Semi cascade blackthorn

Hi,
My blackthorn flowered last weekend. As the wind is so strong, I decided to take a few pictures before all the flowers are blown off.




A question.
Has anyone tried leaf pruning blackthorns?
There is a small window when the flowers have dropped and the leaves are fresh enough to show.

I few years ago I returned from my July summer holiday to find one of my blackthorns in full leaf and covered in greenfly. It looked very sorry for itself. I removed all the affected damaged leaves, 80%+, and sprayed the rest.
To my huge surprise the blackthorn rewarded me with a new set of leave, which gave the tree another chance to be in show condition that year.

Wow, I am loving Blackthorn so much now. For me this is the counterpart of Pemphis (in my want list) from your region.

Very nice tree.

I like the naturalistic feeling your tree has; lovely!
Todd

Poink88 wrote:Wow, I am loving Blackthorn so much now. For me this is the counterpart of Pemphis (in my want list) from your region.

Very nice tree.

Hi Dario,
Thank you for your reply.

We are very lucky in Wales to have such great material. Larch, blackthorn and of course hawthorn.
We are also lucky to have a few collecters that know their way around a mountain and how to collect and then the wisdom to wait 3, 5 10+ year before doing anything but light trimming of the new extensions.

Todd wrote,

I like the naturalistic feeling your tree has; lovely!

Hi Todd thank you for your comment.

This tree was collected locally to me 14 years ago and only potted into a bonsai pot this year. The roots are very healthy.
I have only cut out redundent branches, lightly trimmed into some shape the rest and guy wired a few branches into place.
I was a little worried about allowing it to flower, what with the repot. I have very carefully selected buds / growth to remove trying to create a finer frame work for the flowers and a finer canopy. For the rest of this year I will water, mist and feed.
With tlc and some shelter I hope to have a naturalistic, but well mannered tree in the next 3-5 years.

Note to self. I must get a BT as soon as possible.

Great looking tree, like the pot but I like the photography too.

Mike

Mike Jones wrote:Note to self. I must get a BT as soon as possible.

Great looking tree, like the pot but I like the photography too.

Mike

Thank you Mike,
Finding a blackthorn with movement throughout is the trick.
I know a man with a few left that were collected 10+ years ago and at a fair price, not me I hasten to add.
I have seen many that have very straight and old branches, all you can do is cut and wait and wait and wait....... and hope to get enough to replace what you removed in your life time. You can grow the secondery branches , but off the trunk and with good bark is hard.

A John Pitt pot. Works for me.

I approach my photography as I do my bonsai, it's not so much about technique, it's all about the feeling it can evoke in the viewer.

Jeremy

Ta very. Might that be Chris? Sadly due to this darned arthritis my collecting days are over. I know Nathan had some nice BT at SNS, but sadly out of my price league.

Mike

Hi Jeremy
Amazing tree. I am quiet and envy.
Greetings Pavel

Mike Jones wrote:Jeremy

Ta very. Might that be Chris? Sadly due to this darned arthritis my collecting days are over. I know Nathan had some nice BT at SNS, but sadly out of my price league.

Mike

Yes, Chris has a couple of good blackthorns at his nursery.

Hi Jeremy
Amazing tree. I am quiet and envy.
Greetings Pavel

Thank you Pavel

hi,
lovely tree and a credit for patience for sure.

What excelent advice for chosing 'thorn' material as well - As you say old collected trees really need 5-10 years of TLC before drastic styling and, similar to Hawthorns, if the prime branches are poor and need removing you basically wont regrow them from buds and get matching mature bark inside 20 years. I think thats why out of the 100's of dug up and heavily chopped thorns there are knocking about I havent found one I like enough to bring home yet - There was 3 great trunks with lovely movement and a mop of new shoots popping out everywhere for sale last year but even the seller pointed out there was 25 years work to get the branches perfect, hence why they were a quarter of the price of the scots pines I guess.

great bonsai, and I think a strong tree will take leaf removal ok - they are a wild grazed shrub afterall so will have evolved to cope with loss of outer leaves. On the moors round here they have lots of thorns on the outside and tiny leaves protected behind.

cheers Marcus

Very nice Jeremy!

Thank you for replying.

Did a 3 point alcove display using the blackthorn, scroll and accent. All in all I am happy with the overall feel.
It has a seasonal theme, that I hope alludes to a British hedge row in the Spring.

To my eye, the table is a little heavy and the accent a little visually heavy.



Your comments are very welcome and much appreciated.

The sun came out to play.

Hi Jerry
Great photo's of a great tree and the idea of the hedgrow is spot on

Regards Chris

Thanks Chris,
We must return to setting time aside regularly each week for CelticKnot stuff.
Developing and refining our approach and style.
You up for that?
See you 6.30am in the morning.