Walter Pall Bonsai Adventures

The unusual hornbeam part 2

1) summer 2003
2) spring 2005
3) spring 2006
4) December 2006 original front
5) turned 1,5 hours counter clock wise
6) virtual to see how it looks, looks better to me
7) March 2007 in new pot. This is good, but I might still find a better one
8) Due to the turn the right side is too short. I will have to develop this over the next three years to make the tree ready for show

The unusual hornbeam part 1

This European hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) was collected in Germany in 1996. I acquired it and planted it into this oval container by Derek Aspinall right away. It was always clear that this was just a growing container during the development phase.

This is a very unusual tree and it seems that folks who can only analyze bonsai according to what they think are the classical rules to style a 'godd', 'beatiful' bonsai, have severe problems with it.
Often the subtrunk at the right bothers people and they call it a 'branch' which is 'wrong'. The undergrowth at the bottom left seems to bother some. People keep telling me to style this tree finally. They tell me to take away what makes it unique, what makes it unusual. They try to tell me that it would be better if it appeared usual, ordinary. Good that I hear quite selectively.

1 to 3) spring 2001
4) spring 2003

The fat wild cherry

This is Prunus mahaleb. It was a tree about 4 meters high. A friend collects these in Italy. He cuts the trunks back to stumps without a branch and without a bud. But they will bud back easily. I acquired this one four years ago as stump with a few slim branches. Today it certainly is not much of a bonsai yet, but it has gret potential. We'll see. At present it is 50 cm high.

1 and 2) Late winter 2006
3) Spring 2006
4) February 2007
5) March 2007

The ancient olive tree part 3

In March of 2007 it was potted into this round container. The nebari looked like reverse before and now it appears much more powerful. When repotting it was found that the olive had been planted into pure pumice without any addition. This is fine for an olive. But one has to know that with such a substrate it must be watered often and a lot and fed often and a lot also with nitrogene. If this is not done the olive will not grow. Well, and then it must be in full sun and it should be warm to hot at the location. Let's hope that it will grow well from now on.
Now this does not look like a 'bonsai' at all, but it does not look much like a tree either. Well, the future is shown on the virtual. If it grows!

The ancient olive tree part 2

The olive from a few different angles after some work in summer of 2006

The ancient olive tree part 1

This olive is way over 100 years old. It is a wild olive tree which was collected on the island of Mallorca, which belongs to Spain. Angel Mota, the 'King of Olives' brought this tree to the WBFF World Convention in Munich, Germany in 2001 for a demonstration. After that this tree stayed in a German garden until summer of 2006 when I traded it in. For some reason it had almost not grown in six years though.

At the demonstration Angel had cut off the long deadwood part which was spiking away from them ain tree. He then turned the thing around by 1890 degrees and attached it again. And it looked a lot better. When I got the tree the original attachment was still the same. But it was obviously meant originally just to prove the point and someone was supposed to do it right finally. Well, so that was me six years later.

1) tree in summer of 2006 before
2) trick Angel Mota
3) other side, also not so bad either
4) attachment fixed by me in summer of 2006
5) attachment after cleaning and brushing
6 and 7) work on the deadwood with fire (before brushing)