by Zach Smith | Mar 30, 2019 | Care, Chinese Elm, Elms, Pruning, Styling, Water Elm
This is my earliest photo of what has become a rather nice Chinese elm bonsai. Isn’t it pathetic!
The photo dates back to August of 2014.
Never forget the old adage, “from humble beginnings.”
Five years later, using tried and true bonsai development techniques, and here we are.
Trunk base 2″, height 16″. Beautiful Byron Myrick pot.
A February 2018 collected Cedar elm. This photo was taken three months later, in May. It’s got trunk movement and bark going for it.
Ten months later, this one is shaping up very well. I love the low branch, with the remainder being high up in the tree. I think I’ll have something unique in this specimen.
The trunk base is 1.5″, and the height 22″. The pot is a tremendous piece by Lary Howard.
Beautiful natural Water-elm clump, photo taken in August of 2018.
Just seven months later, here’s Water-elm #35. The growth will quickly bring this specimen to a high degree of ramification this year.
The trunk base is 3″ across, with the height about 22″. The pot is an exquisite piece by Lary Howard.
That’s all for now. Let me know what you think.
by Zach Smith | Mar 23, 2019 | Care, Elms, Potting, Styling, Wiring
This small Cedar elm, Ulmus crassifolia, was collected in 2018 and is the last of three I had in the pot (they went on to their own pots last year). I love the nice natural shape this tree exhibits. If you look closely you can see the spot about halfway up where I removed a straight leader, in order to make for a more attractive shape for the tree. This specimen, though small (trunk base 1″), will make a nice bonsai. But it needs some work.
This tree obviously lends itself to the “naturalistic” style of bonsai for deciduous trees. In the landscape, most deciduous trees have a rounded crown and can be said to fit the “free-form broom” style. In my view, there’s seldom a good reason to try and force a tree to be something it clearly doesn’t want to be. So my job here is to simply bring out the shape the tree is already growing toward.
Step number one was to wire two of the branches in the crown, and position them most effectively.
Next comes one of those branches sticking straight up in back. Like to first one, it needs to be moved into a more horizontal position.
Now I move to the front, repeating the process.
It’s also time to get the tree into its ultimate position for potting, so I can see how the styling work has progressed. Nice.
In this photo I’ve trimmed the crown a bit, but also shifted the tree so that the low upright branch is a little more forward. I think this is better.
Pot selection is always important. This Chuck Iker round should suit the tree very well.
The final step for today. I uncovered a bit more trunk base when root-pruning, and it has a nice turn to it. The tree had a massive amount of root, but given how tough Cedar elms are it should shake off the root-pruning and never look back.
The low left upright branch needs to get stronger this year, so I’ll leave it untrimmed for a while to encourage more energy in that part of the tree. By summer there should be good balance.
The base of this tree is about 1″, and it’s 13″ in height from the soil. It’ll be posted for sale in a couple of months.
Let me know what you think.
by Zach Smith | Mar 10, 2019 | Care, Elms, Potting, Soil, Water Elm
I’m often asked about the soil I use for my bonsai. Here’s a short blog about how I do it. There are countless formulas for bonsai soil, and the subject is one of the most hotly debated out there. My advice: find out what works for you. Here’s what works for me, and how I go about making it.
First things first. A bonsai soil must do a few things well. Here’s the short list:
- Water retentive (the roots need water)
- Aeratible (can help provide adequate air pockets; the roots must have air)
- Free-draining (the water must not pool on the soil surface when you water – if it isn’t gone in one-Mississippi, you’ve got problems)
- Not weigh a ton (there’s a limit to how light you can make your soil, and how light you should make it)
The photo at left is the larger-mesh of the two screens I use when making bonsai soil. Simple construction: a 1 x 4 x 8 cut into four equal lengths, assembled with deck screws. A piece of 1/4″ hardware cloth cut to fit and nailed to the underside with staples.
The smaller mesh screen. This one utilizes 1/16″ window screen. So that gives you an idea of the particle size soil I’m after. I use the larger-mesh screen to remove the chunks bigger than 1/4″, and the smaller one to remove the “debris” smaller than 1/16″ (which is sure to contribute to packing of the soil and water-logging plus anoxia for the roots).
If you make your own screens, the small-mesh screen needs to have a trim strip covering the window screen. If you don’t do this, it’ll rip away when you overload it with soil components.
Component 1: pine bark mulch. I buy it in bags from Home Depot. You can make a lot of bonsai soil with one bag of this stuff.
Here I’ve stacked the two screen, large mesh on top of small mesh. In goes a slug of pine bark mulch. It’s gotten wet from all the rain we’ve had lately, so I need to get it dried out.
Spread out on a nice warm day. It’ll dry pretty quickly. Then I lift the top screen and shake out some of the good stuff onto the bottom screen.
Here’s the good stuff, what stays on the small-mesh screen. I pick out any long but narrow pieces, spread it to dry, then shake it until I don’t see any significant small stuff coming through the bottom.
Component 2: Riverlite expanded clay lightweight aggregate. I use a 3/16″ coarse grade. I don’t know of anywhere you can buy this material in small quantities (I don’t sell it, so please no inquiries). You can use Turface(TM) as a substitute. I have used their All Sport(TM) product in the past. If you have a local landscape or sports park supply shop they should have it.
This is still wet from the rain, too, so I spread it out to let it dry.
Dried and ready to have the fines shaken out. This and the pine bark are mixed roughly 50:50.
Water-elm #40 is starting to push buds now, so today was an ideal time to put it in a bonsai pot. Am I rushing things? Since I don’t have a lot of work to do in creating a tapering transition in the apex, the branch development work will go quickly even though the tree will now be in a bonsai pot. I know the tree is well-rooted, so the risk is low.
I’ve had this beautiful Chuck Iker pot for several years now. It was one of his first successful pieces sporting this particular glaze, which he calls “ancient jasper.” The color matches the new growth on a Water-elm very nicely.
The tree placed in the pot, and tied down.
And the soil all packed in tight. This tree should be in full leaf in about two weeks. Our weather had warmed up a few weeks ago, but then we had a cold snap that set many trees back a bit. Now it’s warmed up again, and I don’t think we have more than a few cool nights left this season.
I’ll post updates on this tree as it develops this year.
Let me know what you think of this composition. The pot may be a bit heavy for the specimen, but I’ll know better once I get some branch development.
by Zach Smith | Feb 24, 2019 | Collecting, Elms, Potting, Sweetgum
With just about everything starting to push buds now, collecting season has come to an end. Yesterday I was able to lift some more Cedar elms, including this nice specimen. I should know fairly soon if I was successful.
Here’s another nice specimen, “barky” and with some branching that can probably be used in the design. Great character.
This one is fairly tall, but it’s got loads of character and the entire trunk is complete including the apex. It won’t take long to finish out this design.
I found a couple of nice Sweetgums also. This one’s a natural twin-trunk, with some branching already in place.
Finally, I though it might be worth giving this species a try. It’s a Sassafras (S. albidum). It’s my understanding that they’re not easy to maintain in pot culture, so that could make the experiment short-lived. But you don’t know if you don’t try.
Let me know what you think of these trees.
by Zach Smith | Feb 16, 2019 | Care, Elms, Potting, Water Elm
I first showed you this Water-elm, Planera aquatica, last month. I did an initial styling on it, as it had grown out well following collection in July.
I mentioned that I would be slip-potting this tree come spring. Today as I was checking the stock, I noticed that one of the Water-elms we collected last summer is pushing buds now. I’m convinced we have an early spring ahead of us, and seeing buds on a Water-elm at this time of year just serves to support that whole idea. The species is not generally one of the first to wake up.
Now, with that said it’s worth exploring one of the more interesting challenges of working with collected trees, and that’s the initial potting. You see, trees in the wild are almost always collected for their trunks. That’s it. Why? Because it’s relatively easy to correct root issues with your trees, and to grow an entire branch structure. This can be done in four or five years. But if you don’t start off with a good-sized trunk with good taper and character, you could be looking at a decade or more to develop these features.
With that said, there’s also another thing to bear in mind when potting your collected tree for the first time. Unless you’ve taken the time to thoroughly document what your tree looks like with naked roots following collection, you will forget any peculiarities the tree came with. Rediscovering those at the time of potting brings a new dimension to the challenge of first bonsai pot.
Now it’s time to select the intended pot. One thing you’ll find out as you gain experience in bonsai (for those of you just starting out) is that there are virtually limitless choices of pots for any given tree you’re working with. Some are better suited, to be sure, but you do have plenty of latitude when you’re making your selection. As long as the pot fits dimensionally, and the color is suitably complementary, go for it! There’s a very high probability that over time you’ll change pots one or more times. Nothing wrong with that at all.
Today my choice was this very nice rustic piece by Lary Howard. I think it’s going to suit this particular tree quite well.
First the tree has to come out of its nursery pot. This is where you find out what lies beneath the soil surface. It’s also where you begin to adjust your ideas about how the tree is going to sit in the pot, for those cases where your original plan just isn’t going to happen.
In this case, both trunks of this twin-trunk specimen are fed from a major root lying under the right-hand trunk. No problem with this horticulturally, of course. But it completely changes how the tree is going to sit in the pot. Actually in a good way, as it turns out.
You can’t see it too well in this photo, but the tree grew a huge amount of root last summer and fall. So much so that I have to remove a significant amount in order for the tree to fit the pot. Is this going to cause any harm to the tree? It shouldn’t. This is spring, after all, and it’s about time for roots to start growing again. I’ve found that when you do a root-pruning and potting/repotting in late winter/early spring, it stimulates the tree to go ahead and push buds and new root growth. So I expect this tree to leaf out fairly soon after today’s work.
How about this! Looking at the first photo above, did you picture the tree getting potted at this angle? I sure didn’t. What’s more, I think the tree has suddenly gained a lot of character and artistry in its configuration in the chosen pot. What was going to be a nice bonsai is now even better, as I see it.
But there are two minor issues with this tree as it sits. The first is, I need it to be closer to the right edge of the pot. This planting position is all right, but not perfect. Given the amount of root on the right-hand side of the tree, there’s a challenge in how close to the right edge I can place the tree. But I need to squeeze it on over.
The second issue is the lean of the tree. It’s certainly not bad – it actually does need to lean. But not quite this much. So I’ll use soil placement to help with this.
I think this looks much better. I’ve tucked some soil under the left-hand trunk, and this has pushed the tree just a little more upright.
I still have the problem with tree placement, however.
Compare this photo with the one above. I’ve managed to slip the tree over to the right just a half-inch or so. It makes all the difference in the world. Now the tree is placed correctly in the pot. Draw an imaginary triangle from the tip of the tree down both sides of the tree to the earth. I think the balance and asymmetry is just right.
Now all of the root space is filled with soil. Always be careful to work the soil into the open spaces. A chopstick is ideal for this work.
Well-placed moss is always helpful in retaining moisture in the root zone. This is especially important when you first pot a tree in a bonsai pot, as they tend to dry out more readily than a nursery pot will. Also in this case, the tree does not yet have its root mass fully established.
And finally, the tree is all watered and ready for spring. The only thing left to do is give it some food, which the tree will need very soon.
Each trunk is 1.5″ at the base, and the tree is about 16″ tall from the soil surface.
Let me know what you think of today’s effort.
by Zach Smith | Jan 26, 2019 | Care, Elms, Pruning, Styling, Wiring
I collected this Cedar elm, Ulmus crassifolia, in February of 2018. It recovered and grew so fast that I was able to slip-pot it in June. One thing I really like about this tree is the low branch. I think I see something really unique is the ultimate design.
As with most collected deciduous trees, this one got trunk-chopped and therefore needs to have an apex built. I got an email from a reader this morning about the process. It’s not as easy to describe as it is to illustrate, hence this blog. Building apexes/crowns in your deciduous trees is one thing you’re going to need to do over and over again. So here’s how I go about it.
The first and perhaps most obvious step is that you need to train up a shoot near the chop. But that’s only the first step in a fairly complex process. Let me show you the next step with this tree.
First things first. I’m thinking this tree looks better from this angle. What do you think?
Next order of business: why is the leader so long and untapering? When you train up a shoot near the trunk chop on your trees, it’s obviously starting out as a very slender bit of growth that needs to get a lot thicker at the base in order to make it look believable. So you put some wire on to get a little movement in it, then just let it run. I was able to prune it back once last year, but regardless, it’s too long without any taper. What to do?
This is the answer for today … but there’s more to the story.
This probably looks all right, but the fact is I pruned it longer than it needs to be. Why? Just to be cautious. I don’t want to take any chances of dieback (very unlikely with Cedar elm).
Now let’s get into the details. If you look closely you’ll see I actually have three dormant buds on this pruned leader. I cut a little above the highest. But I don’t want to use that one as my new leader when it comes out. Why is that?
Here’s a very important principle to live by when you’re building an apex. If you let a section grow too long without taper before pruning it, you’ll never get any more taper in that section and it’s going to look unnatural. So to avoid that problem, you measure (or eyeball, once you get the hang of it) the thickness of the new leader at its base. Then you find a spot two to three of that measurement above the base of the leader, and cut to a bud or shoot there. If you do this, you’re sure to have a natural looking taper in your crown.
This is where we are with this tree for now. I think that by summer I’ll have the opportunity to prune back the apex yet again, and taking this tree into its next phase of development. Stay tuned for updates.
In the meantime, I’d love to know what you think of today’s work.
