The Bonsai Blog of Hans van Meer

Hi everybody,

I might have accidentally stumbled on a interesting technique here? Look at the next pictures I made of my Mugo Pine “Big Ron” and you will see what I mean!

See what I mean?!

Just before this Bonsai was entered in to the “Ginkgo Awards 2007″,  that was staged in early September, I pulled off the to long needles of the new growth/candles, that were sticking out to much. Leaving only a few needles on the now almost needle less candles. Now, I do ,know that with more or less this same technique, the same result can be obtained on a Pinus Sylvestris. They will react to pulling off needles of new candles, just like they would do, when a deer nibbles off the fresh young needles, in early Summer. They will burst out in a multitude of new clustered buds. These new buds will later open up with much smaller needles than other wise would be normal! But, that a Mugo Pine would react this strongly, when its needles are pulled off as late as September, is news to me! So this is “Serendipity”, stumbling on to something good, by accident!

I will keep you informed about the future of all those buds. Because with some more testing, it could become  a interesting and useful Mugo Pine techniques in my opinion.

Regards,

Hans van Meer.

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Hi everybody,

I would like to let you all know that I am almost finished posting, The story of “BIG RON”, on to my website! I am just about ready with the more than 100 pictures that show “BIG RON’S” road, from a Yamadori from Italy, all the way to the famous “Ginkgo Awards 2007″ in Belgium! And for the first time shown, pictures of the rare invasion of “BIG RON “!

Tomorrow I will post all the text that go along with the images. If you would like to check it out, click  HERE. Were you will find the four part of “BIG RON’S” story so far! Just click on the pictures above the story you like to read and you are there!

I really hope you enjoy this little story!?

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

 Hi everybody,

I would like to share some pictures of the abounded second flush of new growth on this small Yamadori Hawthorn. After the first cutting back of the new growth, earlier this growing season, it responded with a lot of new, brightly red colored, small branches, with tiny leaves! The exact timing to cut back this new growth is crucial! If you wait to long to cut back this new growth that will be used to form the smaller ramification on the already shaped main branches, they will become to thick fore there intended purpose! I only allow these new branches to grow, were I need main branches to thicken (sacrifice branch) or were I need a new branch that is thicker and or longer! These will be allowed a bit longer and will be cut back in a few weeks time. The ones I cut today are shortened to about the second pair of leaves, depending how long I need them to be! Hawthorns can become very ruff in their branch structure if you allow small branches to grow to thick and long on a small tree like this one. If this is the case, in just a few years, your to thick branches will need some major cutting to open it all up again. And that means a lot of scares on a tree species that those not heals scares very well and slow! The can grow large bulbs of bark on trunks or at the end of shortened branches were big cuts were necessary! These big lumps of bark are almost impossible to correct, leaving you with the only option of cutting back that branch to before that bulky scare! So timing your branch cutting is very important for a nice clean future branch structure that can grow freely for many years with out many problems on a small Hawthorn like this one! And when you finally do have to cut back some of your branches in the future, your work will be much easier, you just cut to were you allowed a smaller branch to grow all those years ago!

After the pruning. It might not look as if much is removed or shortened from this picture, but believe me there is! And just in time to prevent unwanted branch thickening or lengthening! What is don today will show in a few years when the tree is shown in it’s new pot as a Bonsai!

I can hardly wait!

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Hi everybody,

a few nights ago,  in the middle of the night, after a long study of  how this old mountain Pine looks at this moment in time, I decided it was time to style the large Jin on “WOOLFIE”. This small tree is already so far in it’s progress towards its planed design, that I can now see what to aim for when I start to work on it’s deadwood.  I prefer to leave important deadwood decisions alone until I know how my planed Bonsai design looks in real live, instead as only just a picture in my mind.  This delicate work is to important for the success of this future Bonsai. So I choose only to start sculpting the deadwood, when I can see the total, near finished,  picture of the Bonsai! And in this case, I had seen the light! So next morning, I was waking up the neighbours with the sweat sound of my DREMMEL! I love the smell of warm deadwood in the morning!

 “WOOLFIE”just before the work on the large Jin on the left begone.

I had placed a piece of wood under the pot to tilt the tree backward. This opened up the view inside the tree more and improved the movement a lot! From this picture it is obvious that the Jin is to long, thick and wrongly shaped. But wurst of all, it pulls the tree downwards to the left and that needs to be solved and improved! The root base is rather special, consisting of a deadwood part (left side) a Shari on the front (center) that ends into a  root and a strong root on the right side and a stone that is peaking around the right side of the trunk. But because of all this fixed roots, there was not much room left for changing the planting angle to improve the lines of the trunk! This was always a limitation in designing this tree, but also a great challenge! Because when you successfully overcome or incorporate problems into your design, the future Bonsai will become way more interesting and even more beautiful to look at!

Left: First the tree is extra secured to the pot with a copper wire. To avoid any movement that might damaged the roots, wile working on the deadwood.

Right: This red line shows the ideal new line were the live bark will meat the deadwood in the future. This will bring more movement and taper to this strait section of the trunk.  

Top: Red arrows, the bark is already removed,  this gives me a better idea of how to shape the Jin.

Bottom: I used a knob cutter to shorten the Jin. A saw or power tool could shake the tree to much in its pot! Besides that, I love to do these tasks slowly. They are over before you know it and you can only do them ones, so you better enjoy the moment!     

Left: The deadwood is already reduced to the point were I can start shaping it into it’s new form.

Right: Red arrow shows the old direction and the White arrow shows the new direction of this Jin.

Left: Backside of the Jin.

Right: The red arrows shows, that even in the creation of this Jin, I tried to create difference in dept! Preventing this Jin to become to flat and boring.

Left: The ruff version of this Jin is finished. The detail work I will do later, when I am more used to the present image of the whole tree!

Right: The red arrow shows the old downward direction of this Jin. This was pooling the eyes downward, away from the tree. Making the tree unbalanced and the middle trunk section to long and straight. The white arrow shows the new upward direction, pooling the eyes back in to the composition of the tree. Now the tree is more balanced and compact!

Red arrows: Pieces of wood were used to lift the old branches, with Shari, into there possition.

White arrows: Some were in the history of this tree, the trunk was forced to grow to the opposite direction and years later it happened again, further up the trunk! Leaving those almost straight folding scares, that seams to be made by Mother nature with the help of a ruler. 

This close up nicely shows the movement of the lower trunk. This movement, in real live, softens the strait line of the second part of the trunk. This is hard to see in most photos taken from the front side. Check out the 2 little stones in bedded into the left side of the trunk! They must have grown into the trunk, many, many years ago. I love those details of age in my Yamadori!

Right side view of the tree. Here again you can see the movement of the lower part of this tree. The stone between the roots has been there always and always will.

“Woolfie” before all my work started. If you like to read how he was styled over the years, just click HERE !

I am really pleased with the image that  this difficult Bonsai is showing already. I love the twirling movement of the trunk and the inclination to the left side. The movement, back to the right side, that starts from the Jin, pulls the tree back into almost balanced. This can be more appreciated in the future when I repot in in a more suitable pot. I lifted the top a bit more, to make the overall picture more rounded. This softens the strait line in this bonsai even more. Now only the Jin protrudes out trough the circular image of this Bonsai, creating a interesting escape or resting point for the eyes. I love the negative spaces, that play such a important part in the success of this design. This tree has almost perfect disbalance!

“SO TROW THOSE CURTAINS WIDE, ONE DAY LIKE THIS A YEAR’D SEE ME RIGHT.”

From “One day like this” by one of my favorite bands of this moment “ELBOW”.

I had a great day and I hope you like the progress of “WOOLFIE” so far?

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

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Hi everybody,

for today I planed to remove all the wire that was starting to dig into the bark of (XL). This is something that  seams to happen in just a few days, so you have to check the tree everyday. But before I started to do this tedious task, I took some pictures of how the tree looks at this time, that I would like to share with you all! 

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

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yesterday my student and friend Ed van der Reek visit me to show and discuss his latest Bonsai/material find, a PUPLE SMOKEBUSH “Cotinus purpurea”. This former garden tree was so big and heavy that I allowed him to park it on our living room table for once, the poor guy had to Carry it all alone and I was afraid he would collapse under the weight before he could bring it into my back garden! How he managed to get this giant plant into his tiny car is a mystery to me ! :)  But I have to admit, his find is a great one indeed! This old garden plant has great potential and almost all the Bonsai features you want to find in your material. Great nebari, great trunk, great natural shari and lovely foliage and flowers! Both sitting on the floor, withs is not to easy for me, we discussed all the possibilities of this powerful plant and made a plain for this future Bonsai. I made a drawing for Ed as a mental reference of the design we came up with. Than, with out hesitation, Ed removed the top section off this plant. Although it was very old and had a nice shari, it was just to long, strait and growing to far away from the base of the tree! This tree has all the possibilities to make a very believable powerful short tree, so there was just no room for this long branch! And not in the last place, cutting off this large top branch also meant that the tree would fit much easier back into Ed’s car :).

     

I think that this tree has a great future under Ed’s care and I know that it will steal many hearts, when it hits the shows!

I will keep you all posted on the progress of this future bonsai, I hope you like it as much as we do? Well don Ed!

Regards,

Hans van meer.

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Hi everybody,

in the next couple of pictures you can see a impression of the styling proses of this Pine.

Left: After a lot of turning and tilt-hing, I selected this as the future front for the tree. Most of the flows are hidden from this side and the good point, like the Shari and the nice bark, are highlighted. I tilted the tree to the left and towards the viewer, to give it more movement and interest. The only problem with choosing this as a front is that the future top is growing in the opposite direction, away from the viewer.

Right: Back side of the tree.

Left: Here you can see the beautiful old bark on the trunk and right side branch. Because of the small Shari’s on this old branch, the bending to bring it into its possition must be don very carefully!

Right: Point A is the selected front. As you can see from point B, that section grows almost in the opposite direction. The old branch with the Shari is wired in such a way,  that the wire covers more branch, to prevent it from breaking!

Left: The top section is protected with a tight layer of wet raffia. Than 4 pieces of copper wire are placed along it length wise.

Right: Than a other layer of wet raffia is applied tightly. And than finally a layer of normal copper wiring is applied! The 4 long pieces of wire that stick out from under the end of the raffia are used to wire the rest of the thicker branches of the top.

In the above sequence you can see the top moving slowly toward the new front. This was don very carefully, with out any hast!

The final styling for now. I know that in my drawing I converted  the right branch into a Jin, but for now I Decided to leave it on. It fits better into the design than I had expected, so I will see how it fits into the overall design after a couple of years. I can always cut is off later. There is no rush! It has become a bit of a strange design, balancing on the edge of  dis balance.  The branch placement and the length of some are also not common. But that is what makes this design interesting to me and I hope to the viewer as well!? The new movement of this tree and branches can be better appreciated in real live. For now I am pleased with the outcome of the image for this difficult tree. And I hope that in a few years the tree is more presentable as a representation of a old and battered mountain Pine that I admired so much, wile walking trough the European Alps! I also hope that this styling has proven again that you can make a interesting Bonsai from not the obvius and best  material in the world! There is beauty to be found in almost everything!

Hope you enjoyed this styling session?

Hans van Meer.

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Hi everybody,

for the last couple of day’s I have been working on one of my Pinus sylvestris Yamadori I collected in  the Austrian Alps. The long hanging branches on this small tree, remind me of the large and tall trees I saw, while walking trough those wonderful mountains there! But to realise that vision into this tree, was and is not that simple! Although the tree has some nice features, like old looking bark and two old Shari on the trunk, over all this tree has really a lot of problems that needs to be solved or incorporated into the future Bonsai design! Just like I like it the best! I spent hours just looking at all the possibilities, looking for something exciting and beautiful in the material. And than it hit me, so as always I made a quick drawing of the design I  discovered in the tree! As a blue print for my mind!

I will show pictures of the end result in a few day’s. First some more puzzling needs to be don.

Later,

Hans van Meer.

Hi everybody,

this Sunny afternoon I shot this picture of one of my Larch Yamadori in full bloom. I would like to share it with you, because I believe  it is magical. This picture has captured that feeling, that urged me to make it in the first place!

Hope you like it to?

Hans van Meer.

Hi everybody,

for the last couple off days I have been searching for old pictures of my old Mugo Pine “BIG RON” to go along with the story of it’s history I am writing for my website. I had to look trough, 3 big boxes, full of old pictures and wile doing this I came across some old pictures of me with 2 inspiring trees that I would like to share with you. They proof that nothing is impossible for mother nature and that when it comes to styling, we can only bow our head!