About
History
My passion for bonsai started in 1997 after reading books about them and visiting the first websites dedicated to them. My first tree was a Zelkova serrata and I quickly became hooked. Almost 3 decades later I still distinctly remember choosing it from the nursery and spending time misting it and being in awe in front of such a small tree in a pot.
I quickly started a collection with whatever I could get my hands on and made one of the first bonsai website in France the next summer. But at the time most advices from the books were not very helpful and I lost all those trees in the following years.
I restarted the collection while being at the university in 2004 and at that time the information we could read on the internet became much better. I was more successful in growing them, thanks to the online community and modern substrates.
Unfortunately after graduation in 2010 I moved far away for work and couldn't really take care of them anymore until 2020 when my life became stable enough to have a new home for the few that had survived my absence and hundred of new trees.
Garden
My garden is in Brittany, up in the hills about 30 km from the sea (ocean climate, zone 9a). The weather is usually mild but we get a lot of wind and rain from the Atlantic. My weather station has recorded occurrences of frost extending up to the first week of May, which is notably late compared to most people that live closer to the coast.
Year | Low | Min | Mean | Max | High | Rain |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2019 | -2.6 °C | 7.0 °C | 10.9 °C | 15.0 °C | 34.8 °C | 919.4 mm |
2020 | -2.2 °C | 7.5 °C | 11.3 °C | 15.5 °C | 31.9 °C | 1042.4 mm |
2021 | -5.5 °C | 6.8 °C | 10.5 °C | 14.6 °C | 29.8 °C | 864.0 mm |
2022 | -5.4 °C | 7.5 °C | 11.7 °C | 16.3 °C | 38.5 °C | 782.2 mm |
2023 | -5.8 °C | 7.9 °C | 11.7 °C | 15.9 °C | 31.4 °C | 930.6 mm |