Elms | Bonsai South

I Continue To Be Amazed – Here’s The Latest

by Zach Smith | Aug 8, 2017 | Chinese Elm, Elms, Potting, Wiring

Bonsai stories don’t usually develop all that quickly, bonsai being largely a matter of time and what you do here and there along the way. But this one has been something.

Here’s the Chinese elm I lifted on 7/29, five days later on 8/3, showing buds already.

Here it is today, 10 days out of the ground (and directly placed in a bonsai pot to boot).

It looks like I’ll have shoots to work with in a few weeks, at which time I’ll go ahead and wire some branches. The trunk of this tree is so neat, I don’t see how I can go wrong with the design.

Stay tuned for updates. It looks like they’ll be coming closer together than usual.

How To Let Your Trees Tell You What To Do With Them

by Zach Smith | Aug 6, 2017 | Care, Elms, Potting, Styling, Water Elm, Wiring

A bonsai is a tree, shrub or woody vine potted in a shallow container and trained so that it looks like a mature tree in nature. Getting from tree, shrub or woody vine to that ideal composition, however, requires a significant array of decisions and manipulations. We start with the plant specimen. We envision a design by considering trunk, branches and root base. We trim, wire and position trunk and branches so that our design takes shape. And finally we select a proper container for the bonsai-to-be and complete our composition by placing the tree in the container.

This is a gross over-simplification, of course. But I hope in this post to give you some guidance that will make this whole mysterious process a little easier.

Let’s start with our Cedar elm friend from the other day.

When I decided to do the initial styling of this tree, I had to make some decisions that would ultimately produce the best outcome for it. In doing so, my first order of business was to figure out what I had and the different options available.

I can tell you that every piece of material you work on is going to present you with multiple options – even if some of those options are downright terrible.

Let me give you an example with this specimen.

On first glance you can’t help but see a normal upright tree form. This is what you’re supposed to see, by the way, because that’s pretty much what this tree is. Nothing especially fancy about it. But someone might suggest to you that the tree needed to be chopped to the lowest shoot and regrown over time. This is actually something that could be done.

But frankly I’m unconvinced that this will be a better bonsai in five or six years, when a new trunk has been regrown and perhaps a branch set is in place.

Sometimes the simple answer is the answer.

When I look at a tree like this, it just says upright bonsai and it’s got nice bark and taper and some branches I can work with.

At the end of the opening act for this bonsai-to-be, I had a workable set of branches, a front, and a planting angle. That’s what I “heard,” so that’s what I did.

Fast-forward two weeks.

I just got in some rectangular pots I special-ordered from Byron Myrick. This tree is best-suited to a rectangle; it has a masculine appearance, and a rectangle would enhance that appearance. So it was time to push the envelope again.

The tree had produced a lot of roots, so I slip-potted it with minimal disturbance to the roots.

Now, when I pulled the tree from the pot, I discovered a nice flaring root on one side. In order to take advantage of it, I potted the tree at an angle.

‘Cause the tree said so.

I think the composition is a good one. The rectangle suits the tree well, and its color should complement the Cedar elm fall colors (yellows and bronze-yellows) very nicely.

Here’s another example of listening to your tree, a Water-elm I lifted from my growing bed today. It has a nice, slender trunk with subtle movement. It’s a feminine specimen, no doubt about it. There’s one low branch, and I chopped off the trunk that extended a few feet above what you see now as the apex. It’s a tall tree, about 20″, with a trunk base of 1.25″. These are not your normal bonsai proportions, of course, but as I studied this tree I just couldn’t bring myself to chop the trunk down where that low branch is. That’s the standard way to approach trees like this one.

It’s been done millions of times. So why should I do that yet again?

This tree seemed to want to be different, and it just so happened that I had a really different pot for it. Chuck Iker made it, and it’s been sitting on my shelf for some time now, waiting for the right tree. Well, today the match happened. The low profile of the pot is just what this tree needs. The tree is feminine, so the round pot complements it perfectly. The pot actually looks like it’s relaxed, doesn’t it?

The tree should push new buds in two weeks, assuming all goes well. I don’t plan to create a full foliage mass. I think this one should be airy and light, and unless it says something else along the way that’s what I plan to do.

So what’s the message here? Well, most of the time when you choose a tree to work on you’ll get an impression of what the tree wants to be, just from the way it’s chosen to grow. Or, as in the case of the Water-elm above, you’ll see a trunk line that looks right even though it may not fit the “normal” design ideas we usually gravitate toward. Try going with what the tree is telling you. It may take some practice, but I think you’ll find some really cool designs for your bonsai that way.

I’m Happy With This Chinese Elm, But Really Perplexed

by Zach Smith | Aug 3, 2017 | Care, Chinese Elm, Elms, Potting

As you know, I love to push the envelope in bonsai. I’ve always been a curious sort, and I ended up being a scientist for the first part of my work career, so my doing bon-science now should hardly come as a surprise. I like to try stuff, what can I say?

Part of the “canon” of bonsai is that you only collect certain trees at certain times of the year. Well, I’ve already done in part of the canon because I collect my Sweetgums in May and June, and don’t hesitate to collect American elms from winter through summer. I’ve had success collecting oaks in summer, along with Cedar elms. So you really don’t know until you try.

This post is about Chinese elm, Ulmus parvifolia, so let’s get to the point. First of all, Chinese elm is one of the very best species for bonsai – with the qualifier that you shouldn’t buy an “S-curve” Chinese elm, which is a crime against nature, so get one from me if you can. Anyway, I field-grow them to size. Last Saturday I decided to lift one I’ve had in the ground for three or four years, because it had the requisite number of direction and taper changes, in this case four. I literally built this tree from the ground up. Here it is, after lifting, washing, dusting the cut ends of the lateral roots, and pottin

It’s pretty awesome. No S-curve here. From the terrific nebari up into the trunk, the taper, the movement, it’s got a super start. As with all deciduous trees I work with, it’s at “ground zero.” That means I start with a bare or mostly bare trunk, and wait for buds to emerge at the right spots. Usually with Chinese elm, I get them where I want them.

At this point I set my “clock” for two weeks in the future. The tree was lifted on 7/29, so that meant I should see new buds on 8/12. I placed it on the bench in a shady spot, and went about my business.

Here’s a shot of the tree today. You may wonder why I took the trouble to photograph it again.

Well, here’s why (take a look at the next picture) …

In five days the tree is full of swelling buds!

To be sure, I always expect good performance from Chinese elms. But I don’t expect a specimen I lifted from the ground less than a week ago to be pushing buds!

I guess this will fit nicely into my bon-science lessons learned. I admit to having some trouble with Chinese elm specimens collected in the dead of winter. It’s always puzzled me why that was, but I adjusted and now only lift Chinese elms once the buds are starting to swell in spring. But now, woo hoo! I can lift them in summer too.

The next step with this tree is to just neglect it except for watering. I should have shoots to make branches out of in about three or four weeks. I’ll wire up a design, then ignore the tree some more into winter. Next spring it should be ready to start taking on some character. The nice thing about this specimen is it has all the taper it needs already, so by the end of the next growing season I should have a complete tree structure. Nice!

Let me know what you think. Leave a comment below.

What To Do When Your Tree Puts Its Branches In The Wrong Place

by Zach Smith | Jul 25, 2017 | Care, Elms, Styling

Lately I’ve been having a great time with Cedar elms, Ulmus crassifolia. They’re just such fun to work with and make great bonsai. Hardy, agreeable, suitable for any style. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned pro, you should have at least one.

This is one of the specimens I collected in April. The trunk base is 1.5″, but it’s old enough to have bark. The trunk character is really nice, so I know this tree will make a fine upright bonsai.

But there’s a problem with this tree that may not be readily apparent as you study it.

Here’s another view. Notice there’s plenty of branches way down low on the trunk. It’s not at all practical to keep these. Then there’s a cluster a ways up on the trunk, followed by a bare space and then another cluster of branches, and still one more higher up. Yes, this tree put its branches in the wrong place.

There are ways to overcome this problem, with the most drastic being to do grafting. There’s no doubt I could take that approach with this tree in time, but I want to show you another way that not only solves the problem immediately, it can also give you a unique design.

This view of the tree is the front I’ve chosen. I’ve gone ahead and removed the low branches. I’ll take off one more low branch, then it’ll be time to tackle those three branch clusters.

One thing you’ll learn as you work with elms and certain other species, is that when they throw trunk buds they often give you clusters of two, three, four, even five or six branches emerging from about the same point on the trunk. I don’t know why this occurs, but I imagine it has something to do with the tree’s determination to survive.

In any event, sometimes we have too much of a good thing in certain locations on our tree and nothing elsewhere. So we have to adjust (both our thinking and the tree).

Here’s a closeup that shows the problem in more detail. I’ve already removed three other smaller branches from this cluster, leaving the two I plan to use. Yes, I know the rules say you can’t have two branches coming off the same spot on the trunk. The rules also say want you to have back branches, and this tree just doesn’t have a suitable front that gives me any. But I can overcome this problem.

I’d suggest spending some time studying this photo. Beginning at the bottom, I took three sets of two branches each and created a design with them. The Number 1 branch was positioned in the classic way, coming toward the viewer. It’s the way you want to start your upright trees, as it works best.

Now take a look at the second branch of that duo, the Number 2 branch. It’s not too easy to see in the photo, but I pulled the branch upward and then moved it toward the back of the tree. Doing this puts foliage immediately toward the back of the tree, producing depth of view and helping to fill a significant gap along the lower trunk. Once the two low branches get thicker and better developed, it will be easy to see how well this works.

Branches 3 and 4 are wired and positioned toward the viewer and the back of the tree, as with the first two. The final branch pair includes the leader, which was wired and given only gentle movement to maintain the upright character of the trunk.

I included this photo so you can get a better look at the two lowest branches. I know this tree doesn’t look like much right now, but once these branches are significantly thicker and are developing ramification the purpose of keeping them both will be easier to see. The goal in bonsai is to create a balanced specimen with branches in the right spots. We often don’t have a perfect set of branches to choose from, so it’s important to learn how to compensate.

For now I also need to leave the dead stub at the top of the tree. Next year, when the leader is sufficiently thick, I’ll remove the stub and carve the transition point. By that time I should be well on my way to having a nice Cedar elm bonsai-to-be.

Shohin Bonsai-To-Be: Three Cheers For The Little Guys

by Zach Smith | Jul 23, 2017 | American Elm, Care, Elms, Ficus, Styling, Yaupon

Just because a there’s not much to a bonsai, doesn’t mean there’s not a lot to that bonsai. Take the case of the shohin specimen – a bonsai that is less than 12″ from the soil surface to the tip of the apex. In terms of mass, there’s just not a lot to a shohin bonsai. But in terms of what the bonsai is intended to be – that is, a representation of a large, mature tree in nature – it’s amazing what a shohin bonsai packs into those 12″. Even more amazing is how this is accomplished with no more than a handful of branches.

Today was a rainy day almost from start to finish, so I puzzled around for what I could do outside in the rain. I settled on lifting a Dwarf yaupon – more on that in the near future – and taking a couple of photographs of shohins I’ve been working on in recent days. I think they’ll end up being awesome bonsai. And packing that awesomeness into a very small space.

I’ve been growing this American elm, Ulmus americana, in the ground for the past few years to increase trunk size.

I’ve cut it back a couple of times, planning on a standard grow-and-chop development of the tree into a nice size pre-bonsai or bonsai. Well that’s the normal route you’d take, and so would I.

But recently I decided to see if I could make a smaller bonsai out of this one for a change of pace.

On June 24th I lifted, trimmed, carved, and potted this little guy. The leaves on it are the ones it came out of the ground with. For those of you familiar with American elm, at least from my writings, I have declared the species “King of Leaf-size Reduction.” In the wild, left alone to grow rampantly, they will produce leaves that are easily 5″ long. If you happen to take note of this while scouting for specimens to lift, you might consider the species unsuited to bonsai. Well, that’s certainly not the case. Once you get to the fine development stage of an American elm bonsai, you can expect to get the leaves down to under 1/2″ and even as small as 1/4″ in length. It’s truly amazing.

Which in this case means these leaves would be removed from the tree, with the expectation that I’d get a shoot in every leaf axil with smaller and of course more numerous leaves.

And here we are today, with a lot of new foliage (smaller, of course).

With a trunk base of 1.5″ and a height of less than 12″, I see a broom-form shohin American elm bonsai that will have a terrific structure before the end of this growing season. That’s how fast they grow.

Here’s a Green island ficus, Ficus microcarpa, that I potted up on June 23rd. I’ve grown very fond of the species, and as a result have introduced it to my offerings this year.

This little guy, with a trunk base of 1.25″ and a height of 7″, is another example of a shohin bonsai. It has exactly four branches, not including the apex.

To make this specimen into something believable, I have to get the design spot-on. I mean, when you think about it there’s a whole 7″ in which to make a tree-form emerge. Every branch has to do its part.

A month later, this shohin bonsai-to-be has put on a lot of new growth.

I removed a low branch that was coming straight toward the viewer, opening up the trunk better. I got a bud on the left side of the trunk above the low left branch, and it’s now growing out (that’s my fifth branch). The branch nearest the apex has extended, and I’ve wired and positioned it.

There’s more work to do, obviously, but by the end of summer I expect to have this design mostly done.

And finally, here’s the champion of the blog post, a Dwarf yaupon, Ilex vomitoria ‘Nana.’ I won’t relate the whole story of this specimen just yet – there’s another blog post to be written on it – but consider that the trunk base on this tiny specimen measures 1.5″ and it’s a mere 3″ to the tip of the leader at the left side of the tree. I can tell you this guy is destined for a semi-cascade style. It doesn’t look like much yet, but if you strain a little you can see where it’s going.

Shohin bonsai are ideal for those who have limited space for their pastime. They do present unique challenges, the most obvious perhaps being that they exist in a very limited quantity of soil. You’ll need to make provision for this if you decide to get into shohin. But I can tell you, it’s well worth the effort.

Do you grow shohin bonsai? If so, I’d love it if you’d share some of your experiences with us.

How I See This Wonderful Bonsai Journey. How About You?

by Zach Smith | Jul 16, 2017 | American Elm, Bald Cypress, Elms, Potting, Styling

Don’t be alarmed. I promise not to wax lousy with philosophical babble about bonsai. But I do want to try and convey is how I see the art and pastime, and hopefully I’ll hear from you so we can compare notes.

As most of you know, I got passionately into bonsai almost 30 years ago. I was determined to use the native species that grew where I live, figuring if they didn’t survive bonsai training it could only be my fault. I’ve pretty much stuck with this niche since that time, and I’ve had my successes and failures.

Being in the bonsai business means I’ve had a lot of trees come into my possession and go right back out again. Like a flowing river, I suppose. I don’t mind; I really enjoy the business. I love being able to provide great raw material, and designed bonsai and bonsai-in-training to clients all over. And it’s given me a lot more trees to work on.

I figured out years ago that what I enjoy best is bonsai design, that is, taking a piece of material and creating from it a representation of a mature tree in nature. I’ve written before about all of the factors that go into achieving this goal: proportion, composition, forced perspective, complementary elements, and so on. Plus add to this that the subject of the artwork is alive, grows in a way that we’re intent on altering, has certain biological needs that are not fulfilled by its living in a shallow, small container, and is subject to attack by all manner of pests and diseases while we manipulate its shape to suit our vision of it. It’s nothing short of a miracle that we can even hope for a positive outcome.

Here’s one example of this seemingly impossible mission, my big Riverflat hawthorn. Today I gave it a light trimming to restore its silhouette and remove crossing branches. This tree has a 3″ trunk base and is about 30″ tall, and fits the category of large bonsai. I’ve been training it now for eight years. I personally think it’s wonderful. It really does look like a mature tree in nature, which of course is the goal of bonsai.

Today I also made this American elm bonsai-to-be. The trunk base is somewhere between 3/4″ and 1″ in diameter (depending on how high it’s ultimately potted), and the tree will probably be 14″ tall when done. This is not a large bonsai, nor is it a shohin bonsai. It’s just one of those in-between trees that has (I’m convinced) a lot of potential down the road. The emphasis here is on “down the road.”

But here’s the thing. I got just as much pleasure in making this ordinary bonsai-to-be as I did in the refining trimming of my much more impressive Hawthorn bonsai. If I hadn’t told you how small this tree is, you might have thought it was much bigger: after all, American elm leaves can get as big as 5″ long. So size was not really a factor here. It was all about the designing and potting of the tree, making the composition by choosing the elements of tree, pot, ground cover, and so on. I can see art in this rather ordinary elm specimen. Do you?

Now for a real challenge! I’ve done my share of growing Bald cypress from seed, and this is one example of a specimen started from seed a few years ago. Last year I tried to grow a bunch in standing water, but that experiment really went south. So I ended up potting the trees into gallon containers and leaving them alone. This one grew in such a way that I could chop to create taper, but otherwise it had ended up shaped like a bow. Really ordinary material. In this photo you can see it without its foliage, which I stripped off in order to work on it.

In this photo you can see the big flaw in this specimen.

It just bows over, and that’s no design feature! But not to worry. Wire can fix many things.

So after a few minutes of really enjoyable wiring and shaping and trimming, followed by potting up the little guy, here’s what I came up with. Do Cypresses grow as windswept specimens? Well, I can tell you from living in Hurricane Katrina Land that there are many examples of Live oaks along the Gulf Coast that ended up this way, so I have no problem making a Bald cypress with this design. One thing’s for sure, if I don’t like it I will get trunk buds that will give me a more traditional design if I choose to change it.

This one was fun as well. I know from experience that Bald cypresses mature quickly in a bonsai pot. Within a couple of years, the trunk is going to take on a grayness that hints of age even in a small specimen. As I work on the branches, they’ll begin to make the tree look like more than what it is now. This Bald cypress bonsai is about a five-year project to something really nice, despite its humble beginnings.

The point of all of this, I suppose, is to make a clear distinction between bonsai as a spectator sport and as the active working of trees and pots into artistic designs. I don’t mean to minimize bonsai displays in club and other sponsored shows, so don’t get me wrong. But that’s the very temporary result of all of the design work that encompasses many years of effort and vision. And that, for me, is where bonsai is at. Bonsai is 95% vision, sweat, work, setbacks, and more work, and about 5% kicking back and saying or thinking, “Man, that looks awesome!”

That’s my take. What’s yours?

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