Yearly Archives: 2011

Pomegranate ‘Punica granatum’

Back in 1989, I was reading book on growing exotic fruits; I was eating a Pomegranate at the time and decided to have a go with some of the seeds. Following the book’s instructions the seeds were put on a plate and left on a windowsill to go mouldy. They were then planted and put… Read more »

Fun with tree critiques

During the evening meeting there was a critique of club members’ trees for anyone who wanted guidance and to share their thoughts on the development of their trees and the first to share their thoughts was Terry Adams as he discussed his new project, a recently purchased English Elm (Ulmus procera). Terry put forward his… Read more »

Lodders Bonsai Nursery – Holland

We are now back from our Annual pilgrimage to Lodders or ‘Bonsai Fest’. Derek, Amelia, Ross and I have been doing this for the last five years. You would think that by now we would have been bored by it, but everytime we go we find something else to interest us. The huge amount of… Read more »

Posted by & filed under Visits.

Winter wonderland

It has been a fairly harsh start to the winter and reported to now have been the coldest on record since the Met office started recording data. So with that said how will our bonsai trees fair? Here are a few of our members trees in the snow at the end of 2010. They show… Read more »

Bonsai Taiwan Fig tree pruning

For general pruning and to promote back budding on Taiwan figs I tend to prune back to behind new shoots (know as the stipule which is the point at the end of the shoot) and this helps if you want a denser crown with smaller leaves.

Introduction to Ginkgo’s as bonsai

Maidenhair trees (Ginkgos) are also popular subjects for growing as penjing and bonsai; they can be kept artificially small and tended over centuries. They are amazing trees in that they are the sole surviving species of a group of Gymnosperms that flourished 65 million years ago, around the time of the dinosaurs.