Picea abies #2 - Smrek obyčajný #2

Common Spruce before and after styling. This prebonsai was firstly styled at our club meeting and exhibition at New Living Gardens. For more pics clic here:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=danubius.bonsai.klub&set=a.3186221604772846

The left strong bar branch was wired and then removed :)

+++ R.I.P. +++

Sad post. I lost some trees after last hard and long winter. The main reason was, I think, that I underestimated winter watering. Most of the trees were under the snow cover and I thought it would be enough. After a few warm march days, many trees started open their buds, and then just stopped and dried. Maybe I did not watered enough in warm March. So, I think, the main problem was watering, not the hard winter.
Smutné správy. Stratil som niekoľko stromov po dlhej a silnej zime. Hlavný problém je asi to, že som podcenil zimné polievanie. Väčšina stromov bola pod snehom a myslel som že to stačí. Počas teplého marca sa začali stromy prebúdzať a otvárať puky, zrazu zastali a uschli. Možno som nedostatočne polieval až v marci, počas niekoľkých teplých dní. Každopádne, hlavný dôvod bolo zlé polievanie, nie tvrdá zima.

This one is dead :( I´m really sad about it. It was transplanted into this pot in september 2016. It was green all the winter, and in March started to dry. New buds didn´t open. Maybe I pruned roots too hard. I did it before, without harm, and the tree responded with strong growth. But not this time.

Tento smrek je mŕtvy, som z toho fakt smutný. Presádzal som ho do misky v septembri 2016. Bol sviežo zelený celú zimu a v marci začal schnúť. Nové puky sa neotvorili. Možno som príliš zrezal korene pri presádzaní. Urobil som to už predtým a strom reagoval silným rastom. Nie tentokrát.

This three shohins are gone. Trident maple, Euonymus and Cotoneaster. I wired Cotoneaster this spring, and it was fine, with buds starting to open. I could see new fresh small leaves, but they stopped to enlarge and the plant dried :(.

Tieto tri malé šohiny sú preč. javor dlanitolistý, bršlen a skalník. Skalník som na jar drôtoval a bol určite v dobrom stave, puky sa začínali zväčšovať. Mohol som vidieť malé rozvíjajúce sa listy, ktoré zrazu postáli a uschli :(

  

All my Trident maples have problems, after the winter. Not just the small ones, even really big trees are wakeing very slowly. I´m sure they didn´t like the cold winter. I keep them in big and deep containers and I think they were wet enough. They need more water than another species, probably. On the other side, all my small palmatums even in small pots are OK and growing like crazy ! I don´t understand.

Všetky moje javory burgerove majú problémy po zime. Nielen malé, ale aj naozaj veľké stromy, ktoré mám realatívne vo veľkých a hlbokých nádobách. Som si istý že sa im nepáčila tuhá zima. Substrát bol istotne dosť vlhký, ibaže sa nevedeli napiť. Potrebujú pravdepodobne na prežitie viac vody ako iné druhy. Na druhej strane, malé palmaťáky aj v malých miskách sú úplne v poriadku a rastú ako bláznivé. Nechápem.

Norway spruce from scratch - Picea abies #01 - Smrek od nuly

This is my first Norway spruce, digged from my mother in low´s  garden, probably in spring 2010 or 2011. It was on future building site and I decided to keep it. It was really terrible material. 

I had no spruce at that time and I thought it would be a good learning material for me. I put it in the plastic tub and immediately cut one of the two equal trunks.

  
This is the first picture from spring 2012.

Inicial styling was done in our Danubius bonsai club meeting in august 2012. I left only 3 living branches and bent them into new position...

        

I let it grow freely next season. In september 2013 I transplanted the tree into smaller training pot with better substrate. I completely bare-rooted the tree and wash off the rest of old substrate. Well, this was rather silly idea, but the tree responded well and start to grow. I´m a lucky newbie :)

 

This is a picture from November 2014 with a little more matured tree. The left low branch, right branch and the appex were just better fixed in new position.



Another club meeting took place in the summer of 2015. Spruce was slightly restyled. I turned the lowest branch to jin and rewired the tree. Now after 5 years it starts to look like a tree, at least in my eyes.

      
    
Last pictures from January 2016.