Blooming Day at Cascavelle

There will be a flower show at Cascavelle ( Flic-en-flac, Mauritius) this weekend : Blooming Day at Cascavelle ( 01 Aug as from 10:00 )
The orchid society will be displaying orchids as well as selling orchids there.

There will also be an ikebana display/section.

In addition Ashiq Boyjoo will be selling his hand made pots during the event.

I will be participating but not selling.
I'll display various trees in my collection, from prebonsai in late development stages to prebonsai in early development stages.

I will also be doing two introductory course on bonsai.
One from 11:00 - 12:00 & 14:00 -15:00 : Cours d'introduction sur les concepts de base de bonsaï
This should cover what is a bonsai, basic bonsai structures and basic stages in bonsai development.

The contents will be the same in both cases, just doing two to be able to reach a wider public.

Feel free to come over and say hi!

Mauritius Bonsai Club - Meeting 2015-03-07

We had an introductory course in Bonsai for our FB Mauritius Bonsai Club on the 7th March at Hem's place.
The heavy rain prevented several members from coming unfortunately.

Topics that were covered :
> What is a bonsai?
> How does a bonsai differ from other potted plants ( kusamono, topiary or your average potted plant )?
> Basic bonsai structures
> Basic characteristics a plant need that fits basic bonsai techniques
> Basic introduction on training a nursery plant into a bonsai
> Basic root pruning and nebari development
> Basic bonsai soil, watering and feeding - how to create your own soil with local materials, how to water and when to feed your plant

There were several bonsai materials in various development stages on display too.





Here are some pics












There is another event coming up on the 9th May, which has been declared "World Bonsai Day" by the World Bonsai Friendship Federation. The upcoming event will be an "Introduction to root work in bonsai cultivation"
More details on the FB event : https://www.facebook.com/events/1580464548862375/

Bilimbi rond prebonsai

This little guy is probably going to become my first massive bonsai in the long run.
I've got a bottle brush in the ground too but the trunk is nowhere as massive as this one.
I needed some help with it, the weight was a killer on the back when moving it about and Hem gave me a hand to handle this first step in transforming that nursery plant toward becoming a bonsai.

Basic info on the plant:
Latin name : Phyllanthus acidus
Common name : Bilimbi rond, Gooseberry tree
Acquisition : Medine nursery, Mauritius





I did the repotting in winter.
The tree had loss most of its leaves and there were indications of several buds starting to swell.




But there was also several places on the trunk and branches that clearly indicated that the wood was dead underneath and holding water. So I needed to work on this too.
I took the opportunity to try out the various Ryunga carving tools in the process.






I used some chalk to identify the areas to carve out or cut off.
Then proceeded with the help of Hem to carve or remove those areas.
We made use of the tree being stable in the nursery bag to do as much carving and hard work before proceeding with the repotting.













After the carving it was time to have a look at the roots and repot Mr Bilimbi Rond.





The root completely at the bottom is what I'm aiming to become my future base. This means that all those roots above on the main trunk will need to be remove and I will also need to encourage and toughen the root ball over the following years.






There is this huge root towards the middle of the future trunk line that needs to be removed, but I decided not to rush at this point. I'm keeping it there for now and will remove it and jin it at the next repotting session.




Ended up by repotting the tree in a training pot. Over the next repotting sessions I will progressively repot the tree higher and remove the unwanted roots.
After a couple of days following this first repotting, the buds that were starting to swell before the work session finally bursted some new leaves.

Bonsai Club - First informal meeting part 2

Part I here 

Last weekend we had our first informal bonsai meeting at Hem's place.

It was not something that was planned, I was just going there for a quick "Hello" and ended up with a 6 hr informal bonsai meeting, where we worked mainly on Jeanluc's plants.

Well this meeting was unplanned and we did not took any pictures methodologically but mostly randomly.

Yamadori Goyava : Carving

I think the most interesting material for me was this yamadori goyava belonging to Jeanluc Essoo.

Here's a little evolution of the tree since it was collected, courtesy of owner ( Jeanluc ).

Originally that material was not meant to be worked, but a section of deadwood caught my eye and I decided to work on it.

I think it has a huge potential to become an outstanding goyava shohin if Jeanluc managed to nudge it in the right direction over the coming years.

Old front - I think the left side should be the new front in the long run.

The section of deadwood that caught my eye. The old cambium was still on the
tree and it was keeping moisture trapped underneath which in turn will cause the wood to rot faster.
Another issue arising here, the two dead branch touching, one needs to go or get reduced.

Decided to keep the lower branch but to reduce its diameter. 

We did not do a full work on it - time was short.
It definitely needs 1 or 2 other sessions done on it.

Trying out some Lime Sulphur

We used the newly created deadwood to test some lime sulphur (or lime sulfur ) and see how it reacted.

This was purely for experimentation.

For info that dead branch was already dry and lifeless, on a fresh green carved branch I usually prefer to let it get weathered down first ( even if its not strictly necessary ). 

Ended the session on a quick "How to unwire" course :)

There were some wires on the upper branches. The tree was starting to grow into those wires, and it was more than time to remove them. We ended the session by going through the basic notions on removing wires on the branches : when and how to safely unwire by hand, how to cut wires instead of removing by hand and where to cut wires partially.

Hem and Jeanluc in the process of identifying areas to unwire

Jeanluc cutting the wires

Jeanluc cutting the wires

 Part I here 

Bonsai Club - First informal meeting part 1

Last weekend we had our first informal bonsai meeting at Hem's place.
It was not something that was planned, I was just going there for a quick "Hello" and ended up with a 6 hr informal bonsai meeting, where we worked mainly on Jeanluc's plants.

Well this meeting was unplanned and we did not took any pictures methodologically but mostly randomly.

Yamadori Sweet Acacia : Repotting

We did a repotting on a yamadori sweet acacia belonging to Jeanluc.

We went over notions such as identifying roots to prune, combing root ball, preparing free draining bonsai substrate, choose the best front.

Hem preparing the pot

Root pruning : Removing lateral roots and dead roots

Moisturizing the roots

Working on the roots

Working on a deadwood at the base of the tree

Working on a deadwood at the base of the tree

Repotting the plant using a free draining substrate.

Securing the plant in the pot

Free draining substrate and excess water flowing out freely

Boxwood : repotting

I did not follow this one completely, I was busy working on a yamadori goyava (coming up in part 2) in the meantime.