Growing trees from seed

Indian Horse Chestnut seedlings

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.

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Autumnal bonsai delights

Trident maple (Acer buergerianum)

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.

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Fun with Ficus Ginseng

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.

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Swindon Project Elm 2020

Thank you to all the club members who have joined in with this years project Elm. Sixteen members have taken up this years challenge to grow, develop and style the allocated Chinese elms as per the images below. Will update on this post over the next few months to see how they are progressing.

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Blue glaze with Dragonfly pots

Graham Simpson doesn’t usually work with glazed pots. He has worked up a new blue glaze which is glossy, inky-dark and breaks to a yellow & brown speckle – and it’s matte.

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At Last……. First Club Meeting since March

Tonight saw the first club meeting since March 2020, it was good to be back in a warm hall and working on the trees. Lots of space to spread out, just had to shout a little when talking to someone on the other side of the room. Some members brought in a few trees in Autumn colour.

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Autumn colours

As 2020 gallops on, the gardens are changing swiftly. The colours are all changing so I took some quick photos before the rain is back. If any members have any of their own colourful photo, either add them or send them to me and I will add them.

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Creating an exposed root

This started a while ago. A few Swindon club members collectively agreed they appreciated the exposed root style of bonsai while we were at another club’s show. We made a pact to have a go at creating one for ourselves, myself included. This is as far as I got Terry. I mostly work with pine so it wasn’t difficult to make a decision of what species to use, for me.

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AT LAST………… a Club Workshop. [Outdoors of course]

Today, Saturday the 5th September 2020 saw the first club workshop since lockdown in March. Andy and Mandy, club members have a lovely large garden which meant we could all work at distance and still be close enough to converse. Lots of trees were worked on including the NEW Project Trees purchased at ‘Lodders’ by Sally/Derek earlier this year, but unable to be collected by the club members due to the virus. It was a lovely sunny day with light wind and enjoyed by all those that attended, huge thanks to Andy and Mandy for hosting the event.

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UK Bonsai Association Virtual Show

With all shows off the agenda for the time being, The UK Bonsai Association has instigated a virtual show to fill the void.

Submissions for the show are currently still open until 20th September 2020 if you wish to enter a tree.

All trees will then be displayed on their website between the 1st and the 10th October 2020. All members are welcome to email their favourite top five trees. All trees are identifiable by individual numbers beginning with the letter A so we would ask members to email their favourite trees in order of preference as follows:
1st = A034
2nd = A014
3rd = A067
4th = A087
5th = A022

Voting finishes on 10th October 2020, allowing time to have the results available for their November bulletin. All members including exhibitors can participate in the voting process. Please see UK Bonsai Association website for full information.