Guy_wires Collection

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Quercus robur base. And a worm.

I've been trying to constrict roots with tie raps on another oak.. But it just popped them off.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Got some cuttings in the mail, a couple of itoigawa and kishu.
Bought some pond baskets and made an airy potting mix for rapid growth. Whevener the ground thaws, they're going innit.

The idea is to dig them up every couple of hears, turn them 180° and put them back.

I have some more pond baskets to do this with stock that's already in the ground. Dig up, basket, put back.
Most of the pines I put in the ground this fall have wilted, so luckily I have half a tray of scots pines left. And a bunch of rigida.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Plowing through this on foot.


To get to this.


To moss up this.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

First scions of the year, itoigawa on a mint julep media juniper that I bought +/- 3 years go. It's been sitting in the back of the yard ever since, slapped some wire on it two years ago and didn't know where to go from there. Decided to hack some stuff off and it revealed a funky trunk.
People might wonder sometimes why I advise to "just wire it and see where it goes". This is why.


Fall scions were entombed in parafilm. Rotting from the inside. I'm hoping a couple will stick. It was a trial to do fall scions to see if that would work. Last summer it got too hot too fast and I had a 90% failure rate on this plant.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Fall grafts on the squamata look OK.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

A waste of energy for this one, still funky.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Juniper herpes.


Jack pines are the first to wake up.


Purple cerasifiera, at least the foliage should be purple, as you can see.


Hawthorn popping

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Some kind of cypress with a chinese juniper grafted on the top. Let's see if it accepts juniperus rigida, itoigawa and more chinensis as well. Good motherstock.


Alder is opening up as well.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Why are they called red pines?


Vork in progres

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Pale ponderosa in the ground


Yeah, I do tile plantings. First you take the plant, then you plant the tile. It's how they do it in the mountains!

Prunus spinosa.

 

[LeatherTree23]

I LOVE this thread. Thank you keeping it updated. I adore your “laboratory”

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

A wire mess and soft spruce brushes.


Got the bends. But it's candling.

 

[Sagebrush]

View attachment 191664
I'm keeping a mugo with no trunk for future grafting (if necessary) and to fool around with in the mean time. Ignoring all advice, I pinched off a few candles. Here's the difference after 1.5 week.

View attachment 191666
Collected scots pine is backbudding weakly, but it's budding. Nice.

View attachment 191667
2 or 3 year old JRP.


That's it for today.

Is this a normal appearance of needles after pinching candles. Ones I pinched a month ago show needles with the same sort of crumpled look.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Is this a normal appearance of needles after pinching candles. Ones I pinched a month ago show needles with the same sort of crumpled look.

Yes, then can be damaged by the process and because of the sap leaking it might take a while for needles to get enough sap flow to develop fully. Sometimes the needle sheath also gets in the way, which can make the needles go a bit loopy. Usually it all evens out once they're fully hardened off.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Grafts done last spring. Healing well.


Year 1 kishu vs year 4 itoigawa. Both from cuttings the same size.


Bent bark flap seems to be healing. Pretty cool. Going to get some cut paste and see if it ever fully heals.


Time for some candle pinching to balance strength.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Stumpy got a lil trim to take the edge off.


Backside isn't that pretty so this part is facing the sun now.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Testing some portrait settings on my new device.
All works in progress.

Juniperus communis.


Oak.


Scots pine, can't remember the cultivar from the top of my head. But it's female.



Another scots pine.


And yet another scots pine. Could have done a better angle though.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Aw yiss, put them in a tray. Bit yellow though.

 

[Bonsai Forest]

Hello Dear people of the internet,

Ah, yes, I hear the sweet sounds of the birds, the bees.. I smell the flowers, the freshly mowed lawns.. I hear the whispers of the bonsai veterans echoing it's not a bonsai, you fool. That's not design, that's thrash with a ribbon! You shouldn't touch trees, you lack respect! You're a pathetic excuse for a gardener! If computers had the patience you have, the millennium bug would have started in 1955. It's time to go outside.

And I realize: man, these are my trees, I'm the one having to look at them until my retirement (which will take another 50 years), so there's time enough to start over. If I'm happy with them, I'm sharing them here. If I'm not happy with them, they won't touch the internet until I am.
To be honest, I suck at taking critique. I suck at taking advice even more, and I damn well know that I'll be crying like a bitch if one of my idols over here starts verbally burning down my trees.
But there are times to be a bitch, and times to be a man. I mean, this is the internet, I can get up and leave whenever I want. I can come back whenever I want. The only thing I can't, is erase stuff from the web.

I know, there's a lot of bonsai picture porn around here. I've been enjoying that for a while now, and it's safe to say I'm at least 5 years away from adding to that pornographic media base. But one needs to start somewhere, right?
For the time being, I have a lot of stuff in development. All of my trees have background stories. I don't care if you're interested, I'm just going to talk about them anyways. That's what I do in this thread.

Oh, and before you start, right now my signature says:

It would be nice if people kept that in mind. I don't want to stir the toilet bowl, I don't want to piss people off, it's just not bonsai as bonsai should be. That's duly noted on my side. I'm not claiming that it's bonsai. It's a poor attempt at hybridization of gardening, penjing, bonsai and general poor care all together. It's alright if you laugh about it, but do it behind my back please. I know some stuff looks nice, and some looks like shit. I know that some of you have spent years to learn how to do things, years on techniques, years on building knowledge, I'm not here to question that. I respect you guys and I acknowledge I have a lot to learn.

Tomorrow will be picture day.
Today all I have to share, is this:


View attachment 186665
Poor focus, I know. A yew, or "little pine tree" as my mom's friend told me when she gave it to me. I wired it today, but now I see that it needs to be rewired. There's an empty space where it's not touching the bark. The bend was there already before the wiring, so the wire just set it in place. There is some exposed heartwood in the base, but this tree is too young to emphasize that if you ask me.

View attachment 186666
This JRP is three years old. Should I be ashamed? I think not, or maybe yes..
I didn't know anything about pines back then, and still don't. But it's budding! And that means that from this point forward, I have a live pine to play with. I have three or ten others like this. They're all in a 1cm deep pot. No wonder they're climbing out. That's 0.39 inch!

Is there any harm in leaving the dead needles? Or should I remove those?

This post rattled cages, and I know what you mean. I’ve seen some folks who do what you mentioned. They have many years in the realm of bonsai, but their competitive insecurity and lack of accomplishment causes them to act malicious towards others (especially those who are a “threat”). That behavior is their true intentions AND coping mechanism (for not improving or advancing).

Also, nice pine!

 

[Bonsai Forest]

View attachment 502512
Aw yiss, put them in a tray. Bit yellow though.

Lovely