Kew Gardens winter visit

Japanese wisteria floribunda macrobotrys

Japanese wisteria, Wisteria floribunda macrobotrys

 

We always enjoy visiting Kew Gardens during the dormant season; they have a fantastic selection of trees and calling in at this time of year allows you to see the structure of the plants better. And no trip to Kew Gardens is complete without popping into the Bonsai House and seeing how the collection is going. 

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Pine and why you need to needle pluck

Japanese Black Pine Pinus thunbergii

Pinus thunbergii before needle thinning

Removing needles can be as important as pruning branches, in order to stimulate back-budding and develop branch structure. As with most evergreen conifers the normal approach is to cut back to something green but if there isn’t anything growing lower down a branch, what do you do? A fellow club member asked me to look at his Japanese black pine (Pinus thunbergii) at a recent show as he was concerned about this.

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Decorated tree competition

1st place, DA Picea

1st place, DA Picea

A change from the usual at the club this year; we held a December meeting and invited members to decorate their bonsai trees with Christmas decorations. The response was amazing, we had to bring out additional tables to fit the record number of entries on! Our members fully got into the swing of Christmas.

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October tree of the month

1st place, DB Trident Maple

1st place, DB Trident Maple

2nd place, SM Chinese Elm

2nd place, SM Chinese Elm

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