by Zach Smith | Apr 19, 2020 | Care, Chinese Elm, Elms, Pruning, Styling, Water Elm, Wiring
Every tree has its own story, and this Cedar elm is no different. We collected it back in 2018. The bark and trunk character were the thing. As with trees of similar size, it got chopped to about 12″ and put in this pot. Unlike all but one of its fellow draft picks, it refused to bud anywhere but the trunk chop. Many elm species will bud at a trunk chop, and Cedar elm is no different. But it’s really unusual for them to fail to bud along the trunk. My solution, once the tree had grown out long enough for me to be sure if wasn’t going to cooperate, was to chop half the trunk off. I figured that even if it didn’t produce any buds low down, any new growth would allow me to build a tree with a first branch in a good spot. In keeping with its determination, the tree only produced two buds, and both of them were at the new chop point. Hurray (sarc). But okay, we work with what we have. Here’s the tree as it is now. Nice growth.
Here’s a closeup of my new leader. The transition point is thickening very well, and the leader has the added benefit of good tapering. All I need to do is continue to let it grow out.
The other thing that needs doing right now is to go ahead and do an angle cut where my new leader emerges. This is about what you should shoot for when you do these angle cuts. It’s best to go ahead and carve them smooth, especially the edges where callus is going to roll over. If you work with Cedar elm, you’ll learn quickly that they roll callus as well as any species out there, including Trident maple and Bald cypress.
I think this will make the best front, when all is said and done. What do you think?
First order of business: get rid of that low back branch. I thought I might need it, but now it’s clear I won’t. The original branch set was back-left-back-right. Nothing wrong with this. But there’s also nothing wrong with left-back-right. And considering the size and eventual height of this specimen, I don’t think that first back branch is going to look right. The other thing I’ve done here is to remove the sub-branches close to the trunk. This is a key to proper design. Now, there are cases where you may want to leave some branching near the base of the primary branch in order to create or improve taper of the branch; but that’s not necessary here, so I’ve simplified my life by going ahead and taking it off.
The last thing that needs doing today is to wire and reposition the left branch at the bottom and the corresponding right branch farther up (the back branch in between did not require repositioning). I need a lot more growth from this tree before it will begin to look like something worthwhile. I anticipate getting the new leader to a point this season where it’s about twice its current thickness. And that will put me in a good position for next year’s work.
This Water-elm is a 2018 recruit. I loved the trunk character when I first spotted it, and it’s just been a building chore ever since it first started throwing recovery shoots. The process is pretty simple once you’ve done it a few times. The chore of the day is to do the first trim for 2020. Also, notice how I have a couple of shoots emerging from that empty spot on the left side of the trunk between the lowest back branch and the left-hand branch farther up the trunk. I needed something in this spot, and the tree decided to cooperate. Love it when that happens.
Here I’ve wired and positioned that new left-hand branch. I’ll let it grow untrimmed for the next several weeks.
The remaining chore for today is to rough-prune (hedge) the crown and any lower branch that is thick enough. The branches that need more thickening are left alone for now. I was pleased with this result for today … until I wasn’t. I’ve commented before about the value you can get out of photographing your trees. As long as you understand and allow for any visual disagreement between the eye lens and the camera lens, photos can reveal flaws in your trees that you might not otherwise notice or take seriously enough. Now, you can usually work around or hide your trees’ flaws; in fact, much of the art of bonsai is doing just this. Rarely do we have perfect trees to work on, but rather imperfect trees that we can work to perfect or at least make better. In the case of this tree, I finally had to throw in the towel on its inescapable flaw. Nothing I’ve done so far has allowed me to get around it.
Yes, it was that long untapering stretch of trunk. My rule of thumb when I work on trees is that, whether trunk or branch, if you have an untapering section it can run for either two or three basal diameters before a reduction has to occur. In the case of this tree, I had a section that ran about six diameters without any taper. And there wasn’t anything I could do about it except to cut most of it off. The tree looks a bit odd now, but rest assured that the branch emerging from the chop point is going to backbud some more. And because I’m going to let it grow out untrimmed for several weeks, I should have a much better crown in the making by late summer. Stay tuned. (It’s worth noting that in an earlier post on this tree a reader pointed out the flaw in the trunk to me. I managed to ignore the obvious until today. You’ll probably have the same experience many times on your bonsai journey.) Leave me a comment below. I’d love to know what you think.
by Zach Smith | Apr 10, 2020 | Care, Elms, Maples, Pruning, Styling, Wiring
So here’s an update on one of the Boxelders I’m playing with. It’s got a very nice flush of spring growth. Some styling decisions and work need doing at this point in time. No surprise there. But that got me to thinking. Every tree we work on has to have its own design plan, whether we consciously think about it or not. Here’s a list of tasks that need doing now:
- Trim back overlong branches
- Trim or remove upward and/or downward pointing branches, or use them for directional changes
- Wire and position branches and/or sub-branches as needed
- Shorten new leader in order to build taper at the trunk chop transition point
Step one is to shorten overlong branches as needed. Here I’ve started that process, from the bottom of the tree upward.
Continuing upward, same thing.
Here I’ve wired and positioned branches, followed by shortening the leader. I took the leader back to two nodes. I’ll almost certainly get buds at both nodes, at which point I’ll take another internode off and use the one closest to the transition point for my new leader. This will help build taper and thicken the transition point.
Here’s a Winged elm, Ulmus alata, that I lifted from a field growing area back in January. While it’s not too well established yet, from a rooting perspective, it does have some shoots that need to be wired and positioned before they get too stiff the bend easily. So here’s the design plan for this specimen:
- Remove unneeded shoots
- Wire and position shoots that will be used in the design
- Set the tree aside and let it grow until the wire needs removal; then,
- Rewire and trim, as needed, developing branches
- Remove trunk chop stub
- Wire up new leader
- Carve lower trunk chop used for directional change
This is all I can do today. Now it’s back to the bench for this specimen, and waiting for signs of wire cutting into branches. I expect that will happen as early as late next month.
by Zach Smith | Mar 25, 2020 | Care, Chinese Elm, Elms, Styling, Wiring
Here’s the Chinese elm you saw this past weekend. It’s a pretty “hunky” specimen, with a good curve in the trunk that I can use to start a nice design. As I mentioned the other day, when left to grow without intervention Chinese elms don’t put on much if any taper. They also grow pretty straight, so when I saw the curve in the trunk I was excited. As you can see, I got a lot of budding and that makes picking branches easy.
Here’s a view from the other side. There’s the stub of a branch I left, for reasons I don’t remember. It most likely won’t be part of the final design.
Here’s a phenomenon you’ll often see on members of the elm family: tons of shoots coming right out of the chop point around the trunk. I could use one or two in my design if I needed to, but I’ve got a better choice.
Another view of the chop point, plus a stretch of trunk lacking buds. You pretty much always have to work around “flaws” in the way your trees choose to grow. But what fun would bonsai be if everything worked out exactly as you wanted it to?
The first step in designing this tree was to remove all the extra shoots starting near the bottom of the tree. We work from bottom to top, more or less all the time.
The first few shoots get wired. If you’ve spent any time training trees from a bare trunk with shoots, you know how tender they are at this stage. It takes some practice to do this without popping them off.
Moving up the trunk. Taking off most of the growth as I go, and wiring what’s left.
At the top of the trunk, it was taking off all those shoots emerging from the chop and then selecting the shoot in the right spot to start growing out a leader. That’s all I can do for now. I’ll let the tree continue to grow, and plan to remove all of this wire sometime in May. By that time these shoots will be much thicker and hardened off. I expect to have to rewire, but by the fall the branch structure will be set. I also expect to cut back the leader at least once this season, and allow a new one to grow out. That process will ultimately give me the trunk line I need, with movement and taper. It’s sometimes hard to see the future when you start out with a piece of material like this. But I’ve worked on enough trees through the years to know how well they can turn out. Just look at the photos below for proof!
by Zach Smith | Mar 22, 2020 | Blueberry, Care, Chinese Elm, Crape myrtle, Elms, Potting, Styling
Here’s an update on my big Huckleberry bonsai that I potted this spring. As you can see, it has filled out with foliage. It’s normal for Huckleberries to take three years to really get “bushy” with foliage: year one is typically all structure building, making the branch structure and starting the apex; year two continues this process, along with some sub-branching development; and year three is when the tree first fills out. It also takes three years for a good blooming and fruiting. This tree put on a very nice show of flowers, and now it’s got a lot of fruit that’s ripen in a month or so. Now, it’s important to understand what the explosion of foliage this year means, and what it doesn’t mean. What it means is, the sub-branching (aka ramification) begins with this process. If you study this photo, you’ll see that I have a lot of foliage but no real organization at the secondary and tertiary branching level. There’s nothing to be done about that this year, except to prune overlong secondary shoots and watch for branching that’s gotten out of hand (it gets pruned severely or off altogether). Next year, I’ll have hardened off sub-branching that will be ready for grow and clip and editing, which will be the real building of the interior. But for now, I’m enjoying the vibrant health of this specimen. It’s growing exactly as I want it to.
I collected this Chinese elm in February. It’s a nice specimen – not as much taper as I’d like, but left to their own devices Chinese elms do not typically put on taper. This is normal for most deciduous trees, which want to grow straight and tall as fast as they can. But I can work with this one. There’s subtle taper from base to trunk chop, and I can easily build more into the crown. I’ll begin the process this year. The first step will be to get a basic structure going, and today I did that. I’ll post a blog showing the details this coming week.
Here’s the Pocomoke Crape I wrote about last weekend. I ordered in a custom pot (a beautiful Lary Howard piece), and went to town on that huge root mass yesterday. I brought the tree more upright during the potting process, and I think this makes for a more dramatic composition. I’d love to hear what you think about it.
by Zach Smith | Mar 7, 2020 | Care, Elms, Flowering, Hawthorn, Maples, Potting, Styling, Water Elm, Wiring
Spring is gathering speed now, and most everything on my benches (beech and most oaks are usually last) is coming into leaf. Water-elms also lag, so I took the opportunity today to pot up a couple of small ones. This is another of the trees that came home last summer. Nice smaller specimen, 1″ trunk and destined to finish at 12″. As with small bonsai in general (and you should take this as a hard and fast rule), your tree will consist of fewer than a dozen primary branches in total. This includes the branches in the crown. So here you see I’ve made a design with only four branches (so far). There will be two to four max in the crown. And that’s it!
I think this Chuck Iker round is going to go perfectly with this tree. The root system was very good, considering the tree has only been on the bench for a few months’ worth of growth (last summer/fall).
And another small Water-elm, trunk base slightly larger than 1″ and again it’ll finish at 12″. Here I’ve got five primary branches along with the leader, so again a simple structure. (If you crowd your branching too much in a small tree, there’s no way to avoid the “shrub” effect. That’s not bonsai. Less is more.)
Another nice Chuck Iker round helps to make this tree.
Fun with Swamp maples continues. I collected a handful of nice ones this year, my goal being to see how well they hold up over the next few years. I’ve been encouraged by the last two I brought home. By keeping an intact root mass and avoiding completely cleaning the roots, it appears they don’t become susceptible to trunk rot. If this does prove to be the key to success, then you’ll see more specimens over the next few years. They really do have some nice characteristics, so I’m excited. Today I wired a single branch on this very tall specimen (18″ trunk with a 1.5″ base; I had one I blogged about the past couple of years that went on to a client; I’m trying to duplicate that design). Why wire one branch? It should help redirect energy elsewhere, especially to the many trunk buds you can’t yet see. I’ll need this branch in my design, and I don’t want it getting too thick too fast. I’ll also be pruning it later in the season, to activate the buds that appear at the nodes on the branch.
Finally, this Parsley hawthorn came out of my ground growing area earlier in the year. It’s exploding with growth, as you can see. That includes some shoots on the recumbent trunk that will make upright trunks to go along with the four I currently have. So I’ll let them grow without restraint for some time, possibly even all season. I do want variety in the trunk thicknesses, but I can control that as this tree develops. You’ve probably noticed that one of the two largest trunks leans a bit too much, making the design less harmonious than it can be. I’ll notch this trunk a little later in spring, bringing it more upright.
by Zach Smith | Mar 1, 2020 | Care, Elms, Pruning, Styling, Water Elm
We collected this very large Water-elm in 2018. The trunk base is 4″, and the upper trunk chop is at 29″. Last year it grew out strong, and I was able to wire the basic branch design. By the end of the growing season, the tapering transition at the upper trunk chop had thickened to roughly a third of the thickness of the trunk at the chop. I was able to achieve this despite directionally pruning the leader twice, in order to ensure continuity of the tapering.
Today’s goal is to carve down both the upper and lower trunk chops. If you grow very large bonsai, you will inevitably have to perform this task. It may seem a bit daunting the first time you do it, but you’ll be surprised at how quickly and how well it goes.
Here’s a closer look at the upper chop. You can see how well the leader thickened. I’ll continue this process during the growing season. My goal will be to double the thickness of the base of the leader.
My first task was to directionally prune the leader. As you’re building the apex of your tree, you’ll perform this task multiple times. The goal is to achieve movement and taper. Can you see three directional changes in my leader?
Here’s a closer look at my carving challenge. Notice here a key to my ultimate success in carving down this chop and making the whole thing both look right and work horticurturally: the branch growing below the leader on the opposite side of the tree.
Every trunk chop you ever make is going to create dead wood; it’s just unavoidable. But that’s all right, because the tree will produce callus tissue to heal the wound and, to one degree or another, seal off the live wood from the dead wood. With that said, it sometimes happens that the entire side of a tree will die due to a chop that is not followed by buds around the perimeter of the trunk. In this case, I have a branch perfectly positioned for what I’m about to do.
I used a root/trunk splitter to begin this work, followed by my knob cutter to bite away the bulk of the wood. You can easily see here both the living wood and the dead wood I’ll have to manage in the years to come. But that low branch will make all the difference, and sooner rather than later.
The treatment of choice for this chop, later on this season, will be lime sulfur followed by PC Petrifier. But that’s not for now. I need the living sapwood you see to actually dry out before hitting it with lime sulfur. In the meantime, I’ll just seal up the chop to protect it.
The chop is sealed with Kiyonal, my preferred product. Some of you may prefer the putty type, or another product altogether. As long as it works for you, that’s what you should use.
Here’s a shot of where we are at this point. Compare this photo with the first one, and you can see how much progress I’ve made in creating trunk taper at the apex of this Water-elm. Carving works wonders!
Here’ s my next carving chore. Notice in this case, just as with the first, I have a branch growing at the base of the chop. Once again, I couldn’t have asked for a better response from the tree.
Same technique as before, knob cutters to bite away the wood I didn’t need, then I used hand carving tools to smooth everything out. And lastly Kiyonal to seal it.
I did a little more strategic pruning, and that’s it for today! Doesn’t the trunk look much better now? It tapers nicely from base to apex, and the trunk movement is outstanding. Also, with the trunk chops carved down I can expect to create a very natural appearance as this tree develops.
I’ll post an update later in the season. This tree will be ready for a bonsai pot in Spring 2021.
Let me know if you found this helpful.
