by Zach Smith | Nov 27, 2019 | Blueberry, Care, Flowering, Potting, Pruning, Styling, Wiring
So it’s time for Thanksgiving weekend, and aside from overeating that can only mean bonsai fun for me.
I collected this Huckleberry, Vaccinium sp., this past winter. Except for minimal training work, I’ve just let it grow to get established. With the weather see-sawing back to warm (we went from 22F overnight last week to 70F overnight last night – yeah, that’s South Louisiana weather!), I figured why not learn something new.
Where’s the front? I’m not sure yet, but that doesn’t stop me from starting the trimming process. Huckleberries are vigorous growers, so I’m very confident in my design fleshing out next year regardless of what I do now.
More pruning of long stuff.
Now that’s pruned back good!
It does take a while for Huckleberries to put on some good root growth, but this one did its thing in just a year. Like I said, I just let it grow this year without trying to rush things (today’s the day to rush things, right?).
More wiring, shaping, and into a pot by Lary Howard. I switched back to this front. The leader will be cut back in spring, once it buds out at the first node. I left it long in case of dieback. I think this composition is nice. The slanting style isn’t my favorite, but now and then you come across a tree that just insists. I always like to go with the flow whenever possible. Let me know what you think. I’m personally very fond of Huckleberries.
by Zach Smith | Nov 22, 2019 | Bald Cypress, Blueberry, Care, Flowering
Here’s one of my landscape Bald cypresses that I’ve grown from seed since 2000. It gets bigger and better each year. Isn’t the color just terrific?
This one is just starting to put on its bronze for the year. Once the colors start, you’ve got maybe a week before the tree is bare. This tree has developed well this year – from collection in February to the initial styling and then slip-potting. It’s always nice when you can get a faster result.
I’ve got some nice red leaves on this Huckleberry. It needs a bit of a trim.
After the trim. I left a leader on the right-hand trunk alone, so it could continue to run and thicken. Once spring gets here, the growth will kick off again and that will include a lot more ramification. With more sub-branching to choose from, I’ll be able to build a better fine structure on this tree.
This tree is also getting closer to its first bonsai pot. The planting angle above strikes me as not quite as good as this one. If I do go this route, my choice of leader on the right-hand trunk will shift – but that’s why I’ve been growing two of them, so I’d have a choice. If I do go with the prominent one, it will need wiring come spring because it’s too straight (I can’t do it now for fear of cracking it, with no way for the tree to do any repair work).
And finally, check out all the flower buds! This pretty much guarantees me a decent show as spring gets close next year, not to mention some fruit toward summer. I really love growing Huckleberries as bonsai.
by Zach Smith | Sep 28, 2019 | Blueberry, Care, Crape myrtle, Flowering, Styling, Vines
Though the holidays are not yet upon us, it’s not too soon to start thinking of 2020. A lot of the work we do now will have an impact on how our trees develop next year. Today I looked at a few flowering and/or fruiting specimens that will make great progress in 2020. This Crape myrtle was grown from a cutting made a few years ago. It’s a small specimen, but nonetheless it’s developing a nice classic Crape myrtle shape. I’ve been helping it along with some wiring, and added a little today. This one should make a nice starter bonsai this coming year.
Here’s a starter size Muscadine I lifted earlier in the season. The base is very nice, and it has a low leader than I’ll continue to let run to thicken. This is about a two- to three-year project to a bonsai pot. For now, there’s no real benefit to wiring or trunk-chopping. For vines, it’s generally best to trunk-chop in the spring when you can expect strong growth and healing.
I have grown to love Huckleberries. Not only do they flower in a pot, they fruit as well; I even ate some berries off a specimen earlier this year. This one was collected in Winter 2019. I think the tight twin-trunk configuration is pretty cool. I’ve let it grow all year with little interference; today I want to take the next development step.
So I carved down to the respective leaders on the two trunks, then put a little wire on the tree to establish a basic shape. This one is a larger specimen, having a 2″ trunk base. I anticipate a finished height of about 16″ when all is said and done.
And finally, one more Huckleberry I wired and shaped earlier in the season. This one doesn’t need any more work today, but I wanted to show you what can be done at this stage of the process. Huckleberries (blueberries) are good bonsai subjects. They do root slowly, however, so you have to take this into account. The branches also can be brittle, so some extra care is needed when you wire and shape them (you’ll inevitably crack a branch here and there). By the third year in a pot, they get really lush with growth and that’s when you can expect fruiting to begin. Blueberries also like acid soil, so remember to keep some soil acidifier handy. Let me know what you think of these specimens.
by Zach Smith | Jul 21, 2019 | Blueberry, Care, Pruning, Styling, ZPC
You’ve been following the development of this Huckleberry bonsai-to-be for the past year or so. This is where the specimen stood just over one year ago, in July of 2018.
And here it is in February of this year. I had done some carving on the trunk chops in order to begin creating the tapering transitions that will be necessary to a good design.
Voila! Five months later, I’ve got myself a Huckleberry bush. They do try to grow the way God intended them to. Our job as bonsai artists, however, is to direct the growth so as to create a believable tree form. So here I go.
At each stage of your bonsai’s development, you need to assess your progress with certain chores. This photo illustrates the thickening of the new leader on the left-hand trunk. This is excellent progress. It won’t be long before the tapering transition is just the way I want it.
Here’s where the right-hand trunk stands. I left two potential leaders, because I wanted to have the option later on depending on how the tree looked. I couldn’t make up my mind at the time, in other words. Don’t be afraid to leave yourself options. You don’t always have to know the answer right then.
So down in the bottom of the tree, on the right-hand trunk, I’ve got this first branch. I left a shoot near the base in order to thicken the base of the shoot I want. As is common with Huckleberry (and other species), I got another shoot near the base but it isn’t coming off the main shoot so it serves no purpose.
This is a routine chore you will need to do on pretty much every tree you grow. And you need to be diligent about it, or the unwanted shoots will sap energy from the growth you want.
Here’s another chore you need to attend to. Notice that there’s a very strong shoot growing almost straight up near the base of this branch. Again, I left it on purpose and now it’s done its job of thickening the base of the branch. But I can’t leave it any longer, or it’ll sap energy from the branch and I could lose it.
It’s also the time of year for unwiring whatever you haven’t already unwired. You can see I’ve got some biting here.
A lot of the trimming has been done, but there’s still more to do. This is the time when you want to remove downward and upward growing branches (for the latter, leave those you still need to use for thickening purposes). Bring in the profile of your tree, and selectively remove sub-branching that isn’t going to be part of the design.
And this is the result for today. What you may notice is that after each round of trimming, the tree looks a lot like it did after the previous round. But if you look closer, you’ll see branches and leaders that have thickened nicely, and ramification that will ultimately form the foliage pads. It takes many rounds of “grow and clip” (this technique is used regardless of whether or not you wire your trees) to achieve the goal of a well-designed bonsai. Let me know what you think of today’s work.
If you think you’d like to give Huckleberry a try, here’s a specimen I collected this year that will be available in 2020. Pretty cool twin-trunk, eh?
And a smaller single trunk specimen, which got some design work earlier in the season.
by Zach Smith | Mar 2, 2019 | Blueberry, Care, Pruning, Styling, Wiring, ZPC
This Huckleberry, Vaccinium sp., was among the first of my trees to leaf out this spring. Not only that, it put on a nice bloom as well. Today I decided to do more editing and a little wiring in order to get my design in place. Granted, the tree looks good in its natural growth state, but keep on reading and you’ll see how seemingly subtle changes can really make a design pop.
Working from the bottom up, I first tackled the low branch on the right trunk and the two lowest branches on the left trunk. With just a little wiring and branch movement and positioning, I’ve made a big change in how these branches contribute to the overall design of the future bonsai.
In this photo, I’ve wired two branches on the right trunk, one that comes toward the viewer and the other a back branch. Again, they’ve been given some movement and positioned in spots that add to the design.
In this photo you can see that I’ve selected my final leader on the left trunk. This involved removing a final piece of the trunk stub with a couple of small branches, then wiring and positioning the leader.
Here I’ve wired a final branch on the left trunk that provides foliage in back, and brought it horizontal. It’s in a great spot now.
The final challenge for the day was selecting the leader on the right trunk. I actually have two choices: one, a thicker branch growing in the right direction; and two, a longer selection emerging from behind the trunk. I don’t have to make a final choice now, so I wired the longer one and put some movement in it, just in case it ends up being THE one. It all depends, frankly, on how strong it grows this year. I need it to be a lot thicker than it is now.
Let me know what you think of this Huckleberry. I’ve excited to continue working on it this year. It should be ready for a bonsai pot in 2020.
by Zach Smith | Feb 3, 2019 | Blueberry, Care, Flowering, Styling, Wiring
I’m writing about this Huckleberry, Vaccinium species, for two reasons: one, it’s a prime example of a bonsai to be that has misbehaved on its way from wild specimen to styled specimen; and two, from being lifted in Winter 2018 and direct-potted, then left to grow out through the season, in year two it has decided to bloom quite nicely.
Now, it’s worth noting that Huckleberry does not root vigorously when taken from the wild, so you have to give the tree time and good support in order to get it properly established. As with some other species, it is acid-loving. Even with frequent rain, assuming yours is slightly acidic as ours is, it helps to add soil acidifier to your feeding regimen during each growing season. It’s just good practice, and if your municipal water has a pH of 8.3 as mine has, you really don’t want to not treat from time to time if you get in a dry spell.
Here’s what I was talking about. You can see the flowers are just about to open, and there are plenty of them on the way. It remains to be seen if the tree will set fruit, but I’ll certainly keep you posted.
Now to the more serious issue with this specimen. If you’ll study the first photo for a bit, it’s apparent that the main trunk is really sparsely branched. In fact, it suffered some dieback and so really needs to be nursed along. This is one of my main goals for 2019 for this specimen. It’s also a key principle of developing bonsai. Your trees must be healthy to reach their full potential. When they don’t respond the way you expect them to, meaning sluggish growth or sparse branching, this is a problem that must be corrected before you dive into whacking on the tree. For example, it’s clear that I have to chop this trunk again. Trying to do so now, with the root system insufficiently strong, could very well damage the roots it has and possibly kill the tree altogether.
So what can be done today?
A surprising amount of work, as it turns out. When I collected this specimen, it was a twin-trunk. True to the fact that it didn’t thrive in a shallow container with little soil, the smaller trunk died. But lots of new shoots came up from the base (this is typical growth for Blueberries, which are multi-trunk bushes by nature). Today I selected the best one and wired a structure for it. Not too shabby looking.
I also wired the shoot on the main trunk closest to the top of the tree and redirected it upward. I need this shoot to grow unrestrained for a while, to thicken and thereby increase the vigor of the main trunk. I’m also in hopes that with improved vigor I’ll get more adventitious buds to sprout. I only need them from about halfway up the trunk into the apex. Then I can create a structure for the main trunk and continue the development of this Blueberry bonsai.
So to answer the original question, What do you do when your bonsai misbehave? you have to nurse them along to ensure vigor, then step by step make a design happen. Sometimes the tree gives you more to work with, sometimes you have to graft branches. The main thing is to take this process one step at a time and not get impatient. It may take years more than you originally planned, but the effort usually pays off.
One more thing: I’m also thinking that an oval pot would better suit this specimen. What do you think?
