very cold outside

It became quite cold within the past couple days. This night we had minus 14 Celsius. This is getting too cold for the hornbeam which is waiting for the Noelanders Trophy. So I put it into the greenhouse.

great new material: ashes and maple

The first two are flowering ashes, Fraxinus ornus, 35 and 16 cm high. They are both for sale or trade.
The third is a French maple, Acer monspessulanum.

I am so very happy with all those new additions to my collection. These will all become great small bonsai in the next few years. I love to work with small ones besides my very large trees.

Great small material: hornbeams

These are oriental hornbeams, Carpinus orientalis. They are around 30 cm high (12 inches) and will become great medium sized bonsai.

great material for shohin: oriental hornbeams

These are oriental hornbeams, Carpinus orientalis. They were all collected in winter 2008/9 and are perfect for shohin size bonsai. They have the smallest foliage of all hornbeams, almost like Chinese elms.

great material for shohin: European dogwood

These are European dogwood, Cornus mas. All of them were collected in winter 2008/9 and are very good size for shohin bonsai. This is a lovely species which has great yellow flowers in late winter.

great material for shohin: flowering ashes

All these are flowering ashes, Fraxinus ornus, which were collected in winter 2008/9. They are great shohin material. This species has the lovely habit to grow extremely small leaves easily. so also the foliage will be in proportion.

my garden in December

Last week it started to snow and now it continues to do that a bit every day. This is very good for the trees. It is much better than freezing without snow. I intentionally shovel snow over many trees outside now.

Back from California and Oregon

See about my adventures here:

Travelogues

Ichiban again

Recently I had the pleasure to visit Roy Nagatoshi in LA, California, and this is the result:

"In the very beginning it took me about a week to really get used to this. it is so different then what we had before. Now it actually IS the tool number one. I always use it and always have it with me. On some days I only use this tool. I work a lot with this, believe me, and it is still amazingly sharp after three weeks. Normal tools I have to sharpen ever other day."

Besides all the properties of Ichiban that have been advertised and been spoken about I think maybe the most important one has been overseen so far: A person who has a collection or a nursery will walk through the garden at least once a day and often several times a day. You know what happens: here is a little branch that is dead an should be cut off, here are a few suckers that need to be cut off soon, here is a little wired branch and the wire should be cut because it starts biting in, here is a thicker branch that needs to come off soon, here are stumps that are left over from spring and should go.
Well, what happens? Usually nothing, because one needs the right tools to do the job immediately. Or the bonsaiist goes back to the workshop and gets the right tool. Usually he will say 'I do this later'; 'later 'being a synonym of 'never'. Or he constantly carries four tools with him which ruin his pockets.
The answer is Ichiban. It is the perfect tool to walk the nursery and do the little jobs RIGHT THERE.