I have started

I have started repotting my outdoor trees!

 

It is time to get them out of the ground.

 

I am very happy to get this aspen tree in a bonsai pot for the first time. I have had it for long, always only in a plastic bowl or something similar. I think this pot was not too bad for the tree.

 

In the bonsai society we were making pots earlier this spring, and these are my creations. (One is missing in the picture.) I wanted to try different shapes and styles, all the time aware I can't make anything "professional"...

This one was painted with  manganese dioxid. I made the surface rough, then painted with the oxide and washed away most of it before the pot was burnt again. I thought the dark colour would stay only or mostly in the crevices, like a pattern, but the result is more evenly dark coloured. Darker than it looks in the picture.

This one is made in the same way, and see: I have put my small willow in it!

 

I don't know any more which side is the front...?  Here are three suggestions...

 

Kan man använda vide som bonsai?

July: The mosquitoes have come, it's difficult to be outside, I hate it.

The picture above is some sort of  a willow. Maybe it's not a perfect tree for bonsai, but guess what. I have discovered that there are hardly no perfect trees for bonsai. There are trees that work well for some people, but not for somebody else. There are trees that work well in one climate, but not in another.

For example, this willow has the negative characteristic that some branches always die in winter. (People usually say that about birch, but it isn't true for my birch!)

In return, the willow can stand the temperatures of this north Swedish climate, because it is totally native! It is now green and fresh.

Here is the opposite:

- My japanese maples. They were so green and vital in spring when I had them inside the house. They had survived the rat-attac and started to grow vigorously. Then  I took them outside, and carried them inside every evening - until I decided summer had come and didn't want to carry pots in any more. Maybe we had summer according to the calender, but the temperature dropped to below zero one night and the leaves were destroyed on these trees. They probably think autumn has come and will not produce any new leaves this year ??? Except for these small reddish ones you can see...

So these maples may be perfect for bonsai - but not for me.

A little better?

 Salix cascade, today.

Same tree yesterday.

I have made one small change since then: taken away the branch that was lika a second trunk.

Now I like the tree much more!

Few trees up from the ground

The weather has not been on my side, always raining on my work-free days... Today it looks better - but I have to go to town today, so will not have time for digging, I think. All rivers are flooded and the fields are so wet the farmers can not start spring sowing. 

So most of my outdoor trees are still in the ground. This larch and my birch is what I have taken up since my last posting on this blog...

A day out

On Saturday I went out with the Bonsai society for yamadori. We do it every year in May, we have made it into a tradition! This year we took the chance to walk over an area where there are plans to make a ski slope (easy to get permission to dig up trees there). The view is over the lake Tavelsjön.

It looks a little like somebody has left garbage bags in nature... but this is instead our findings, with their roots wrapped in plastic bags! There are mostly pines, but also one spruce (to the left) and I know one birch was also found, but it's not in the photo.

I took this pine. Not very big, not very spectacular...

And when I came home and had to take out soil and tools and pots -  my hands already dirty -  I decided to dig up two trees from the ground and put them in their pots. The first for this year. Two salix.

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!

Mostly leaves

Just some leafy pictures: ulmus elegantissima.

Aspen.

Granatäpple/pomegranate.

Ölandstok/potentilla.

 Vide/salix.

Vide/salix.

Mostly pines

Today I have dug up from the winter-storing and repotted: eleven pines and one spruce. A broken branch here and there because of the heavy snow, but nothing too serious.

 Idag har jag grävt upp inte mindre än elva tallar och en gran! Några brutna grenar pga snön ser man ju, men inga allvarliga skador.

Below is the pine that I had decided to turn 90 degrees in the pot. I had to cut one root to make it fit in the pot. You can see how stupid it looks coming out of the pot but I will take it away later.

Här är tallen som skulle vändas i krukan: Jag fick lov att ta av en rot för att få den att rymmas i krukan. Den sticker ut framtill - jag ska ta bort den helt och hållet sen! 

 On this pine a part of one of the branches has died. The needles have become brown. I don't know why that happens, I just note the phenomenon (and will have to do something about the shape of the branch).

På denna har den högra grenen blivit förstörd under vintern, barren är bruna och döda. Jag ser det där fenomenet ibland men vet inte vad det beror på. Måste förstås göra om grenen på nåt sätt.

On saturday we had a bonsai meeting in Umeå. I brought this little salix and wired it. You can see the difference!

I lördags var det bonsaimöte i norra kretsen och jag hade med mig en liten videbuske som behövde lindas:

Before and after!

 Före och efter.

Börjat gräva...

Finally the outdoor season has started! I have dug up and repotted seven trees. Above is a small unspecified salix, I have had it for many years without really knowing why or what to do with it. Now I put it in a new pot, and I think this could be the right thing, I might even get inspired to arrange the branches...

Till slut har årets utomhussäsong startat! Dvs jag har grävt upp och planterat årets första träd (sju stycken, plus yamadoritallen). Vi hade ju under helgen en fantastisk värmebölja (som gått över nu) och några träd hann slå ut.

Den lilla videbusken ovan har jag haft länge, men inte brytt mig så mycket om. Nu fick jag för mig att sätta den i en ny kruka och luta den på det här sättet. Nöjd! Nu tycker jag att stammen kommer till sin rätt, ja till och med rötterna, och kanske kan jag nu få motivation att göra något åt grenarna.

Krukan har jag gjort själv... Vi har ibland haft keramikövningar i bonsaisällskapet, och gjort egna krukor. De blir lite si och så, och inte så många av dem använder jag. Men just nu fanns den här till hands, och jag tycker det blev en förbättring mot hur trädet sett ut förr.

My birch has lost a back branch, broken by heavy snow. Which has not happened before, it was probably the heavy snow that came in the end of the winter...

Björken har förlorat en gren på baksidan, antagligen av tung snö som brutit av den ända invid stammen. Har faktiskt inte sett att sånt hänt den förr nån gång.

My larch lost a couple of branches last winter - it looks terrible and I don't know exactly what to do with it.

Den här lärken förlorade ju däremot en hel hög med grenar förra vintern.  Den är nu hemskt ensidig, ser för taskig ut.  Jag vet inte vad jag ska göra med den. Jag är ganska nöjd över avsmalningen, men vad hjälper det när ena sidan är kal och tom och utan grenar? Jag har också svårt att se något sätt att ta bort/göra något åt den långa raka delen i mitten. Suckar, väntar som vanligt att trädet själv ska visa en lösning så småningom...

 The big garden larch (same age as my bonsai larch, I got them at the same time) - it is full of flowers!

Den stora lärken på tomten har kommit lite längre och blommar för fullt!

Smaller pots: cotoneaster and salix. The dark colour of the small-leaf cotoneaster will become greener with rising temperatures.
Below some more pictures of my yamadori pine. It is obvious that this tree has been cut once, when the powerline was cleared.

Två små viden och två små cotoneaster. På videna finns det flera döda grenar. Cotoneastrarna ser mörka ut i färgen men de brukar bli gröna så småningom. De är av en småbladig sort som jag fått av en bonsaivän, bladen ser nästan ut som lingonris. 

Angående min yamadoritall som jag fick en fråga om så kan jag säga till dig Äppelblomman: det här är en långsam process... Först ska jag se om trädet överlever, åtminstone en sommar och en vinter. Sen (och under tiden naturligtvis) ska jag titta på det från alla olika håll och fundera på vilka delar av trädet som ska användas, vad som ska vara stammen - i det här fallet finns det nämligen flera olika alternativ. Här är några bilder från andra håll och andra vinklar än den bilden jag visade tidigare. Man ser tydligt att stammen är kapad en gång - då kraftledningsgatan röjts.