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 | Jul 13, 2019 | Care, Chinese Elm, Elms
Can you guess what this is? Some background first. I field-grow Chinese elms for bonsai, and frankly you’d be hard-pressed to name a better overall species for bonsai. In fact, it’s not hyperbole to state that Chinese elm is the single best deciduous species for bonsai in the world. A couple of years ago, I lifted a Chinese elm from one of my growing beds and potted it up. I didn’t replant that particular spot, as it is no longer in a long-term viable place for field-growing trees. Fast-forward to this year, and what do I see in that spot where the Chinese elm once grew? A whole “forest” of root suckers. Well, I’m a sucker for Chinese elm forests so I had to dig them up.
And now I have a new forest in the making. These trees are grouped more or less as they came out of the ground, which is pretty cool. The arrangement actually works. And wouldn’t you know it? One week later, all of these trees have new buds on them. I’m confident I can make a nice forest planting out of them in just a single year.
I like to walk down bonsai memory lane from time to time, so here are a few photos from the past of Chinese elm forests I’ve assembled and developed. This one is from 2015.
And six months later (I had to do a little reforestation).
This one is from 2014. It’s one of my favorite bonsai forests of all time (that I’ve created). I sent it on to a client though I’ve misplaced the record of who, but I sure wish I knew what it looks like today.
by Zach Smith | Jul 7, 2019 | Care, Elms, Water Elm
I potted up this Water-elm that we’d collected last July back in February. It’s a pretty cool little twin-trunk, featuring dead wood on both trunks as well as a “flying root” on the right side. You wouldn’t ordinarily want a root like that, but I thought it added to the character of the tree rather than detracting from it. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was going to be proven right.
I’ve been planning for a while to do some additional carving on the dead wood, then to treat everything with lime sulfur. That was one of the chores I tended to on this long weekend. In this photo you can see most of the result. This tree is definitely getting better.
How’s this for a surprise! I was digging around at the base of the right-hand trunk, and discovered that there was a hollow filled with mud that I hadn’t managed to clean out last summer when the tree first came home. The more I dug, the farther I went – until I came out the back! It’s a see-through trunk. So I cleaned it up and then treated everything with lime sulfur. And I think the flying root is now indispensable to the character of this bonsai. The tree just wouldn’t be the same without it.
Here’s a shot from the back. I think this Water-elm bonsai says a lot in a small package. Do you agree?
by Zach Smith | Jul 6, 2019 | Care, Pruning, Styling, Wiring, Yaupon
Last year I had the hedge in front of my house taken out. It had been planted when the house was built in 1982, so simple math says this specimen is at least 40 years old. The base is 6″ across, and I knew there was bonsai potential when it came out of the ground. I’ve left it alone since the landscapers dug it up, and it’s done just you’d expect a hedging shrub to do.
The first order of business is to remove all of the shoots emerging from the base of the plant. Boy, were there a lot of them!
Here’s a back view, after a lot more clean up. I’ve got a triple-trunk specimen in the making. Lots of potential.
I started with the stout trunk in front. After reducing it to exactly three shoots (all I need to start), a little wire gave me the structure I’m after.
Same thing for the slender trunk on the left-hand side. Also reduced to three shoots, wired and shaped.
The main trunk took a little longer, but the key as always is to find the essence of the tree. There are about a dozen shoots altogether, and from them I’ve got the complete structure of a bonsai in the making. This specimen will end up about 18″ tall. Once it fills out, it should make quite an impressive Dwarf yaupon bonsai. I’d love to hear what you think about this one. Leave me a comment below.
by Zach Smith | Jul 4, 2019 | Bald Cypress, Care, Elms, Flowering, Potting, Styling, Wiring
I potted this small Cedar elm earlier this season. It’s been growing away, minding its own business. Recently we had a couple of storms and somehow this tree got picked to be blown off the bench. It stayed in the pot and no branches were broken, but the second time the tree got a bit disturbed in the pot. I secured it and set it back on the bench, though not facing the same way as before. I’ve been looking at it ever since, and finally thought there might be a better front.
Is this a better front? I think it has possibilities. What do you think?
July 4th is also a good time to defoliate Bald cypress. I don’t typically defoliate BC in year one, and that’s the case with this one. However, it’s also time to do some summer styling work. I’m making a flat-top out of this specimen. I created the branching and leaders earlier in the season, then waited for more growth. I got just what I expected.
The first step today was to reposition the leaders. What you’ll find if you create a flat-top cypress is, the leaders do not want to lie flat! So you have to fight this fight until you win. It usually takes two or three rounds of wiring. Here I was able to pull the leaders down.
And the final step for today was to wire a couple of secondary shoots and position them. This is very important to do at this time. It’ll pay off before the end of the growing season.
I seldom work with azaleas. Their horticultural requirements are a good bit more difficult for me to navigate, especially considering the large number of deciduous specimens I have on my benches. The Satsuki azalea “Chinzan” is different. In fact, I have found casually that this variety will take a tremendous amount of neglect. I’ve had the “mother plant” to this one for almost a decade now, and it grows each season and blooms its head off whether I pay any attention to it or not (it does get watered, of course). A few years ago I separated this smaller specimen from the mother plant, and proceeded to set it on the bench and neglect it. Chinzan didn’t care. So today I figured it was time to see if anything could be done with it.
Here’s a shot of the uninspiring base.
And here’s what I made out of it. One of the things I love most about bonsai is that you truly can make nice specimens from less than stellar material. In fact, this is what we artists bring to the whole endeavor. That plant two photos above was most definitely nothing to write home about. This small bonsai is no masterpiece, but I think it makes a credible bonsai. What do you think?
by Zach Smith | Jun 29, 2019 | Bald Cypress, Care, Elms, Potting, Pruning, Styling, Sweetgum
You’ve been following along as I’ve developed this Cedar elm, starting in 2017 when it was first collected. The tree is filling out well, and the ramification is getting tighter with each pruning/pinching. All in all, time and technique are working their magic. But … I have come to the conclusion that this pot is not quite right for the tree. I love the color and the shape, but it’s a little too small. So time for a change.
This Lary Howard oval is just the right length, and the color is tough to beat. I think this improves the tree a great deal. (It’s available at our Cedar Elm Bonsai page.)
Here’s another Cedar elm I’ve featured a time or two. This photo was taken just over a year ago.
It’s been a great year for this tree. As with the first, it’s filled in beautifully and is ramifying with each pruning. The growth is strong, as you can see.
And here we are after the haircut. When you’re developing trees at this stage, it’s best to just take your shears and cut to shape (Walter Pall calls it hedge pruning – I’ve been doing it for many years, but now it’s getting popularized, which is good.)
Here’s a nice twin-trunk Sweetgum I collected in 2018. I left the tree alone to grow and get a strong root system, so that this year I could make something out of it. And I did. It was potted a few weeks ago.
Here we are, recovered from the potting stress. The tree is putting on nice healthy foliage, so I’ll focus on pinching to manage the shape of the tree. By next year, I expect to have a real winner with this one.
And finally, a real crowd favorite is this Bald cypress forest. It’s been through some tough times, but I think I’ve got it on a good path to what will ultimately be a fine forest bonsai. Here it is last weekend (getting a bit shaggy, as BC do).
It’s BC defoliation season, and here’s what happened today. The only tree I left alone is the smallest of the replacement whips, which is lagging a little behind the others in strength. I should have a nice fresh set of foliage on this forest in about three weeks.
