Visiting Wisley & Herons Bonsai Walk

So today is the 7th of May and it's a bright sunny day. Yesterday was abysmal, we had heavy rains, nursery flooded again, but as we always say the British weather is so changeable that from one day to the next it is a different world. So here we are at Heron's Bonsai Walk where my trees are displayed. It has been for the last 28 years and spring is a lovely time. Look at all these lovely green and the blue sky, you couldn't ask for more. That beautiful Texas, I would trim it in a slightly different way. That huge Deshojo, that again has never been protected in the winter. It's been here I would say for the last 25 years and we'd never put it away. I haven't repotted that tree in about 10 years so it just shows you don't have to repot your trees every year. It's about 1.1 or 1.2 meter tall, got a spread of about 1.2 as well. So let's go through all the trees. I'd never tire of showing it and I hope you don't tire as well. Look at this maple again in the complete open, never protected. One of our field grown trees, developed from field grown material. Make use of the sunshine because the colors are vibrant in this bright sunlight. This is a beautiful Trident maple, again trees that I developed since 1993. I've come here today really to change some trees and put a display of Satsuki azaleas because the Satsukis are coming into bloom. So I'm going to take some trees back and put some Satsukis in its place. This is a Chinese elm, very massive, 1.2 meter tall, massive spread and just about coming into leaf. I hope none of the twigs are dead because Chinese elms can suffer in the cold but this year or this winter hasn't been so cold. This is a Japanese hornbeam, Campinus laxiflora. All these trees are going to be trimmed. I'm going to take time to trim them and this is a massive old mulberry and the flowers and fruit are just beginning to form. Always a talking point when they are bearing fruit. This is again one of our home-grown, field-grown, developed maples. A big tree that I chopped over there and then a new leader grown and this has taken about I would say 20 years to develop from a nursery tree. Wisley were wanting to plant these conifers in different places for landscaping but I told them it wouldn't look right. It's not in keeping with the rest of the garden. The conifers are so large they dominate and spoil the whole look. It will spoil the look of the bonsai. They're larger than a bonsai which we don't want. This is a new Satsuki that I'm displaying. Chinese juniper and one of our lovely Chinese elms. This is a rough bark Chinese elm which I imported from Japan maybe in 1986. One of the first imports. I grew it large in the field and then developed it in this natural broom style shape and this is all natural. It's not carved. The rotting of the wood is all natural like some of these great big English yews and English oaks do when grown in this country. It's only European beech forest. One of our homegrown European black pines, Pinus austriaca. Developed in the last 30 years. Nice Hawthorn group and while I'm at the end of the walk let's have a look at what rookery at Wisley looks like. The wisteria is climbing the trees. Wisley is a lovely place. You can bonsai too. This is part of my philosophy. So continuing my walk this is a Japanese holly Ilex serrata. They have tiny white flowers followed by red fruit. It's not a tree that many people know. It's quite a rare tree. Okay that's it. So that's what we're doing. Here's Tyler changing the trees and we brought our mighty big conker tree here because it's always a talking point. This is a female Ginkgo and this one I acquired in Japan maybe about 25 years ago. I have three of them. Very rare trees. Usually most of the Ginkgos are male trees but that happens to be a female tree and you tell the difference between male and female from the incisions in the leaf. This has got no incision. One of our Scots pines made from ordinary nursery stock. This is a beech that I made from hedging material. This was a plant taken out of my hedge in 1986 when I went to Herons. One of the first things I ever did at Herons was to take it out of the hedge and make a bonsai from it and I think it's recorded in my book Bonsai Masterclass. Beautiful tree. Many people want to buy this because it's exquisite. It was repotted last year in the spring of 2023 but prior to that I didn't repot it for about 10 years. So that's looking good. So hopefully when the Satsukis are in bloom it will make a spectacular show. This is our Pride and Joy. A large bouvernance. It's about 1.5 meter tall. Massive tree and this Satsuki is Yoshizuki. I've not seen this variety before. Certainly got a white flower. I would say it's got some other colors too. They're in the process of doing something to this display. They've removed their seats and benches. They don't want people to sit here too long I guess. And this is a Zelkova. The organ pipes which I originally imported from Japan way back in 1986. The back has withered away but the front is still looking very good. Let me show you what the back looks like. This is the back. In fact this could be turned into the front at some stage and these kids when they come here they love putting gravel in there. I don't know why but I leave the children to do what they like. Everyone can touch the trees. There's no issue. Homegrown larches. It's a Tanuki Juniper and then our Pride and Joy. Some of these conifers are not looking good. That should be removed.