two azaleas from two sides and a spirea

field elm

a couple more spruce

spring flowers

azalea and spirea

what happened to the hornbeam of the Croatian demo in 207?

In spring 2007 I did a demo in Croatia. This later on became quite famous, on youtube etc. During the demo I said a few times loud and clear: "Don't worry if this tree looks ugly at the moment. It has to look like this in order to shine in a couple of years. I have to take off quite a few branches and I have to cut them much shorter than you thought. I want to leave room for growth so that with new growth the hornbeam has good proportions.." I heard afterwards that a few very smart people thought that I had not done justice to thr material, that the tree looked lousy after the demo, and that there were much better options within the material. So where are all these smart persons? What are their trees looking like only one year later? Did they learn something? Or did they just protect theirr misconceptions about bonsai development?
Anyway, see what this hornbeam (Carpinus orientalis) looks like today. and then in the virtual with a possible new pot. Don't forget that this is only fourteen months after the demonstrations. In a couple of years this will be good enough to go to any exhibit.

hammer linden

We call such trees 'hammer trees'. They throw you off your socks when you stand in front of them.

Tilia cordata, European winter linden.

lilac after blooming

Right after the flowers get a bit brown I cut them all off. In addition I cut back all shoots to the first pair of leaves.

Three spruce

European spruce (Norway spruce), Picea abies

mulberry and horse chestnut

Morus alba
Aescuous hippocastanum

beech carving

This beech was for sale for 10 years and nobody bought it. Now I decided that it was because of the big bulge at the nebari and the unorthodox hole. Both made the tree ugly in many eyes. So I decided to make it even more ugly. When this is healed it should be so ugly that it becomes beautiful again. We'll see.