Transforming into Bonsai Moravia

Hereby we announce you the closure of the blog Leaf Brothers. From now on we transform our efforts under the brand new platform Bonsai Moravia where we´ll keep publishing posts regarding bonsai art and newly also articles about japanese gardens and landscape architecture and news from tea culture. We would like to thank all our visitors of Leaf Brothers and welcome you to go on with us on our Bonsai Moravia blog!

Tímto Vám oznamujeme, že s platností k dnešnímu dni po několika letech uzavíráme blog Leaf Brothers a v součinnosti s uzavřením webu Bonsai Rožnov oba projekty transformujeme pod jednotnou hlavičku nové platformy Bonsai Moravia. 

Na webu Bonsai Moravia budete moci najít mimo bonsajový obsah i rozcestník na náš bonsajový e-shop, čajový e-shop a web naší zahradní tvorby. Blog Bonsai Moravia pak bude pravidelně přinášet informace a fotografickou dokumentaci z naší denodenní bonsajistické i zahradní praxe.

Děkujeme všem návštěvníkům blogu Leaf Brothers a budeme se těšit na pokračování s Vámi na novém blogu Bonsai Moravia!

Trip for cornuses, Výlet za dříny.

Včera jsme  podnikli malý výlet. Plán byl jasný-vykopat dva dříny vyhlídnuté vloni v srpnu. Vyrazili jsme s Ondrou Šránkem a Lukášem Sirotným brzo ráno. Trochu jsme byli nervózní z počasí,ale to se nakonec ukázalo bezproblémové. Jediný problém byl, jak zpětně najít ty dříny. Chvilku jsme se prošli, dříny našli a pak už se kopalo a kopalo:-)

We made a little digging trip yesterday. The plan was clear- to dig up two cornuses we found last August. We set off with Ondra Šrámek and Lukáš Sirotný early in the morning. The weather forecast wasn't pretty good so we were little nervous about it. But in the end the weather was great. The only problem was to find those trees again after half of a year. We walked through beautiful land and found the cornuses after while. Then the Digging started:-)

Beautiful views / krásné výhledy.

Happy founders / štastní nálezci.

In the middle of "action" / uprostřed "akce".

The beast is done / Bestie je venku.

The second cornus in front of the picture / v popředí obrázku druhý dřín.

The happy diggers / šťastní kopáči.

Mahaleb #10

Celý článek o stromu v češtině si můžete přečíst na Bonsai Rožnov. 

I would like to present you briefly another prunus mahaleb which was collected in 2012.

2015 spring

The tree was growing vigorously right after its collecting, so after 2 years period of uninterrupted growth we could repot the tree right into the current container by Hugo Studeník. 

2014 spring

As the tree had responded well to the repotting, just after several months, we made first styling of the crown in rather naturalistic way.

2014 summer

This mahaleb is designed to have multiple front sides as you can see from the actual photos below (pick your favourite one...) after I recently tackled a little the dead stumps.

2015 spring

Dimensions: aprox. 55 x 60 cm (h x w)

Pot: Hugo Studeník (CZ)

Grafted juniper 'Snake charmer'

Celý článek o stromu v češtině si můžete přečíst na Bonsai Rožnov.

We stumbled accross this garden yamadori juniper back in 2005 - the tree had been growing in front of an apartment house and as it was quite overgrown at that time, it wasn´t a big deal to get a permitt to collect it.

2015

The very first touches occured in summer 2007 when we worked the big dead stumps (using only hand tools) and defined a little live veins

2007 summer

It was quite obvious right from the beginning that we couldn´t make a decent bonsai out of the tree unless we choose one of two options - either we could try to compact very long branches with extreme bending, or we could proceed horticulturaly and graft new scions down on the trunk. 

The second option was almost an instant winner for us, so in spring 2008 we grafted 3 branches on the live veins of the main trunk - for that purpose we used the branches of the same tree as the foliage seems to be quite good to work with. The following images shows the tree in summer 2009 once the grafting had been executed succesfully and the original long branches was removed.

2009 summer

2009 summer - detail of one graft

Subsequently, the tree had been repotted, fertilized and watered strongly and next summer we could make the first selection of branches.

2010 summer - this is how the tree looked like just after one growing season and before the selection of branches

In next years couple of more repotting and wiring sessions took place, however, somehow I didn´t take out the camera, so the last series of photos shows the current state of the tree after the last complete wiring and treating dead wood and live veins.

2015

The juniper is still in the beginning, regarding its maturity, but from very poor starting material we achieved to initiate a path of a decent, and hopefully some day, also nice juniper bonsai.

Dimensions: 90 x 100 cm (h x w)

Pot: Yixing

More photos can be found on a photogallery on my personal website.

Mahaleb #1

Celý článek o stromu v češtině si můžete přečíst na Bonsai Rožnov.

As every winter, when the weather gets a little warmer and the trees are not burried under the thick layer of snow, I take out deciduos trees in order to do a carving job. This was also the case of the prunus mahaleb which was collected in 2011 as one of the specimens from the very first batch of mahalebs that arrived to our garden.

2015/02

As almost every mahaleb we collected, this tree was almost bare root and without a single branchlet in the time we got it off the ground - but this is usually no problem for this species, it started to grow vigorously right after first buds had appeared in the trunk and it hasn´t ceased to do so till today :-).

Following photos came back to summer 2012 when the initial styling took place - first shot illustrates the tree prior to any pruning, the second one shows my dad making last "master touches" when it is almost done.

2012/07

And here it is how the tree came out after the session, front and back side.

2012/07

In spring 2013 we moved the tree into the current bonsai pot and we was lucky enough to witness its first blooming...

2013/05

Last series of photos show the tree from different angles as of today.

2015/02

Height: aprox. 80 cm

Pot: Made in China

Little hornbeam

Celý článek o stromu v češtině si můžete přečíst na Bonsai Rožnov.

We brought this little hornbeam home in 2007 - it had been growing near a forest road, therefore it owed its harsh look to a constant pruning done by forestmen once in a couple of years.

2015

Here are some images from the very basic styling of the crown carried out in January 2010.

2010

In spring 2013 we repotted the tree into this bonsai pot by Ondra Plšek - one shot from spring, another one from autumn.

2013

Finally, yesterday I spared a few hours to re-wire the crown and to do some little carving. Last year we inserted a stone in between the roots, however, in the future we plan to graft some seedlings in order to considerably improve nebari. New pot is also by our friend Ondra...

Dimensions: 45 x 50 cm (h x w)

Pot: Ondra Plšek (CZ)

More photos on my personal website.