by Zach Smith | May 23, 2016 | Care, Hornbeam, Oaks, Pruning, Watering, Wiring
When we create and maintain our bonsai, we never work on them every day. No matter whether it’s potting, wiring, pruning, or even pinching, bonsai is a “go and stop” endeavor. This excludes watering, of course. I highly recommend you water your trees daily (this is a joke, of course; water your trees daily when it fails to rain, or your bonsai will truly be finished works of art).
And so, the creation process involves many steps and decisions. Beginning with the bare but terrific trunk, which I do most of the time, you have to build the tree structure from nothing. This means trunk buds that become shoots, shoots that get wired to shape in order to make them into branches, branches that thicken and subdivide into sub-branches, leaves that start getting smaller as this process continues; a new leader that is wired and positioned, then extends and thickens, then gets cut back with a new leader that extends and thickens, rinse and repeat as many times as needed, then apical branches developed from buds that become shoots that get wired and positioned. Whew!
As you build your bonsai, you make decisions based on the stage of the tree’s development and your knowledge of the tree’s growth habit. Here’s an example of this concept. I repotted this American hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana, earlier in the season, and also did some carving to enhance the trunk:
Collected in 2010 and having a massive trunk, this hornbeam was destined for a lengthy development period in order to thicken the tree’s branches. There must be a good proportion between trunk thickness and branch thickness, otherwise the eye/brain does not believe the illusion. Trees in the wild grow their branches in correct proportion to the thickness of the trunk, because … well, just because. No bonsai artist is out there interfering, and barring some other human meddling they just grow how they’re supposed to. The lowest branches tend to be anywhere from 1/4 to as much as 1/2 the trunk thickness at the point where they emerge. When making bonsai, this is one of the basic challenges and cannot be ignored.
Here’s the after shot from the repotting. The carving that needed doing got done, and the tree got some fresh soil (American hornbeam roots very vigorously in a bonsai pot). I also re-exposed the surface roots, which are coming along just fabulously.
Here we are, just over six weeks later. The rampant growth is obvious, and it helps to point out the fact that hornbeams are not apically dominant trees. This means you can usually develop side branch thickness as quickly as you can new leaders. Not a bad feature.
So what to do with this tree? I decided it just needed a haircut, nothing more dramatic. This coming winter I’ll cut the tree back harder, so the ramification will improve in 2017.
And after. The tree still looks somewhat disorganized, but that will change once I do the hard pruning and really tighten up the foliage. Hornbeam (and other species) like to push their shoots as far as they can. For apically-dominant species, this is to help the tree grow taller faster. For non apically-dominant trees, it’s to increase spread and the tree’s ability to gather sunlight to manufacture food.
Here’s an updated photo of my awesome willow oak, Quercus phellos. It was time for a trimming, plus I needed to do some work on the lowest two branches. I decided I didn’t like the straight, boring though thick lowest right branch so I cut it off in winter. Unfortunately, it didn’t bud back so I’ll abandon it for two new shoots. You can see I’ve wired them into position.
I also cut back hard on the first left branch, to continue building taper in it.
I probably won’t do any more trimming on this tree in 2016, unless a branch in the crown starts getting too strong. Those are coming along well, I just need to build ramification.
I’d love to hear what you think of either of these trees.
by Zach Smith | May 15, 2016 | Care, Elms, Potting, Sweetgum
May is Sweetgum, Liquidambar styraciflua, collecting time. We were gone the first week of the month on vacation so I’m a week behind, but the work has now begun. Here are a couple of specimens I’m sure will make nice bonsai:
This one is on a lateral subsurface root, meaning it needs to be a connected-root style tree. In a couple of weeks it should be producing new buds, and that’s when I’ll have an idea where I’m going with it. Trunk base is 1.75″ and it’s 10″ to the tip of the taller leader (which needs to be shortened, by the way, it’s pretty ugly right now).
This specimen is a little more traditional, with a nice turn to the lower trunk. Incidentally, I didn’t wire that curve into the trunk, it grew that way on its own. This one also has a 1.75″ trunk base and is 10″ to the chop. It’ll be ready for an initial styling next month.
I lifted this Cedar elm, Ulmus crassifolia, today and direct-potted it into this lovely Chuck Iker round. It had terrific branching straight out of the ground; all I had to do was cut it back to shape. The trunk base is just under 1″ and it’s 12″ tall. Nice upright specimen, don’t you think?
In a couple of weeks I’ll know if I was successful with this one. Cedar elms are tough as nails, so I’m pretty confident.
By the way, this is another of my best bonsai trees for beginners. If you don’t have one, get one. You won’t be sorry.
I expect to post these trees for sale next month.
by Zach Smith | May 15, 2016 | Care, Chinese Elm, Elms, Pruning, Styling, Wiring
You may remember this Chinese elm, Ulmus parvifolia, from last November. In this photo, taken in August of 2014, we have a trunk with a new leader and some branches wired and positioned. In the photo below, the end of 2015 has arrived for this tree. It has changed in some obvious and some subtle ways. The branches are ramifying, which is easily done with Chinese elm. The new leader has thickened well, even in the confined space of a bonsai pot. On the subtle side, the bark is getting rougher which is a good sign of maturity.
Here we are in mid-May 2016, and you can see the result of a couple of things I did earlier in the season. For one, I wired up one of the small shoots at the apex of the tree. And I wired and positioned two other shoots to form lateral branches on the developing apex. Remember, this tree is going to be another six or seven inches tall above the original chop, so that means I’m building branches all the way up as the apex comes into being.
Notice I’ve allowed the shoot I wired up to run. This shoot will remain untrimmed, until such time as it has forced thickening of the new section of leader that emerges from the original chop point. This part of building a bonsai cannot be shortcut. All too often you’ll see an abrupt transition at the point of a trunk chop. While this can certainly be hidden on evergreen specimens and even deciduous trees during the growing season, come winter the flaw is all too obvious. We’re all impatient when it comes to creating our bonsai, but this is one step you just have to take the time to do right.
This Chinese elm is going to make a nice upright bonsai in about three more years. This growing season is all about extending and thickening the new leader and continuing to build the crown from the chop upward. I’ll post one or two updates later on to show you the progress.
For those of you just starting out in bonsai, Chinese elm is one of the very best species for beginners. Its “bad rap,” if you will, comes solely from the mass-produced ugly S-curve specimens sold to newcomers. Don’t let that stop you from owning one.
by Zach Smith | May 14, 2016 | Care, Flowering, Potting, Vines
Last September I wrote about a Japanese wisteria, Wisteria floribunda, I’d rescued after it had been left for dead by a tree service I hired. Well, another spring is upon us and this pre-bonsai has already been through its annual bloom and the new foliar growth is starting to vine.
I had made a mental note to remove this specimen from its tub, wash the root mass thoroughly and get a good read on its integrity. As I mentioned last fall, large collected wisterias tend to turn to rot in just a few years, and this one was going down that path. On a positive note, it seemed to have reached a point where the rot had arrested, leaving me with something that just might turn into a bonsai.
The cleaning was a time-consuming process, owing to the serious root mass along with an immense number of weeds (caused by a little too much benign neglect, eh?). It took me the better part of 15 minutes to get everything washed. In this photo you can see the result. Another of my goals was to reposition the tree with an eye toward its eventual ceramic home. While the original recumbent position wasn’t bad, it also wasn’t that good. A more upright position was called for.
After some judicious root-pruning, I put the tree back in a growing tub (since that was the smallest thing I had available to plant it in). Not only is it in its new position, I’ve turned the tree so that the living side as opposed to the hollow side is exposed. While both are interesting I like this side better, plus it has some very nice surface roots which have developed over the past few years.
Though there’s no predicting for certain, I expect this wisteria to continue flowering each spring. I’ll post a photo of it next season. For now, I plan to feed it and treat it to some more benign neglect *ahem* while being more diligent about plucking weeds.
By the way, I didn’t make mention of this last fall but this wisteria specimen could be over 100 years old. They come up as volunteers around here, and seek out trees to grow up into. This also tends to keep them safe from normal yard cleanup activities, provided you like wisteria of course. I do. And a few of the oaks I had removed were large enough to be in excess of a century old.
The trunk is 6″ across, and the tree is 30″ tall.
Let me know what you think of this wisteria by leaving me a comment below.
by Zach Smith | May 14, 2016 | Care, Oaks, Styling, Wiring
Back in January I collected four large live oaks, Quercus virginiana, from a good bonsai friend’s property. Collectible live oaks are not that plentiful where I live, despite the fact that we have some of the most magnificent old specimens anywhere. Given the opportunity to have a few pieces to work with, I couldn’t say no. It took them a while to come out, but three of the four survived.
This is the smallest of the three live oaks I now have to work on. The trunk base is 3″ above the root crown, and it was chopped at 5.5″. My plan for this tree is simple: the traditional broom-form live oak style. This design has a few variations. In the one I’m attempting here, the trunk forks very close to the ground, say 8-10′ up, having two and often more sub-trunks. The sub-trunks are relatively lengthy compared to the basal trunk, branching off into sub-sub trunks and so on. Eventually you get to the foliage. Some of the sub-sub trunks or their finer divisions droop downward, and often actually lie on the ground. If you’ve ever seen one, you know how extraordinary a sight they are.
The first, and only order of business for today, was to wire and introduce some movement into a few sub-trunks. They obviously have a lot more growing to do, meaning benign neglect, but I need to make sure they don’t get too stiff and unworkable.
And here we are. A little wiring, a little shaping, a little trimming. I’m already getting shoots in the leaf axils that will produce the sub-sub trunks I’ll need in the next phase of training. For now, though, it’s food and water and sun.
