by Zach Smith | Apr 4, 2017 | Bald Cypress, Care, Collecting, Pruning, Styling, Wiring
In my collecting endeavors I often run across trees that I just want to work on myself, and I mean beyond the initial styling I often do on my stock. This is one such tree.
And yes, in this first photo it’s obviously another one of those sticks I wrote about the other day. But I can tell you I’m pretty sure I heard it say “flat top” to me as I slogged up to it with my saw.
“Man, oh man, that’s just what I’m going to do with you,” I’m pretty sure I thought back at it.
From February 4th to today, this is what my neat new Cypress stick has done. Definitely time for an initial run at designing that flat-top me and the tree were talking about.
So my first chore was to decide on a front. One nice feature of this tree is it’s got some dead snags on the trunk that I’d like to incorporate in the design. After all, a flat-top Cypress is a mature tree which means it’s lost its lower branches. It’s not uncommon to see dead snags emerging from the trunks of these trees.
Here’s the second potential front. Notice that low snag? I’m thinking I want to make use of it. In the first photo it’s coming straight at the viewer. Not good in the lower part of a bonsai. But by turning the tree slightly it looks like something worthwhile. Plus the trunk still has a pleasing jig near the top.
After stripping off all the low foliage, which will play no part in the design, I focused on that nice strong shoot emerging from the left-hand side of the trunk. You’ll often see low vestigial branches on flat-top Cypresses. This one strikes me as being in just the right spot.
Now I’ve wired that shoot and put some initial shape into it. I also removed more unnecessary foliage and that large branch stub just above my vestigial branch.
Here’s another decision I need to make. I have two leaders, one moving toward the viewer from the tree’s front and a second moving away. Though the second one does make for more taper, I don’t need that as much as I need the apical stub moving toward the viewer.
And here’s yet another decision. I want a branch that moves toward the left, meaning away from the angle of the apical leader. Do I go with that thicker one or the thinner one just above it? I made the decision this way: when considering where the upper choice emerges from the trunk, it’s very close to what will be one of my apical leaders. This doesn’t make a lot of sense from the perspective of nature, where such branches get shaded out and die. So it seems obvious that the lower branch would be able to survive its position, as it’s not only lower but also farther to the left of the apex.
And the finished initial design. It’s very important to note just how few branches I’ve ended up with. In the wonderful world of bonsai, less is more. Remember, our goal is not to make an exact replica of a tree in nature, but rather to make a representation of a tree in nature. It’s still a tree, of course, but you the artist have reduced it to its essential elements – only those needed to evoke in the viewer the essence of a tree. Although this specimen has quite a ways to go in order to be deemed a finished bonsai, there’s really no problem seeing the path its on.
As for the numbers, this tree is 3.5″ across at the base and is 30″ tall. Isn’t the taper superb? Next year it will be ready for a bonsai pot.
by Zach Smith | Mar 26, 2017 | Bald Cypress, Care, Collecting, Potting, Styling, Wiring
This isn’t the first time I’ve made a deadwood Bald cypress bonsai, Taxodium distichum. They’ve been part of the ongoing How to Make Bonsai Lemonade series. Today I pulled out the last of the BC’s I’ve been ignoring, that failed to bud all the way when I collected it. As you can see, all of the growth is right near the base.
Yep, that’s a whole lot of dead wood that used to be a Bald cypress trunk. Time to do something with it.
Step one consisted of removing all of the dead bark and all of the shoots I knew I didn’t need. That left me with two as potential leaders. Each had its merits.
I decided on the thicker of the two shoots, just to get a little head start on the thickening process. A little wire, a little shaping.
This is pretty cool. There’s a weevil that burrows under the bark of weak and dying BC specimens, carving curving tunnels. These make for an interesting deadwood feature.
And finally into a training pot. I discovered that there was another set of roots below the ones that lay just beneath the soil surface, so I was effectively able to “move” the new leader higher up on the trunk.
This project will be about four or five years to the point where the tree looks like something. The main thing will be to let the leader grow out unrestrained to thicken up, then cut it back and build a branch structure on it so that it looks like a Bald cypress. I’ve got a feeling it’s going to turn out well.
The next step on this one will be to treat the dead wood with lime sulfur. It’s been chewed on by insects enough, I’d say.
The trunk base is 3″ across, and it’s 20″ to the tip of the snag.
by Zach Smith | Feb 26, 2017 | Bald Cypress, Care, Collecting, Potting
With an early spring in the offing, today was probably just a bit beyond the end of the collecting season. All of the specimens I brought home today were already leafing out. Now, I’ve had good luck collecting cypresses after they start budding, so I don’t have a lot of concern that the ones I brought home today won’t make it. But it would have been preferable had they been a little less out. I’ll know in a few weeks how it went.
Meanwhile, here are a few shots from today’s adventure.
This is what you call overdoing it when you’re 62. There are 15 trees here. Oh, I had the young strong help getting them out of the swamp, but the work on the back end is a lot harder. It took almost four hours to get these guys cleaned up and potted.
I often make note of the fact that when I pot a collected tree, the lateral roots get buried deep in the pot to protect them from drying out. Here’s one of the bigger trees I got today. The cut ends of the large roots you see here have to go at least three inches beneath the soil. Though we water our trees on a schedule, between waterings the soil at the surface of the pot gets fairly dry. If this goes too far into the pot, you end up with a cut root that dries out. Cypresses in particular are like sponges – and I mean that just about literally. When you’re cutting the smaller roots of a cypress, they will actually squeeze like a sponge. It has to do with how the cells are made, though I don’t know the botany behind it. Anyway, once you pot up a large cypress with those big cut roots they suck up water like a sponge, so you want to keep that flow going. With the chop sealed off, the water that is sucked up into the tree goes to keep the cells hydrated and ultimately to allow for new buds to form.
Here’s another of the larger ones for today. Again, those lateral roots will end up buried inches under the soil surface.
Here’s another specimen, a smaller tree with great trunk movement and superb lateral roots. This is unusual for a tree with this small a caliper.
And one more. This tree is also not particularly large in terms of basal trunk thickness. But it has fantastic roots.
And finally, here’s one I plan to keep for my collection. It’s a terrific twin-trunk, which I plan to make into a literati flat-top. The trunk base on the larger tree is 1.75″, and it’s 25″ to the chop. The smaller one is 0.5″ at the base. The pot is an extraordinary piece by Chuck Iker.
Let me know what you think of these trees. With a little luck, I’ll be posting more specimens for sale in the next few weeks.
by Zach Smith | Feb 18, 2017 | Bald Cypress, Care, Collecting, Flowering, Hawthorn, Hornbeam, Potting
Today was another opportunity to collect some great new material. Here are a few of the trees I brought home today.
First up is yet another terrific Bald cypress, Taxodium distichum. This one has a 5″ trunk 5″ above the soil surface, and is chopped at 27″. The buttress is superb, and runs down into the soil. I always bury my newly collected trees deep, to ensure the surface roots don’t dry out. In the case of this cypress, the buttressing runs way down into the soil. When this one finally gets raised in its bonsai pot, the effect is going to be stunning.
How’s this for a great American hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana)? The base is nice and wide, the taper outstanding, and the muscling is so typical of the species. The basal diameter is 3.5″, and it’s 20″ to the chop.
And last but not least, here’s a really awesome Parsley hawthorn, Crataegus marshallii. I’m planning to keep this one for myself. I just love the fluting in the lower trunk, and it’s got nice taper in a relatively short specimen. The trunk base is 2.5″ above the root crown, and I’ve chopped it at 13″. I’m planning a finished height of about 18″.
Leave a comment below and let me know what you think.
by Zach Smith | Feb 12, 2017 | Bald Cypress, Care, Collecting, Potting
So the best thing to do after posting a blog about not acquiring any more really big bonsai is to go out and collect some. There are two extenuating circumstances, however: one, I did say I would continue to collect big trees for artists out there who love the big ones; and two, I used a 34-year old son who is much stronger than I was when I was his age to help me lift them. Boy, did that help!
Here’s the group we brought home today. I think you can see we did really well. And if you look closely at the tree on the left, you’ll see something really cool.
But first, check out this specimen. Great buttressing, and can you believe the taper on this guy? The tree will end up only 25″ to the chop from the soil. The natural shari on that buttressing root in front doesn’t hurt, either.
Here it is potted up. The roots are buried, of course, to keep them from drying out.
This tree made the trip worthwhile, all by itself. I collected it in an area that has been routinely inundated each year I’ve gone to this particular spot. But the water’s really low this year, so it was easy to get to it.
It’s much easier to see what this tree is all about in this photo. There are four knees on four of the buttressing roots. The two roots in the front of the tree are what I call “flying buttresses.” They really add drama to this specimen. But it’s just amazing to me how those knees have emerged, most likely as a result of this tree being under so much water. Regardless of how it happened, though, there’s no doubt this tree is going to make quite a statement once it’s trained.
The trunk is about 5″ across about 6″ above the soil surface, and it’s chopped at 28″. It’ll make either a great informal upright or flat-top. All depends on the desires of the future owner.
I’ll know in two or three weeks if I lifted these trees successfully. Now that they’re home and potted up, I’ve done all I can.
Let me know what you think of these cypresses. Leave us a comment below.
by Zach Smith | Feb 12, 2017 | Bald Cypress, Care, Potting, Pruning, Soil, ZPC
I have always loved really big bonsai. No matter where you see them, either in a show or in someone’s collection, your eye is invariably drawn to them. They’re so … big! And yet they’re a small representation of something that’s super big, which is a little odd when you think of it.
Really big bonsai come with special challenges, which are all about size and weight. It’s okay to say “Duh!” at this point. Yes, when you collect a piece of material from the wild and the only thing it’ll go into is a concrete mixing tub from Home Depot®, you have earned your membership in the Big Bonsai Club. I’ve been a member for almost 30 years now. When I joined the club, I was only 33. I was much stronger than I am now, but more importantly I was much younger. But I still love those big ones.
One species that really lends itself to the Big Bonsai Club stable is Bald cypress, Taxodium distichum. These trees are so impressive in the wild, if you have a really big one on your bench it makes a really big statement. One good feature of Bald cypress is that the wood is amazingly light. This means that even though your soil mix is going to have some weight to it, at least the tree won’t add much to the load. That turns out to be a real blessing when you go on to add a 25-pound bonsai pot to the equation.
I’ve had this specimen for a couple of years now. It’s really big. The trunk base is 6″ when measured 7″ from the soil surface. Those surface roots spread 13″ across. You can see where I’ve been growing the apex, working on the tapering transition. I should be able to finish this work in two more growing seasons. The finished height for this bonsai is going to be 32-34″.
Today it was time to go from the mixing tub to a training pot. I had this Byron Myrick rectangle that had cracked during firing (so I got it for nothing), and I think it works pretty well.
I took off enough root to fit this tree in its pot. After putting in a drainage layer of straight Riverlite® expanded shale, I set the tree in and filled the spaces with prepared bonsai soil. The tree is budding presently, and I’m confident the potting work won’t put much of a damper on it.
The big negatives about this bonsai are, as I mentioned above, size and weight. Though the tree itself is light, the tree plus several gallons of soil weighed about 35-40 pounds. I’m guessing the pot weighs another 25-30 pounds. So this whole composition tips the scales at going on 70 pounds. I’m only eight years shy of being that number old, so trust me when I say I can feel every muscle it takes to lug this thing around when I’m dumb enough to do it.
So no more really big trees for me, just this last one. Oh, I’ll no doubt collect a few more here and there, and send them on to braver and/or stronger and/or younger bonsai artists. But I’ll content myself and my personal collection from now on with just a few of these very large small trees in shallow pots.
*My back approves this message.*
