by Zach Smith | Mar 28, 2016 | Care, Flowering, Hawthorn, Styling
Last month I showed you the result of a six-year project to establish an acceptable design for this large Mayhaw, Crataegus aestivalus. After collecting the specimen, which measures 4″ at the base and was originally chopped at 24″, trunk budding failed to produce a branch on the left-hand side of the tree to counterbalance the lowest right branch. The obvious solution was a thread-graft, as I had a spare shoot emerging from where the first branch had come. So I drilled an appropriately sized hole through the trunk and shoved the shoot on through. After that, it was just a waiting game.
Waiting and styling, of course. You can see that my thread-grafted branch, along with the others, has been trained in addition to being allowed to grow out. Hawthorns, as most species, produce sub-branching on their own as the tree develops sufficient leaf surface area to feed itself in the most efficient way possible. I did less pruning on the thread-grafted branch than on the others, but I wired as needed to get the sub-branching where I wanted it in anticipation of the ramification that will ultimately make this design work.
Yesterday I bit the bullet and cut the original shoot free of the thread-graft. You can see the gap in this photo. You can also see, on the left side of the trunk, a nice new shoot that I knew would give absolute proof that the graft had taken. It never flagged a bit.
I’ll remove the remainder of the original shoot, and then continue developing the thread-grafted branch. This branch, along with the tree’s crown and some root work, are all that’s left in the making of this very fine Mayhaw bonsai.
by Zach Smith | Mar 25, 2016 | Care, Dogwood, Flowering
One of the key skills the bonsai artist must learn is how to identify the various species he or she intends to work with. This is especially true when you collect your own from the wild. This is a challenge when you’re first starting out, though I believe it’s a fun one. For those of us who work primarily with deciduous trees, which are usually collected in winter when they’re devoid of foliage, there’s an extra challenge. Identifying species is a matter of examining the foliage, bark, dormant buds (if present), and sometimes flowers and fruit. It’s by far most common to make our identification solely on the basis of foliage.
I posted this photo on January 23rd, along with the lament that I have never had success in collecting larger red maples (as this is what I was sure it was). I was out hunting bald cypress that day, but high water had other plans. So when I spotted this twin-trunk and another really nice specimen I thought it was better to go home with two trees that probably wouldn’t make it rather than empty-handed.
Then the wait began. It took a solid four weeks for tiny buds to appear, but they finally did. What’s more, they appeared in opposite pairs which is exactly the way they should have. Only there was something not quite right about them. They weren’t red. Now, the old saying goes “there’s always something red on a red maple.” Newly swelling buds, flowers, fruit, new leaves, the petioles once the leaves have greened, and then winter buds to complete the cycle. This red maple was missing red buds. What did it mean?
The leaves finally began opening tentatively. They were light green in color. Not red. Hmm. That wasn’t right, either. What’s more, their shape was all wrong. Rather than the normal three-lobed leaves with serrations that red maples sport, these were non-lobed and smooth and rather slender.
It was at this point that I took another look at the bark of these specimens. Now, as the red maple begins developing bark it produces fissures which in time grow deeper and rougher. My first impression here was that these trees were just in the beginning stages of bark development. But with the leaves all wrong, I took a closer look and realized that these were plates forming, not fissures. What’s more, they seemed to be in a pretty regular grid pattern. There’s one group of species I well knew that produced bark like this: dogwood. And what species of dogwood do you find in or near the swamps? Roughleaf dogwood, Cornus drummondii.
I was dead wrong with my tree ID back in January, and I couldn’t be happier about it. That means I get to train two more trees which will feature characteristics like this one:
This is the first and so far the only roughleaf dogwood I’ve trained as bonsai. My experience so far is that it ramifies much better than flowering dogwood, Cornus florida, which I have grown as bonsai in the past. Leaf-size reduction is likewise superior. So with great bark and foliage, not to mention superior trunk character, I think it’s got everything you could ask for. (This tree has been posted for sale at our Miscellaneous Bonsai sale page.)
If you look closely you can see the buds opening on this one, which I re-shot today. I’ll need to chop it back some more next season, plus lose the larger of the two leaders on the main trunk to enhance taper. But I couldn’t be more excited about this new dogwood, now that I know what it is.
Finally, a closeup of the foliage. Isn’t it great? On another interesting note, while the buds on this and the other dogwood I collected emerged light green in color, the new leaves have turned red while unfolding. This mirrors, to a degree, the fall color we sometimes get on our dogwoods. The color is caused by anthocyanins, which produce the reds and purples we see in autumn leaves (they are breakdown products of chlorophyll) as well as in flowers and fruit. As the leaves harden off, chlorophyll production ramps up and the red disappears.
by Zach Smith | Mar 24, 2016 | Care, Flowering, Hawthorn, Styling, Wiring
I collected this Mayhaw, Crataegus aestivalus, on January 2nd of this year. It had some nice roots so I direct-potted it into this beautiful Chuck Iker round. Then waited. Hawthorns almost never disappoint, so when it got just warm enough for new material to begin waking up this was one of the first specimens to do so.
Here we are, about six weeks later, and now I’ve got some shoots to work with. You may be able to see that the shoots in the upper part of the tree are stronger than those lower down. This is natural for most species, simply because they want to get to a certain height. This programming doesn’t go away just because a bonsai artist shows up and wants them to behave differently.
From the beginning of the life of a collected deciduous bonsai, the artist must struggle against apical dominance. It starts with the new raw material and pretty much never stops. So you’re always encouraging the lower branches to get stronger and stay that way, while “cooling off” the upper branches.
You want to do the initial styling on your tree as soon as it makes sense to do so. With this specimen I had some time yet – but given that I also had some time today and there will be endless chores over the next several weeks, a quick styling on this one made sense to me.
I wired some primary branches and the new apex in about 10 minutes. I also pinched out the growing tips of a few of the higher shoots, to cool them off. I’ll let the lower shoots run for the next few weeks at least, to keep that energy in balance.
This tree will go up for sale most likely in May or June, so stay tuned for updates.
by Zach Smith | Mar 22, 2016 | Care, Flowering, Hawthorn, Styling, Wiring
We’re once again at that time of year when new trees are coming out and demanding to be worked on. You may remember this “twin-stick” in a pot, a neat little parsley hawthorn, Crataegus marshallii. Although you can see the terrific trunk character in this small package, until there’s branches you don’t have a bonsai.
Now that’s some branches! I knew I had a 90% chance of the tree making it, and this one certainly didn’t disappoint. Not only has it produced a good supply of branches to choose from, they’re in the right places.
As a quick reminder, multi-trunk bonsai follow certain rules. The thinner trunks are usually behind the thicker ones, to help with visual perspective. They also have lower branching, which helps to create that illusion of depth and distance. The thinner trunks are not as tall as the thicker ones – same reason. And finally, for two- the three-trunk specimens the branching arrangement follows more or less the same pattern of a single trunk. So you’ll have a first branch on the appropriate side of the multi-trunks, a second branch on the opposite side, a back branch, and so on up the multi-trunks. The branches are farther apart in the bottom of the bonsai, becoming more closely spaced as you go upward.
And so, about 10 minutes later we have an initial styling on this great little parsley hawthorn. I think it’s going to make a terrific bonsai. The main trunk has a basal diameter of 1″ and is currently 21″ to the tip of the new leader. I left it long so it can quickly gain heft during this growing season. I want the finished height of this tree to be about 18″, with the smaller trunk not more than about 12″ tall.
The pot is a lovely Byron Myrick round.
Leave me a comment below. I’d love to hear from you.
by Zach Smith | Mar 13, 2016 | Care, Dogwood, Flowering, Styling, Wiring
You may remember this roughleaf dogwood, Cornus drummondii, from last spring. I had gotten off to a good start on a broom-form specimen following the initial collecting of it, in 2012, and the subsequent recovery. With a good branch set underway, I had potted the tree in this beautiful Chuck Iker round.
Unfortunately, the tree suffered a bit of a setback last year, possibly from the potting stress, so I went into benign neglect mode with it and did nothing else in 2015. This photo, by the way, was from March of 2015.
Here we are in March of 2016, and the tree is putting on some nice strong growth. I believe, at least at this point, that the setback it suffered last year is behind it. So my thinking today was, why not go ahead and do some shaping so the tree can get back on course?
In about 10 minutes I was able to put a good shape into this very nice little tree. I only cut one small branchlet and pinched one growing tip; otherwise, all of the growth here is going to go untouched well into late spring. This is the way the tree will continue to gain strength.
Am I going to do any more pinching or pruning this year? That depends on how strong the tree turns out to be. I’ll know this in about four to six weeks.
Stay tuned for more on this tree and this species.
