Of Groundhogs And Early Budding – What You Need To Know

by | Feb 3, 2017 | Care, Collecting, Crape myrtle, Elms, Winged Elm

I happened to catch the annual Groundhog Day festivities yesterday. Punxsutawney Phil was his usual chipper self, and he dutifully saw his shadow before going back to bed (wish I could have done the same). And so, it’s said that we have another six weeks of winter ahead of us.

I’m thinking that what Phil was telling us is that everybody up North is going to have another six weeks of winter. I’m not seeing it here down South. What’s more, I’m seeing some indications that an early spring may be headed our way. Now, I’m nowheres near as scientific about this sort of thing as Punxsutawney Phil is, so while I’m seeing signs of spring sooner rather than later I don’t feel comfortable making any assumptions. So here are some indicators, some things you may want to be aware of, and what you need to do about them.

Here’s a nice little twin-trunk Winged elm, Ulmus alata, that I lifted last month. Nothing unusual about that; we are, after all, in collecting season. So I trimmed and potted it up, then forgot about it.

Yesterday I was checking on my stock and noticed that this tree is actually pushing buds! I truly didn’t expect it this soon, but with temperatures higher than normal, even into the 80s during the day, this tree has decided it’s time to start budding.

 

 

 

 

 

And I’m not talking about that barely noticeable budding, either.

 

 

 

 

 

No, there are actually tiny leaves emerging.

So, what do you need to consider when some of your trees decide to break dormancy early? And why does it even happen? For the second question, there are a few reasons I know of that trees break dormancy early. One is pretty obvious: warm temperatures in late winter. Warmth, along with increasing amounts of sunshine as we leave the winter solstice behind, can cause trees to begin leafing out weeks ahead of “schedule.” And when you think about this, it makes sense. After all, trees break dormancy earlier in the South than in the North because (in part) it gets warmer down here much sooner. No mystery there.

There’s a second reason trees break dormancy early, and that has to do with the basic fact of collecting them. When we lift a tree from the ground, we cut back both the aboveground part of the tree as well as the root system. In response, the tree attempts to regrow what’s been cut away. So with my winged elm above, I lifted it last month and now, with temperatures higher than they should be, the tree has responded by actively regenerating both roots and shoots. This is really just simple horticulture.

Now, it’s important that we consider what steps we may need to take for these trees that come out early. Why? Well, for anyone who’s grown bonsai for a while you know that as winter gets long in the tooth there are alternating warm days and the occasional freeze. That why, down South, we have our old wives’ tale that you don’t plant your vegetable garden until after Good Friday. The odds of a freeze after Good Friday are vanishingly small. So, for your bonsai and pre-bonsai that are pushing buds early you need to keep a close watch on the forecast and be prepared to provide extra protection from freezing temps. Of what sort and how much? That will depend on how cold it gets where you are. The sap running through your tree will not freeze at 32°F, because it has sugars and other solutes in it that lower the freezing point. But that doesn’t mean the tree is impervious to the cold, so if your local temps will go below about 25 I’d recommend your trees go on the ground or into an unheated garage or other space. Yes, you’ll need to truck them back outside when the cold passes, but that’s preferable to having them damaged or even killed by a late-season freeze.

Here’s another eager beaver that took me completely by surprise, Allen’s crape myrtle. This tree is due for a repotting, which I hope to have done over the next few days, but I had no idea the warm temps would cause it to bud. I don’t recall this happening last winter.

 

 

 

 

 

As with the elm above, this one isn’t just pushing tiny little nascent buds; no, it’s downright leafing out. Unfortunately, all of this growth is about to get cut off. This tree has become very overgrown and needs to be brought back in. The good news is, once I trim the roots as part of the repotting process, this tree should come out again very quickly.

 

Sunday Bonsai Fun – A Little Fall, And Bleaching The BC

by | Nov 6, 2016 | Bald Cypress, Crape myrtle, Sweetgum

The weekend’s almost over. I spent a good bit of time yesterday and today cleaning benches and reorganizing my trees. We seldom get fall color around here, which I guess is the price you pay for not having excessively cold weather each winter (*brrr*), but here’s one exception:

crapemyrtle11-6-16-1This is Allen Gautreau’s Crape myrtle, and it’s put on some yellow and red this past week. A lot of the leaves are already off the tree, so it won’t be much longer until it’s bare. But it’s still nice to see the change.

As I mentioned in an earlier post on this one, it needs a semi-hard pruning next year and to be repotted. It’s a great old bonsai.

cypress11-6-16-1

 

 

 

Here’s one of my lemonade Bald cypresses from a couple of weeks ago. I had stripped off the dead bark as part of making something out of it. Yesterday and today I gave it a couple of coats of lime sulfur, in order to bleach and help preserve the wood. It’s turned a nice white color now, which will fade a bit over time. This is more or less what the color looks like in the wild once the main part of the bole has died.

sweetgum11-6-16-2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m frequently asked about leaf size reduction on Sweetgums. In the wild, their leaves are usually about 5″ long, and because they are attached to the branches by petioles these too are about 5″ long. This makes for a real challenge in creating proportionality. The good news is, however, once you have your Sweetgum branch structure established and are working into tertiary ramification and beyond, the leaves get nice and small. It also helps to let the tree get a little pot-bound.

The tree pictured here has a 1.25″ trunk base and is about 13″ tall. The largest leaves on the tree (many have fallen since, of course, it’s fall) are just over 1″ long, with most not more than 1″. And petiole size reduces in step with leaf size reduction. This is another good reason for growing native Sweetgum as bonsai.

I hope you’ve had and enjoyable Sunday with your bonsai.

 

 

A Couple Of Bonsai Updated – The Crape Myrtle Blooms

by | Jul 12, 2016 | Care, Crape myrtle, Flowering, Pruning, Wiring

Crapemyrtle7-12-16-1I promised I’d post an updated photo of this Crape myrtle bonsai, Lagerstroemia indica, when it came into bloom. I love all varieties of Crape myrtle, even the standard purple as in this specimen. There’s a challenge in getting your Crape myrtle bonsai to bloom while the tree retains its design. This is because the blooms occur on the current year’s growth, and pinching or pruning back the new growth to maintain the bonsai’s shape will kill that whole idea. Ideally, you do a relatively hard pruning in early summer which allows the new shoots to grow on out and bloom without causing too much trouble for the overall design. It’s not guaranteed that you’ll get this to work out, but you can at least come close. In the case of this tree, I did some wiring and put curvature into the new shoots that set flower buds. This allowed me to bring the profile back in close to where it belonged. You may want to give this technique a try if you’ve got a Crape you want to see bloom.

Hornbeam7-12-16-1

This American hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana, got its first bonsai pot a couple of weeks ago. It started pushing new growth this past weekend, at which time I removed the largest leaves in order to get a smaller, fresher crop. I also tried turning the tree around, and I think I like this front better. What do you think?

Both of these trees are available for sale, so if one (or both) strikes your fancy just visit our Miscellaneous Bonsai page or our Hornbeam Bonsai page.