by Zach Smith | Mar 5, 2016 | Care, Elms, Potting, Water Elm
You may remember the story of this water-elm clump, featured in the blog post “How to Make Bonsai Lemonade – Part 2.” I had taken a nice raft-style tree I’d been working on for years, that got almost killed off in Winter 2014, and gave it new life as a clump-style bonsai. Part of that process was potting the tree into this nice Byron Myrick tray. But there was a problem with the composition, at least to my eye. Does anything jump out at you?
While the pot is a very nice one, it just felt too large to me. When the pot is too large relative to your bonsai, it diminishes the impression of size the tree produces making it look more juvenile. The proportions are wrong. Remember, it’s not the purpose of the pot to overwhelm or “outshine” the tree; rather, the pot’s purpose is to complement and thus “frame” the tree. They have to work together. When the pot isn’t right for your tree, your eye will tend to be drawn to that fact as you view it just as it is to a flaw in the tree itself.
I’ve been waiting patiently for signs of swelling buds on my water-elms. Indeed, they come out later that most other species I work with. This past week I saw some signs, so that told me it was time to correct the flaw in this bonsai.
I just got this nice tray in from Chuck Iker. If you compare this photo with the one above, you can see how much different the tree looks now. The pot doesn’t overwhelm the tree. Moreover, the tree now looks larger and more mature. The proportions are just better.
Pot selection is one of the more difficult skills to learn when you’re studying the art of bonsai. We all tend to focus on the trees themselves, and rightfully so. Getting a tree styled properly is no mean task. But that doesn’t mean we can neglect this most important piece of the puzzle.
This tree is now available at our Elm Bonsai sale page. It should be ready for shipping in about three or four weeks max, once it’s leafing out.
Oh, and if you can discover the one rule I’ve blatantly broken with this clump, I’ll give you an ironic 10% off the price.
by Zach Smith | Mar 5, 2016 | Care, Hornbeam, Potting, Pruning, Tools
Today it was time to perform a chore I’ve really been anticipating – and not in a good way. My very big American hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana, has been in its training pot now for three years. Hornbeams root vigorously in a bonsai pot, so this chore could not wait another year.
In this first photo, I’ve removed the tree from its pot and placed it on the potting bench. The soil surface is covered with moss, and there are numerous weeds that also have to go.
The first step was removing the moss and plucking weeds. This step is also where you get to figure out how healthy your roots are. There are some very simple, telltale signs that tell you there are problems in the root zone. One is actually smell. If you have root rot, it’s going to stink. The roots will also be black and mushy to the touch, pulling away in nasty clumps. Healthy roots are usually a light, orangish-brown color (as the ones you see here are). If your soil is properly composed, they will appear as a fibrous network. They literally run all over the place! This is both good and bad. If your repotting goal is to straighten out roots, as it should be if you’re developing your nebari, much time will be spent teasing the roots out of the soil mass. If, on the other hand, you’re repotting to refresh your fibrous root system and give it room to renew its growth, your work is simpler.
Another thing you need to do when repotting your trees is to work on any defects of the surface roots. In the case of this tree, I have two that are regrowing from their original chops. This one has smaller sub-roots growing from either side of the chopped root. I made a cut into the end of this root years ago with my knob cutter, in order to begin the process of subdividing the root to make it look more natural. Today I need to continue this work.
This one, on the other side of the tree, needs more attention. Time to pull out the dremel and carving tools.
In a few minutes, I’ve carved a narrowing groove up the root. This helps to visually correct the abrupt appearance of the root chop. Over time, this wound I’ve made will start healing over. As it does, I’ll come back and carve down into the center more deeply. Eventually, this single root will appear to be a branching root with good taper.
Back on the other side, I’ve continued the process I just mentioned by carving higher up on the root and carving down through the center of the root near the end where it was originally chopped. The two sub-roots will continue to thicken, in time making a smooth appearance.
Time to reduce the root mass. Here’s the fast, easy way to begin this process. I highly recommend it for large trees.
Less than a minute later.
The bottom gets it, too. I need to cut half of the depth off the root mass.
Now we’re just about ready for our new pot. The permanent home for this tree, a nice Byron Myrick rectangle, is a bit smaller than the training pot. So it took some additional trimming to provide room for the necessary fresh soil all around the tree.
The end-result. An impressive, beautiful tree in a fine bonsai container. Notice the position of the tree, slightly to the right of center so that the movement takes the apex over the opposite side of the pot. It’s a little hard to see in the photo, but the tree is potted slightly to the rear of the pot. The depth of the pot matches the trunk thickness, 6″. And finally, the length of the pot is about two-thirds the eventual finished height of the tree. Proportion is essential to proper bonsai design.
One final note: in order to further improve the appearance of the surface root on the right side of the tree, I carved it down a bit to create just a little taper in the main part of the root. It’s a subtle change, but I think it does help.
What do you think of this tree? Leave me a comment below.
by Zach Smith | Mar 4, 2016 | Care
I collected this riverflat hawthorn, Crataegus opaca, in February of 2015. This is a photo of the tree a few months later, after it had put on a first flush of growth. With plenty of new branches to choose from, the initial styling was not difficult.
Fast-forward another few months, and you can see this bonsai in the making is really doing its thing. Particularly impressive is the new leader, which performed ideally in its first growing season.
This tree will be coming out in the next week or so. There are a couple of development chores that need doing as a result: one, perform the angle cut in the apex where the original trunk chop was made; and two, smooth the tapering transition low in the trunk where the second, larger trunk was removed at the time of collecting.
And here it is, about 10 minutes later. I’ve turned the tree a bit, and I think this angle is actually preferable. Both tapering transitions now look very natural.
The next chore on my list is to shorten the new leader. I’m going to wait till the tree leafs out, so I can use the removed leader for cuttings. Ordinarily I’d perform this operation now, sealing the cut end of the leader to prevent drying out.
This tree is available at our Hawthorn Bonsai sale page. It can ship in about two weeks, once the first flush of growth is underway.
by Zach Smith | Mar 1, 2016 | Care, Hornbeam, Styling, Tools
Here’s my big American hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana. Six years on, it’s developing into a unique and impressive bonsai. The trunk base is 6″ and it stands about 28″ tall (the apex needs to finish out).
You can probably see the two big problems with this tree: one, there’s a sizable hunk of wood where I originally took off a big side branch/secondary trunk; and two, the point where I chopped the trunk has an abrupt-looking transition into the apex. The solution? Carving time!
Here’s a closeup of the area where the big side branch had been removed. I’ve started to bite off chunks of wood with my trunk splitter and knob cutter. The idea, ultimately, is to make this area smaller and to look as if it was part of the natural development/life of the tree. Not, in other words, like a bonsai artist did something to it. The art of bonsai is largely illusion, as I’ve mentioned before. Our job is to make something look like something else – and something natural at that.
I’m getting closer to bringing the knob flush with the trunk. Now, it’s worth noting here that when I originally removed the big side branch that emerged from this point, I intentionally left the branch collar. The roots on this side of the tree were undoubtedly being fed by this branch, so to take it off flush at that time would have almost certainly resulted in the death of those roots. By leaving the collar, I left a route around the removed branch for sap to pass. I hoped for a bud under the removed branch, which I got, and I planned to wait for years to take off the excess wood. Often we get in a hurry to get to a certain result we can visualize. But as I tell my granddaughters, “Patience, grasshopper.”
The biting and fine carving are now done. Once the wood weathers, it’ll blend in better with the trunk color. I’ll also get some callus rolling over, though I doubt it will ever completely close. But I don’t think that will mar the appearance of the tree.
Now on to the second problem with the tree, namely the “shoulder” left over from where I first made the trunk chop. You can see the callus has rolled over nicely; however, I do need to do some carving to improve the appearance of this uro. But first thing’s first.
After a few minutes of judicious biting and carving with a knife, I’ve improved the taper of the tree. Should I have cut it more acutely? Perhaps, but I want to be careful not to make too dramatic a tapering in this area. I want to get more thickening at the base of the new apex, and I’ll see if the tree won’t give me a sacrifice shoot for that purpose this year. If I can add another 50% to the basal thickness of my new apex, the whole thing should blend together well. I’ll know in a couple of years. If it doesn’t work out, I can do some additional carving in the shoulder area.
As a final step, I put some cut seal on the living carved edges. This should protect them until they can heal.
This tree is ready for both a root-pruning and to be placed in its final bonsai pot. With a little luck, that should happen this coming weekend.
