Spring time is approaching very fast during last days in our area. It will not take too long until winter will be gone definitely.
During my
walks around I use to look on fields around the village. I was
thinking about all those generations of our ancestors who were
working on such fields. Their dependence on weather influenced
strongly how they thought about nature. If weather was good, there
was enough rain, but not too much, and sunny summer, crop was good
and everybody was happy. If it was not the case, when winter was to
long, spring too dry or some other weather disturbances, there was
not enough food. We live in very different era now. Global trade is
able to deliver any kind of goods all around the globe including
food. Almost any kind of crop and food is delivered from one
continent to the other. We are lucky there is no major famines
anymore, and local shortages of food due to bad weather conditions
during growing season are eliminated by trading.
But
we still understand how important successful growing seasons are. I
use to think something like inherited bond with our ancestors and
nature force us to look on our trees in spring time. We are looking
for any sign of spring, enjoying swelling buds and fresh green
growth. This is signal for us, that does not matter how freezing
winter was, it will definitely loose its force and come to an end,
some day in March (in Central Europe). We can see that life is
strong, and new season can bring us new hope and joy. And maybe
that's why I use to look at my trees in early spring daily, sometimes
multiple times during single day. I love this dynamic process of
change on the trees in springtime.
For
me the first messenger of spring in my garden is Cornus mas
(Dogwood). Tree from this post use to open its flower buds long
before anything else wakes up in my garden. In Slavic mythology we
have mythological
female character dedicated to springtime
and her name is Vesna.
In our language “vesna” is one of the poetic names for the spring. So
when I was thinking about name for this tree I decided I will give
it name after goddess Vesna.
I have
this tree since 2009. It is collected tree from the wild but not by
myself, I purchased it back then since I needed some material for
upcoming workshop. When brought home I decided it will not go to
workshop with me. Tree was not ready and not much could have been
done in short time. Tree was most probably grazed into its shape by
wild animals. Canopy was full of the dried out branches growing in
different directions, cross growing and contorted. It took me many
hours just to cut all this dry stuff. You can still see cut marks on
branches.
Tree had
one of the main branches which did not fit overall design plan. I
tried to air layer it back in 2010 and you can find on blog it
had failed. During Walter Pall visit in my garden back in 2011 he made tree critique of this tree and after this it get its present general shape. You can find several other air layering attempts on tree dedicated to improve nebari. There will be some
other works since nebari will need improvement in the future.
Tree was
repotted two times already. First time not major root work was done
and a lot of original soil was left as it was. Second repotting into
temporary bonsai pot was done in March
2013 . Many unnecessary roots were removed, but many were left
not to disturb the tree too much. This is the reason why tree is
sitting on rather high hill. Plan is to plant it into much flatter
pot next time and hopefully hill will be reduced as much as possible.
Having
tree with this hill planting you can have problems with drying out
roots in top level of the pot. Only way how I was able to avoid this
problem was to cover whole surface by moss. I have to say it works
well. Right now top level of the soil is wet enough and is full of
new fiber roots. You can see them on some pictures.
Last
year the tree was one of my entries into Bonsai Slovakia exhibition.
Not much work was done on it then. So this season was just about the
time to make few reductions and some minor wiring. You can see the
result on pictures. Wire will go down in early summer most probably
after defoliation before it will bite in.
I can
say this tree makes me very happy. It is changing through whole
season, flowering, bringing fruits, changing leaves colors. And I
found this tree to be photogenic, probably most photographed tree as
you can find on my blog.
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| One of the first pictures from 2010. Unfortunately I do not have pictures in container as purchased and untouched. Despite I tend to make a lot of pictures, I did not documented early stages of this tree in my garden. |
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| 10-2010 |
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| Late Orctober 2010 |
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| my air layering attempt in 2010 |
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| In June 2011 tree was reduced after recommendations from Master Walter Pall. |
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| July 2011 |
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| July 2011 |
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| August 2011 - you can see emerging new growth which filled empty space in canopy on right side of the picture |
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| April 2012 |
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| August 2012 with "black bird protection" |
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| November 2012 |
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| August 2012 - nebari improvement attempt with air layer |
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| Early March 2013 - after taking out from winter storage just before repotting |
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| roots are just fine in zeolite substrate |
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| And in new pot |
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| April 2013 covered with moss |
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| October 2013 |
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| November 2013 |
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| November 2013 - flower buds prepared for spring |
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| March 2013 in flower |
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| April 2014 on Bonsai Slovakia exhibition |
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| July 2014 with fruits all over the tree |
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| February 2015 after wiring and editing. |
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| February 2015 after wiring and editing. |
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| February 2015 |
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| February 2015 |
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| February 2015 |
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| February 2015 |
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| Visible little scars after removing dozens of dry branches on first year. |
