Hailstorm in Blue Mountains

[Jonden]

About 2pm taday the worst hailstorm I have ever seen came through my place, it went dark like night time and pelted down for about 30 minutes, eveyone of my bonsai has been affected, and most of them with major damage, branches ripped off, bark stripped defoliated.
I don't even know were to start to try and fix some of them.
Some of them I have had for 30 or more years. It looks like a major restyle for some of them.
The garden is also decimated, hardly a leaf on Azaleas, camelias etc.
Roof leaked, floors all wet and TV full of water, not working.
I guess I won't have anything left suitable for the combined Sydney show.
Hope no one else copped this lot.
Cheers,
jonden

[astroboy76]

so sorry to hear mate. i hope things look better in the morning for you!

[craigw60]

Hi Jonden that is very bad news. It happened to me once when I lived in melbourne, the whole garden was defoliated nd it took years for the bark to repair on some of my trees, I guess the best thing I can say is that things will grow back with time.
Craigw

[Gerard]

Rotten luck Jonden, you spend years developing nice ramification and then mother nature hits you.
Good luck with the clean up.

[Ron]

Jonden,

That's terrible news. You are so unlucky. I live further up the mountains and it also got very dark, we had some heavy rain but just some light hail for a minute or two.

I can't imagine what is must be like to have so many trees that you've had for a long time damaged like that.

I hope that when you get a chance for a closer look that things may be just a bit better than they look now. Fingers crossed for you, mate.

All the best,
Ron

[Ron]

I think we're about to get hit again: there's a storm mass moving north over Warragamba at the moment with lots of thunder.

[rch003]

Holy crap you poor bloke! so sorry, i live on sunshine coast and its coming here as well D:

[Ozmad]

so sorry to hear that, mother nature can be so cruel at times.

[Ron]

Some pictures and details:

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weath ... 18z0t.html

[Pup]

I am very sorry for your losses John. I know how long you have worked at these trees. Words cannot help, but our thoughts are with you.

Cheers Pup

[missybonsai]

sorry to hear of your loss, good luck rebuilding/restyling.
it hit here in penrith hard too. i heard the courthouse roof collapsed, panthers RSL has roof damage, and local shopping centers closed or locked down because of flooding and damage. The hail was large marble sized, and made the place look like it had snowed. The bird-of-paradise plant in my yard got its leaves slashed, and they have some of the toughest leaves around! they now look like over-sized feathers.
try not to get too down, at least you still have your trees, and hopefully, something to work with on them still

[Scott Roxburgh]

Really sorry to hear that mate, I only hope there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

[Glenn C]

Truly sorry to here this Jon so many years work you sound smashed by this.
I have only just finished cleaning up for the 2nd time in a 2 months. (worse this time)
Hail has wrecked a few trees here, but the worst damage was when a shade sale collapsed full of hail and ripped 4 trees straight out the pots breaking branches, etc.
Oh well my trees are only a fews old, plenty of time for re-styles.
Ceiling full of water is more of a concern at the moment, isn't it fun crawling around the roof space pulling out insulation and mopping up

Good luck

[Jonden]

Thank you to everyone for your support, I just have to convince myself that I have all this old stock to work on and start restyling, maybe I will end up with more interesting Bonsai now that nature has changed them for me.
Cheers, jonden

[astroboy76]

its a good way to look at it jonden. you know, i write (3 novels so far) and while editing the finished version of my second my computer fried and i lost everything but my notes for this book. i was devestated. but i got back into it and the second re-write of it kciked ass on the first. point being, sometimes things happen that punch us in the guts but these same things can often lead to something bigger and better