LAST PICTURES OF MY MUGO PINE THE "SWAN".

stavros wrote:Hi Hans,

It takes lots of courage to expose our failures to the public. It takes even more courage to admit our (possible??the repotting time) mistakes.
Nothing can bring back these trees unfortunately, but at least you can be grateful that you had the opportunity to work on them and lift them to an exhibition-ready state. MOst of us are just dreaming (or working very hard) trying to achieve that.
I have lost a myrtle (15 cm base diametre) this summer which was styled and even though the other 4 that sit right next to this one are thriving, this one just deteriorated and died on me.....Sometimes you can't really understand why....

As the advertisement of a well known whiskey says: Keep Walking

Stavros

It is never easy to lose a tree that you worked with for a long time. Especially if it is your best one! But it shows just how fragile these old trees realy are when you take them out of there own habitat!
But I am glad that I had the change to style her and enjoy her beauty for such a long time though!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

Hans van Meer. wrote:Hi everybody,
a while back I wrote on my Bonsai blog about the lost off two of my best, almost show ready very old Mugo Pines ( When your art dies on you!). Well a week after I posted it, my blog and all the other AoB blogs disappeared for a long time into tin air, to reappear a week ago, but with out all my pictures and drawings. I just checked again and you know what, my blog is vanished again, so now I am not able to link you to that post! SIGH!!
Well any way, I have waited as long as possible, to avoid the dreaded task of removing the dead Pine named the "Swan" from her pot. But yesterday was planed to be the day to remove the two dead Pines from my small garden! Yesterday also was one of the first Sunny mornings this mount and when I approached the bench in the back of my garden on witch both trees stand, the soft morning Sun rays just reached the dead foliage of the "Swan" making it almost glow like dark amber! She was still so beautiful and I fell overwhelmed with the feeling that it is such a shame that she and I never had the change to show the world just how special she had become!
So I cleaned the pot and oiled it for her. Lifted her to the other side of my garden on to a table, should not have don that with my back problems, and waited and hoped that the sky's would still be clear when the sun would hit that only spot were I have room enough to take photo's. Well the light was just perfect for one final photo shoot of my beloved "Swan".
And they turned out just stunning! So that made me wanted to show them to you and share this sad side of being a Bonsai artist as well with my friends here on IBC!
I hope you enjoy these last shots of my "Swan"?!

















Bonsai is so much more than just Art to me. Bonsai is very very personal to me! It is not one off my better years. She will be missed!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

Hi Hans - I feel with you Hans - What a beautiful tree and what a pity it died. I'm so sorry for your lost. Love Lone

G'day Hans...

Your loss, how tragic. But in the wake of tragedy...what a marvelous last photo...and, such a touching story you have told us. This followed by your courageous announcement to the world about what the cause was...

Best to you Hans... :-)

Pat

Hi Hans
I have been looking at the photos of your departed tree more than one time, and every time it gives me a lump in my throat.
How sad.

Kind regards Yvonne

Lone wrote:

Hi Hans - I feel with you Hans - What a beautiful tree and what a pity it died. I'm so sorry for your lost. Love Lone

Thanks Lone!
Love right back at you!
Hans van Meer.

Yvonne Graubaek wrote:Hi Hans
I have been looking at the photos of your departed tree more than one time, and every time it gives me a lump in my throat.
How sad.

Kind regards Yvonne

Thanks Yvonne!
I know I had the same thing every time I saw her standing in my garden. She was hard to avoid, it is a very small garden! So I am actually a bit relieved that she is out of her pot and in a other spot in my garden now. It feels like some sort of disconnecting?! Strange, but true.
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

Hi Hans... There are a few great spirits out there that keep bonsai exciting for many. I see Steve Tolley (writing recently on this thread) & you... and think of bonsai in an extraordinary historical period with international delight.

Failure is something we all experience, yet from this we learn and progress. To loose any tree is heartbreaking but to loose one of such magnificence would make many of us throw in the towel. The fact that Hans is big enough to put out this sad tale is testament to his passion as an artist. Show us your failures

Hi everybody,
well it has been raining most off the time, so I was not able to take any good pictured of the second old Pine that died in the same way as the "Swan". This Pinus Uncinata, of more than 600 years old, was also repotted in late August last year!
Below: In 2001, I drove all the way to Switzerland to bey this amazing tree. This is the first picture of this old Pine in my garden.



But after a few months waiting in vain for any growth and because of the terrible soil that was used it was impossible to normally water the tree, I knew I had to act. So I started to carefully remove the top layer of the quicksand like soil by hand, to check if there were any root problems. My worse nightmare came trough, when I could not find any roots in the top layer. Or in the middle and not even at the bottom! All roots were simply sawed and cut off by the …… that collected it! It was no wonder that the tree was not growing at all!
I repotted the tree in a very loos soil mixture of large grained Akadama, Kiryu, and Bims. I placed it in a well protected and rain free spot of my garden and was over the moon when after just a few weeks the tree started to show signs of growth again in its foliage. That mend that something was starting to work under the ground as well! Well this old survivor just kept on growing and growing.
Below: August 2009. And so during this last fatal repotting it showed me a amazing compact pot feeling sets of healthy roots! There were even hundreds off these fine roots growing from were the trunk/live line touched the ground! Amazing!



Below: Nothing short of a miracle! This many roots out of nowhere!



Below: O happy days!



Below: In the background you can see the freshly repotted "Swan" in frond of my little photo aria in the back of my garden.



Below: This is one of my first virts ever. It is one off a couple that I made of how I envisioned the future design of this tree. I'm sure it could become a great Bonsai!



Below: This was taken a few weeks ago. It was almost there (above)!



It was a few years further away from it's debut than the "Swan" was, but it had come fare from a tree with no roots or future. It's a shame that it did not have a future after all! Such a shame!

I wanted to share this old Pine as well with you. He desurves it so!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

Hi Hans,I feel my self very privileged that I have seen this tree's in real life in all there beauty.
I honestly never seen bonsai so good as this two tree's with such a elegance and very amazing old ancient deadwood on it,thank you Hans for sharing these tree's and the stories behind this tree's with us on the forum.
It's a great loss for the bonsai-world I think,that nobody can see this masterpieces anymore
Greetings Ed

A catastrophic year you have had Hans. You have my deepest sympathy and may future years be more fruitful and positive.

Yes, they will be!!!

There is always an advantage if we all learn lessons out of our own failures....

Sorry to hear these sad stories. We all experience losses of bonsai, and do not always know why they died. I lost several smaller pines planted into a forest group this winter. They acted like one of yours Hans. Showing good new growth in spring, and then slowly decayed and died during early summer.
I am surer of why though. The year before, in the winter 2008-09. I moved from my house, and was without a place to stay with my trees for more than three months. In the middle of winter time I had to let my trees be outside at a rented place, and a few of them had not any protection. I am pretty sure they dried out in the frosty winds that winter and paid the prize this spring and heavy winter last year.
Fortunately all other bonsai coped well, but the pines were probably too weak because they were transplanted the year before they were stressed heavily.
I hope you will find some good replacements for these beautiful trees Hans. I know you will, because you work hard and dedicated with your bonsai. Best of luck.

Regards
Morten Albek

Hi Hans, so sorry for your losses.

I've followed your blogs for a long time with great admiration. Thankyou for your remarkable bravery and strength of character to show these pictures. You've shown your an artist without ego and reminded us all that Bonsai begins and ends primarily with the tree, we only facilitate, this is a fundamental we should'nt forget.

Looking forward to your future creations!

I cry with you for the loss of these two special gifts from Mother Nature...
Mom

...now you have a good pair tanuki project.
before you posted these second loss my eye is with tears for swan...and now both of my eyes are crying with tears.

i really am sorry Hans for your double loss. we will wait for a new masterpiece. goodluck

regards,
jun

Chris Cochrane wrote:Hi Hans... There are a few great spirits out there that keep bonsai exciting for many. I see Steve Tolley (writing recently on this thread) & you... and think of bonsai in an extraordinary historical period with international delight.

Thanks for you very kind words Chris.
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

Tony wrote:Failure is something we all experience, yet from this we learn and progress. To loose any tree is heartbreaking but to loose one of such magnificence would make many of us throw in the towel. The fact that Hans is big enough to put out this sad tale is testament to his passion as an artist. Show us your failures

Thanks Tony! It just feels better, now I have shown these old wonders of nature for the last time! A sort of a small tribute to the beauty of these two ancient Pines.
Cheers,
Hans,

irene_b wrote:I cry with you for the loss of these two special gifts from Mother Nature...
Mom

Thanks Mom! That's much appreciated!
Cheers,
Hans.

will baddeley wrote:A catastrophic year you have had Hans. You have my deepest sympathy and may future years be more fruitful and positive.

Thanks Will, so do I my friend, so do I.
Cheers,
Hans.

Hans,
Thanks for sharing with us your loss. I think we have all experienced such things in our own collections. I greatly admire your work.
Best Regards,
Brian