This year there have been a few observations from bonsai enthusiasts of an orange fungus appearing on their Juniper bonsai trees. It is likely that this is a species of Gymnosporangium which is host shifting rust that causes systemic infections. It is widespread and common and visible from March to August occurring on different species of Juniperus.
The English Yew can live for over a 1,000 years and it is thought that many living Yews pre-date Christ by many thousands of years. The Fortingall Yew in Perthshire is claimed to be up to 9,000 years old. Here is an example of the development of a Yew tree as a bonsai starting back in the late 90’s.
Following on from the planting up of some acorns in October 2020, they are already starting to develop, even though you cannot see anything above the soil in the pot, a lot has been happening below ground in and out of the pots. So just because most of your bonsai trees will have gone dormant for the above part of the pots over winter, be aware that the roots are still active and functioning in the pots albeit at a slower rate depending on how you are over wintering them.
The UK Bonsai Association is hosting their 2nd Virtual UK Bonsai Show for 2021 and you can find out more on their website.
There are currently no bonsai shows to go to due to the pandemic so to ensure we all get our bonsai fix they are compiling your bonsai tree photos and this time bonsai pots in a virtual realm. Check out the results from the first Virtual Show which had 120 bonsai tree photos submitted.
If you want to enter the 2021 virtual show then your photo of your bonsai or pot needs to be taken between the 1st Jan 2019 and the 25 November 2021.
The UK Bonsai Association membership will vote for their favourite trees and pots between the 1st December and 22nd December 2021. So you have some time to prepare your trees and pots and select a good time to photograph them if you haven’t already got a photo to submit. If you e-mail them in to ukbonsaiassociation@gmail.com
Good luck and have fun.
Bonsai basically is when you keep a tree in a pot and my preference is for keeping tropical species of trees as bonsai. One species that is a good beginner tree is that of the Ginseng fig, a tropical species of tree widely used in bonsai which are kept indoors in the UK due to the colder temperatures.
Autumn is a great season for admiring the autumn colour of the leaves of your bonsai but also a great time to see them fruit. Some species of tree are more prolific in their fruit production and some have very bright showy fruit. This can be enhanced with a complementary colour pot for an improved overall visual appeal. Offsetting colours that provide contrast is the name of the game here, introducing bright colours on glazed pots is great fun and worth keeping at the back of your mind when shopping round if you have a fruiting bonsai.
One of the things to remember when selecting tree species to bonsai is that you cannot reduce the size of the fruits, so the tree will try to produce fruits based on the full size regardless of the size of bonsai tree you are growing.
This year is a great year for tree seeds and many species have produced seeds in high volumes especially Oaks; so it is a really good source of the trees for tomorrow by collecting and planting up the seeds from today.
I went out seed gathering this season following on from last year where I collected a few conkers from a champion Indian Horse Chestnut and focused on collecting acorns this year from some fabulous oaks. Here are a few examples of my past seed collection and seed growing journeys so far.
Autumn colours this year are stunning and none more so than on our members bonsai trees and in their gardens. Here are a few images of the wonderful array of colours that trees naturally show and we admire so much at this time of year.
This year I came across some 7cm pots of Ginseng Ficus bonsai (Ficus microcarpa ‘Ginseng’) which were very reasonably priced in garden centres so I have bought a few to have some fun with. I started by selecting out some ceramic bonsai pots for them as they were in small 7cm black plastic pots and I was keen to see what the roots were like too as they were growing in pure coconut fibre.