The Bonsai Blog of Hans Van Meer

A couple of days ago I woke up and when I looked out of my window I  found out the hole world had turned white overnight. It  being my day of, I decided to make the short 10 min. drive to an (by Dutch standards) old coastal Dune forest aria, were  my wife and I  like to walk. This forest  is part off a world heritage aria that is well protected and is aloud to grow more or less wild. Here many old Hawthorn  can be found.  And Scots Pines grow over the remainings of old second World War  bunkers, that were built to defend  our beaches against old enemies, that now lay on these same beaches every summer as our friendly neighbors  who are more than welcome to visit  .   And because the sun was starting  to shine  brightly  on all that frosty snow on the trees and scrubs, it would be a great opportunity to take some pictures, wile enjoying my walk. I made it a extra quick breakfast, because I saw that the snow was already melting on my trees in the  garden.  By the time I arrived at the edge of the forest, most snow  was   already gone, leaving only  small blankets of blueish white in the more  shaded aria’s, beneath the trees.  This gave  more color nuances to the pictures I made and the now fast setting sun  is to thank for the  magical back lighting part.

The pictures were made with a standard Kodak EasyShare DX6490

I hope you like them,

Hans.

                                                     At the end of this road the beach begins.

                                                                                                                                                               ”BUNKER HILL”

                                                                                                           ”BUNKER HILL “

                                                                                                                                                     ”A RAY OF LIGHT”

Dear Bonsai friends,

thank you all for visiting  my Blog so often. I am honored by your interest in my work and  it inspires me to go on in the direction I have chosen for my Bonsai. I have high hopes for 2008,   I am  already asked to do workshops and demo’s in Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Norway, England  and a long visit to the USA in May is in the making!  To do so much traveling to  show what I like to do so much, is like a dream come true!  To  see so many new countries and places  to meet many new Bonsai friends….I can hardly wait for the New Year to begin! And, only  in just a few weeks, it is off to Belgium for the annual Noellanders Trophy. I will be showing 3 Bonsai in the show  and more important will have 2 days of   fun with all my Bonsai mates that  come every year to  this very friendly event,  from every corner off  Europe!

 And some of my Yamadori are up for there second and third styling, so that is exciting to for me. I will take  lots of pictures  and post them first here on my blog as soon as possible! You are welcome any time here to visit my blog or my (soon improved) Website  www.karamotto.org   , were you can find lots of pictures of my Bonsai and progressive picture stories of my Bonsai.  

Thanks for visiting, it is highly appreciated!

Hans van Meer.

we are going trough a period of cold weather here, and as usual I am to late preparing the winter shelter for my trees. So this afternoon, in freezing gold weather, I had to do some last work on it. BBRRRRR! When I was bringing my last trees in to the winter shelter, I noticed how beautiful the winter colors on my “Ulmus” looked. So I made a quick photo set up in the fading pale winter sun light and with the shivers, I shoot the picture below. This is one of my earliest bonsai and one of my favorites. Because of the millions of “Ulmus” malsai that have been sold in Europe over the last 20 years, they got stigmatized as inferieur bonsai material. In my opinion that could not be further from the truth! I think that “Ulmus parvifolia” are wonderful to work with and very affordable, available and forgiving ( this one is frozen solid for 3 days now). And I think they look pretty amazing in these bright winter colors! I hope you like the Picture?

Regards,Hans van Meer.

                                                                            A “ULMUS” WINTER CREATING.

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I Must admit that Irene mailed here pictures a will ago, but I have been very busy and to be honest there is not that much to do on here “Yew” except for some branch shortening. As you can see in the pictures, Irene’s tree is very healthy and has plenty new growth. So now it is safe to shorten the to long and to thick branches, that are of no use  in any future design. Try to do this half a Inch above a healthy side shoot. You can cut the thick branch  (in the third picture) just above the “Yellow” line. Seal the wound with  ”cut paste”. This will promote a lot of new growth along those cut branches and hopefully lower down the now bare branches. We just need to have a bit more foliage, for me to choose the best design for this “Yew” , this means that we have  to start practising the most important task in bonsai…..being patience! I have made some red lines on the pictures for help. If there is enough foliage next season we  might start a first styling. Time and Irene’s good care will tell!

Hans.