REPOTTING MY LITTLE HAWTHORN NAMED "MAE WEST".

Today finaly a dry day, so I grabbed the change and repotted two of my trees. The first one I did was my shohin Weigelia florida a urban yamadori that I bought as raw material in 2009.
Below: this is how it looked this Summer.



Below: After the repotting this afternoon.



The second one I repotted is a Hawthorn that I named, for obvius reasons, "Mae West"!



Below: A close up of "Mae West" her pretty dress, draped across the floor, liked she use to do in many of her films. "He mister is that a gun in your pocket or are you happy to see me"?! Brilliant!



It needs to be wired again but that is for the future! "Mae West deserves some respect and time to recover!
Hope you like my little trees?
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

Love them both, but I have to say that the Weigelia is the one that really does it for me. I love unconventional material for bonsai. Does it bloom for you?

R

Hans these trees are awesome, as is true with all of the trees I've seen you post. You've styled them beautifully. The branch selection and positioning on the Weigelia is particularly brilliant. Additionally, although the trunk on the Hawthorne is very unusual and quite possibly may even exhibit some reverse taper on the upper trunk, it is a stunning tree. Do you plan on developing the deadwood on the Weigelia?

My only criticism (and please don't take offense as I would kill to have half of your talent) is that it appears that the first branch on the Hawthorn seems to originate from the back of the tree and extends from the inside of the curve. Is that branch necessary?

Cory

I like Mae West.

Can we come up and see it some time?

Russell Coker wrote:

Love them both, but I have to say that the Weigelia is the one that really does it for me. I love unconventional material for bonsai. Does it bloom for you?

R

Thanks Russel,
no it has not bloomed yet. But that might be caused by me constantly cutting back during the last two growing seasons to get better ramification? I actually now little about this species, do you or any body else that read this have any experience how to promote flowering?
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

fiona wrote:I like Mae West.

Can we come up and see it some time?

Thanks Fiona!
Sure! You are more than welcome to see her, but give me a heads up, because I am not always there!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

Hans, as I'm sure you've noticed, the pruning required to keep some plants looking decent as bonsai sacrifices flowers. Weigelia, especially as a small bonsai, is one of these. Maybe when you get it where you want it and can let it go without so much pruning you'll see some flowers. They bloom heaviest on last year's branches, and sporadically throughout the summer on current growth - but I think the trick is that you're actually going to have to give it some freedom to see any flowers.

Flowers or not, it's a wonderful little bonsai!

As W. C. Fields said to Mae West: "Hello my little chickadee"

Russell Coker wrote:

Hans, as I'm sure you've noticed, the pruning required to keep some plants looking decent as bonsai sacrifices flowers. Weigelia, especially as a small bonsai, is one of these. Maybe when you get it where you want it and can let it go without so much pruning you'll see some flowers. They bloom heaviest on last year's branches, and sporadically throughout the summer on current growth - but I think the trick is that you're actually going to have to give it some freedom to see any flowers.

Flowers or not, it's a wonderful little bonsai!

What happens with my Wine and Roses is I allow the strong first flush of growth to extend until I get flowers, which I need to do any way for training purposes. Then it gets its normal cut back to one or two leaves and I'll get a second bloom say a month later, not quite as impressive as the first bloom but much closer in and compacted. indeed they have to get a bit unruly to flower, I have styled mine a bit larger than Hans did with his. But the leaf color and bark is so lovely as it is that it makes a nice tree even without its flowers. When mine flowers its a favorite with the humming birds and a humming bird at a bonsai is a magical image!

Weigela are AWESOME species to work with for Bonsai very rewarding!
-Jay

misfit1 wrote:Hans these trees are awesome, as is true with all of the trees I've seen you post. You've styled them beautifully. The branch selection and positioning on the Weigelia is particularly brilliant. Additionally, although the trunk on the Hawthorne is very unusual and quite possibly may even exhibit some reverse taper on the upper trunk, it is a stunning tree. Do you plan on developing the deadwood on the Weigelia?

My only criticism (and please don't take offense as I would kill to have half of your talent) is that it appears that the first branch on the Hawthorn seems to originate from the back of the tree and extends from the inside of the curve. Is that branch necessary?

Cory

Hi Cory,
thanks for your compliments! And why would I take offense of your critics? I am glad that the people that see my work have a mind of their own and dare to have a opinion and ask questions! That gives me a change to explain some things about the styling of this strangely shaped little tree that otherwise would not have come up! But the thing is that I cant find the pictures of the first styling! But give me some more time to find them, than I will post them together with the answer to your questions!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

Hans van Meer. wrote:

misfit1 wrote:Hans these trees are awesome, as is true with all of the trees I've seen you post. You've styled them beautifully. The branch selection and positioning on the Weigelia is particularly brilliant. Additionally, although the trunk on the Hawthorne is very unusual and quite possibly may even exhibit some reverse taper on the upper trunk, it is a stunning tree. Do you plan on developing the deadwood on the Weigelia?

My only criticism (and please don't take offense as I would kill to have half of your talent) is that it appears that the first branch on the Hawthorn seems to originate from the back of the tree and extends from the inside of the curve. Is that branch necessary?

Cory

Hi Cory,
thanks for your compliments! And why would I take offense of your critics? I am glad that the people that see my work have a mind of their own and dare to have a opinion and ask questions! That gives me a change to explain some things about the styling of this strangely shaped little tree that otherwise would not have come up! But the thing is that I cant find the pictures of the first styling! :oops: But give me some more time to find them, than I will post them together with the answer to your questions!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

OK Cory,
I finaly found some pictures of the first styling that i did. I want to show what big problem I had to overcome. You are completely right, there is some reverse, taper, but if you look below, that used to be much wurse! :D

Below: This picture is made in May 2009. The red arrows points to the huge lump that spoils...well the whole change of any conventional design! So I decided to remove a large part of that over sized top section (yellow line), wile in the same time I would bring some movement in that bulge!



Below: I removed as much as I felt that was save, now there is some movement and taper, were there was non. Now I had to find a way to solve the problem of that thick stump that has to be turned in to a believable new top?



Below:The yellow arrow points to a other odd and unique part of this ugly duckling. It is a branch that long ago has fused with the trunk. Would I have removed (if posible) that part of the trunk, I would have removed a other unique future of this Hawthorn! And how strange this may sound, this strange lumpy section gave some weight to this otherwise to thin section of the trunk, seen from the frond! So I kept it on and allowed two branches to grow from it, that would become the first branch and a back branch. Here you can also see how I created a new top section, that because of this new planting angel needs to be raised some what.



Below: Back view. Here you can see the two newly grown first branches better. The yellow arrow points to were a large section was removed.



Below: So yes that right back branch seams to be growing from the inside of that curve, bud that will be resolved when the branches are rewired and brought into their new position in comparison with the new planting angle of "Mae". I can always decide to remove the one on the right side of the trunk, I have some new spare branches (Yellow arrow)!



Bellow: But for now this branch and the one on the left of the trunk will stay, because in real live they help to create a lot of dept, that more or less hide all the beautiful small mistakes that mother nature created on this tree.



So Cory you are right to question the necessity of those branches, that's why I tried to explain just why I used them for my design. And I also think that when they are removed this thin tree will become to empty on the bottom section. This would mean that the first branches have to be severely bended downwards. And this will make it look more like a Pine or Juniper and less like a deciduous. Now the tree has a nice rhythm that, even though it is not conventional, is exciting enough to look at.
Hopes this explain some what, my intentions behind this design?1
Cheers,
Hans van Meer

Hi Hans
Very beautiful trees. Hawthorn "Mae West" is great. To me "beautiful example of working with Yamadori" use and respect it needed.
Gretings Pavel

Hi Hans,
Could you please tell me what is this soil made of ?

Rui Marques wrote:Hi Hans,
Could you please tell me what is this soil made of ?

Hi Rui,
no problem! Akadama, Kiryu and Bimbs (from Germany).
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

Pavel Slovák wrote:Hi Hans
Very beautiful trees. Hawthorn "Mae West" is great. To me "beautiful example of working with Yamadori" use and respect it needed.
Gretings Pavel

Thanks Pavel!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

Thanks for your response, Hans. I totally get your reasoning for keeping the branch now. If you had not kept it, I agree you would have virtually no branching in the back to provide depth esp. since the other branches that you've kept are simply too small at this point to convey that. Also, I believe you are right that you do need some lower branching on a deciduous tree as a bunjin style tends to lend itself better to conifers, IMO.

As far as the inverse taper is concerned, it doesn't bother me in the slightest bit. I think lots of times that, with yamadori in particular, irregular features actually add interest to a tree rather than take away from it. We often get so caught up with the "rules" in bonsai that people lose sight of what is simply pleasing, interesting, or unusual. Bonsai would be boring if every tree followed the classic Japanese rules anyway. But, then again, that's is just my opinion.

Hans van Meer. wrote:

Rui Marques wrote:Hi Hans,
Could you please tell me what is this soil made of ?

Hi Rui,
no problem! Akadama, Kiryu and Bimbs (from Germany).
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

I'm sorry, but what is Bimbs?

Rui Marques wrote:

Hans van Meer. wrote:

Rui Marques wrote:Hi Hans,
Could you please tell me what is this soil made of ?

Hi Rui,
no problem! Akadama, Kiryu and Bimbs (from Germany).
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

I'm sorry, but what is Bimbs?

Hi Rui,
sorry it should be Bims! A porous lava stone product (pumice) that is found in the Eifel region in Germany. It comes in two grain sizes and is reasonably cheap! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumice
Hope this helps!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

Hi Hans,
Now i know what it is. In Portugal We call it "Pedra pomes".