Spring

[GavinG]

Well, Spring's gone mad, here's some more of it.

P. blireana:

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Higo (?) camellia:

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P. cerasifera:

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Cydonia:

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and Forsythia:

P1070528_2.jpg

Enjoy,

Gavin

[MattA]

A beautiful display Gavin.

The blireana is very nice, just missing the bottom of it I think your right mine isnt one, you hit the nail on the head in another thread with P.glandulosa.

Is the camellia still in training or partly styled, it would be something special with those flowers. Yes its a higo, bit of hunting I may have a name for you 'Shiranui' http://www.camelliasrus.com.au/higos.htm

[shibui]

Hi Gavin,
Lots of colour in your bonsai garden at this time of year.
The one you have labelled cydonia I would call Chaenomeles - Japanese flowering quince. Have the botanists been changing names and I have been left behind again?

[bodhidharma]

A lovely display Mr G. I particularly like the Forsythia. I gave a large onre in the garden that has captured my attention now. Where's the shovel

[GavinG]

Thank you gentlemen.

Matt, the rest of the blireana is awful. Yours may be "Elvins" - check out Bodhi's recent post. I think the camellia is "Tinsie" or something similar. It will be a bonsai in a century or so.

Neal, I can't keep up - whichever name comes to mind first gets typed.

Bodhi, I can't claim credit for the Forsythia - I found something half-dead in a nursery and didn't kill it. They're mad and wonderful for about 2 weeks. Maybe leave the shovel till next year...

Gavin

[Scott Roxburgh]

Gavin,

Wow, nice time of year for your benches

Higo (?) camellia
I've never seen flowers anything like that, that is really cool! It'd make a unique bonsai.

Forsythia
A beautiful tree, with a bit of wire, some more ramification and a top quality pot that'd be a show stopper - REALLY NICE!

[shibui]

Forsythia + ramification = very difficult

[Scott Roxburgh]

Why is that, does it die back on cut back? does it so dramatically on cutting?

[shibui]

Scott,
In my limited experience with forsythia I find they have relatively long internodes, thick shoots and only shoot a few buds when cut back so forming ramification is proving slow and the results appear coarse and unappealing. The profuse flowers cover up a multitude of sins and distract from others so for a week or so each year nobody will notice

[GavinG]

Scott, this is the kind of ramification Neal has in mind - the normal vigorous Forsythia. Ugly as sin, and not nearly so much fun.

P1070602.jpg

My old wreck is not strong, and puts out slender shoots. It flowers well enough.

P1070603.jpg

My feeling is that the trunk, for all its character, is slender, and a thicker more ramified head would not look balanced. The way the branches fall is gracefully "natural", and I'm not sure I'd improve it by meddling. It will get a solid chop in a week or two, back to the last/first two buds, and I may angle it, or even repot it (very gently) so the new growth is vertical, and harmonises with itself. I tend more towards clip-and-grow.

Gavin

[GavinG]

And a bit more colour.

English/Public Servants' Elms about to bud:

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And doing whatever it is they do first, just around the corner where there's a bit more sun.

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Single cherries:

P1070582.jpg

This is a double red weeping peach, with deep red leaf buds. I'm layering bits off it, so we'll see what it does as bonsai in twenty years or so. Flowers are about 4cms across, so it will need to be a large tree.

P1070608.jpg

P1070611.jpg

Can anyone identify this crab apple? It's not floribunda, spectabilis or any of the purpureas. I've lost the label. Another layering candidate.

P1070614.jpg

Gavin