End of the season - Yamadori and workshop in Croatia

This season has been very interesting, lots of things happened, new knowledge and experience have been acquired, my collection of trees is bigger and quite a few trees had made a good step forward with the development. Overall it was a good season.

So as the year unfolds it is also coming to the end. The last days have been quite intense, and more than interesting. For the beginning of the end of the season my collection was completed with a new very interesting spruce (Abies Picea).

11-2011 - Spruce (Abies Picea) - Yamadori

On Friday I joined Janez and Matej on a yamadori trip. It was great, good discussions, beautiful nature, lots of laughter and much too fast walking (I seriously thought about quitting smoking :)). Excellent company has been the main reason that time has gone by a little too fast, but for my consolation a nice larch (Larix Decidua) yamadori joined my collection.

11-2011 - Larch (Larix Decidua) - Yamadori

Saturday and Sunday also passed in a blink. The Croatian bonsai club as a branch of Tora organized a workshop and I am very glad that I had the opportunity to help Tomaz Kovšca in this two-day workshop.

First part of the workshop was theoretical

After the theoretical part of the workshop we started with practical work on the trees. On the first day I helped wiring Željkos spruce, which was later styled by Tomaž and got his first new appearance. On the second day I helped Nikolaj to work on his juniper. Both days ware incredibly fun.

Tomaž Kovšca working on a Pinus Mugo

Željkos Spruce before the workshop

Željkos Spruce after the workshop

Dean working on his nice Pinus Mugo

I will remember this workshop by two things. First, a lot of wiring and secondly by a great group of colleagues from Croatia, a group that has a strong energy, a group full of enthusiasm and I really hope that I have a chance of meeting them again.

Progetto Futuro with Enrico Savini

I spent this weekend in Progetto Futuro school, where I worked and learned as a second-year student for two days under the guidance of Enrico Savini and his assistant Tommaso Triossi. The main theme of this session was Pines and after an interesting theoretical part of the class, we started with the practical part of the school session and worked on our trees.

Theoretical part

The knowledge level of this session was a bit higher than usual so I gathered a lot of new information and practical advice but most of all I realized that when you think you know a little something, you quickly realize that this is so little, almost nothing, that it is such a small fraction of the whole picture….there is truly a lot to learn.

I worked on my Pinus mugo, which has been styled for the first time. At this stage, the tree was designed only to a degree where the primary form is shaped, the first idea of the style with the possibility of some minor changes is done and the development took the health of the tree in consideration as the most important thing.

Pinus Mugo before the styling

Enrico Savini and his "magic hands"

Some branches, which will no longer remain on the tree in the final design stayed as an aid to absorb the energy for the most important branches. The tree is shaped to a level which is safe and good for the health of the tree. In the next development stages the dead wood will be further developed, the structure of the secondary branches, the design will get a more detailed definition of the structure and so on…similar as gathering the knowledge the development will need a lot of additional time.

Pinus Mugo after the first styling

For the end of the post I like to share some pictures of trees from other participants, who are already in more mature stages of development and have transformed remarkable in this school session.

Pinus Mugo before (Nik Rozman)

Pinus Mugo after (Nik Rozman)

Pinus Sylvestris after (Blaž Jemec)

Pinus by Rajko Podgornik Reš before

Pine after (Rajko Podgornik Reš)

It was great....

5. Alpe-Adria exhibition in St. Veit

This weekend many members of the Slovenian bonsai club participated at the Alpe Adria exhibition which was held in the nice and very charming town called St. Veit in Austria. There were 5 trees from Slovenia next to around 100 trees that came from different clubs from Austria, Italy and Germany. The exhibition was nicely organized, the atmosphere was very nice and next to the exhibition workshops were also held by representatives of individual clubs. Most of the workshops ware led by the Italian instructor Adriano Bonini, who also reviewed and selected the award winning trees.

For me it was an exhibition premiere, since it was the first time for me to exhibit one of my trees and somehow I cannot imagine a more pleasant start. I spent two beautiful days in excellent company of my bonsai friends and my family Vesna Tilen and Natan. Our bonsai club has achieved a nice success and we received a total of four awards.

Niks Thuja received the first prize selected by the audience, as well Niks Korean hornbeam, received the award in the category of medium-sized tree, Tomažs juniper received the award in the category of large trees and my cascade juniper "Waterfall" received the price for the best tree at the exhibition.

For the final touch before the end of the exibition my son Tilen responded to the invitation of the organizers, gathered the courage and walked to the podium to help with the draw of the prices for visitors who participated in the audience price award. Simply great, what more do I want?

Thuja - Nik Rozman

Juniper - Tomaž Kovšca

Chemachiparis - Miha Medvešček

Korean Hornbeam - Nik Rozman

My Juniper cascade "Waterfall" 

My son Tilen after the draw of awards for the visitors.
Tilen you ware very brave and made your Dadi proud :)

However there is more. The story of my "Waterfall" means much more to me, it is a story of trust between teacher and student, it is a story that started a bit more than 2 years ago in St. Veitu where Tomaž Kovšca selfless told me that he knows about a good stating material which is on sale, it is a story where Tomaž as the teacher an me as a student made the first styling of this on a workshop, two years later, just before the exhibition Tomaž and me again prepared the final touches on the tree and prepared it for the first exhibition, it is a story about the transfer of knowledge and experience, it is a synergy of tree, teachers and students ... thank you Tomaž for all this.


And above all, it is necessary to continue the good work at the club level. Already in the previous post I have touched on this theme, the good energy, the rising quality of knowledge, a good potential among the members and the trees that we have. I really hope that we will continue on this trip as a team that we are.

That’s it, enough of writing…lets enjoy some of the trees from the exhibition, its all about the trees:

P.S.: Nik thanks one more time for the table :)

From St.Veit to "Waterfall" and back

It is interesting how some events are intertwined, how they develop, or simply just happen ... about two years, four months and three days have passed from my first visit of an exhibition in St.Veit, Austria. At the exhibition Thomaž told me that Rajko is selling a good material for developing a cascade and on the same day, this perspective material drove home with me. A few months later on a workshop we made the first styling with Tomaž and one year later it was transplanted in its first and last bonsai pot. Two days ago, the same tree went back to Rajko where we prepared it with Tomaž for its first exhibition, which will be in three days...where else than in St.Veit in Austria. Logical!

2009-06 - Promising starting material

During all this time, between all these events the cascade made a few kilometers on the road and even more kilometers of development in design and has evolved from a promising material in a pleasing cascade, called "Waterfall".

2011-10 - Waterfall

During this same period, the knowledge of Slovenian bonsaists made a great improvement, we gathered a lot of experience, developed some quite good bonsai and SBK members have achieved some impressive results on high level exhibitions in Europe.


During this two years, four months and three days the ties and relations between people who are dealing with bonsai deepened, there is a lot of good energy, good will, motivation, lots of time and energy is invested, we share knowledge and experience, we have a vision for the future and all that interweaving, all these developments are the reason for a great feeling on this "roller-coaster", the reason to see and feel the development and growth.


When I have a good day and look at the "Waterfall"...I see all this in it... when I have a bad day, I simply look away.

Almost ready - Foto by Tomaž Kovšca

Weekend by Hans Van Meer

This weekend is simply best described as an ideal weekend. The Slovenian bonsai club hosted the bonsai master Hans Van Meer from the Netherlands, who made a workshop on Saturday and continued on Sunday with a demonstration.

Hans Van Meer has proved to be a great bonsai master and a remarkable man with great personality. A personality who not only transmits knowledge and experience but creates a great atmosphere, a person who embodies the spirit of  bonsai. 

The energy at the workshop was excellent and to work in such an environment, to work under the guidance of such great master, to work in such good company is simply great. All that is necessary for the description of the workshop is: "This is it." No additional words are necessary.

Hans Van Meer

At the workshop I worked on a tree that was rather dificult to style for me, but  after some discusion with Hans Van Meer, his supervision of my work and help of Thomaž Kovšca the  transformation ended very promising. Absolutely a step forward, now some rest is needed and then we go ahead.

Juniperus - Before styling

Juniperus - After syling

The second day, Hans Van Meer made a demo on an interesting tree. The main goal was to make a start design for a long-term development strategy. It was not a classic demonstration where the primary goal is the show and  the best possible end result of the firsty styling.

It was a demonstration where it was shown how Hans Van Meer works at home on his trees. Niks Pine (Pinus mugo) underwent a transformation that quite clearly shows the final image, but it also allows enough freedom for Nik to complete all the details in the next stages of development and makes a good base for the next steps to the final design. If I learned something in those years it is, that this way of work is time-consuming, requires more patience, but it always pays off. One more time: "This is it."

Niks Pine (Pinus Mugo) before the demo

The perfect weekend ended with a visit from Tomaž Kovšca, Tomaž Hafner and Hans Van Meer, who took a look at the trees in my garden and made some comments. After a nice chat the perfect weekedn unfortunatly came to the end but the feeling is great, new experience with lots of energy is here and all i need to say: "This is it".

Hans Van Meer and my Spruce (Abies Picea)

Someone is very happy :)