Intern. Bonsai Academy in Kastela, Croatia 2013 #5

Past weekend the International Bonsai Academy 2013 took place in Kastela near Split , Croatia. There we have Mediterranean climate. This means no frost in winter, palm trees on the beach. The climate is similar to southern California and northern Florida. Therefore everything can be done on the trees right now, like repotting, cutting, styling, collecting etc.. End of November is a very good time to repot there. Warning: most things can NOT be done now in colder climate.
Marija and Andrija have this mazing collection there and do everything together. During the seminar without much ado we take one tree after the other from more than 100 specimen bonsai and do whatever can be done at that moment. We do a lot of subtle artistic corrections. First thorough tree discussion among there people who have strong opinions. Then a consensus. Then hands on doing what has to be done.

#5: wild olive, Olea europea sylvestris. We decided about a good position in the pot for this dancing tree. This olive was collected less than a year ago. It was a cutting from a very old branch pretty high up in the air. We knew it must have had lots of roots and decided to pot it into the final container. It is by Horst Heinzlreiter and seems to be made for this olive. The crown is still very juvenile. I show how I hedge prune it with only two cuts. The nails are necessary to hold the tree in position with wire. They don't harm the tree and willstay forever. The virtual shows what the crown and the deadwood should look like soon. This is absolutely not a tree in the naturalistic style. It is in the sculputral style and has nothing to do with the looks of a real olive tree.