by Zach Smith | Feb 13, 2015 | Bald Cypress, Care
You’ve seen this cypress before. I collected it about a year ago, about 120 miles south of where I am. At the time of collection, it and the other surrounding cypresses had already leafed out in their fresh pre-spring foliage. It got chopped back, along with the others, and took the better part of eight weeks to come back out. Then it grew like crazy in this Byron Myrick pot, allowing me to get a big head-start on its training (which will go quickly, regardless). You can see a classic flat-top in the making.
This winter has been more or less normal. We’ve had probably 15 freezing nights, nothing super cold but cold enough to qualify as a Southern winter. Aside from a couple of privets and of course the crabapple seedlings I have, nothing is anywhere close to budding out … except for the bald cypresses I collected 120 miles south of here in February of 2014. This tree is one of them. I have some others remaining from that area, and all but two are showing tons of buds on the verge of breaking. Yet at the same time, the cypresses I have that have been grown from seed here or collected closer to home are showing zero signs of budding. So that prompts the question: Do trees remember? What is it about these trees that makes them want to bud out weeks before others of the same species? I don’t have an answer. If there’s anyone out there who’s a botanist or is otherwise knowledgeable about this phenomenon, I’d love to hear from you.
Of course there’s a limit to how far north this “budding memory” would present itself, but I think it’s a really fascinating thing to observe. I do have to be mindful of whatever remaining cold weather we have – we’re getting the standard Valentine’s Day freeze – but barring really frigid weather these trees will have a nice head start on their more Northerly brothers.
I expect to be offering this tree for sale sometime around June. Its development will be much farther along at that time. You can see the nice surface rootage and taper, and I think the lichens on the trunk give this tree superb character. I’d say it’ll be showable in about two years.
by Zach Smith | Feb 7, 2015 | Care, Hornbeam, Potting
Yesterday was my first collecting trip of 2015 for American hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana. If you’ve been following my blog posts for a while, you know American hornbeam is right at the top of my list for best bonsai species. It’s easy to collect, the survival rate is high, it roots very well in a pot, and it’s fast to train as it grows all season long. You do have to be selective when choosing specimens to harvest. Most tend to be untapering, though when they’re old enough they all present the desirable “muscling” of the trunk. But with persistence you can find what you’re looking for, if you’re inclined to collect your own.
For those who prefer their material already collected and ready to train or maintain, here’s an idea of what’s coming in spring. This specimen has a 3″ trunk diameter 4″ above the soil surface and is 22″ to the chop. The muscling of the trunk is amazing! I think this will make a tall, masculine bonsai in a couple of years. (For those of you who like shorter specimens, yes, the trunk can be chopped again below the curve. In this case I figured we can always take more off, but it’s a lengthier process to put back on.)
I was fortunate to find several of similar quality yesterday. Look for them to start showing up for sale around May.
Finally, on very rare occasions you can collect a ready-made bonsai from the wild. I’ve had this occur in far less than 1% of all the trees I’ve collected. Yesterday I came across this specimen. Nice twin trunk with branching and sub-branching, pretty much styled by nature, ready for a bonsai pot. All I had to do was cut to the appropriate leader on the larger trunk and trim back the silhouette.
By the way, how big do you think this tree is? I’ll update with the answer tomorrow. (Answer: 3/4″ trunk diameter by 13″ tall.)
And now, all that’s left is to wait till April to see if these trees came through the harvest.
by Zach Smith | Feb 5, 2015 | Care, Elms, Hornbeam, Potting, Wiring
The technique of creating bonsai comes down to one basic principle: making a series of decisions that guide a living tree or shrub toward becoming a miniaturized version of its normal self. This may seem obvious when you think about it, but often we have this vision of a bonsai in mind in the face of the reality of a piece of material that looks nothing like what you want it to be. In other words it looks like Point A, not Point B.
“Okay,” you may be thinking, “so how do I go about making good decisions?” This depends, of course, on where your bonsai or pre-bonsai is in its development. For example, let’s say you have a shrub you bought from a nursery or box store. It’s got lots of branches – more than you need, which is very good – and a good tapering trunk line. In such a case, your decisions come down to the following:
- Choosing the front
- Selecting the branches
- Wiring the branches (and the trunk, if it needs shaping)
- Moving the branches to the appropriate positions
- Potting the tree (if it’s the right time)
Now all you have to do is make these decisions good ones!
I know that sounds a little simplistic, but learning sound technique is a repetition of the process of making good decisions on material in varying states of development. As you practice bonsai you get better at making these decisions.
So, for the decision pathway described above here’s a good example. This blackgum was a much taller sapling that had branching up and down the trunk. In the lower half of this sapling was a bonsai-in-the-making. The decisions I made were as follows:
- Cut the tree down to a side branch suitable for a new apex that continued the tapering from soil to crown; make sure there is a suitable set of branches
- Find the front of the tree; often this is driven by where the branches appear on the trunk
- Wire the side branch I cut to and direct it upward to make the new apex
- Wire and position the branches, then trim to the appropriate shape – the planned style is a basic upright broom-form
- Pot the tree in a suitably-sized bonsai pot
The result is quite good, don’t you think? This bonsai-in-training looks just like a tree in winter.
Here’s a very different tree with a very different decision pathway. In 2013 it went from a nursery container to a bonsai pot. As collected, it had some mature branches that were kept for the design. I had chopped the trunk and directed a new leader for the eventual apex. Once in the bonsai pot, I let it grow well into summer. In this photo, the tree is clearly overgrown. But … that decision was the correct one for the tree at this stage of its development.
What was next for this tree? I actually had a couple of options: one, cut the tree back hard and encourage budding toward the interior; or two, let it grow out again through October. In this case, either option would work equally well. This was a mature bonsai in the making, with a trunk the size it needed to be, all the trunk character it needed, and a branch set and apex well on their way to refinement. There was no rush, in other words, nothing that had to be done at this point.
If you build a large collection, you’ll find your decisions beginning to span the collection. That complicates things, of course, but it also mitigates the temptation to overwork a small number of trees.
Here’s a tree you’ve seen before. Nice natural raft, collected and put in a big training pot and then left to grow for a couple of years with literally no attention other than feeding and watering. When the time came, what was the decision pathway?
- Pot the tree in an appropriate bonsai pot
- Select the trunks suitable for the raft; do any preliminary trimming necessary
- Wire the trunks and any branches needing shaping
- Thoroughly trim, meaning work each new trunk to the proper shape; do any additional trimming or rough carving needed
- And finally, make sure the trunks as a group exhibit the proper balance and interplay
Here’s the tree following execution of Decisions 1 and 2. Notice how each decision – each step – brings the tree closer to the desired outcome for the specific work session. Now, you can only do so much in any single session. No, let me rephrase that: you should only do so much in any single session. Newcomers to bonsai tend to be so excited over their first tree that they want to work it to masterpiece status in one go – and I mean trees that are literally seedlings with barely any branches to speak of. This is a normal and natural desire. I think we all share it. But it’s got to be overcome. Very few species will tolerate much overworking, and most end up poorer in quality when the misplaced enthusiasm ends.
Here we are following Decisions 3 and 4. The trunks are wired and shaped. Everything that doesn’t look like a bonsai has been trimmed away. The trunks have a good interplay and the overall shape of the bonsai is appropriate.
And that was the end of the session for this tree at that time. I next left it alone to grow out for a while.
What sort of decision making process do you use when you work on your trees? Do you wing it, or actually plan step by step? If you’d like to share your approach, just leave a comment below.
by Zach Smith | Jan 31, 2015 | Bald Cypress, Care, Potting
Today was a bald cypress collecting day. The weather was perfect, ice on the windshield when I left but warming to near 60 degrees by the time the field work was done. There’s nothing like collecting trees and not working up a sweat (or getting soaked or freezing).
Here are a few of the new pieces with the root washing mostly done, awaiting final trimming and potting. To give you an idea of scale, the center tree has a 3″ trunk above the root crown and is 22″ to the chop. It had good enough fibrous roots that I direct-potted it into a nice Byron Myrick oval. I’ll try to post a photo of it tomorrow.
I got some very nice material today, and hopefully all of it will survive. My success rate has been about 80% in the past few years, so that bodes well. I should know in about eight weeks.
Look for new cypress specimens for sale by late April.
Update 2/1: here’s the middle tree potted up. I love the graceful movement of the trunk. My plan for this one is a so-called “young tree” style, with the traditional first branch-second branch-back branch design. For those of you who have worked with bald cypress before, you know that the species produces trunk buds more prolifically than most. This usually gives us free reign when it comes to selecting new branches. By May I should be wiring new shoots. I’ll post an update this summer.
The final shot is from the back of the tree, so you can see all of the flaring roots and buttressing. This one is awesome, more so because the trunk diameter is only 3″ above the root crown. Usually it takes a good while, and more heft, for a bald cypress to develop a good buttress. My landscape specimens I grew from seed started 15 years ago are just now doing this, and they have 8″ trunks.
Growing conditions seem to govern this part of the development of a bald cypress. I always collect specimens growing in shallow water, and this along with crowding of other trees apparently produces more compact growth and the tendency to put on flaring roots. These flaring roots, as they grow in size, create the buttressing we prize so much.
If you’ve never grown bald cypress, it’s definitely a species you’ll want to add to your collection. They’re easy to grow and train, as long as you know how to develop the crown. I’ll be posting some information on that in the coming weeks.
by Zach Smith | Jan 25, 2015 | American Elm, Care, Elms, Potting
Today it was time to harvest an American elm, Ulmus Americana. This specimen has been growing away in an old garden area for the better part of a decade. I knew the trunk was at least 1″ at the base, which is usually the smallest size I’ll lift. It also had a nice slight movement of the trunk, and I had cut the tree back some years ago in order to encourage taper.
This first shot is the tree as it sat in the ground. It doesn’t look like much from this angle, does it? Not to worry.
Here’s the tree with its roots washed off, shot at a better angle. Now you can see there’s something to work with here. The specimen had a nice set of radial roots, though there’s been some haphazard growth. But that’s what the saw and cutters are for.
If you’ve ever worked with American elm, you’re bound to have noticed that the bark will separate from the tree very, very easily. Even with the sharpest of cutters and taking great care, it’s common for the bark to pull away. I always try to use a saw for the bigger cuts, as this seems to prevent the problem altogether. I also use a very sharp knife to carve the edges of cuts. Always cut toward the inside of the cut.
Now the roots have been cut back. Notice how far back I’ve cut them. It’s all got to be done with the idea in mind of how the tree will fit into a bonsai pot. This tree will end up about 15″ tall. That means the pot will be no more than about 7″ long if oval or in diameter if round. The root spread of this tree stands at roughly 4″, so you can see this will take up a goodly share of the pot’s expanse already.
Now came the fun part, finding the trunk line. Compare this shot with the one just above. I had considered training this tree as a broom-form specimen. The problem with that idea was, two of the three leaders were already too thick for it to work. I knew that as I developed the crown, these leaders would continue to thicken and produce a nasty reverse taper. Also, broom style trees typically don’t have much taper in the lower trunk, whereas this one tapered very nicely right through to the chop.
Here’s the tree in its nursery pot. It should bud nicely this spring, and at that time I’ll begin the selection of branches and the new leader. In just a couple of years this tree will make a fine American elm bonsai in training.
