Danger in the woods

When collecting with Rune I stumbled upon this little fellow. It's a common European viper or Vipera berus. They are not regarded as highly dangerous, bites can be very painful, but are seldom fatal. A trip to the hospital is recommended.

This is one of the pines I found. A pre-made windswept style tree. Just stick it in a pot and call it a bonsai!

Small honeysuckle

Here is a small honeysuckle I collected yesterday, I really like this little trunk. I have peeled off all the flaky bark and this nice, light brown colour appers

Huge Willow cutting

Back in 2005 I cut of a big branch from a weeping willow tree. As you can see it's as thick as a mans arm. I stuck it in a bucket with water and after 2-3 days it started to shoot branches and roots!
This is after about one week in the bucket! After a short time I planted the cutting in the bucket using traditional bonsai soil. The cutting continued to shoot and grew happy for another year.
In spring 2007 it repotted in a large mica pot. It needed some extra support because it had no big roots. It was planted in pure Leca 1-3 mm size. I have cut the branches back heavily every year and this is how it looked before styling and repotting.
This is how the roots looks now after two years in pure Leca. Only fine feeder roots.
After a trim it fit perfect in its new pot. It's a Chinese pot.
This is how the branches look.
This is the front, but it could might as well be the back. Most of the branches was wired and brought down to get the weeping effect. It didn't cut them much. Over the years much of the bark has died of and there is now only two live vains on the tree so it needs a dead wood work.
Under and over the trunk the bark is gone but it is callousing over pretty fast.
The tree is obviously quite two dimensional so it is probably better viewed from a 30 degree angle. It is leafing out very fast and seams happy in its new pot. It is planted in pure Moler.
Substrate rules!

New pines 2

And the rest of my new pines. This was probably my last collecting trip this spring.

New pines 1

Last weekend I went collecting with fellow blogger Nils Arne. We both found som good trees. This is what I came back with.

New Lonicera

This is a part of an old hedge close to where I live. I asked the owner for permission to dig a few plants and she kindly alowed me to!























Here is the tre after I cut back the branches, the bonsai is emerging.



















Finished digging, it's a big tree and it took me 1,5 hours to get it out of the ground. This is more than enough roots for a Lonicera. It will have no problems to recover.

















Here it is planted, the wood of this species is very dense so it's quite heavy!

More new pines 2

More new pines

Massive pine

Last weekend I found this massive pine. It took quite an effort to carry it to the car, but when I look at the result I'm glad I made the effort ; -)

Spring if not summer is here!

It is definitely spring/summer here now. What a joy. I keep reading that people pitty us norwegians for the cold weather, why? We have been enjoying 15 - 18 degrees for the last couple of days and things are really moving along. Do not forget that Norway is a big (ish) country and we have a wide range of climate from south to north. Anyway, here is one of my maples out in the sun.

Big privet

Her is a Ligustrum I bought from Graham Potter last year.
Fist a photo of the tree before any work. Graham did the deadwood work and potted it in a bonsaipot before I got the tree.
























Here it is as it is now after I have done the first shaping of the tree. It is still in early development.























The trunk diameter is a little more than 30 cm

















Hight is 80 cm

2 more pines

Here are photos of 2 other pines I collected this year.