It was so much fun making a quick Hackberry bonsai last weekend that I did the same thing with a Water oak, Quercus nigra. This tree is a volunteer that has been growing on my property for several years now. I liked the form it took naturally.
If you look closely you can see a nice twin-trunk that has grown on its own that way. Though I could certainly reduce this specimen to a single trunk, I decided to lift it to see what all was there.
Here’s the tree lifted, with the roots washed. There’s too much in the top of this specimen, but it’s a lot easier to see the trunk base. I like what I’m seeing. Remember, selecting deciduous (and some broadleaf evergreen) bonsai material goes along the lines of trunk then rootage. If you’ve got a good trunk – good size, movement, taper, character – you can make good roots and you’ll certainly have to make the crown.
I also have good roots with this one, by the way.
Next came the proportioning. The tree was way too tall and way too “spready” when it came out of the ground. So I simply cut back everything that didn’t look like a bonsai and brought the silhouette inward so the tree made proportional sense.
And here we are, a quick Chuck Iker pot later. Doesn’t the color of the pot go well with the color of the leaves?
You may be wondering, When does this water oak go dormant? Well, water oak often will hold its leaves most of the way through winter. It’s not quite like live oak, which loses its leaves as the new leaves are emerging, but boy does it come close. A neat feature of the species.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this one. I think I’ll either try to wire the branches, which are too straight, or simply cut them off altogether and start from the new buds I’m sure to get where the branches used to be. What would you do?
Zach,
Thank you for your many posts on Oak trees. You are right, The diversity of the genus Quercus (oaks) in the USA is incredible. Everyone should learn how to handle their locally native oaks, or oaks that you make available. I have some bur oak seedlings, collected locally in my grow out bed. I am hoping, that time and ramification will bring down their enormous leaf size. Great thing about bur oak is its incredible winter hardiness. I’m in zone 5, we have had temps as low as -17 F, and my bur oaks in grow out pots were left out on the ground, in full sun, and they sprouted vigorously in spring. Your posts are providing me great guide lines and inspiration on how to handle oaks. Thanks. – Leo
Thank you for the kind words, Leo. I hope you succeed with your bur oak experiment. I have white oak on my bucket list. Huge leaves, but I figure a large bonsai would make for decent proportions.
Good start on what will be a wonderful bonsai in a few years. I think that American Oaks are the most neglected bonsai material out there. I have a Live Oak, Chapman oak and Laurel Oak in my collection and am always on the lookout for potential material. This spring my goal is to find a Willow Oak to start on it’s way to bonsaihood.
I have learned a lot from following Zack’s posts here and am always impressed with his work.
Oaks are definitely underutilized for bonsai. I read somewhere that there are more oak species in North America than anywhere else in the world. So I think we’re more or less obligated to make the most of them.
Thanks to Zach I will have at least a few in my collection and they are quickly becoming my favorites to work on
Hi Zach
what a nice tree, good move leaving both trunks they really move well together. I would probably keep the lower left branch and a few of the top ones but remove the rest. But I don’t think you can go wrong either way!
Thank you, Gordon!
Zach, this is a great article for collecting (and I’ve done bonsai for over 40 years). Would you grant permission for me to attach it to the January newsletter of the Pensacola Gulf Coast Bonsai Society (of which I am the Corresponding Secretary–also in charge of the newsletter), with proper attribution of authorship, of course? pk
You bet, Pierre! Thank you.
As always a their interesting bonsai. I absolutely love the !eaves.
Awesome.
Thank you, Paul. Looking forward to 2017 with this one.