Water-Elm Collecting Trip 3

by | Aug 4, 2018 | Bald Cypress, Care, Collecting, Elms, Water Elm

Today we got an earlier start so we could beat the heat. We also benefited from cloud cover during most of the lifting. The results would have been just as good, but it’s always nice when you don’t have to suffer so much.

Let’s start off with this clump-style specimen. Notice anything unusual about it? For you Japan-o-philes, you know the number four is considered bad luck there and so you won’t see any four-tree forests or four-trunk multi-trunk style bonsai in the Japanese shows (at least as far as I know).

Well, I pondered how to comply with this “rule,” but no matter which of these trunks I thought of eliminating, I lost more than I gained. I had to conclude that this tree needs its four trunks to look right.

It’s going to make a fine bonsai for someone who isn’t superstitious.

Trunk base 2.5″, height 20″ to the tip of the tallest trunk.

Here’s a specimen Cathy found. Isn’t that trunk movement awesome! The rootage is likewise awesome, but it’s buried to keep it from drying out.

My plan for this one is to slip-pot it into a beautiful Lary Howard pot I got in yesterday, this coming spring.

Trunk base 2.5″, 22″ to the tip of the apex.

Here’s a tree destined for the Bonsai South collection. It’s a truly lovely twin-trunk. The base is great, the taper perfect, and the trunk has really nice movement.

The trunk on this one is 2″ across at the soil, and it’s 18″ to the tip of the taller trunk.

And finally, the big “Hoss” of the day. The trunk on this one is 5″ across, and it’s 27″ to the chop. I’m thinking it’ll finish up around 36-40″ tall. Wonderful rootage, taper and movement. And the secondary leader will make for a different design than your normal informal upright.

Let me know what you think of these trees. Leave us a comment below.

Big Bonsai Are Impressive – Check Out These Water-Elms

by | Jul 28, 2018 | Care, Collecting, Elms, Water Elm

Say what you want, there’s just no denying that big bonsai are very impressive – provided, of course, that you start with great material and train it right. Recently the old longing has returned. A few decades ago, I set out collecting what Cathy calls “giant bonsai.” This is a misnomer, of course, when you consider that bonsai can range about up to 48″ in height, and that usually implies a stout trunk to go with it. Regardless, over the past few years I’ve neglected size for volume and suddenly I have a lot of small trees and not so many big ones. There’s certainly nothing wrong with small bonsai. But let’s face it: small material for bonsai is easy to come by. Big trees, not so much. So … you’ll start seeing more large specimens here at Bonsai South as I build my collection. Today I got a few Water-elms that look mighty promising.
Here’s the process I go through when the trees come home. Believe me, it’s usually easier lifting trees than cleaning them up and potting them. Of course, when the heat index is 110 it adds another dimension to the fun.
And this is the final result, before the tree gets potted. Impressive, eh?

A Quick Dragon Update

by | Jul 22, 2018 | Collecting, Elms, Pruning, Styling, Water Elm

This photo shows where we left off with my water-elm “Dragon” last fall. It had grown out very strong following the initial styling, unwiring and then trimming judiciously. Since this photo was taken in October, the tree didn’t grow much more prior to dormancy.

Yesterday I gave Dragon its summer pruning. I perform this operation pretty quickly. Prune to shape, remove crossing branches, remove branches pointing downward, remove some branches pointing upward and shorten others that have a part in the design. Isn’t it looking great, after only two and a half years?

With water-elm, you generally only need to do a couple of rounds of wiring before you can begin the grow-and-clip phase of development. They really respond well to this technique, among the best in fact of any species I work with.

Stay tuned for more on water-elm in the coming weeks. We’ll be out again soon, collecting material for next year.

I’d love to know what you think of this specimen. Leave me a comment below.

The Heat Was Miserable; The Water-Elms Were Great

by | Jul 15, 2018 | Collecting, Elms, Water Elm

As many of you know, I collect Water-elms (Planera aquatica) in the heat of summer. I’ve collected some in late winter, but the trees seem to respond better to summer collecting. The big problem with summer collecting, of course, is the heat. Yesterday the heat index was probably around 110. Folks, that’s hot! But Cathy and I powered through, and we managed to bring home some really nice specimens. Below are a few examples.

This may be my favorite find of the day. It’s a triple-trunk on a nice base measuring 2.75″ across. The individual trunks are slender, with nice movement, taper and character. I envision a tall-tree group with these, and the nice thing is I can develop the group in about two years to showable condition.

This one’s a twin-trunk, with the best feature being a nice hollow at the base (most of it’s buried, in order to protect the radial roots). Also nice character in the trunks. The base is 2.25″ above the root crown, and it’s 14″ to the top chop.

And finally, the big hunky trunk of the day. Really super masculine tree, with a base of 3.5″ and chopped at 18″. The featured hollow from the base about a third of the way up the trunk is all rolled over and healed; adds great character to this specimen. I’ll let a new leader run once the tree comes back out, and the transition should start looking good in a couple of years with proper management.

Water-elm has a lot of great features, including small, glossy leaves that reduce with no effort on your part necessary. Just prune the tree to shape, and the leaves will reduce on their own. The species also loves heat and water, so they grow well in summer.
They train up fast!

A Couple Of Quick Progressions I Like

by | Jun 17, 2018 | Crape myrtle, Elms, Styling, Wiring

Bonsai is a pursuit that works best when given enough time. This is fairly obvious once you’ve studied enough. It’s the old trees that have been in training for decades (even centuries) that command our attention. Now, with that said I’m a big proponent of bringing a tree to a showable state in three to five years. One way to speed up the process is to harvest trees from the wild that have larger trunks than seedlings or nursery stock. Another is to field-grow specimens for the purpose of creating a thicker trunk with taper and movement. Here’s an example of each of these techniques. The bottom line? You can do a lot in three years, especially if you can get off to a solid start on your design in two to four months.

Here’s a Crape myrtle stump I lifted last month. I originally grew it from a small cutting, and a few years ago I planted it out for more rapid growth. The trunk base is now 1.5″ in diameter, which is plenty good for a small bonsai. You may also be able to see that this specimen has been chopped once, in order to build taper. I also took off another trunk emerging from the base, which I left to help thicken the trunk. This are common techniques for growing raw material.

Doesn’t look like much, does it?

This is two weeks later, in early June. I have enough growth to allow for the beginnings of a design.

I prefer to do my initial wiring on deciduous trees that have been collected as soon as the shoots are long enough and sturdy enough to take the wire. Why? Because it’s easier to bend a tender shoot and put it in the position I want it. Very simple.

This tree still doesn’t look like much, but it’s so much better than in the first photo ….

And here we are, two weeks after the photo above. Is this not an amazing degree of progress in a month and a half? Crape myrtles love summer, they’re super rooters, and you can build a wonderful bonsai from scratch is short order. The other good news? This tree will bloom next year, if not this year.

This tree is available at our Shop page. $95 delivered.

This Cedar elm was collected in February. As with the Crape above, the trunk base is 1.5″ in diameter. The really nice thing about this specimen is the trunk character – rugged bark, nice movement, good taper. No doubt it’s going to be a fine bonsai some day.

Here’s where we stood in early April. The first round of growth is underway, though not yet strong.

Much better. This is about six weeks after the photo above. I love wiring trees when they’re at this stage, as I mentioned above. No reason to put off getting a design in place.

Not much left compared to the shot above, is there? But that’s okay. I’m redirecting the energy the tree is expressing to those branches I need. This is what you have to do with all of your bonsai.

And here we are, a month after the photo above. I got the energy of this tree directed right where I wanted it. Look at the strength of those shoots. Also, the leader was a couple of feet long so I cut it back to continue the apex-building process.

And … I decided to go ahead and slip-pot to a bonsai container (an exquisite piece by Lary Howard). The tree had produced a lot of roots, so I’m confident it won’t bat an eye. Cedar elm is one of the toughest species out there.

Let me know what you think of these two quick progressions. I’d love to hear your comments.

A Terrific American Elm Bonsai-To-Be

by | Jun 16, 2018 | American Elm, Care, Elms, Pruning, Styling, Wiring

I love elm bonsai. Among my favorite elm species to work with is American elm, Ulmus Americana. I found this one almost by accident in early May. Though I would normally prefer to collect American elms in January or February, I thought it would be worth a try to lift this one. And I was pleasantly surprised when it came right back.

Here’s a quick styling that I did on this tree. I was fortunate in the number of shoots it gave me to work with, including some in most of the right spots! But as I note in the video, it’s common to not get a “perfect” set of branches, and frankly if we always did we’d end up bored with our trees because they’d all look alike.