A Smattering of Accents

These past couple of weeks have been so hot - and so dry - that I positively welcomed last night's deluge.  And since today isn't really that much cooler, I look back with a bit of nostalgia to the days when it actually was too damn cold... yep, there's no pleasing some people :D

Despite the uncommonly hard winter we had - which BTW makes 2 years in a row - everything in the garden came out in a rush last spring.  Or at least, everything that was going to come out, came out early.  Anything else that didn't, was not going to cooperate for the rest of its natural life. 

Among the precocious performers this year were a magenta-coloured Hepatica (seriously, magenta), Lily of the Valley that flowered weeks earlier than they should have, a Trident Maple that sulked after the hard winter of 2009 but didn't get any winter protection last year either, and a lot of Accent Plants that we didn't think would survive wearing a foot of snow on their heads for nearly 3 weeks. And the reality is that getting the garden geared up to face a similar hard winter will mean several weeks' worth of prep work.  Actually we have lost more trees from drying out while we were on holiday in the summer than we have from a hard winter.  And we have lost more bonsai pots to cats and birds going on the rampage rather than the ravages of the cold.  In point of fact, our broken Bonsai & Accent Pot score for this year is Birds = 5, Frost = 0.

So here was one of our earliest flowering Accents this Spring - a blue Soldanella (possibly carpatica) from Poland which we have had since 2007.

This one self-seeds relatively well and we have also broken up the parent plant several times over.  Being an Alpine, it may not be the easiest thing to keep alive in the wet winters of the UK.  This guy has been in the same (Japanese) pot since 2008 and is planted in neat Akadama.  It's probably also due a re-pot sometime, but at the moment it's still taking in water quite easily.  It lives on the shelving right by an exterior wall, and this is all the winter protection it has ever had.  I still check the Accent Plants almost every day in the Winter, but watering is done only when absolutely needful.

This second one started out as a planting of yellow Iris - possibly reticulata - in a 'dragon's egg' pot that Walsall used to make a long, long time ago.  (David Jones has since stopped making them and we only have three.)  I created the planting about 3 years ago and whatever was the companion plant to the Irises has since died; the Irises themselves have done absolutely bugger all, but 2 years ago, this Epimedium self-seeded itself into the mix.  This is the first year it has flowered.  The first picture shows the flower spike just coming out in February:

And these are the fully open Epimedium flower spikes, with the Iris leaves untidily lying around after having done bugger-all again this year.  The Accent Plant in the background is a clump of Hakonechloa, also in a Walsall pot.

And I leave you with this image of the earliest Accent to flower this year - something like late January; a Buttercup with a posh name: Ranunculus ficaria 'Coppernub' in a teacup-style pot by Brian Albright.

We have had this guy for a while now, you can see what it looked like in the Spring of 2009 in this post. 

Red, White & Blue... well, -ish.

I have bazillions of pics floating around in my Sony Ericsson just waiting to get downloaded onto this blog, so you'll have to excuse me if the next couple of posts read a bit like a text message.

Here are some pics that I took earlier in Spring but never got around to posting on this blog.

This Japanese Quince (Chojubai) is one that we've had for several years but rarely goes out on show, simply because it's rarely been in flower at the right time.  It's one that can go out on display as a shohin (it stands about 5.5 in / 14 cm high) but it can also double up as an accent plant for a larger tree.  I've seen Chojubai used in Japan as a companion (or shitakusa I believe is their term) planting to great effect.

Pot is generic Japanese, I believe.

Okay, not quite red.  Sort of red-ish (hence the title).

And although most people would say this Japanese Quince is a white-flowering variety, it actually has a sort of a greenish tinge.  Not sure about the pot of this one, I think it could be Northern Chinese.  This one is still a WIP, and is intended to be used as a mixed accent planting rather than as a stand-alone bonsai.  Again it would be in the shohin size, roughly about 8 in / 20 cm high.

Here's a closer look at the white... er, green ... er, white-ish flowers.  If they look yellow to you, don't blame me - I'd say it was the screen resolution!  Are you saying it's my lighting?  Nevah!! :D  

This one is a Veronica that came out of a local garden centre; it's a variety commonly used as ground cover for borders.  IIRC, the pot is one that I made at our local bonsai club night; we have Reg Bolton over every year to do 2 sessions on pot making.  At the first session he brings over the clay and helps us shape the pots; then he takes them home to fire.  During the second session, we glaze our pots and he takes those home again to fire.  Just a bit of fun, and one thing I'd highly recommend as a club activity.

What is nice about Veronica is the length of the flowering season.  I took this pic way before Easter and it is still in flower today.

More on the blue (although I suppose someone would qualify them as blue-violet) are these Grape Hyacinths that TOH picked up for less than a quid several years ago.  They completely filled out the pot they were planted in; I think I broke these up into 5 batches.  This batch is in a Bryan Albright pot. 

And another blue-ish guy is a Soldanella carpatica which we bought in Poland in 2006.  This self-seeds fairly freely and we had also managed to break up the original plant into two.  This is one of the offshoots.

Yeah, I know. He looks purple, doesn't he?  So I got it wrong. 

Oh well.

Better late than... even later?

Well, in the last post I did say I would take pics at our club meeting.  And I did.

And I did say that I'd post said pics if the light was good to my Sony Ericsson.  And it wasn't.

So rather than put out some over/under/badly-exposed shots for you to go "huh?" over, how about if I make up for it with more pics of the accent plants that are starting to come out in the garden.  Some of these were my earliest guinea pigs subjects for last year's posts, so to a certain extent it is interesting (for me at the very least) to see how they've come along since then.

This is a white Hepatica nobilis which first came out in this post.  It's only started coming out into flower in the past couple of days and there are at least two more flower buds waiting in the wings.  Just to show that everything is late this year, my 2009 pic dates back to late February and the flowers were much further along.  This planting is due for a break-up fairly soon, as the seedlings are now in their second year (you can see them in last year's photo). 

You get a better look at the pot's colour in this shot, though.  I'm  not sure if the leaves should actually be there, as they are last year's foliage and are really rather manky looking.  Despite the hard winter, none of our established Hepatica (and most of the seedlings) went fully dormant; they just hung on to every last bit of greenery they could.

And only just out by a day or so is what I believe to be a Scilla (possibly siberica), although its flowers are looking a little pale so maybe it isn't what I think it is....

This is in a Walsall pot, about 2.5 in / 6.5 cm high.

Last year I wasn't so sure this plant would make it - the double flowered form Hepatica transsilvanica 'Mrs Elison Spence':

It was either vine weevil or the alpine mix which didn't agree with my plant.  I now try to transfer all of our alpines into an akadama mix, which seems to suit our watering style (and our garden conditions) better.  For the vine weevil, we use a mix of organic (nematodes) and chemical (Provado) control.  Or I feed the buggers to the birds.  Either way, I'm happy to report that I have managed to save the parent plant as well.  This one apparently tends to flower before the foliage appears, but I will also have to say that it hung on to its very large and not very pretty leaves all throughout the very cold winter we just had.  I'm not quite sure who the potter for this one is, so let me do a bit of digging first.  In the meantime, if anyone recognises the pot, do give me a shout.

This is one of my experiments at making multiple-plant groupings for a longer period of interest.  This is one of the first Snowdrops (Galanthus) that has flowered for me in a pot, so I'm feeling a bit more encouraged to try different plantings.  The rest of the composition looks like it will need more summer interest.

Oh, and before I forget - here's the blue Primula from the last post, but just two weeks along and its pompom is all out.  Well, almost.

It's Partayyyy Time!!! Bonsai Club night tonight...

And everyone's decking out in their finest - at least the bonsai and accent plants are.

And since we've been through an unseasonably cold winter for this part of the world, everyone in the club will be mad keen to show whatever has come out of hibernation.  Of course I'm no exception, duh.  But being the generous and giving (showoff - errr, wait, ignore that) person that I am, I thought I'd give you guys a sneak peek of what I'm taking to the club.  And if the light at the club hall is kind to my Sony Ericsson, I'll take home some more pics to show you later this evening. 

Here is a shohin Chinese juniper that started its life as an informal upright at least 10 years ago.  It wasn't a bad-looking tree then - as a matter of fact, when someone saw it a year after we had acquired it, he suggested we enter it into a very prestigious national show.  But we had already decided it would be better off as a semi-cascade, and since then the invitation to display the tree has never again been tendered.  Heh. But we still feel it was the right thing to do - if a bit drastic.  Achieving the change in shape also meant a lot of wiring (I did say I had gotten a lot of practice in an earlier post), and sometimes Junipers can sulk when treated this way.  Because he did get the heavy metal thing going back then. Yo.

He was also moved into this unglazed Walsall pot, which gives Teacher-san kittens every time he checks our trees, as the cylindrical shape is one that he feels is difficult to keep watered correctly.  Walsall have since stopped using this clay, so I do regret not buying every single one of these that had come out then.

Here is the detail of the rear of the tree, showing 2 jins which are the remains of rather heavy branches.  Had they stayed, we would have wound up with a pronounced lump in the middle of the tree, I bet.

This is one of our larger shohins, measuring 8 in / 20 cm from the feet of the pot.  I don't think it has ever gone out on public display - as it has taken forever for the juvenile foliage to sort itself out - but we have taken it out to the club a couple of times.  Club nights are more like family to us, they don't really count as public, if you see what I mean.

And here's the detail of the Primula in a Japanese pot.  I believe I have the plant's label somewhere, but there's bound to be someone at the club who'll be able to tell me what it is.  It will look better when it's fully out in flower, and even better in 3 years' time when it will have filled out the pot a bit more.

I did mention on Twitter that I would be bringing the microscopic Aquilegias, and I am.  And on the other end of the scale, I am bringing this Kusamono which is a green Ophiopogon variety, a tall bronzey grass whose label has gone the way of the wind, and some other nondescript grass that is only kept within the planting on sufferance (I just keep pulling it out when I have nothing better to do with my time).  Here is what it looked like in summer:

And these are the Ophiopogon fruit which have stayed all through the winter:

I took the Kusamono out of its pot nearly 2 years ago and it has spent all winter outdoors, albeit protected by a whole load of other potted plants around it.  Still, it was covered with snow like everything else.  One day I will find a suiban which will complement the colours of the planting better than this one. (In fact I do know of one potter who has this shade of blue... :D)  But still, this one is the right size, so it will have to do for now.

Unfortunately my Hepaticas and Soldanella are not quite fully out in flower.  My double Hepatica 'Mrs Elison Spence' is only just starting to come out and it doesn't look like anything much at the moment.  What a bummer. 

We are bound to have lots of accent plant lovers tonight, even some people from other local clubs.  Will be great to see if they'll have brought their stuff.  Maybe we can even start doing some barter.  Because boy, do I have some nice stuff coming out... Any takers?

Anyone up for a guessing game?

Our friend Robert gave us several of these seedlings last year and they promptly went into these thimble pots.  Think you recognise what sort of plant they are?  No, they are not baobabs.

Okay, here's their big brother.  Does that give you a better clue?  No, it's not a cabbage either.

Just to give you an idea of scale, I've included the moss accent plant, which as I've mentioned in a previous post is about 1 inch / 2.54 cm high.  So although the 'trunks' look chunky in these photos (and I suppose proportionally they are), the plants are really rather minute.

I believe TOH got the two 'square' thimble pots from one of the potters at the now-defunct Southampton Balloon & Flower Festival, but cannot say for sure.  The moss planting is in a Japanese pot that we got at the Green Club during one of the Kokofu shows.  Absolutely no clue who made the larger round pot.

So a lot of our accent plants are starting to come out of winter dormancy.  And a lot of the trees as well.  Which will mean moving everything around in the cold greenhouse and making space for the more vigorous varieties.

Oh yes, I suppose you're still wondering what these plants are?  They're not a dwarf variety so here's what they'll eventually look like one day; well not precisely like these ones as this is a photo of my flower bed:

Yup, Aquilegias.  Don't ask me what colour - I'll either have to remember to ask Robert or wait to see what will happen if they do eventually flower.  Which will either be spectacularly great or spectacularly bizarre, as flowers or fruit don't reduce in size...

First Bonsai Re-potting Day of the Year....

... and it was bloody cold.  Whatever body parts that could've frozen off - did; or at least it felt like it.

Teacher-san came down and we worked on whatever trees we could.  It should have been a mega re-potting day but we were slowed down by a lot of frozen rootballs.  Several got started on in the morning, put into the cold greenhouse to thaw, then picked up again in the afternoon. 

Never realised either what a funny sound a frozen rootball makes when you thunk it (to check if it's really frozen, not just for the sake of thunking, OK).

Anyway, here's one of the smaller guys that got re-potted.  A Lonicera nitida (normally a hedging plant here) which is one of TOH's WIPs.  This was bought at a club auction for a couple of quid last year.  The horizontal jin was shortened by about 6 inches (15 cm) and I believe TOH has plans of re-working the jin at the front to make it look more naturally weathered.  This is a shohin-sized tree, probably about 7 in / 18 cm from base of the pot.

The other bonsai we worked on yesterday are a bit too big for me to photograph at home, so if they're ever taken to a show later in the year, maybe I'll post photos here.  The long cotoneaster cascade will have to wait until we find a better pot for it, though.

So, on to other smaller stuff. 

This is an overpotted Cristata Davallia fern, which I got last year.  I was told it goes dormant in the winter but it's held on to its one frond despite the cold.

Here is a group of cyclamen in flower, plus a moss accent.  To give an idea of scale, the moss in the thimble pot is less than an inch (2.54 cm) high. The cyclamen self-seeded in the greenhouse about 3 years ago and this is the second year they've flowered.  Their corms haven't grown much bigger, nor do their leaves get any larger, or any more numerous.

I'll tell you what I should've taken a photo of, though - TOH's Peach Cobbler, which was an absolute delight.  We did linger over lunch with Teacher-san, talking about pots and going over the latest issue of the Nippon Bonsai Association's magazine.  Anything to stay out of the cold, as far as my interests were concerned...

The Calm before the Storm

This here is an unhappy bunny getting ready to give a good rant.  But before I incinerate anyone, I may as well break up the multitudinous lines of text with a few pretty pics.

One of several Camellias in the garden that we will never convert into a bonsai.  Why?  Check out the size of its leaves and the flower.  Not unless the bonsai is going to be 4-foot tall.  And we already have one of those (and no, that bonsai is not a Camellia, it's a yamadori Scots Pine).  AFAIK, nothing will reduce the size of that flower - no matter how small the pot you put it in, no matter how little food you give it.  And if you are starving your bonsai you ought to be ashamed of yourself.  (Although I suppose we could get into a technical discussion about whether plants really 'eat' or not....)

 

And on the other end of the scale, here's a 2-year old Blackberry (Rubus fructicosus) accent plant that self-seeded itself in the garden (yes, thank you blackbirds) and is about 3 in / 18 cm including the pot.

OK, so the lay-out artist in me is satisfied.  Back to my fuming and fulminating in my corner here....

Howling Wind Casualty

This accent plant, a hardy Geranium in a Lotus pot was the first (and hopefully, the only) casualty of the strong wind we've been having all day today.  We've had this plant a long, long time - it's one of the first accent plants TOH ever put together.  The whole thing stood about 3 in / 8 cm from the base of the pot.  Said pot has now gone the way of Humpty Dumpty. 

I suppose this is where you're supposed to make lemonade when life gives you lemons.  I'd been saying for a long while that I'd like to convert this plant into a kusamono ball, but the thought of having to hoik it up out of the pot had put me off - THAT is the hassle with strongly incurved pots.

Well I won't have that trouble now, will I? 

Just as well I took photos of the geranium while it was in a pot, I guess.

But being me, I always have to look at the other side of the coin; which is, where am I going to get another cheap Lotus pot like the one that got broken?

Someone's been busy

And it wasn't me. Nossiree.

So here is a photo tribute to all the hard graft TOH has done by way of winter prep in the cold greenhouse where most of the shohin and mame are kept: tidying up and clearing out all the dead leaves and what not, laying down slug pellets and giving a winter prune to the deciduous trees that have done a leaf dump.

Not that it's the best-looking greenhouse in the world, mind.  Note that we are in a hard water area, witnessed by all the limescale marks on the shelving and the pots.

Here's what you see of the cold greenhouse as soon as you walk in.  Evergreens or those still in leaf have been moved up to the light.  Those that have fully shed their leaves have been moved to the bottom shelves.

And to your left as you walk in the door.  The fun will be in Spring when everything bursts out into leaf - then it will be Changing Rooms in the Greenhouse all over again.

And on the right, with the neighbours' dead leaves and the grape vine just visible beyond the glass.

 

And because it looks so striking, here is a close-up of the red maple and primula kusamono on that last top shelf.  The pot is Czech (Isabelia?) in case you're wondering.

Of course, there are still the warm greenhouse and the coldframes to go, but I'm just being nitpicky now...

Hiding a multitude of sins

Aside from the seven-lobed maple under the pergola, the first bits of autumn colour have shown themselves in the garden among the accent plants. Among the first to turn was this Thalictrum:
And then of course there's this Astilbe (one of my finds in the Alpine nurseries of Austria):

And the multitude of sins that are (hopefully) being hidden?

The pots (especially the first photo) are sh*tty dirty. So NOW you notice. Feh.

A Feast of Accents

Accent plants and kusamono bonsai, that is. Given their size, some of these below are designed to be shown on their own, as the central figure of a display. In Japan, kusamono bonsai is the primary bonsai display material during the summer, while the trees are left to get on with the business of growing.

Starting it off with a little drama; Hosta 'Fire & Ice', about 8 in / 20 cm in height (excluding the flower spike). Always a joy to see a hosta that has managed to remain slug-free, whatever the time of the year:


An arrangement for drier conditions: Raoulia and Saxifraga stolonifera planted (with great patience) into aquarium rock. Planting about 4 in / 10 cm in height:


I believe this one here is Thalictrum kiusianum, whose origins are the mountains of Japan. Unlike its taller cousins, this variety is a little tuft about 3 in / 18 cm high (excluding the flower spikes):


This is an Erodium with an unidentified variegated plant (that eventually goes woody) in a striking Ian Baillie pot. Diameter of pot is about 6 in / 15 cm:


A study in greens and browns, this smaller kusamono has two types of grass (one a Japanese Acorus that has more to do with diva than herbaceous) and Viola hederacea. Pot is about 3 in / 8 cm across:


For some reason, this year, Robert's Sempervivum (normally tiny) accent plant came out with the longest flower spike ever:


Standing a little over 1 ft / 30 cm high from the ground, the rootball of this Japanese painted fern kusamono lifts itself about 5 in / 12.5 cm out of its pot:


One of Robert's miniature Hostas, in a small (2 in / 5 cm diameter) Walsall pot, perched rather creatively on a flint rock:



Rather a large planting, this kusamono is Hakonechloa grass and Astilbe just coming out in flower. The actual base of the planting is only about 10 in / 26 cm across, but with the astilbe in full leaf, the whole kusamono overflows a tray which is about 15 in / 38 cm in diameter. From base of the tray to tip of the tallest flower spike is nearly 18 in / 46 cm:


All the above were on exhibit at our club show at Humbees of Marwell, courtesy of various members of the society.

Another newbie: Lipstick & Golden Jubilee

Although I've been growing the plants for over a year now, this accent composition was just created this spring: Fragaria chiloensis 'Lipstick' and Agastache foeniculum 'Golden Jubilee'.

Both plants came from the same alpine nursery in Austria.

I've always liked playing with lines and colours, and what perhaps doesn't show as well in this photo is the marked difference in the shades of the leaves, plus the contrast of the shocking pink flowers vs the almost-yellow leaves of the agastache. And the pink tones of the strawberry are echoed by the stems of the agastache, complemented by the reddish-brown colour of the pot. (Pot is by Walsall, BTW.)

The Golden Jubilee looks very much like a coleus, so I had to look it up to check if it was of the same family. Internet search shows that 'A. foeniculum is a herbaceous perennial with mid-green, lance-shaped leaves that taste and smell of licorice. In summer, it bears spikes of lavender-blue flowers that are attractive to butterflies and bees...' and that it is '... neither Anise (which is Pimpinella anisum, not even in the same Plant Family) nor Hyssop (which is Hysoppus officinalis), although the scent is the same as Anise.'

As for the strawberry, apparently F. chiloensis will produce large, edible berries. Hmm. Wonder if they'd come out the same shade of pink?! Imagine that on a pavlova.

Ageism in Bonsai

Yes, in some things, age matters. Take the case of Freckles & his mate here.

Freckles aka slug bait is a Viola sororia that came from one of the local garden centres. A couple of quid it cost me, at the time. If anyone recognises the pot, I'd be grateful if you gave me a shout. I got it at the Ginkgo show in Belgium in 2003 or thereabouts. Freckles went into the pot about a year later and has never been out since, despite the numerous attempts on its life and well-being. 5 years have given Freckles a bit of maturity, presumably which is one reason he took second place in the Accent Plant class at last week's Open Competition.


On the other hand, this kusamono planting was made last year at Chie-san's kusamono class - she holds one or two a year at Windybank Bonsai. This composition is made up of brunnera, the Japanese Hakenachloa grass (beloved of so many accent plant compositions) and a fern or two. The suiban is Japanese. So although this planting is a year old and the plants have all bedded in, it still has a ways to go before it acquires the character that Freckles has.

At this point, I feel obligated to defend my reputation. In relation to paying the correct amount for the number of entries in the Wessex Show's Open Competition, it seems I had overpaid. I believe at the time I was filling in the forms, I wasn't sure if I was going to do a 3-plant display or a 4-plant display in my 5-tier composition. I opted against 4 as it isn't an auspicious number to a lot of Asians - no sense in freaking anyone out.

No matter, as the Wessex Chairman tells me I can't count anyway. Feh. What's worrying is most everyone agrees with him.