The Bonsai Blog of Carlos van der Vaart

Winter is knocking on the door…although i have a greenhouse, i like to keep my trees as long as possible outside, also its good to let them have some frost for a few days and then the next freezing period protect them in the greenhouse. The weatherstation said only a few days minus 1 to 2 near the cost where i live, so i decided to keep them outside; but its freezing already for a few days and its getting already to minus 6 and for the weekend they think it will be even worse. its beautiful to see the ice on the foliage..so the kusamono and worked trees are in the greenhouse and i just finished to wrap most of my trees in with bubbleplastic.

Some weeks ago i took a lot of pinus mugo’s with me, here are some…

Again another demo in Belgium, this time it was hosted by bonsaiclub Shinpaku, close to Hasselt where the Noelanders event is held every year. This time one of my students Dominique Bosch assisted me, we had a great day, first we went to Danny Use of Ginko Bonsai and later one we went on our way for the demo, so we drove almost 600 km’s this day. I took a pinus mugo with me wich was collected in Dolomites, this tree was very interesting with lot of dead wood, but also very difficult because of the old branches that where to thick to bend. So we had to find the tree in the tree and we had to solve the puzzle how to bend the big trunk in order to get the foliage closer to the base, because it was to wide out. so we removed the old and dead wood in order to get it more flexible and we added black raffia and a lot of guy wires and bending tools, so we did the job and had a lot of fun… thank you bonsai club Shinpaku and Dominique.

Today i was at Lodder in Harmelen, this is in the center of Holland, this saturday it will be sales at Lodders, that means that all Japanese trees are with 40% discount, so my trees over there, all yamadori will be with 20% discount for that day. All the trees are in the greenhouse now, i took them out today, because of the wet weather and it will continuate this week, so for the customers all the trees are dry and the shari and the beauty of the corky bark is visible now.

 I just got back from Italy, although i travell a lot to Italy every year, everytime its always a long trip to do in two or three days. I wasnt planning to go anymore this year, because al my “bonsai-do’s ” where done, but i had to pick up some really good yamadori and the weather was oke, so i thought why not, only snow high in the mountains, so by crossing the Brennero it was beautiful white..but no problems on the road. So i also took a good pine with me and left it by my friend in Italy, i took  this juniper itoigawa with me home, i am very happy with my new tree!

At my last demo in Belgium i was very surprised when i walked into the hall; on my left there was a stand, i think not commercial, with these scultures. They are all made by the Fam. Behets-Kaes, they are looking all over Europe for natural pieces of wood, every piece has his own story. They try to find an animal in the pieces of wood by adding some clay, ofcourse this clay is used without an oven, otherwise there is not much left…they also have one rule, its not alowed  to cut or work on the wood, so what you have is what you get. Its amazing how natural and perfect they look, for sure they are great to use for a Ten with bonsai or just kusa.

A few days ago my new pot arrived. My mugo pine has a pot made by Dan Barton, in my opinion he is one of the best of the best!  So .. since this tree is designed recently a new step is made and also a new front, that means that the pot is to big and needs a new one, a lot smaller. Also bij doing this it will allowe the tree to be repotted closer to the surface and root porblems can be solved by doing this. so a new pot and also design was needed. I was very happy that Dan Barton wanted to make a new one for this tree and he also designed a new one. the colours and structures of this pot is amazing, it will match beautiful by the bark and the deadwood, cant wait to start in spring.

Three days ago i had my third demo in a week time in Belgium, this time i had to travell to Edegem, close to Antwerp, the event was organised by the Belgium Bonsai Association and i had the honour to be there for the afternoon. I took a spruce with me, this tree is collected three years ago and in my garden for a year now, this is a tree that everybody liked, although it was cheap nobody bought it, so it was good to work on it and bring it a step further in progress. For sure i liked to work on it, its now a compact tree with a great nebari and movement and because of the small container, this tree will fit easily in a small pot, so this can be an intersting tree in the future.

Last weekend i had a great time in Belgium, close to Brussel this years ABBC was held and not only me, but also my good friends Marco Invernizzi and Mauro Stemberger where invited, we had all three togheter a demo on sunday, but before that we arrived on sturdayevening for a great dinner among friends like Frieda Joris, Huub Behets and many others.. Marco worked on a big Taxus cuspidata, Mauro on a Juniperus Sabina and me on a Pinus Sylvestris. because this tree was already sold to a customer my main course was to work on this tree as a first step, normally its always this way, but i also make it normaly more compact, so for now it was hard to tell how the roots where situated in the container, because i liked to put the tree more up, it was better to keep this option open when this tree will be repotted in future also i let the tree longer than i planned an spreaded the branches more open so that air and light can do their job in order to get more developement in the foliage. Here some pics, for sure we had a lot of fun.