Balkan Beech #1

[Silentrunning]

I especially like the pot in pictures 2 - 17.Can you provide some history on it? Is it as old as it appears?

 

[Walter Pall]

I especially like the pot in pictures 2 - 17.Can you provide some history on it? Is it as old as it appears?

Well this was actually an original Chinese pot. It was cheap enough so that the Serbs could afford it. The beech at that time was considered the best bonsai in Serbia. The Chinese pot is gone in a trade. I don't think that it was really very old.

 

[Walter Pall]

Does this improve backbudding or is it primarily to strengthen inner buds? I need a method to get more buds to form close to the trunk on my Japanese Beech.

It does induce some back budding. Prerequisite is that you do NOT pinch in spring after the first flush. You leave everything as is and six to eight weeks later you cut back and defoliate,. If you pinch in spring and defoliate you are risking your beech because you are substantially weakening it.

 

[Paulpash]

It does induce some back budding. Prerequisite is that you do NOT pinch in spring after the first flush. You leave everything as is and six to eight weeks later you cut back and defoliate,. If you pinch in spring and defoliate you are risking your beech because you are substantially weakening it.

From my experience Beech would seem to be rather finicky and not the strongest of deciduous species. A lot of what is possible I guess is dictated by the strength of the tree and its vigour. Another case for 'keeping it hairy' and not continually pinching your trees.

 

[Walter Pall]

From my experience Beech would seem to be rather finicky and not the strongest of deciduous species. A lot of what is possible I guess is dictated by the strength of the tree and its vigour. Another case for 'keeping it hairy' and not continually pinching your trees.

You got it. Pinching is very bad for beeches.

 

[Walter Pall]

Balkan Beech #1 - fur weeks after defoliation

 

[Walter Pall]

second flush mature now.

 

[Smoke]

72

 

[Tycoss]

Very natural looking branch movement. I find the prominent hollow to be very appealing.

 

[AlainK]

Hi Walter,

Do you ever associate a tree, or a bonsai, with music ?...

I know this is more to the Rumanian side, but "the Balkans" used to be a melting pot of Jewish, Rom, and other influences.

I wonder what's left in the places my forefathers came from

 

[Walter Pall]

This tree I associate with gypsy music. In the evening after the seminar in Belgrade, Serbia which is shown in the first images we went out for a big dinner. in the restaurant was a large gypsy band. There were seminar members from all ex-Yugoslav states and also from Bulgaria. They all sang their national songs. And then the Yugoslav hymn although the state did not exist any more. And I paid the gypsies. It was not cheap, but everybody who was there will remember it for a life time. Tears - when I think back - so much emotion on one room.

 

[Walter Pall]

The guy who looks like Rasputin was the owner of the Balkan Beech at that time. I called him 'Rasputin' and he did not mind. He sang the loudest. The guy in the red shirt danced the wildest. Tears again.

 

[Walter Pall]

Here one can see how hard the life of a traveling bonsai artist really is. I think I have to go to Belgrade again soon.

 

[LanceMac10]

Looks like quite the "struggle"....I too, have a drinking problem. Just got the two hands.....





…………"my only regret, is that I have but one liver to give"...….hopefully the cat with the "dis-like" tee-shirt took a cab home....

 

[eb84327]

Norman maclean says that its not drinking unless its liquor,

 

[AlainK]

Tears - when I think back - so much emotion on one room.

Yes, that's what I felt when going to Rumania, Hungary, Poland, Germany : a kind of communion with the people there.

Wherever you go, you will always find good people. I didn't travel taht much, but everywhere, I met very nice, welcoming people. When I travelled to the east, I found also traces of my "family". Wipe the politics off, and there's nice people everyuwhere. And I ove everybody, but I can't help relating to those mountains around Zakopane.

Yet, I much prefer what's on the other side of the pond as far as music is concerned. "Balançao", that's what I call music :

 

[Walter Pall]

Balkan Beech #1 - now it looks mature

 

[Walter Pall]

Balkan Beech goes into dormance

 

[cmeg1]

Stunning.Just the right amount of leaves in last picture!

 

[Walter Pall]

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