Bonsai at Ayr Flower Show

Hi All,

The Ayr Flower Show is one of 3 annual events where bonsai can be seen by the public in Scotland.The show is running from the 3-5 of August in Rozelle Park, Ayr, Scotland and the bonsai event is organised by the Ayrshire Group of the Scottish Bonsai Association. This years event is particularly impressive, notwithstanding the difficult growing season we have all had here in Scotland. I have posted a few images of my favourite trees from the show, unfortunately I didnt get the names of the owners. ENJOY







This white pine won the best in show


Fantastic big juniper cascade









I'll post some more pics later when my internet connection speeds up

Regards

Robert Nocher

Thanks for posting Robert; very impressive trees. I would love to see a close up of the pine in the "gazebo".
Todd

Todd Ellis wrote:Thanks for posting Robert; very impressive trees. I would love to see a close up of the pine in the "gazebo".
Todd

So do I !!! Thanks for posting!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

robert nocher wrote:

The dead wood/shari on this one I dont fully understand. That 'living vein' that drops down, surrounded by dead wood, where does that connect to any living wood at the bottom? This will just die off in the end because the one branch above it on the left, is fed by other parts of the trunk, and once the energy is properly redirected in the tree. I suspect this carving is done not so long ago, since it now still looks 'healthy'.

Once its dead, the owner will have to find a way to fit it in the final design, I wonder why he/she put it in the show if she/he thought this would be the final design of the dead wood.

But thanks for sharing the pictures offcourse !

greetz

Thanks for sharing.

The cascade part of this juni doesn't do it for me...I think it need more character or removed just above soil level JMHO & taste.

robert nocher wrote:
Fantastic big juniper cascade

Looks like you guys had a nice show. Has the weather dried out a bit?

Hi Todd and Hans,
Unfortunately thats the best picture I have of the big pine in the gazebo. Someone suggested to me that it may be from the National Collection, so it might bepossibletoget a good picture yet.

Hi Yves,
I think the live vein you refer to disappears behind the jin in the foreground.

Hi Dario,
That cascade is a fantastic tree but when I look at that picture I am possessed with an overwhelming desire to chop a foot off the bottom of the cascading branch.

Hi Orion,
If you stand outside anywhere in Scotland at the moment, your likely to experience all four seasons within 1 hour

Here's a few more pics











Regards

Robert Nocher

yves71277 wrote:

robert nocher wrote:

The dead wood/shari on this one I dont fully understand. That 'living vein' that drops down, surrounded by dead wood, where does that connect to any living wood at the bottom? This will just die off in the end because the one branch above it on the left, is fed by other parts of the trunk, and once the energy is properly redirected in the tree. I suspect this carving is done not so long ago, since it now still looks 'healthy'.

Once its dead, the owner will have to find a way to fit it in the final design, I wonder why he/she put it in the show if she/he thought this would be the final design of the dead wood.

But thanks for sharing the pictures offcourse !

greetz

Hi Yves.

In fact the deadwood to the right as you look at the picture is not actually part of the tree - it was added by the owner as a feature he thought would improve it. It has been in that state for several years now and I suspect the "freshly carved" impression is because it has clearly been recently treated with lime sulphur.

Poink88 wrote:Thanks for sharing.

The cascade part of this juni doesn't do it for me...I think it need more character or removed just above soil level JMHO & taste.

robert nocher wrote:
Fantastic big juniper cascade

You'll be interested to know that the judge ( ) agreed with you on that point which is why it didn't win best in cascade class.

There is a sad story behind this tree which is that it belonged to a young man who died recently aged 20. Rob Atkinson and Malcolm Brown reckoned that he had a natural talent for bonsai and it is very sad that we will never see that talent come to fruition. Adjustments to the tree had been discussed - hopefully one of the lads will go ahead and do those on behalf of Michael.

hi,

very high standard to so many of your clubs trees - putting on a display with loads of trees can be difficult finding enough that are up to the mark.

I think the cascade could have a bit of a prune too.......currently the pot is bigger/taller than the main part of the tree - If the tree becomes a proper semi cascade in a shallower pot it will make the rest pop out rather than be overpowered.

i love it like this..........


really good show, looked great

cheers Marcus

For those interested, the format of this show was not the same as a conventional bonsai exhibition. As Robert said, the event was part of the Ayr Flower Show which is one of many UK flower shows run on Royal Horticultural Society principles - Chelsea Flower Show is of course the flagship in the fleet.

The large four-sided display was part of the flower show itself, and the Ayrshire Bonsai Group were the recipients of a Large Gold Medal which is the best accolade for displays. This year they also won the coveted Best in Show award.

The individual trees against the back background were in competitive classes - eg. Shohin deciduous, Shohin evergreen, Chuhin evergreen etc.. I am not a fan in general of this sort of event as it often features very inferior trees, and awards are often presented on the basis of the trees being the best there were rather than because they were good trees. However, over the past four years, the Ayrshire club have been working with the show organisers to transform the way this part of the show is run and it has had a fairly large bit of success. As we have seen there were some fairly decent trees on display, and that quality is increasing year on year. The hope is that this continues in future years.

Hi Marcus, that's not unlike how I'd have progressed this tree had it been mine. I'd maybe have kept it one branch set longer and a slightly deeper pot.

I feel that to carry off as long a cascade as that would require two things: first, it would need to be thicker (it is very spindly when you see it "in person") and second it would need some twists in it as it is fire poker straight.

Todd Ellis wrote:Thanks for posting Robert; very impressive trees. I would love to see a close up of the pine in the "gazebo".
Todd

Todd, this tree is part of the National Bonsai Collection of Scotland. It is currently being looked after by Ian McDougall of the Ayrshire club as it has suffered a bit of late and he is administering appropriate bonsai first aid to it.

I will get a close-up of it sorted out for you in the next few days

fiona wrote:

yves71277 wrote:

robert nocher wrote:

The dead wood/shari on this one I dont fully understand. That 'living vein' that drops down, surrounded by dead wood, where does that connect to any living wood at the bottom? This will just die off in the end because the one branch above it on the left, is fed by other parts of the trunk, and once the energy is properly redirected in the tree. I suspect this carving is done not so long ago, since it now still looks 'healthy'.

Once its dead, the owner will have to find a way to fit it in the final design, I wonder why he/she put it in the show if she/he thought this would be the final design of the dead wood.

But thanks for sharing the pictures offcourse !

greetz

Hi Yves.

In fact the deadwood to the right as you look at the picture is not actually part of the tree - it was added by the owner as a feature he thought would improve it. It has been in that state for several years now and I suspect the "freshly carved" impression is because it has clearly been recently treated with lime sulphur.

Well, i just cant tell from that picture, so if the visitor of the show says there's no problem with that carving or dead wood, i believe him

marcus watts wrote:hi,

very high standard to so many of your clubs trees - putting on a display with loads of trees can be difficult finding enough that are up to the mark.

I think the cascade could have a bit of a prune too.......currently the pot is bigger/taller than the main part of the tree - If the tree becomes a proper semi cascade in a shallower pot it will make the rest pop out rather than be overpowered.

i love it like this..........


really good show, looked great

cheers Marcus

I couldnt agree more with marcus on this one

cascad style is possible, with a small pot.
[img][/img]

[quote="fiona"]Hi Marcus, that's not unlike how I'd have progressed this tree had it been mine. I'd maybe have kept it one branch set longer and a slightly deeper pot. [quote]

haha, i did the same with the virt initially, but (to me) it still unbalanced the tree and meant the ideal pot was too big. Once the last pad comes off the depth of pot can be more in keeping with the trunk base.vA visually lighter solution would be to jin the lowest pad first and see how it looks for real, ---then cut it off

cheers Marcus

edit.....abcd - Yes, that is the perfect cascade design if it was kept - as Fiona said it needed movement, but it also sounds like many years are needed to thicken the cascade branch

The two-dimensional photo is probably not showing the tree's construction properly. In the photo the long cascade branch looks as if it is going down the left side of the pot. It is not - it comes pretty much straight out over the front left corner of the pot (i.e. at 45degrees to the main section of the tree. abcd's proposal probably would not actually work in light of that.

To me, the cascade needed to have been brought down incrementally rather than just a long straight. Having seen it "live" I still think the best option would have been to shorten it, but given its backstory I can understand why its custodians have decided to work on it as it is. Maybe when the foliage develops a bit more, it will look fine as it is.

Hi Fiona,
Thanks for all the additional information about the trees, their owners and the show, it's much appreciated. It's very sad to hear about the young chap that started the cascade, he was clearly a talented individual.

Hi Marcus,
Nice virtual, looks like we are all in agreement on what we would do if that tree were ours and I can fully understand the current custodians' reluctance to alter it too much at the moment, given the circumstances.

Here are the last of my photos taken at the show, including some more of the cascade taken from different angles







If anyone has more pictures from the show it would be nice to see them on here

Regards

Robert Nocher

As I was under quite a time pressure, I only took a few pics of the main display. Peter Thorne took individual pics of all the trees and hopefully may post at least some of them here.

fiona wrote:You'll be interested to know that the judge ( ) agreed with you on that point which is why it didn't win best in cascade class.

Wow, the judge must have a very discriminating taste!

BTW, my first exposure to bonsai is through an Orchid show in Manila (Philippines) similar to this...about 35 years ago