• Wednesday, April 08th, 2009
Many of the trees that I have been working on over the winter are now putting out new growth and I wanted to give you an update on the way they look now.
Leafed out
Of all my trees the one I am enjoying most is this crepe mrytle. The crown of the tree from the new top I developed is looking great. I just need a mid branch on the left side and this tree is ready to go. However the pads looking a bit flat so this year I plan to work on the taper and overall thickness of the branches themselves. This tree won’t be this bare when it is completed, Right now I am just building the skeleton structure, but it will be this year that this tree becomes a finished bonsai.
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• Saturday, April 04th, 2009
I always like to share information to help other people display their trees. Although a lot of work goes into styling and caring for the tree, it is the finishing touches that really make your tree stand out in a display. Some easy touches are adding a fresh top layer of soil mix, and cleaning the bonsai pot.
Surface soil prior to show
As you can see the condition of both the soil and the pot were in pretty bad shape.
New Soil applied and the rimmed oiled
Here is the tree with just a quarter inch of new soil added and fresh moss. In order to bring out the great color of the pot I apply a thin layer of walnut oil. It has a nice satin finish compared to other oils.
The pot before oil applied
As you can see there is no depth to the pot and the color is a bit washed out.
Ready for show
What a difference! Just look how much better the color is. Even though the pot has a shine to it now, the oil will soak in and take the strong oil look away. With just a few minutes of effort the tree went from plain and ordinary to a real treasure.
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• Thursday, March 19th, 2009
Well the trees are now on display at Epcot for the next 10 weeks. The show set up went very well and we had a blast doing it. There are plenty of pictures, but I wanted to post one of my all time favorties taken of my tree by Greg Matthews.
Paul Pikel Bouganvillea at Epcot 2009
If you get the chance be sure to see the display. You won’t be disappointed!!
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• Sunday, March 15th, 2009
So the Flower and Garden Festival starts this Wednesday and I am rushing to get my tree at its best for display. Mother Nature hasn’t been too cooperative and we had a very cold winter. However my tree has produced tons of flowers, but it is taking a while to put out the leaves as well. I placed the tree outside my screen patio to get additional sunlight to get the leaves to fill in.
Bouganvillea Ready for Epcot
However with that issue taken care of, The Bonsai Societies of Florida Convention starts Thursday and I am to display two trees there. The problem again are the leaves. In this case, there aren’t really any to speak of.
Waiting for leaves to appear
I hope this peek of Spring helps many of you to get inspired to start working on your trees. This is certainly one of my favorite times of the year.
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