Bald Cypress Collecting Trip #2 For 2021

by | Jan 9, 2021 | Bald Cypress, Care, Collecting, Most Recent, Potting

bald cypress collecting trip #2 for 2021

the bonsai files

Sneak Peek

This week we went for larger specimens.

Bald Cypress Collecting Trip #2 for 2021

This is the sort of tree I’m not supposed to be collecting anymore. But doggone, it was just something I couldn’t pass up! Isn’t the fluting impressive, and you can’t do better than a nice twisting trunk.

It wouldn’t fit in the small concrete mixing tubs I often use for BC. This is one of the big tubs. What that means is, the tree and tub weight pretty close to 100 pounds. That’s why I’m not supposed to be collecting trees this big anymore. Oh, well….

I know you’re wondering – the trunk is 8″ across when measured 8″ above the soil surface, and it’s chopped at 36″. The root spread will be around 14″ once the tree is lifted for its bonsai pot.

What a great BC specimen!

This one is more manageable. The trunk is only 5.5″ across, and it’s chopped at 31″. Also great fluting, and this one has also got a bit of a twist to the trunk.

The first tree above and especially this one came with a dense mat of fibrous roots. This one was so bad it took me the better part of an hour to work through them and cut away what I won’t need. The result was worth it, though.

The base here is 7″ across, and it’s chopped at 34″. Great taper, of course.

I thought I’d include a shot of what should be the back of this tree. The trunk has a very impressive pair of flutes from this angle. I don’t think this is a better front, just because of how the tree moves and the fact that the other angle has a great root flare at the soil. But maybe someone will give it a try.

Bald Cypress Collecting Trip #1 For 2021

by | Jan 2, 2021 | Bald Cypress, Care, Collecting, Most Recent, Potting

bald cypress collecting trip #1 for 2021

the bonsai files

Sneak Peek

Happy New Year! Time to go collect some new BC’s.

Bald Cypress Collecting Trip #1 for 2021

I don’t like this time of year at all, but then again it’s the best time to collect Bald cypress. The weather was cool, the rain passed on New Year’s eve, so you couldn’t ask for better.

This is the largest specimen of the 11 we brought home today. The base is about 5″ across, and it’s chopped a bit tall at 29″. Good fluting on the trunk, and outstanding taper. I’m seeing formal upright all the way with this one.

This is another nice specimen, with a base of 3.5″ and also good fluting. I really like the trunk movement. But this one has an unusual feature I’m not sure whether to keep or not.

You probably noticed that odd root jutting out on the right side. The single jutting root doesn’t do anything for most BC’s, but this one has a “proto-knee” on it where it emerges from the trunk. I’ll call it an elbow. Does it stay or does it go? I imagine I’ll let whoever buys it make that choice.

Here’s another good size tree, with a trunk base of 4″ and chopped at 28″. It’ll make a fine informal upright, or even a nice flat-top.

And the final example for today, a smaller specimen that has some great movement and graceful taper. I chopped this one long on purpose; it’s definitely destined for the flat-top design.

We’ll be back out next week for more BC’s. In the meantime, let me know what you think about these.

Silverberry Bonsai

by | Oct 31, 2020 | Care, Collecting, Most Recent, Pruning, Silverberry, Styling, Wiring

silverberry bonsai

the bonsai files

Sneak Peek

I’ve been wanting to grow Silverberry, or Eleagnus, as bonsai for some time now. A bonsai friend gave me one early in 2020, and today I got around to styling it after a year of growth from a bare trunk. But that’s not all ….

Silverberry Bonsai

A bonsai friend gave me this Silverberry, or Eleagnus, back in Winter 2019-2020. I chopped it to a bare trunk, and sat it on the bench to grow out. I learned during the season that they root slowly, so my earlier plans to style it in summer did not work out. But no matter. You can work on the above ground parts pretty much any time. The Eleagnus species are evergreen and very tough customers. They thrive in poor soils. What more could you ask for?

I decided it was time to do an initial styling on this one, in part because of the rest of the story you can read below.

 

Slanting style bonsai are always a challenge, because they slant. That may sound redundant, but when you think of a typical bonsai – the most common style is the informal upright – things such as branch placement and balance are very easy to accomplish. Not so much with the slanting trees.

We always begin by removing those branches that emerge from the bottom of the slanting part of the trunk, which usually can also be seen to be emerging from the inside of a curve. Tough to make those work!

We start wiring branches from the bottom. I left the right-hand branch long so it could keep on growing next year and thicken up.

More editing of branches. The look of the tree is getting “cleaner,” and it’s easier to see a design taking shape.

Now I’ve got the leader defined. Once you have your trunk line established, it’s a lot easier to evaluate your planned bonsai and adjust the design if needed.

I think this is a good start on a nice Silverberry bonsai. I’ll wait until next summer to (possibly) slip-pot into a bonsai container; it depends on the root growth I get in spring.

 

Now for the rest of the story. Way back in 2012, when I first had my property cleared of a huge number of trees I no longer wanted (and which also was intended to give me more nursery space), I lined the back and sides of the property with Silverberry. My next-door neighbor also put up a hedge at the same time. Fast-forward to now, and they decided to remove their hedge. Well, since I have steadfastly decided not to fool with really large trees anymore, I of course decided to grab a couple of huge specimens while I had the chance. Here’s one of them. The base measures about 8″ across, and it’s chopped at about 10″ from the soil. I’m pretty confident it’ll recover; I’ll know come spring.

Here’s the other one. It’s also 8″ across at the base, a little less front to back, and also 10″ tall. Two very nice sumo-style specimens.

Let me know what you think. Have you ever worked with Silverberry?

 

 

Rulebreaking 101 – Crape Myrtle

by | Sep 22, 2020 | Care, Collecting, Crape myrtle, Flowering, Most Recent

rulebreaking 101 – crape myrtle

the bonsai files

Sneak Peek

I enjoy breaking rules when something good comes of it. One of my hardest and fastest rules is to never collect a tree twice. Well ….

Rulebreaking 101 – Crape Myrtle

And so, way back in 2012 I was invited to collect some white Crape myrtles from a commercial growing field. The trees were available primarily because their trunks were not straight enough (the anti-bonsai approach to the landscape, right?). Not that they were all twisty-turny, they just had some low trunk movement which made them fair game for bonsai. Seeing as how each had a trunk base of 5-6″, and Crape myrtle wood is one of the absolute toughest you’ll ever try to saw, I limited myself to five specimens.

I brought them home and potted them up. A couple failed to bud all the way up and down the trunk. One I planted out – this one – and the second stayed in its pot and has grown its way into the ground; I’ll be lifting it next spring. The others I sold.

So I’ve been mowing around this specimen for years now, and as time has gone on it’s started to take on some interest as a very stout kinda guy. The more I’ve studied it, the more it has started to intrigue me. Finally, I decided to break one of my most sacred rules: never collect a tree twice.

 

 

 

Don’t let this picture fool you – the sawing and lifting was awesome and lengthy! It took me a couple of battery packs to get to this stage.

This is the nebari check before filling in the pot. This tree has some killer roots – should I say to die for? Is that redundant?

I could only think “Ogre” at this point. This tree definitely needs a name. Any ideas?

That trunk under the mouth of the tree technically makes it a clump – not to mention making it somewhat obscene. It only lasted a day.

 

 

 

Here we are the next day, after the final editing. This takes the tree out of the clump category pretty well. I think I can work with the two leaders on this one, sumo-style. I can also eliminate one and go for a single trunk line. Plenty of time to decide.

Here’s another view of the tree. Could this be the front? It looks like I’ve got a couple of choices, so no need to make any decisions now. Besides, who re-collects a tree at this time of the year? That’s another rule I managed to break this go-round. But here’s the secret: Crape myrtles are a different breed. I don’t know of any species that roots as exorbitantly as Crapes. So that gives me a lot of confidence, considering that we have a couple of months until our first frost.

By way of scale, the trunk on this specimen measures 7-8″ across at the soil. The root spread is a good 12″.

I spotted the a couple of trunk buds today, meaning I just might’ve gotten away with breaking another rule or two!

 

Pasture Privet Parade

by | Jun 21, 2020 | Care, Collecting, Flowering, Most Recent, Privet

pasture privet parade

the bonsai files

Sneak Peek

Cow pastures are the best place to collect Chinese privet. Cattle browse the soft foliage, and in time this produces specimens with great character ….

Pasture Privet Parade

 

Did you know that cow pastures are the best place to collect Chinese privet? Of course you did, I just said that in the Sneak Peek above. Here’s the thing. Privet is a fast growing broadleaf evergreen or, as some would prefer to say, a fast-growing noxious weed. They grow fast and straight with an untapering trunk or (quite) often many untapering trunks. If you were growing one in the ground, ideally you’d go out every day or three with your hedge trimmers and give it a whack. That’s a lot of work, and you’d have to do it for at least 10 years to get a good result. Unlikely to happen, right?

If you live in a part of the country that’s been invaded by privet, and you have access to cow pastures where they tend to grow near the fencelines, it’s a likely place to find nice specimens. The cows browse. The privets keep on coming back. The process continues. Over time, you end up with privet specimens that have good to great trunk taper and really nice character.

A week ago I harvested about a dozen pasture privets. Here are a handful that are already back-budding. This first one is a good example of a tapering specimen with terrific character that will make a fine small bonsai in short order.

A “Siamese twin trunk” specimen. The two trunks are fused and twisting, and will make an unusual but striking bonsai once developed.

This is one of the larger specimens I brought home. Trunk movement doesn’t happen by itself with privet, so it’s clear to me that this one has been worked on by cattle for the better part of 20 years.

We always want our trees to look older than they really are. This one is old to begin with, but even if it wasn’t the mottled coloring of the trunk would make it look old.

How about this twin-trunk? With a base 2″ across but only standing about 6″ to the higher chop, we’re looking at a very fine shohin bonsai to be.

How about this one? You can almost feel the tough times this privet has been through. It’s another shohin specimen, but will pack a lot of character in a small space once it’s developed.

And the last one for today. You can’t beat the trunk movement and taper, and there’s natural shari on the side and in back. I’m really looking forward to styling this one.

So let me know what you think of my pasture privet parade. If you haven’t grown Chinese privet as bonsai, you should give one a try.

BC Collecting Trip #5 For 2020

by | Jan 26, 2020 | Bald Cypress, Care, Collecting, Potting
Yesterday we wrapped up Bald cypress collecting season. The winter collecting season (this far south) is driven largely by the weather. Ours has seen some warm spells, and despite a few mornings near freezing it’s just not been enough to keep these trees from starting to push buds. I prefer not to risk collecting right after budburst, so the safest course is to call the season done. Fortunately, we got a lot of very nice trees and I’m happy to say that some of them are already pushing buds. So far so good!

This specimen caught my eye because of the nice twist in the trunk that highlights the deep flute in front of the tree.

Here it is in the pot. This specimen is more or less prototypical of what a natural-looking Bald cypress should be: flaring base with good buttressing roots, great trunk taper and character, and usually just a little movement to make for a good start. Since BC’s bud so prolifically, it’s really easy to make a great bonsai structure in a relatively short timeframe.
I got two surprises this trip. Here’s the first one, and you could call it a “small big surprise.” Notice the nice fluting of the trunk on this BC. How big a tree would you say it is? BC trunks don’t typically get the nice fluting until they’re at least 3″ across near the base. This one is just over 2″ at the soil! In fact, it’s the smallest cypress specimen I can ever recall seeing with trunk fluting. A really big surprise!
Here’s the other surprise for the day, and it’s actually a big surprise. As I cleaned up the tree, I discovered a very large hunk of wood where there’s normally just a taproot (occasionally a double-tap). At first I thought it was just caught up in the root base, but as I continued to work on it I realized it was part of the tree! But still, I couldn’t explain how it came to pass.
If you look closely you can see some dark wood that rests between two of the buttressing roots. This wood appears to be the remnant of a one-time BC trunk that died. I can say that it’s very solid! So the plan will be to drill a hole down through this hunk of wood, since it doesn’t currently drain, then treat the dead wood with lime sulfur.
Here’s the tree, potted. The trunk is chopped at 25″, so the taper is just superb. And of course you can’t top that trunk character. I’ll need to carve the sawn part of the remnant trunk you saw in the previous photo, but that should help to really make this an unusual specimen for the Bonsai South collection.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on these specimens.