Azalea flower bud management

Nebari Bonsai

How’s that title? Pretty professional for an amateur bonsai guy eh? This Kurume azalea is one I collected 14 years ago from my front yard. Kurume azaleas have multiple flowers per bud, and when they open, I feel there’re a bit crowded. A few years ago, I tried removing buds to allow those remaining a little additional “elbow room”.

It’s very simple, and I think the overall effect is very nice.

Here’s a branch with three buds, each in a different stage of development. Look at the left bud, and it’s apparent that it contains 3 flower buds. When they’re distinguishable like this, I begin to thin them out, removing 2 and leaving 1 per cluster.

Once the three are removed to 1, each has enough room to open:

Another benefit of this technique is the ability to help time the blooming so all the buds are open at the…

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Full Tilt Rhododendron

Bonsai Eejit

Here the Blue Diamond Rhododendron in full glory taken over the last few days.

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Some root work on tridents growing in the ground

Nebari Bonsai

More pix, fewer words. Here is the message: it’s important to work the roots on trees as they’re being developed in the ground. They’re going to grow, so it’s important to have them arranged properly first, so when they do grow, they grow in a way that we appreciate for bonsai.
First:

Second…we’ll discuss this one again later this summer:

Third:

There’s that Milli Vanilli cd!

Back in the ground, cd and all. If it doesn’t grow, blame it on the rain.
Thanks for reading. Next week we’ll talk azalea flowers!

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Beech Forest

Owen's Bonsai

I got some Beech yesterday and said I’d put some into a forest style.

I’m looking forward to styling it next year but until then I think it’s time to look for a decent pot for it 🙂

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Hawthorne Forest

Owen's Bonsai

I’ve been thinking of trying a Forest planting for some time now so with the beautiful weather we had yesterday I said today’s the day. I used 5 saplings between two and four feet. I also used a plastic seed tray that I came across a few weeks ago and I use scrimming mesh /plasterers tape with all my trees, its low cost works perfect and the same diameter as the shop bought stuff.

Having got all material to hand I proceeded to mesh the tray and place in more than enough wire (just to be sure).

Next it was time to layer the bottom with the substrate, (cat litter + bark) and position the trees.

I loosely wired the trees for a rough position then added more substrate. I kept all trees as close as I could as there is only 5 and there only saplings.

Here is the end…

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