Fall

Here are some pictures taken in October when the trees show their most interesting colors. I hope that those images will encourage you to grow bonsai! ...

Defoliating and wiring a Magnolia x loebneri ‘Leonard Messel’. ...

An Hawthorn shohin. ...

Defoliating and wiring young Ginkgo biloba group planting. ...

“À l’automne, les hydrates de carbone dont le tissu chlorophyllien est gorgé, se transforment en anthocyane et colorent brillamment les feuilles de rouge pourpré. Nos bois deviennent alors incomparablement beaux. Les pentes sourceuses des Laurentides et les forêts de la plaine alluviale forment des horizons sanglants où sur le vert profond des résineux s’ajoutent, chevauchent et se fondent les gammes infinies des teintes que le rouge a sur sa palette.” - Frère Marie-Victorin (1885-1944) Flore laurentienne, p. 396, 397. ...

Here are pictures of a large Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) over the last year. The plant was collected on a construction site and saved from an ineluctable death. ...

This small Hawthorn illuminates my autumns with its scarlet red leaves. ...

Since the annual Montreal Bonsai and Penjing Society Exposition is cancelled, here is the tree that I intended to show. This Thuya occidentalis represents a tree that falls over the Red River. A boreal kusamono composed of an Eastern hemlock, a Red maple and a tiny fir brings a very calm understory feeling. ...

In fall the leaves are scorched by the sun, eaten by the insects and thorn by the wind. Their days are counted. Slowly the green pigments are overthrown by the red (anthocyans), orange (carotenoids) and yellow (xanthophyll) pigments. The tree is pumping its sugars and nutrients from the leaves using the osmosis mechanism. The anthocyans bring frost protection and enlighten our nordic species. In the coming days the tree will store the sugars in the soil and the starches in the living wood. Cellular death will reach the heart of the leaves and the stalk will soon be completely obstructed by a cork tissue. From this point the leaves will fall, leaving a separation mark on the branch. The leaves are sacrified for the promess of a new season. ...