticed a lot of deciduous trees, in particular, suffered. The trees would leaf out in spring as normal and then collapse. In fact the trees were growing on batteries, energy stored in their bark and sapwood, but there was no root mass to support the growth. Many folk simply dumped their trees and went home to lick their wounds. This sort of event can happen and the only sensible recourse is to chalk it up to the price of an education. Sadly a few folk were shaken to their bonsai foundations and walked away for good. I lost some trees as we all did, a couple were the price of small cars, I paid the price for my lack of vigilance. However my bonsai skill is now much improved as a result and winter losses are behind me now.

Several of my guys lost trees too. One in particular had a real hit with a stunning large hackberry. These are good to a couple of degrees below freezing but then need help. Without knowing anything was wrong we re-potted the tree is spring, the roots seemed a little dry and ‘flat’ but I put that down to a rough winter. In spring leaves started to show and then dried up. I put the tree in our greenhouse and gave it the best of care but by summer it was obviously toast. We put it in the dead pile, a corner of the nursery, next to the log pile. We like to give everything the best chance and so trees can sit there for a year. However as a result of the bad winter the dead pile was a little larger than it should have been and so we decided to clear everything away. I broke out the chainsaw and Rammon started stripping trees from their pots. We got to the hackberry and eagle eyed Rammon noticed buds all over the tree. All of the beautiful ramification was dead and most of the major branches were also dried up. However parts of the tree were evidently alive because they were simply covered in buds. The tree got a reprieve and was put under the bench in the greenhouse. The following spring the tree started to grow strongly and I re-potted it.

Jump forward about three years and the result can be seen in the first picture. Yesterday I spent a couple of hours on it and you can see the result. As Rammon pointed out to me, nobody else will have one like this. It’s certainly not what it was but in the right light it might be construed as a more interesting bonsai. I will certainly carry on with this trees development just to see where it can go. Sadly it’s former owner seems to have largely disappeared from bonsai. I said recently it’s a mistake to hold too tightly to a ‘plan’ in bonsai. Just enjoy the ride and roll with the punches.

G.

Good Bye My Old Friend

Jan 20, 2015 | General

It’s been 25 years, near as dammit, since I started bonsai with my first serissa. Those early days were a heady mix of excitement and ignorance that drove a roller coaster of emotions as I summited highs of success and plummeted into the depths of failure. Ignorance decrees all things are possible, trust me, they aren’t. Bonsai is a journey without a destination. Once you create goals and try to take control of your own destiny a very unrewarding cycle of events are put into motion and unless you are a very “special” individual with above average density failure will hunt you down.

Over the last few weeks we have seen unprecedented demand for our trees. This has resulted in me having to part with some very special and memorable trees. There has been a shit storm of argument in recent weeks about one of my Youtube videos in which i made a passing comment about working with special yamadori and the need to preserve the ‘soul’ of the tree. A lot of the comments are not suitable for publication here. They would serve to show most folk do not grasp the concept of a metaphor and simply underline how ugly and uneducated some people are. I’m no animist but we are a funny species and attach value to things in strange ways for infinite reasons. To me it seems perfectly intelligent to spend the value of a mid-range BMW on a plant but I simply cannot understand why anyone would do the same for a Star Wars action figure or a watch.

David Hume’s Essays, Moral and Political, 1742, include:

“Beauty in things exists merely in the mind which contemplates them.”

Literal meaning – the perception of beauty is subjective.

So for the dullards out there lets just say that when working on special yamadori it’s nice if we can keep the interesting bits and not shag up the patina of age.

Today I parted company with a very old friend. In my early days of infinite possibility I would have a crack at just about anything. One winters afternoon I was returning to my car, dog in tow. Out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of an ill placed pile of detritus recumbent within the prickly enclosure. What I saw was not a pile of old shit but a hedge! Being a curious fellow I had to investigate and even my ill-experienced eye could see the magic buried beneath the old tyres was an English Elm. A few days later the tree was secured and headed off into an uncertain future in my fists of ham.

At the time I was told by those of weight that such trees didn’t make bonsai. Deadwood was a sign of imminent demise. Deciduous trees should never feature deadwood and so much other ignorant blather that I pretty much gave up on the spot. However, as is the way with elm, this one survived with a capital S. I have always been bull headed and, in Norfolk parlance, ploughed my own furra’. Once I had recovered from the assault of the neigh-sayers I became aware this tree was crying out to be beautiful. Along the way this tree has taught me more than all the workshops I have ever done. We have had our ups and downs together and the memory of all those experiences gives this very special bonsai a ‘soul’ as far as I am concerned…. and now she’s gone.

Over the years I have parted company with thousands of bonsai but two or three will live with me for the rest of my days because of what we went through together and that’s the definition of friends, we go through things together. Those that don’t come through are victims. Friends stick together and work things out. Friends make a commitment to each other and even when it’s costly remain by each others side. Friends ride out the storms caused by misunderstanding and defend one another against all ills.

Bonsai are not simply something we buy and sell or own. Given TIME they become valuable and deeply personal reminders of a road traveled in life, lessons learned, obstacles overcome, times of joy and times of sadness. After all these years I believe this is what ‘bonsai’ is all about. Hopefully some of you have, or will, experience this on your journey. Today I lost a little piece of my soul for the sake of a few quid. Now I have to go away and decide if I really want to sell some of those special pieces in the garden. I’m thinking not…..

G.

Bleedin’ Pines

Jan 6, 2015 | General

I was asked this question recently and thought it might help a few folk…..

“Hi Graham,

J H. has a problem with a Scot,s Pine and we wondered if you could help ?

When purchased the tree had a shari created the entire length of the trunk approx 24 inches. Had the tree one year and the resin still emits from the surrounding trunk. How can this be stopped ? The resin has also flowed onto the old bark. How can the resin be removed without damaging the bark ? “

This is not an uncommon problem with some trees.

In my experience there are four species that should never have shari cut into them. Larch, Cedar, Pines and Hemlock (Tsuga). All of these can bleed sap profusely and on occasions for a very long time as you describe. I am not a fan of shari in general. If the tree is yamadori and it came with, then that’s perfect but when used as a styling element I feel it rarely brings much value to the table. The exception to this would be juniper and possibly taxus but then these species have bark with a very linear sap flow and tend to create their own areas of bare wood with little help.

The reason I suggest the above species are not suitable for shari is the fact that they have very thick bark, resinous sap and also produce huge amounts of callous tissue. I have seen larch close up a 15-20mm wide shari in a single season. The fresh young and smooth callous is usually very thick, and invariably a different colour to the old bark and can look like the tree had an unpleasant meeting with a mastic gun. Sure you can re-cut each year but after a few years things are going to get exceptionally ugly. Another reason why you should not use shari on these trees is that they do bleed sticky resinous sap which invariably goes white and as you say can get onto old craggy bark and ruin it. Besides that, if the tree already has old craggy bark how could an artificial shari possibly improve it?

First off it will be necessary to remove all the old dried resin. You can do this by heating gently and wire brushing it away but you will ruin a lot of brushes and end up with it covering everything. Better to dissolve it slowly using turpentine. NOT white spirit which is a petroleum derived compound. Turpentine (also called spirit of turpentine, oil of turpentine, wood turpentine and colloquially turps) is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin obtained from live trees, mainly pines. This will dissolve the resin and it can be cleaned away easily. A little patience and care will get the tree cleaned up nicely and the shari back to bare wood. Once clean take a little gas torch and burn the area that has been bleeding. Blacken the surface all over and the surrounding area. This will cauterize the open sap vessels and stem the flow. High heat is required but not for a long time. Wood and bark are poor conductors of heat so the quick application required to seal off the vessels will not cause a wider problem. Do bear in mind that resin is flammable and the heat will boil it at the surface. I worked on a Japanese black pine a few years ago and it had a large pruned branch stub that I turned into a jin. Upon burning it to finish the surface the sap inside got hot and it sat there burning like a candle for ages. I think it would have burned all day 🙂

G.

Thank God That’s All Over.

Dec 22, 2014 | General

I don’t make any secret of my contempt for the modern idea of Christmas but if folk want to go crazy buying stuff who am I to stand in their way. As usual this year has been crazy with hundreds of little trees packed and out the door we have been frantically busy. I even had to muck in and pack boxes for several days :-0

So now all the shouting is done I am already buying new stock for delivery in January and we have one eye firmly on 2015. As I mentioned recently I have not taken a vacation for about 22-23 years now. How can you keep bonsai trees and sod off leaving them to their own devices? Still One good aspect of Christmas is that it gives us the only chance we get throughout the year for a break. When you work from home time off is precious. I have a lot of decorating to do, a bike engine to build and a massive amount of chainsaw size gardening to do. The paint is in and the skip has arrived…. some holiday.

Our web site will be open for business as usual, I may answer a few emails but we won’t be answering the phone or shipping parcels until we commence normal service on January 5th. If your order is urgent ….tough, sorry.

So our year is all but complete. Looks like it was another record business year and we are looking forward to new and exciting challenges in 2015. The shortest day has passed and I thought it would be nice to share a photo of the sunrise on winter solstice.

Catherine and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our customers, supporters and friends most sincerely for your support during the past year. It’s been tough during 2014 but for all the right reasons. Personally I still find it remarkable and exciting every time an order arrives so thank you. Also we have been overwhelmed by positive feed back and a lot of good feeling this year. Sure we don’t always hit the nail squarely on the head but we do our best to try. Now we are all shagged out and need a break and time to do something different for a few days. So again THANK YOU!

I thought I would share this pic’ of George looking about how I feel right now.

Have a great Christmas whatever you are doing!

G.

Two Fat Blokes And A Pine Tree

Dec 19, 2014 | General

I get a lot of folk sending me kind messages about how ‘gifted’ I am with bonsai. Whilst I appreciate the support and kind sentiment I consider the idea of a talent or skill being a ‘gift’ as absolute bollocks. Just like everyone else I was born pissing my pants and unable to do anything other than grizzle. As life moved on I gained a few skills, I don’t pee my pants any more but I do still grizzle a lot. In the last 50 years I have been lucky enough to meet a lot of talented people and in every single instance I have found that before those folk were talented they were grafters. I have met folk that made a lot of money, they started out poor but figured out a few things along the way. I met a lot of artistic folk most of whom started scrawling stick men on the walls with massive crayons.

It has been said it takes 10,000 hours to truly master a skill. I would add the caveat that it’s possible to master a skill after that sort of time provided you are motivated and have a passion for the subject. I used to work with folk who had spent 30 years within the printing industry and most were totally incapable of falling over without help. To put 10,000 hours into perspective it amounts to 250 x 40 hour weeks or about 5 years working full time. A motivated person working at that rate is going to end up with a ‘gift’. Taking all that into consideration it’s plain to see how offensive it can be when one is complimented for having a ‘gift’. Also the term implies the skill is not available to just anyone. In my opinion that’s just a lame excuse for not achieving something in one’s life. As an example I tried for years to play guitar, I desperately wanted to play old acoustic blues. However after more than ten years of plonking about I had to be honest and admit it was all just a pipe dream and i was simply too lazy to put in the graft. I did however put the time into my bonsai work. I worked my fingers to the bone, spent every penny I had and then borrowed a boat load of money on top of that. I didn’t sleep a full night for ten years with the result I ended up in hospital with pneumonia and my lungs three quarters full of fluid. I even did a bonsai demonstration whilst suffering with chronic pneumonia. My family suffered and we still haven’t had a holiday since before my 21 year old daughter was born. There isn’t anything that has not suffered in my life because of bonsai but now we are reaping the rewards. So, if you would like a ‘gift’ it’s free but it sure ‘aint cheap.

This week I was thrilled to have my best buddy Stuart over for a day. The plan was to ‘have a go’ at a pine he picked up last year on one of our buying trips. As it turned out we both underestimated what was involved….

This scots pine was collected a couple of years ago and has done so well we figured out we could whip it into shape. Huhhhhh!

The tree looks simple, a three trunk clump, one base, three trunks and three tops. How hard can it be? Works every time. However in this case the main trunk had two tops and a whorl of branches in the wrong place and there were a whole host of other very awkward issues. Being a professional 😉 I didn’t let on my concerns, just cut off some stuff we didn’t need and set Stuart to wiring. However it was obvious from the start this was going to be a monster of a wiring job, the tree just has soooo much ramification. Rammon was busy so there really was no choice but to dig in and get on. The two of us cracked on and eight hours later all was finished, ‘all’ I had to do was place the branches. Easier said that done, the opportunities to look like a twit were, frankly endless.

Making something look easy is really hard and this has to be the most difficult tree I have styled this year. Tying all the elements together took me over three hours and sadly the pictures do not come close to doing the tree justice. The image has flattened the tree and it’s not possible to see the depth and perspective or the relationship between the trees three tops. Still for a first work it’s not so bad. How can something so simple be so hard? A nice tree, two chumpsters and 24 hours of hard graft just to get started. The moral of the story is if you want to have good bonsai you may have to dig deep to achieve your dreams.

G.