Hail damage

Stupid weather. Just had a giant thunder storm over north London. Bet the people watching the soccer down the road weren’t pleased. It took a fair number of leaves of some maples and really smashed all the new growth on my Calamondin.

Herons visit

 

Last week i was down in Kent and made a detour past Herons. I got there quite late in the day - but they were kind enough to allow me a quick tour. I didn't have enough time to have a really detailed look - just took a few pictures and had a walk about. I'm sure I missed some bits.

A large selection of plants of all common bonsai species was available for sale. There was a good selection of natives as well.

Many interesting things lurked in this tunnel. I wish i had had a day to do a thorough inspection.

One of the best selections of larger pots i have seen. Perfect for my larger trees. Prices seemed reasonable. I didn’t get around to the dried goods - but i have no doubt that all the favourite consumables could be had.

The growing beds were extensive and well stocked with good looking material.

I was very impressed with the nursery. A must see for any London or southern growers. I will be back.

Herons

Scots pine

I spent a few hours today working on my large Scots pine. Its very healthy and established in its new pot so I began with some of the heavy work. Several large branches were removed and the new growth was cut back and balanced - it was growing very strongly and had some huge candles which were cut back to a few pairs of needles - but some of the weaker areas are untouched. I don’t want to de-candle it at this stage as i still want some extension of the branch structure.

This tree is now down to its third level of ramification. Hoping that at the end of summer I’m in place for final layer. I’m maybe 35% of the way through the work on it for this season. All of the old wire is removed and its ready to be wired again.

I've spent the last 3 years looking at it and waiting for the right time to work - and now all I’ve done is refine the intrinsic shape of the tree - i haven’t imposed a design on it. Once its plucked and wired I’ll have another think about it - but for now I’m quite pleased with the direction its heading in.