Autumn arrives at Shibui Bonsai a little earlier than many parts of Australia. Many of my maples have dropped their leaves so I can see the tangled mess of shoots that have grown over summer. In order to make them look good and to make room for new shoots to grow next spring they all need a good hard winter prune. Continue reading
I have finally found some time to update the current catalogues – see catalogue page for links.
At shibui bonsai we grow all the trees we sell so, unlike many stores, we cannot replace stock which has been sold until some new ones from the growing beds are ready. You will see that quite a few of the 2013 trees have been sold but I’m sure you can still find some treasures amongst the ones that we still have available.
Note that due to the hotter than normal weather last summer our trees in the growing beds did not grow anywhere near as well as usual. That means there will be fewer new trees available from Shibui Bonsai next season.
A few of the Goulburn Valley Bonsai Club members travelled over to visit Shibui Bonsai nursery today. All of them went home with new trees to turn into masterpiece bonsai.
I was too busy talking and showing them around and forgot to take some photos……. but thanks for making the trip guys.
Wagga Wagga bonsai group are our nearest neighbors to the north and have also booked a visit on June 29. Looking forward to them dropping in too.
Some time ago I promised to talk about how to find a bonsai in the mess of a field grown pine. A reader from South Australia has recently reminded me of this so here are a couple of pics for you Mark.
The first shows the tree before pruning. Nice nebari and a reasonably mature trunk but branches everywhere.
before
The second pic shows the same tree after reduction pruning. Although it is a long way from finished it now has enhanced trunk movement and taper and should develop into a nice smaller black pine. Time will tell whether the jin remains and most of the thinner, low branches will be removed eventually, in the meantime they feed the tree.
after pruning
December is summer in Australia so here at Shibui Bonsai it is time to re-pot some of my native bonsai and potensai.
I started the day with my Callistemon ‘ waterswept’ bonsai. This one was slip potted into the current pot a few years ago but has not had a proper re-pot for quite a few years. It has finished flowering so it was time to stop procrastinating and get on with it.
before
Here is the tree before. The design is based on trees that grow in the bed of the nearby Ovens river with roots clambering over the rocks in midstream and all the growth battered downstream by frequent floods.
spent flowers
This one only produced a few flowers at the top of the tree this year. All the flowers have finished so it is a good time to re-pot.
rootball
after re-potting
after pruning
Summer is also time for repotting many of our Australian native plants. I was repotting some banksias and came across this interesting phenomenon.
We hear so much about Australian Native plants being allergic to phosphorus and needing very careful fertilising. the truth, however, is that only a very few Aussie natives are sensitive to phosphorus and there are also a few plants from other parts of te world that are phosphate intolerant as well. I give most of my Australian natives the same fertiliser that I use on the exotics and they grow very well on it.
The exception is Banksias and here is the reason
proteoid roots on banksia
That white patch that looks like fungus is actually a patch of specialised roots called proteoid roots that have evolved in some of the proteacea plants to help them extract phosphorus from the nutrient poor soils they tend to live in.
a closer look
December is summer at Shibui Bonsai and summer means working on pines.
I treat pines differently depending on what stage they are up to. Pines in ‘DEVELOPMENT’ are allowed to grow for a full season and sometimes 2 so the trunks thicken then they get cut back hard to get new shoots along the trunk and branches. Most of you will be aware that pines are reluctant to bud from bare wood so it is important NOT to let them get to the stage of having bare branches. You can cut branches back to anywhere there are needles but if you cut below the lowest needles, leaving bare wood it is likely that branch will die back.
Today I pruned a Japanese Red pine that is in the final stages of ‘DEVELOPMENT’.
Before pruning
First step is to cut back any long shoots that will not be useful in the final design. Remember to leave some needles on any branches you want to use.
Cut back the longest shoots
The lowest branch is too low to be useful so it was removed. Rather than cut it right off I have jinned it but the jin might be completely removed later if it does not suit the ultimate design.
possible front 1
This front has nice trunk movement but there is a shortage of branches on the left side.
possible front 2
There is a slight reverse taper in the trunk just near the top of the rock when viewed from front 2.
The shoots are still too long to be useful. I need to shorten them as much as possible at this stage to get more shoots as close as possible to the base of branches so all remaining shoots are cut back to leave just a few pairs of needles on each. New shoots should develop from the base of the remaining needles.
Front 1 after pruning
Finally, wire the remaining branches to make best use of any shoots and sub branching that are already present.
Front 2 after pruning
Now it is up to the tree to produce new buds and continue to grow. Next year it should be time to move to ‘MAINTENANCE’ pruning to fill out the branches with foliage pads.
Shibui Bonsai is not a retail nursery. We specialise in mail order prebonsai and starters and are normally only open for visitors by appointment but on SUNDAY DECEMBER 15 we will be throwing open the gates of our Yackandandah nursery to anyone who wants to stop in and check out our new stock, have a look at what we do or just talk a bit about bonsai.
Visitors are welcome between 10am and 4pm on Sunday December 15.
If you are able to make it, phone 0260271557 or email neil@shibuibonsai.com.au for specific directions to find us.
A buyer who fancies the trident maple has contacted me so looks like that one has a new home.
winter 2012 before pruning.
winter 2012 - nebari
Here are some additional pictures of the trident I am offering for sale.
These were all taken in May 2012 – last winter.