The Bonsai Blog of Peter Evans

This one arrived yesterday.
It was commissioned from Vic Harris at Erin Bonsai. Suitable for shohin or small chuhin tree.

I finally found the time to give my Honysuckle it’s final trim of the year.
I had let the lower branches grow un-trimmed all year to help thicken the botom branches so these were the first to be cut.

The rest of the tree was trimmed back to keep it compact.

I also decided to clean the trunk. The moss and the old bark was brushed off with a soft wire brush to reveal a clean trunk.


Finally, i wired the tree to separate the branches and round off the apex.

I am very happy with the way this little one is comming on.

I picked up this new pot at the Exmouth show last week end.
It was made by Gordon Duffet and measures 7cm high and 10cm wide.

Sadly,my Chinese Elm did not survive the winter.
I am a bit gutted about this. Although i did not Love this tree, after looking after it for 18 years i had become attatched to it .
I have also recently lost one of my cats and this feels the same.
I feel a little empty.

I was clearing out pots last week end and came accross a small hawthorn.
This was the base of a tree i air-layered 2 years ago.
I was about to throw it away when i noticed a small trunk under the soil.
After further investigating, a nice mame appeared. It measures 15cm including pot.
I think it has a future.

Managed to take some more pic’s of the proposed Semi Beech.


The plan is to carve the trunk to give taper and the re-arrange the branches to form the new tree.

I know the tree will take this amount of carving from previous attempts and also from the original raft.
This had a natural healing of the trunk at the end close to the last tree.

Finally a bad virtual showing how i see the finished tree.

In the 18 years i have been working with this tree this is the first time i have seen it “naked”.

It was caused by a -8c frost in February, the worst it has ever felt.

I am hoping that most of the tree is still alive otherwise a major re-style will be required.

The picture does however show that a serious trim is needed to restore the image.

I have been thinking of changing this raft planting for some time.  It measures over 1.0m wide.

I am going to chop the trunk to make two trees.

A shorter raft and a semi cascade.

The work went well and the new raft was planted in a suitable dish.

The first part of the trunk was planted in a shallow shell pot as a semi-cascade. 

I think the new tree works well as a start and i will let it settle in now before doing any more work.

Re-potted more trees today.
First was a Shohin Sycamore.
This one is 17cm high and i am sure will continue to be a problem !!
These are very course in their growth and are difficult to get re-finement in branch structure.
But, it does have a great nebrari.

I had coffe with an old friend today and caught up with another old friend.
This is a group i assembled in 1991 and gave to my mate a few years ago.
Good to see he’s looking after it.