Oct 24, 2014 | General
I love a bit of knotty pine. This week I had a crack (not literally) at this one. Those of you with eagle eyes may remember this tree from Bonsai World 2013 where Suthin Sukosolvisit wrestled it into a pleasing shape for the first time. Unfortunately I do not have any pic’s from that time but I think this work stayed true to Suthin’s original. There’s still a way to go with this excellent pine but for now it’s coming along nicely. I love scots. If I could only work on one variety of tree scots would be it.
G.
P.S Of course it’s for sale, drop me a line if you fancy adding this to your collection.
Oct 24, 2014 | General
The stat’s for this blog show I get around 350-450 views a day. Not bad since less than a year ago I was at half that. Thanks to everyone for your support, it’s very encouraging. While browsing my stats I noticed a massive peak in interest a while back when my visitor numbers topped a thousand for the day. Further investigation showed I had put a post up that day with the title – Pines on Offer CHEAP! Whatever I say now will likely get me in trouble so I will leave you to make up your own minds.
This week I was very happy to see a new arrival at the nursery. This stumpy beast is an English elm (Ulmus procera). We go back a ways together and it’s nice to have it back here. The tree is for sale CHEAP!, here’s a little history.
Deep in the Norfolk countryside I have a little honey hole that is crammed with treasures. Little by little it’s disappearing thanks to the concerted efforts of mis-guided eco warriors ‘managing’ the place. The actions of these marauding meat heads is tragic to see as they destroy old woodland full of character, destroy habitat and strimmer frogs into oblivion. Since when does nature need to be managed, it did just fine before we cam along. So it’s been a quest of mine to rescue what I can from the chainsaw and chipper for more than 10 years now which brings me onto this elm.
Rumour has it there are about 250 localised forms of Ulmus procera. The ones that grow in south Norfolk and north east Suffolk have a nice small leaf form and spectacular craggy and long lived bark that will always display a spiral motion around the trunk. If you look closely at the pictures you will see it. This big lump was growing on the almost vertical side of a ditch. Getting it out of heavy stony soil took a long time and a spectacular amount of hard graft. All the others had been chopped off at the ground and I think this would have been next. A long walk back with the 75kg lump was pretty hard going too.
As is the way with elms a year later it had three foot extensions. Then some point after that I sold it to one of my local guys. Over the next two or three years we did some work on the tree and got it into a pot. I haven’t seen it for a couple of years until it rocked up here this week. Looking good, healthy and developing really well. So, we saved it from the eco-numpties and got it on the road, now I need to find a new custodian for the tree.
F.Y.I the tree is 26″ tall, 31″ wide and has a 15″ diameter nebari. All excluding the pot of course. The NON NEGOTIABLE price is £785.00 + delivery as required. That makes it the cheapest tree, pound for pound on our nursery. Next spring in a pot the price WILL go up so grab a bargain whilst you can, drop me a line.
G.
3/11/14 Now sold. Thanks for looking.
Oct 21, 2014 | General
Yesterday I found myself with an hour to spare. I don’t know who came up with the idea of wiring a tree but it works for me 🙂
G.
Oct 17, 2014 | General
Rammon spends most of his time packing your orders. However when it’s quiet I let him loose in the garden. Here’s his latest creation. Pretty good from something SOOOO ugly.
Rammon is available for public demonstrations etc’. Just drop us a line.
G.
Oct 16, 2014 | General
Sometimes I get a little frustrated because we have a lot of raw material laying about on our nursery and no time to work it. It’s a sad fact that in general bonsai folk don’t buy raw material and prefer styled or part worked trees. Good for us because part worked trees fetch a higher price and I do understand that sometimes figuring out what to do with this stuff can be tough. If you have a go you can fail but then again if you don’t even try then it’s a guaranteed fail. My advantage is that if I don’t sell these trees I go broke and end up living in my old van.
This old olive stump has been here for three or four years now and nobody has even given it a second glance. We managed to find a couple of hours so I broke out the carving tools. Once that was done Rammon attended to the green bits. Now I have to go and find a larger price tag 😉
G.
Oct 13, 2014 | General
Just back from The Capel Manor Autumn Bonsai Show organised by the Bonsai Group Enfield. This show has been running for a while now and I have to say it’s getting better and better. We had a great day and the event seemed to be very well attended. I spent the entire day talking to a lot of very enthusiastic folk while Rammon spent the day selling lots of stuff for us. This is such an easy event to get to and a nice venue with plenty of parking. The organisers worked hard setting everything up and I would like to thank everyone concerned.
It’s important to attend events like these. As a beginner I remember how much the experience changed my perspective of bonsai. As a result I started to take my bonsai much more seriously and then, funnily enough, i started to get a lot better at it. Also the opportunity to meet other enthusiasts is invaluable. You just CANNOT substitute the experience of bonsai shows with forums, Facebook and the like, they are absolutely no substitute for face to face contact with bonsai (and other folk).
Put this in your diary for next year, we will be doing.
However if you had trouble getting off the sofa here are a few pic’s of some interesting bonsai that I particularly liked (scrolls aside 😉 in no particular order….
G.
