by Zach Smith | Jan 24, 2016 | American Elm, Care
We’re getting deep into our short but seemingly endless Deep South winter, and by next month depression will be kicking in for those of us so inclined. The only good thing about winter is that I get to collect a lot of new material, and do some actual bonsai making. Today I went out into my field-growing area and located a suitable candidate, an American elm (Ulmus Americana).
It’s a little hard to see among the nice winter weeds gracing the growing field, but you there’s a good trunk line and plenty of branch growth. There’s got to be a bonsai in there somewhere.
I first collected this tree four years ago and put it into a nursery container. Two years ago I decided it needed more vigor so I planted it out. The first year it grew some, but this past year it really took off. That told me it was plenty strong enough to lift.
Out of the ground and roots trimmed, here’s what it looks like. You can see the vigorous root growth that started in a nursery pot and took off in the ground. A nice, healthy specimen.
Here it is after a pruning and trimming. This one has a really nice branch set. It’s destined for the classic deciduous tree shape. But it doesn’t look quite right, does it?
This is why we wire trees. If you compare this photo to the previous one, you can see the harmony and balance in the structure. Branches are where they need to be. In 2016, the branches will throw shoots along their length and these will be selected according to whether they enhance or detract from the bonsai’s appearance. In two or three years, this tree will be showable.
If you’ve been looking for a nice American elm bonsai, this tree is available at our Elm Bonsai page.
by Zach Smith | Nov 25, 2015 | American Elm, Care, Elms, Privet, Pruning, Tools, Wiring
Winter is no excuse to stop practicing our bonsai scales. By this, of course, I mean the continued practice of techniques that help us get better and better at designing and developing our bonsai. And along these lines, I’m a big proponent of practicing on less than stellar material. Why? Well, when you get down to it there’s never been a bonsai that didn’t start out as less than stellar material. All of our trees have to grow, get whacked back or chewed on, suffer drought and/or deluge, and one day they look like something we really want on our bench. In the meantime, however, there are those little trees that won’t make you look twice. These get the “treatment.”
Here’s Exhibit A, otherwise known as less than stellar Chinese privet, Ligustrum sinense. This isn’t a terrible piece of material, but it does have its issues. The biggest one is the fat base with the shoulder, that narrows into the main part of the trunk too quickly. Now, this is a nice practice piece. There are problems that can be solved, and when they are the material will be much better.
A few minutes later, the overlarge base has been whittled down so it looks like part of the tree. This is very straightforward, but I can’t tell you how often I’ve had students or demo observers amazed when I attack a piece of material so aggressively. To be sure, not all species appreciate rough treatment. But once you start learning the individual habits of different species, especially the types of work you can safely do at what times of the year, you can get actually away with a lot.
The next problem with this tree was the odd branch sticking straight out near the original chop. A quick whack and some nibbling with the knob cutter solved that problem.
And finally, I removed everything that didn’t look like a future Chinese privet bonsai, wired and positioned the branches.
Hey, it’s not awesome material but it’s a lot closer to stellar than before. This one can go into a bonsai pot next spring.
Just so you know I know what really nondescript material looks like, here’s Exhibit B, an American elm, Ulmus Americana, that began as a single trunk nondescript specimen a few years ago, after which it dried out and died back to the base (at which point I threw it on the discard pile, thinking it was totally dead), after which it sprouted two shoots from the base and I felt compelled to save it. This is the end of year two of the regrowth of this tree. There’s really not much to it. But as you develop pre-bonsai from seed or cuttings, you learn various techniques for developing trunk size and character. In the case of this specimen, I need some movement in the swelling trunks. So I put some fairly heavy gauge wire on each trunk.
I didn’t try anything fancy here, just put a little curve in each trunk. Notice, however, how I’ve started this design. The trunks move in harmony with one another. The left-hand trunk is destined to be more upright, which means the right-hand trunk needs to sweep a bit farther to the right. This is what would happen in nature, as the right-hand trunk needs sufficient light to thrive.
The wire on this little tree will need to come off next May at the latest. I expect pretty rapid swelling when growth gets underway in spring.
For those of you wondering, Good Boys Do Fine Always is a mnemonic that helps music students remember their notes. That’s right, I was a band geek many decades ago.
by Zach Smith | May 29, 2015 | American Elm, Care, Elms, Potting, Wiring
I’m sure you remember this American elm, Ulmus Americana, that I first posted last month. My goal with this tree is to train it into a classic American elm shape, what’s called vase-shape. I did the initial wiring on March 11th, and left the tree completely alone to grow out and set the position of the leaders. American elm is a vigorous grower, even in a bonsai pot, so I figured I’d get a lot of the basic development done this year.
Here’s the same tree six weeks later. The main leader has gained a solid foot of growth, which has thickened it significantly at the base. The secondary leaders have also put on strong growth. My main goal today is to trim the tree back to its vase-shape, and to reposition the trunk to a more upright position.
Here’s the final result. I cut the central leader back a little harder than the others, to allow them a chance to catch up in girth. I also carved the original chop, in order to make the tapering of the trunk smoother.
This tree is available for sale on our Elm Bonsai & Pre-Bonsai page.
by Zach Smith | Apr 12, 2015 | American Elm, Care, Elms, Wiring
I found this American elm, Ulmus Americana, growing as a volunteer on my property. I dug it this winter and potted it directly into this beautiful Paul Katich oval. It responded as expected – American elms are very easy to collect – by throwing buds right on time this spring. Unfortunately, it failed to bud all the way up the trunk and the buds that appeared were not exactly in strategic locations as you can see in this first photo. So what to do?
We all know the art of bonsai is about designing trees. But let’s face it, for the most part we work best when the classic “stair step” branch pattern can be identified and brought to fruition. Take another look at the tree to the left; most of the stairs are just not there.
This is where we have to think outside the box. First of all, the classic shape of American elm is definitely not along the lines of “first branch – second branch – back branch” and so on. In fact, it’s described as “vase-shaped.” American elm trunks tend to fork fairly low, with two or three major upright sub-trunks which divide further, and so on until you reach the smallest branches. So considering the specimen at left, can we make something like this happen?
Here’s what about 10 minutes of work brought about. Contrast this bonsai-in-training with the messy trunk plus shoots above. You can see exactly where this specimen is heading, even though the new growth is very juvenile.
This tree will not end up with the classic vase shape of the American elm, but it will be a nice broom-form specimen. Not a bad way to handle questionable material.
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by Zach Smith | Mar 15, 2015 | American Elm, Care, Elms, Potting, Wiring
Many of you read my post from a few weeks back, “The Humble Bud – Sign of Things To Come.” The bud is the means by which any plant grows to its genetic limit and is able to remain alive for the duration of its lifespan. Most of them begin as a very small thing – some invisible to the naked eye. Yet within such a small package lies the entire means by which a bonsai artist can create a miniature representation of nature.
The humble bud turns powerful in due course. Consider that as it develops and elongates, it produces leaves the plant cannot survive without. The leaves are the powerhouses of any plant. Photosynthesis is the second most important biochemical reaction known (second only to enzymatic activity). Without photosynthesis, the plant starves and is unable to power any of its other metabolic processes. No hormones to produce roots or shoots. No enzymes to produce chlorophyll in order to support more photosynthesis. Nothing.
Leaving aside the rest of the negatives that go with lack of buds in the plant kingdom, not least of which is you and I would die, let’s focus on the raw power of the bud. As you might imagine, if each bud that appeared on a tree consisted of only one leaf the tree wouldn’t last long. Therefore each bud is a complex package, containing not only leaves – which appear readily as the bud opens – but also the entire vascular structure needed to transport raw materials to the leaves and food throughout the tree. Consider for a moment the collected deciduous tree consisting of only a trunk and severely pruned roots. The tree “knows” that without a branch structure supporting food-producing leaves it’s a goner. Therefore, the first order of business for the collected deciduous trunk is to grow new leaves and start making and transporting food; beneath the ground, it’s to grow the entire sub-surface support system that provides raw materials to the leaves. (The order in which this occurs varies from species to species; each knows what it has to do, however, regardless of the order.)
This is the American elm that appeared in the earlier post, in a photo taken March 7th. The buds on the tree at that time were very tiny – just big enough to be visible to the naked eye. Fast-forward a single week, and they’re beginning to move. Even at this early stage, you can see the extension of one of the buds. But what’s much more fascinating, at least to me, is the knowledge that this extending bud is programmed to become a mature branch with its own sub-branches and sub-sub-branches – what we in the bonsai world call ramification. I mean, consider the fact that all of this is programmed in right from the start. The bud doesn’t grow and then “learn” to get bigger and produce axillary buds; everything is already there, just waiting for signals from hormones to do their thing.
This process is reliable. The photo on the left was taken March 14th. Now our nascent shoot from last time has about half a dozen leaves (some are very tiny, waiting their turn to expand). It’s not a branch yet; that’s the next stage. Right now it’s very tender and easily damaged. It also has the ability to perform photosynthesis just as the leaves do. This ability only lasts until the shoot hardens off, at which time it will become brownish gray. But as with most plants that make their own food, there lies beneath the inner bark a layer of chlorophyll-infused tissue called the cambium layer of the plant. Whenever you use the “scratch test” to see if a branch is alive, you’re exposing a bit of the cambium layer – essentially it’s the presence of chlorophyll you’re seeking. If the branch dies, the chlorophyll degrades and turns brown (and dries out).
Notice that this shoot is stronger than the others. Whenever we chop an apically dominant tree, it’s only focus is to regain its height. This doesn’t work for the bonsai artist, meaning I can’t allow the strong shoot on this tree to become the dominant one. Once it hardens off sufficiently, I’ll trim it, wire it and bring it down into a horizontal position. This will automatically alter the dominance of certain hormones, allowing me to create an entire tree in just a foot-tall specimen.
I’ll post updates on this tree as it develops. This year I’ll be able to create the basic branch structure and get some secondary branching established. In 2016 the tree will be ready for a bonsai pot. By 2017 it should be a presentable American elm bonsai.
by Zach Smith | Jan 25, 2015 | American Elm, Care, Elms, Potting
Today it was time to harvest an American elm, Ulmus Americana. This specimen has been growing away in an old garden area for the better part of a decade. I knew the trunk was at least 1″ at the base, which is usually the smallest size I’ll lift. It also had a nice slight movement of the trunk, and I had cut the tree back some years ago in order to encourage taper.
This first shot is the tree as it sat in the ground. It doesn’t look like much from this angle, does it? Not to worry.
Here’s the tree with its roots washed off, shot at a better angle. Now you can see there’s something to work with here. The specimen had a nice set of radial roots, though there’s been some haphazard growth. But that’s what the saw and cutters are for.
If you’ve ever worked with American elm, you’re bound to have noticed that the bark will separate from the tree very, very easily. Even with the sharpest of cutters and taking great care, it’s common for the bark to pull away. I always try to use a saw for the bigger cuts, as this seems to prevent the problem altogether. I also use a very sharp knife to carve the edges of cuts. Always cut toward the inside of the cut.
Now the roots have been cut back. Notice how far back I’ve cut them. It’s all got to be done with the idea in mind of how the tree will fit into a bonsai pot. This tree will end up about 15″ tall. That means the pot will be no more than about 7″ long if oval or in diameter if round. The root spread of this tree stands at roughly 4″, so you can see this will take up a goodly share of the pot’s expanse already.
Now came the fun part, finding the trunk line. Compare this shot with the one just above. I had considered training this tree as a broom-form specimen. The problem with that idea was, two of the three leaders were already too thick for it to work. I knew that as I developed the crown, these leaders would continue to thicken and produce a nasty reverse taper. Also, broom style trees typically don’t have much taper in the lower trunk, whereas this one tapered very nicely right through to the chop.
Here’s the tree in its nursery pot. It should bud nicely this spring, and at that time I’ll begin the selection of branches and the new leader. In just a couple of years this tree will make a fine American elm bonsai in training.
