Hi All,
a quieter meeting this month with only 7 members attending, I expect many of you are enjoying and taking advantage of the fine weather or on holiday. It was predominantly a pine night with Scots pine taking centre stage so we were able to take advantage of this and look into the late summer/autumn trimming and shortening of shoots to encourage back budding through to dormancy and ready for the spring to come.
Roy brought in a tall Scots pine that he had collected from the The New Forest I think he said back in the 90’s it was shaping up well which set the theme for the evening.
Alan Craddock came with a long Juniper whip that he had purchased from the bonsai boot fayre and he was in the process of training it into a literati style. Alan has become consumed with a passion for learning how to develop Literati forms which we both agreed are a difficult style to shape convincingly and require a lot of study to understand how they work visually.
Alan Chappell had his large Scots pine with the acute bend in the apex that after being assisted by Caz for style ideas and being wired to shape needed its shoot extensions trimming back to encourage back budding so I gave hime some pointers on how and where to trim back to, and the principles of controlling vigour to balance the strength of growth through the tree. I could see that it has already got a few buds forming along the branches so in a few years it will be much fuller in appearance. By the time he had finished it had a much better profile overall.
Dave had a small beech but it is unusual in that the leaves are a pale green and the bark appears to have an orange hue to it. The leaves are also much smaller in proportion to a regular European Beech. so Im not sure if this is a variant or a factor of insufficient feed? I did however find that the pot was very full and compact so it may need a repot in the spring, this may well change its appearance next year.
This leads me on to a short discussion Alan Craddock and I had about feeding broad leaf trees and preventing big leaves and long extending internodes and he explained that he withheld feed until late spring to early summer on these species and it helped to restrict the long extensions that usually occurred in spring if you feed immediately on leaf emergence. I always have trouble with long internodes on my maples despite pinching the leaders as the emerge so I might try the later feed approach and see how that effects them next year. I have read about some growers adopting a “lean and mean” approach to native broad leaf trees before to keep leaf size down so being a little mean on feed and only giving just enough makes sense. That is of course if you don’t need to fatten the trunks then the opposite is true feed and let the tree grow away then cut back when the desired trunk girth is achieved.
Berice brought in a nicely developing White pine that needed a little tidying up to balance the profile and vigour so Roy helped with that and also assured berice that the wire was ok to leave on for a while longer as pines take longer than deciduous trees to set and its not unusual to take a year or more to properly set the branches. But its worth keeping an eye on wire as it may suddenly bite in if the tree responds to changing environmental conditions such as warmth and ample watering the wood can swell quickly and wire soon marks the bark particularly on deciduous trees. Berice also had a small Crassula group planting that after flowering was growing very tall and she preferred it to be shorter to give it a better proportion. Roy sprung this one on me as he hadn’t any experience of them (thanks Roy) I hope my advice results in a success but I just suggested the same process i adopt for my dwarf Jades and trim just above a leaf pair ti induce a pair of new leaves or shoots that should extend from the leaf axial. well fingers crossed Berice please show us the results if it works.
Nigel came with two trees a Scots pine and a very mature Chinese elm that he had planted onto a piece of lime stone from an old aquarium. The the roots had developed well over the rock and he intended to trim the extensions of the twigs off and bring the profile back to shape. This tree has a nicely formed apex and if repotted into a better proportioned pot or tray will be very presentable indeed. The scots pine required a good tidy and trim that Roy helped Nigel with to bring it back to control and a better overall shape.
I brought along a tall Literati (ish) form of a Larch that I had purchased from the Staverton Boot Fayre and had slip potted it into a more appropriate pot also found there. Alan Craddock being a Literati aficionado was soon on the case helping with ideas and new visions for it. I definitely have kept some in mind for consideration so let’s see how it develops in the future.
Thank you Berice for the delicious orange and walnut cake and a welcome cup of tea during the evening.
well that’s it for now see you all next meeting,
Kev