by Zach Smith | Oct 25, 2015 | Care, Elms, Water Elm, Watering
You first saw this water-elm on August 16th. Dimensionally, it’s the biggest I’ve ever collected, sporting a trunk base 6″ across and measuring 42″ along the length of the trunk (but only 28″ in height from the soil surface). In terms of character, I’ve never collected anything better. It’s no exaggeration to say this is a very significant water-elm pre-bonsai – in size and style, certainly rare if not unique.
If you consider most examples of this species, the typical form for less than fully mature non-primary specimens is bush-like (water-elm does not get more than about 40 feet tall). Smaller trees tend to have two or more trunks. This form persists as they get larger, but you typically see one large trunk, one or two that are somewhat smaller, then one or more whip-sized trunks emerging from the root base. This makes collecting both exciting and challenging, as you don’t necessarily want everything to be multi-trunk. And it’s for this reason that I’m always excited to find a single-trunk example. Cathy found this one, and I was stoked. I have no idea what happened to it, but it was growing near a heavily traveled swamp road and most likely was run over by a truck untold years ago. Forced over, damaged, it nonetheless grew on.
I’ve mentioned in a previous blog post that my August collecting efforts were not as successful as I would have liked. It’s just one of those things that happens, tough to foresee. Despite this, about four weeks ago I noticed roots growing across one of the drainage holes of this tree’s nursery container. That was all I needed to know. I was sure this amazing water-elm specimen was going to make it.
I’ve pretty much ignored the tree over the past month. Along with everything else, it got watered three times a day as we’ve had mostly warm weather through mid- to late-October. But nothing more.
Today I was shocked to see a shoot pushing right near the chop on this tree. It was something I really didn’t expect, despite the fact that I knew this tree had made a lot of roots over the past couple of months. I figured it would simply wait until Spring 2016 to bud out.
So we’ll see how much growth we get before the inevitable cool-off happens, then it’s on to winter and the long wait till April when water-elms bud out. Assuming all goes well, I should be doing an initial wiring and shaping by early May. You’ll see updates as the tree progresses from collected trunk to bonsai.
And of course, it’s absolutely a requirement that this tree needs to have “Dragon” in its name. I’m not sure if it needs anything else, but that part is settled.
Let me know what you think of this tree.
by Zach Smith | Oct 10, 2015 | Care, Elms, Hawthorn, Potting, Pruning, Soil
Water-elm, Planera aquatica, is one of my big-two bonsai species along with bald cypress. I’ve probably worked on more water-elms than any other species, and I may very well have worked on more than anyone else in the art. I’ve written on more than one occasion about water-elm collecting season, which is typically July of each year for me. Most of the specimens I’ve acquired have been collected in July. I have had occasion to collect in August – successfully, I might add – and even in January. But I recently learned that it’s possible to collect the species in October. Because my August success rate this year wasn’t all that great, I decided it was time to push the water-elm collecting envelope and see what happens.
This one came with a soil ball clinging to the roots. I don’t always get a soil ball – much less than half the time, in fact – but I’m always glad when it happens. If you look past the grass you can see the trunk base I saw. Definitely a worthwhile piece of material if it lives.
With all of the native soil washed off, you can see all the nice roots that came with this one. When I collect trees I’m primarily interested in the trunk. Roots can be grown pretty easily, and the whole branch structure has to be grown almost every time. It’s the trunk, and especially those with age and character, that are worth the hunt.
I included this photo to show you one of the reasons you have to be very careful with certain elm species. On both American elms and water-elms, the bark will peel easily on branches/sub-trunks you’re cutting as well as chops and, perhaps most significantly, roots. Even with sharp tools you have the potential for this to happen. If it does, do your best to do as I did in this case, peel away the bark along the wood you’re discarding. Then you can come back and cleanly cut the strip of bark.
Now everything’s cleaned up and I’ve made the final cut of the trunk to the length I want. The roots are cut flat and trimmed to fit, ultimately, the size bonsai pot this tree will reside in.
Potted in a nursery container. As always I’ve buried the roots deep enough to prevent their drying out.
The trunk base of this specimen is 3″, and it’s 13″ to the chop. The trunk character is really nice.
So, what with all the envelope pushing I got a wild hair and decided to find out if hawthorns can be collected in October. This is a nice old riverflat hawthorn, Crataegus opaca, with a 2″ trunk base.
More good luck with roots, as you can see. This one has a fine radial root system.
And snugged into its pot until next spring. The angle of the photo doesn’t allow the taper to show as well as it could. The base of this tree is 2″ and the diameter of the chop is 1″, which is the ratio you need. The height to the chop is 18″ from the soil surface. I’m thinking it could be chopped again by 3-4″, but this decision doesn’t have to be made right away. Once your hawthorns are recovered from collecting you have a lot of latitude in working with them.
by Zach Smith | Oct 4, 2015 | Care, Chinese Elm, Elms, Sweetgum, Water Elm
Here are a few trees that will be posted for sale in 2016 (among many others).
I just love Chinese elm forests. This one is composed of five trees, with the largest having a basal trunk thickness of 1″. The planting is 19″ in height. Paul Katich crafted the beautiful tray.
This forest will continue filling in next year, and the trunks should take on that nice whitish appearance that makes them look old.
Where this one began this past February.
I’ve been working on this little sweetgum for a few years now. It’s been entirely container-grown. Trunk is just over 1″ in diameter, height 14″.
Here’s the same tree last year. How’s that for rapid development?
This water-elm clump measures 8″ across the root base from the front view, 4″ from the side. Height is 17″. Next spring it needs to go into a smaller pot.
To see the history of this water-elm clump, click here.
by Zach Smith | Sep 27, 2015 | Care, Chinese Elm, Elms, Oaks, Pruning, Sweetgum
While I love using collected trees for bonsai more than any other source, I also grow trees from cuttings and seeds. There’s really nothing at all wrong with bonsai grown from cuttings and seeds. After all, our goal is to create the impression of a larger and older tree in a small package, and this can certainly be done using material from any source.
I began growing material for bonsai in the ground some years ago. Ground growing results in quicker thickening of the trunks of your young trees, which of course helps them look larger and older. With the exception of the tiniest bonsai, the mame and shohin sizes, it’s really best to start with a basal trunk thickness of one inch or more. Growing small trees in the ground for just a few years can get you the thicker trunks you need. All it takes is a little guidance as the material grows out.
Here’s a good example of what you can achieve in just a few years. This is either a willow oak, Quercus phellos, or a water oak, Quercus nigra. It seems to have leaves of both species. Regardless, it grew as a volunteer in an old garden area I used years ago for vegetables. Isn’t the twin trunk awesome looking! With a trunk base of 1.75″, this tree could be lifted as early as next year.
I’ve had this blackgum, Nyssa sylvatica, in the ground for two years now. The trunk base is 1″ in diameter, and it has nice taper into a trunk line I’ll cut to next season. I plan to leave it in the ground for a while longer, as I’d like to fatten up the trunk some more before lifting it.
Next is a sweetgum, Liquidambar styraciflua. I had this tree in a nursery container up until two years ago, then decided to put it in the ground to thicken it up. I’ve cut it back a couple of times, then let it grow out wild. The trunk base is now 2″ in diameter. You can see I also have a secondary trunk growing out near the base, which I can let continue growing to further thicken the trunk. What I need to do while this is going on is to manage what will ultimately be my desired trunk line. So I’ll do some judicious pruning in 2016.
Last but not least is this Chinese elm, Ulmus parvifolia. I grew it from a cutting made a couple of years ago, and planted it out this year. The trunk base is just under 1″, and this has been largely achieved by leaving alone the long and thick main trunk you can see taking off to the right. I’ll remove this leader next spring, while allowing the one lower down the trunk on the left remain and grow untrimmed. This one can then be removed in another year or two, at which time I’ll have both a thick trunk along with very good taper. Then the tree can be lifted and grown from a bare trunk.
by Zach Smith | Sep 12, 2015 | Care, Elms, Potting, Pruning, Water Elm, Watering, Wiring
I’ve mentioned before that one of the fall chores we can do that has a key effect on how quickly our bonsai develop is fall pruning and wiring. While we can’t expect much growth on our trees at this time of year, we can make and implement vital design decisions. Now, there are certain chores I don’t recommend in the fall. An example is trunk-chopping. The reason I don’t recommend this is the tree responds according to its “programming,” meaning it wants to replace the trunk and foliage mass you’ve removed. New vegetative shoots will do their best to form and grow out. This is certainly well and good, but all too often you run headlong into your first cold snap which means the new shoots don’t have time to harden off. If they subsequently get killed off by cold weather, your tree can easily suffer dieback.
I collected this water-elm, Planera aquatica, in August of 2014. It sprouted just a few weak shoots near the base a few weeks after collection, but that was it. I figured the tree wasn’t going the make it, but I also realized that the collecting season had been delayed last year just as this year’s was. There wasn’t really any reason to assume the tree had dried out, since I take great pains to seal up my trunk chops. So I left the tree alone, and sure enough it came out strong this past spring. I ultimately decided to keep this tree, considering how many I had lost in Winter 2014.
This first photo is from May of this year.
A month later I decided to do the initial wiring and pot the tree into my vintage Richard Robertson oblong lavender pot. I felt the elongated pot matched up perfectly with the tall, graceful trunk. The tree has a tremendous flaring base with great surface roots, which is about the best start for a bonsai you can expect.
I’ve been practicing one of my key training techniques, benign neglect, on this tree for the past three months. Aside from unwiring branches to keep the wire from biting in, I’ve only fed, watered and kept a casual eye on the tree. It’s done the rest. What a wild result, eh? But this is just what the bonsai artist needs in their trees that are under primary development.
I’m posting this close-up so you can see how quickly the new leader has thickened this year. From trunk bud to 1/2-inch diameter in a single growing season. The secret? Wire a little movement into it and let it grow!
And here’s the tree after wiring and pruning. I took off a good bit of the leader, but refrained from cutting back too far since I won’t get much more growth this year and the shoot is still very young. I’ll cut it back harder in spring and wire up a new leader in order to ensure the tapering is done right.
And that’s a year in the life of a (new) water-elm bonsai. This tree will be showable in two more years.
by Zach Smith | Aug 30, 2015 | Care, Elms, Potting, Pruning, Wiring
In my opinion, the pursuit of bonsai can be roughly categorized along two lines:
- One is the “any old tree in a shallow pot that’s been trimmed up” approach to the hobby (I emphasize the word hobby to make the distinction between this concept and true art, which we should be pursuing). This is, for lack of a better term, the “commercial” bonsai industry. If your bonsai comes from one of the huge retail purveyors of ornamental plants (who shall go unnamed so as not to get me into trouble), or from the roadside vendor in the ubiquitous white van, then you’ve got one of the “undesigned” “bonsai” we’ve all encountered at one time or another. They can’t help but look sorta kinda like real trees, but on closer examination and by comparison with real bonsai you come to understand the difference – though when first starting out, you may not know why.
- The second line of pursuit is, frankly, the only one I care about. Bonsai, done properly, is high art. It’s my opinion that even the rookie can achieve some level of artistic success in bonsai by simply learning and practicing proper technique. This has been my own approach through the years, and I’m often pleased with my results. But more so than that, I have a deep desire to get to a presentable bonsai in the shortest time possible. What’s more, I really enjoy helping others do exactly the same thing. So I’ve devoted quite a bit of time on this site in trying to convey what I’ve learned through the years that can help you get to your own goal as quickly as possible.
To that end, I want to show you just how possible it is to begin with pretty nondescript material and actually create a presentable bonsai in as little as a single year.
Here’s a young hackberry, Celtis laevigata, that I thought had a nice tapering trunk when I got it. Pictured in January of this year, there’s really not much more to it except for a few branches. But if you strain just a little and use your imagination, there might just be a tree there … some day.
(Of course, you may be thinking, “You gotta be kidding!” and I wouldn’t blame you.)
The tree came out in April, and I decided it would look good in this nice Chuck Iker round. Of course, it still takes a great deal of vision (experience?) to see a bonsai in this potted up material. What makes the difference is that I actually have a design plan. I know that given the size of the trunk and height of the tree, I have to pay particular attention to perspective and proportion. Because this is a slender tree with a not-so-fat trunk, I have to maintain careful control of the silhouette. If I don’t, it’s just going to look like an immature sapling. Remember, I want it to look as old as possible.
Here’s the tree just over two weeks later. While there’s more growth on it, there’s not that much more “bonsai” in it. The gulf between potential and bonsai is simply too great at this point.
So, what to do? That was really easy, and it’s a lesson I try to teach all of my students. When you run out of stuff to do to your bonsai that makes it better, stop doing stuff to it! There really is nothing like benign neglect in bonsai, once you’ve learned how to practice it. That means you don’t get to ignore your trees for an entire growing season, it just means learning how to know when to put a tree aside and let it alone for weeks or months. To be sure, you’ll monitor all of your trees daily during the season. You’ll water daily. You’ll feed as often as called for, depending on your choice of fertilizer. You’ll weed the pots. You’ll trim, pinch or shear from time to time. But there will be long stretches where you must leave each of your trees alone once the watering is done.
Between late April and late August, I did nothing to this tree besides watering it each day (the lazy man’s way – my automatic watering system did the work for me). It sat in a semi-shady spot, growing however it was willing to grow. I diligently avoided dragging it out of its hiding spot and imposing more “work” on it. It just wasn’t time.
Today I took a peek behind the other bonsai that was hiding it, and what do you know? This tree has really done its thing in the 2015 growing season. In fact, I think I’m safe in saying this fairly common piece of material has actually become a presentable bonsai all in a single year. A little wiring and trimming today was all I had to do.
To be sure, not every piece of material you work on will be quite so cooperative. But you may be surprised at how good you get in making this sort of result happen in short order, with just a little practice.
