This tree was dug from a bog in Brookwood Surrey in 2001 approx. There are literally dozens of these trees growing there and I helped myself to one when no one was looking. Unfortunately I have no pics of the original tree but having allowed it to recover from its move from Surrey to N. Ireland for a year or so, I have wired it, and styled it little by little over the years.
I brought the tree to Ian Young’s garage one Wednesday afternoon with a view to tidying it up. It was very gratifying to learn that after a thorough viewing Ian actually liked it and give or take a little here and there he was satisfied with the current branch placement. Together we viewed the tree from all angles to see if it would benefit from a new front and finally agreed that it would.
This is a shot of the front we decided upon. Ian also suggested changing the angle in the pot and so I set about fine wiring the branches with this in view. This took two afternoons.
This is the tree part wired.
This is the tree fully wired, the foilage placed finally and at the proposed new potting angle.
This is a virtual image of the tree at its new potting angle and in a new pot. I like it. Ian however has some reservations about the lowest branch. He has suggested removing it altogether as he thinks it is too thick and too prominent. One option is to use future growth on the foilage to hide the branch in question. We’ll see.
This is a virtual image with the branch in question removed. I’m still not sure. If this is to be the case I think the new bottom foilage needs to be extended to the right and in any case the foilage on the upper branch needs also to be extended to partly fill the gap in the middle.
This is a virtual image of the possible foilage extension and gives an idea of the possibilities. Decisions to be made next growing season.
Re-Pot April 2012
The re-potting season has arrived with a vengeance and so Bonsai eejit, Ian Young arranged a session in his garage on Saturday afternoon past when we got stuck into a few trees. The first on my list was this Scots Pine.
The proposed potting angle after the re-styling
This rather poor pic of the root mass clearly shows that growth has already begun in earnest
Ian advised that we should not reduce the roots any more than this and he strongly advised against hosing out the roots to completely bare root the tree. I was happy to go along with this.
The end result
Apparently the tree may not do very much this year after the re-pot but in later years I can look forward to the tree foliage filling out significantly. I think this could be a nice little tree in the future. It’s about 2 ft tall in old money i.e. 700 mm
UPDATE OCTOBER 2012
As the growing season draws to a close it’s inevitable that we look back over the past months and consider what trees have done well and those that have not done so well. I am very happy with the progress of this tree and I am very pleased with it’s developement following the the adjustments made by by Ian late last year.
Front October 2012
Back October 2012
These two pics were taken today with most of the wire removed and after a few hours of removing old needles and general congestion
futterwithtrees 