Facebook – Expressions of Grace Bonsai

Autumnal Pruning and Wiring

Xavier Martinez — Fri, 29 Oct 2021 11:28:56 +0000

Well…it has been a long time since I last posted and for that I apologise. The last few months have seen me busy with my secondary occupation and thankfully, the bonsai have thrived without much intervention. In truth, I find that Sept-Oct can be a period for rest and reflection. The last of the fertiliser has been applied at the commencement of Autumn along with a final bug spray. Though – the apples have really been attacked this year and have needed constant attention!!

I also had a visit from my favorite potter in September and she had some beautiful work for me to purchase. A separate post will follow with pictures and details soon. If you are unable to wait then have a look for Deiceramics on Facebook and Instagram. I have also done a little bit of work on two nursery plant projects which I can share with you now.

I found this dwarf Azalea struggling in the corner of a local garden center. Like many of my projects this one cost very little but has seen several ‘do-overs’ during the last few years.

Unfortunately, I have no earlier images to show how far it has evolved. I have wired and pruned it to maximise the flowering opportunities. I removed a lot of additional buds to ensure next years flush is at its best.

This Buddleia was another garden centre cast-off which I planted into a growing bed several years ago. It has been heavily pruned up to 4 times / year and was then transplanted this March.

The trunk has majestic movement and with a little more branch reduction in 2022 this specimen should make a promising bonsai.

I will repot this into a ceramic next year.

Decidious pruning & Wiring

We have now reached the time for pruning and wiring of some of our decidious trees. The optimal time is just as the leaves have browned off and begum to fall. We normally have about 2 weeks to wire and prune whilst the tree can still allocate resources. Any later than this and I find that work can be detrimental to the health of the bonsai.

So…right now two of my favorite species are dropping their leaves: The Linden (Small leaf Lime) and The Red Oak. The Linden is a relatively robust tree that has soft bark. Care needs to be taken when wiring but with patience you can obtain fantastic results. The Red Oak are much smaller examples and the wood is a lot harder to bend.

If your tree is still in development then I would advise you to prune only those buds where you are already happy with the branch girth. I find it better to wire out the long shoots into shorter and more interesting shapes. Invariably, these get pruned back heavily a year or two later…

This Linden was purchased from a local hedging supplier in 2017. I removed the top 4ft and left the tree to recover for 2 years in a grow-pot.

It had been pruned twice / year and fed heavily. The roots are still a mess beneath the soil line and I have yet to decide how many of the visible ones will be kept.

I have wired the secondary branches ‘out’ to optimise space for next years shoots. I reduced the ‘visual’ length of the shoots by wiring in bends at appropriate bud sites.

This still requires the removal of one of the lower branches to avoid inverse taper developing.

Some of the wiring has been done with the knowledge that I shall be removing the upper third of the trunk. This will be achieved by applying an air-layer in late May. The site of this is shown by the two black lines. I have traced in white what will hopefully become a new potensai.

The reason for this operation is to eradicate the ugly stright trunk and allow a new ‘tapered’ apex to be developed from the existing lower branch.

It will be frustrating having to wait another year for the air layer removal to take place but I am looking forward to seeing how this looks in 2023.

Red Oak - Pre and Post Autumnal Work

I purchased 10 x 2-year-old whips in 2015 and left them to grow in plastric pots till 2019. They were very slow to grow and I had no clear plan for their development. In the end, I decided to treat them all as Mame projects and secured them in small ceramics. These have large leaves so I tend to remove at least 65% of the growth to give an ‘impression’ of leaf pads.

The leaves turned a brilliant red in late September and then dried out by last week. I removed the final few leaves yesterday by carefully peeling them away from the new bud growth. I removed unsightly stubs and rubbed off the buds I did not need. I then wired a few of the branches out to optimise next year’s shoot growth. The branches can be quite hard so be careful with your bending!

Japanese maple - Autumnal Pruning

The one tree that must be watched for leaf-drop is your Japanese Maples. Due to the amount of water movement they have in Spring I always do my pruning work around this time. At the moment the leaves are about 50% still green so I shall wait another week before I commence pruning and wiring them.

Off all of the decidious varieties the Japanese Maple benefits most from having its development work done at leaf drop. The process is no different from what I have described above but i am sure i will add a few pictures of me carrying out this work in a later post.

This is a ‘must-do’ activity. if you forget, then your next safe opportunity for pruning will be in late May 2022.

Happy Bonsaing

Expressions of Grace Bonsai – The Future?

Xavier Martinez — Sun, 13 Jun 2021 11:53:45 +0000

Expressions of Grace Bonsai has been an idea for so long that bringing it into a business reality has always seemed ‘just out of reach’. Learning and growing bonsai has been a hobby for over 20 years and has gradually overtaken my garden and my life! Many of these trees feel like ‘old friends’ and the actual prospect of selling them has always stopped me from progressing.

In 2018, I started running a bi-monthly market stall and enjoyed the 1:1 experience of selling my bonsai to local people. The joy of sharing my knowledge and experiences helped me overcome the reality of losing my ‘old friends’. It was fun seeing how many other people were caught by the bonsai bug – thankfully not a variant of the greenfly bug !

As you enter the nursery

Walking to the garden

My new raised bed

A banquet of Chinese Elm

Loads of Larch

Yamadori& Nursery beds

Yamadori BBQ Patio

The cuttings nursery

Over 100 Jaapanese Maple 4-year-old Saplings

I also tried selling on EBay that year and though I had success, I found the lack of personal contact with customers difficult. For me, selling a bonsai requires more than just a ‘handing it over’ approach – it requires a sharing of all that is crucial to the ongoing health of that particular tree. They are not children but they are living entities and they do each have unique identifiable nuances that require understanding if they are to thrive.

I started this website as a means to satisfy that need to share experience and knowledge with anybody interested. I wanted to show that bonsai is NOT a mysterious and difficult art form. There are no secrets held in some bonsai equivalent of the ‘magicians circle’. I have also posted many articles on my Facebook site but now accept I am unable to run both effectively. Therefore, I have decided that all efforts will go into building a quality website that centres on growing a bonsai community (no pun intended) – with some sales.

I will be closing down Facebook and ask that all of those people who have followed me do me one big last favour. Go to my website and say ‘YES’ to accepting notifications. Then, when I post new blogs or add more trees to my collection, you will have the opportunity to drop in and see what is new. Perhaps even comment or put in a query to buy one. You could even plan a visit during a holiday break

I must also thank all of those wonderful new customers who purchased some of my bonsai and potensai. I will not pretend that the volume of interest shown through the various EBay auctions didn’t surprise me and some of the final winning bids left me feeling just a little overwhelmed. How do you put a true value on time and effort is the question? Anyway, rest assured that over the next week or two I will be posting numerous blog articles covering each of the bonsai species sold.

Huge Chinese Elm

Mame Japanese Maple

Rescued Chinese Elm

Fuji Cherry

Trident Maple Clump

Larch Starter Tree

Large Chinese Elm

Mame Ash

Trident Maple

Mame Oak

Small Chinese Elm

Thank you if you took the time to read this and please feel free to comment with any suggestions that may help me in the future. I have included various views of my garden nursery and I encourage anybody to make an appointment to visit. No purchases are necessary and coffee is always available. Just beware that once I start to talk it is very difficult to make me stop…

Keep on learning…

Regards, Xavier

(next article – What should you be pruning right NOW)

Happy New Year from Expressions of Grace Bonsai

Xavier Martinez — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 14:31:52 +0000

I know it has been absolutely ages since I have posted on this site – BIG apologies. I could list any number of excuses but the truth is I have been too caught up actually managing the big increase of bonsai and potensai now developing in my backyard nursery. It truly is a full time occupation just keeping on top of the pruning, potting and wiring! Not only that but I have also increased the number of display benches and nursery beds – many thanks to my son who helped build / dig them for me

I will also mention that 2019 and 2020 were difficult years for both myself and my children. My wife and Father both struggled with illness throughout these years and recently died at home with us all present (Deo Gratias). Despite the shock it remains a blessing that we were able to care for them and indeed be present for their deaths. Both are sorely missed. My wife however insisted that the business must keep on going – so now it is time for this to happen

This year I will be looking to sell some of my bonsai on Ebay and through private visits to my nursery – by appointment. Market sales are very unlikely due to the impact of lockdown regulations but I hope that will change in the near future. It is definitely worth highlighting that I post a lot of updates on my Facebook pages so I would urge you to have a quick look if you enjoy my ‘style’ of writing. I will be spending time on reviewing this website over the next few months so please remain patient.

You will see from my Facebook pages that I have been covering a range of bonsai topics with a reasonable degree of explantion and accompanying pictures. I do intend to include a lot of this information on this website as time allows.

I have been enrolled with Bonsai Mirai for over 2 years and the level of both practical and technical knowledge I have gained has certainly changed my approach. With this in mind many important updates will be made in relation to specific care routines for trees. I will be updating the portfolio projects with current images of the various trees in development. There are definitely some impressive changes to see.

All bagged up with nowhere to grow.

In Nov of 2018 I discovered a wholesale nursery, Aveland Trees, that provides home grown saplings for larger scale projects. Much of the stock is sourced from seeds recovered in the surrounding countryside. The owner is really helpful and allows me to recover a large number of unwanted oak ‘rejects’. Just the sort of thing that bonsai enthusiasts would love! In the last couple of years I have collected over 60 oaks, hornbeam, cherry and beech.

These are cleaned and root pruned and placed into washing up bowls for a couple of years. So far I have had great success in keeping them alive and feel very confident that some of these will become future bonsai.

Root pruned and potted up

This year will also see the early results of my 2015 Japanese Maple seedlings that I found at a local carboot sale for a few pounds. They have been left to grow with just minor branch selection taking place but are now ready for entry into the potensai category.

March is going to be very busy with all of this repotting of maples!!

One of my Juniper Projects

Finally, I just want to thank all of you who have taken the time to comment on some of my blogs. I do read them and it does encourage me to keep on going. It is just a pain how many inappropriate bot comments are sent in for me to screen out. I am also going to try and find a plugin that allows me to notify people of new posts and stuff.

If there is anything you would like to ask me about then feel free to do so.

I pray that this year keeps you all well and happy.

God Bless, Xavier

Shop Update in Progress

Xavier Martinez — Wed, 03 May 2017 13:22:36 +0000

Hi,

Just to let you know I am in the process of adding a shop section to the site so expect some changes as I catalogue, price and list the bonsai I have grudgingly decided are open to purchase.

You will also be aware some other sections of the site are still under development so I ask you to be patient.

Thank You