by Zach Smith | Jun 29, 2019 | Bald Cypress, Care, Elms, Potting, Pruning, Styling, Sweetgum
You’ve been following along as I’ve developed this Cedar elm, starting in 2017 when it was first collected. The tree is filling out well, and the ramification is getting tighter with each pruning/pinching. All in all, time and technique are working their magic. But … I have come to the conclusion that this pot is not quite right for the tree. I love the color and the shape, but it’s a little too small. So time for a change.
This Lary Howard oval is just the right length, and the color is tough to beat. I think this improves the tree a great deal. (It’s available at our Cedar Elm Bonsai page.)
Here’s another Cedar elm I’ve featured a time or two. This photo was taken just over a year ago.
It’s been a great year for this tree. As with the first, it’s filled in beautifully and is ramifying with each pruning. The growth is strong, as you can see.
And here we are after the haircut. When you’re developing trees at this stage, it’s best to just take your shears and cut to shape (Walter Pall calls it hedge pruning – I’ve been doing it for many years, but now it’s getting popularized, which is good.)
Here’s a nice twin-trunk Sweetgum I collected in 2018. I left the tree alone to grow and get a strong root system, so that this year I could make something out of it. And I did. It was potted a few weeks ago.
Here we are, recovered from the potting stress. The tree is putting on nice healthy foliage, so I’ll focus on pinching to manage the shape of the tree. By next year, I expect to have a real winner with this one.
And finally, a real crowd favorite is this Bald cypress forest. It’s been through some tough times, but I think I’ve got it on a good path to what will ultimately be a fine forest bonsai. Here it is last weekend (getting a bit shaggy, as BC do).
It’s BC defoliation season, and here’s what happened today. The only tree I left alone is the smallest of the replacement whips, which is lagging a little behind the others in strength. I should have a nice fresh set of foliage on this forest in about three weeks.
by Zach Smith | Jun 17, 2019 | Care, Elms, Pruning, Styling, Water Elm, Wiring
Subject: Water-elm Date: 8/4/18 Stage: Big stick in pot Input: Lift, chop, wash, trim, dust, pot, pray Issues: None, if it lives
Date: 3/17/19 Stage: Big stick with twiggy shoots Input: Select branches, wire and position branches, remove branches that serve no purpose, put into bonsai pot (it’s not too soon, is it?) Issues: Leader is so slight it’s hardly as thick as the wire wrapped around it; are we too soon in the shallow pot?
Date: 5/27/19 Stage: Looking more bonsai-like, but how many years is this going to take? Input: Unwiring and rewiring, trim what needs trimming, leave alone what doesn’t need trimming Issues: Though the tree is in the right spot in the pot, the left-hand side is heavy and it throws off the tree’s balance.
Date: 6/17/19 Stage: Mixed bag of well-developed branches with some ramification and undeveloped branches that need to run; apex in running-wild phase to get thicker Input: unwiring and rewiring, trimming the left-hand branches to reduce heaviness on that side Issues: More apical growth needed, number one right-hand branch needs to catch up to the rest of the tree
In the last photo for today, you can see how I’ve shifted the balance of the tree rightward. You can’t always make this sort of correction when you want to; that’s where patience pays off. The final step in getting the balance of this tree right is going to be accomplished once the lowest right-hand branch fills out. It’s one of those subtle things that will often make your bonsai really stand out. Let me know what you think.
by Zach Smith | Jun 15, 2019 | Care, Elms, Hawthorn, Styling, Vines, Water Elm, Wiring
Today I did a one on one workshop with a new bonsai enthusiast. One of the specimens we were worked on was a three-tree Parsley hawthorn composition, very similar to this one. I love bonsai forests. The three-tree planting is the smallest expression of this style of bonsai. While this may seem like a real challenge, you can evoke a great deal of emotion in a very small space with just a few items. In this group there’s dramatic tension, complementary movement, depth, and perspective. It doesn’t get much better than that.
(This specimen is available at our Hawthorn Bonsai page.)
Here’s a Water-elm that we collected last August. It had a great trunk, with an unusual secondary trunk in a strategic spot. I saw a great upright bonsai in the making.
What did I tell you! We also studied potting bonsai today, and this tree was definitely ready for its initial styling and first bonsai pot. It turned out even better than I thought it would.
I was clearing an overgrown area near my garden and ran across a few nice Trumpet vines. This one has a trunk base of 1.5″, some nice shari and wonderful movement.
Plenty of new growth, just as you’d expect from a vine,
Well, most of that had to go. I see a semi-cascade specimen in this one, so a little wire and some man-handling and it’s going the way I want it to. I’ll leave it alone for a good while now; it’ll probably grow six or eight feet of new vine before it annoys me enough for another pruning.
by Zach Smith | Jun 9, 2019 | Bald Cypress, Care, Collecting, Elms, Potting, Sweetgum, Water Elm
Here’s a nice, slender Bald cypress from this year’s crop. I had planned from the start to hold the tree and make it into a flat-top style. It’s grown out enough now that I can do the initial styling on it.
About 20 minutes later, this is what I ended up with. It’s a good start. I’m going to get a lot of vigor in those two leaders, so I can’t afford to ignore it for long. When you’re making a flat-top, the thickening leader(s) can get away from you very quickly.
The flat-top style for BC is the fastest to make. The reason for this is, you’re playing to the tree’s natural habit of extremely vigorous apical growth. So you basically cut away just about everything but one or two leaders. The tree wants to get very tall very fast, so it pumps everything it has into those leaders. Which is another way of saying, in about three weeks I’ll be unwiring and rewiring the leaders, and wiring the secondary branches that will have grown.
We’re still in Sweetgum collecting season. Yesterday I lifted this nice specimen. It’s got a lot of character considering it’s not all that old, maybe 10 years. The trunk base is 2.5″, and it’s been chopped a few times along the way by the unwitting road crew.
This Bonsai South Collection Water-elm got its first bonsai pot yesterday, a very fine Lary Howard piece. The tree grew naturally this way, all I had to do was cut away everthing that didn’t look like a bonsai. It should continue to develop quickly this year.
And finally, another Bonsai South Collection Water-elm.
You come across trees in the course of your bonsai avocation that just have that special something. For me, this is one of those. Just a great natural specimen. The branching is of course under construction, but should develop rapidly.
What really made this bonsai for me was when this exquisite Lary Howard pot came available. Every great bonsai needs a great pot. It would be hard to beat this composition.
Let me know what you think of all these trees.
by Zach Smith | May 25, 2019 | Care, Elms, Potting, Pruning, Styling, Water Elm, Wiring
When we found this Water-elm last August (2018), I knew it was going in my collection. I had lost a similar specimen back in 2014. There’s something about those two trunks!
Today (5/25/19) it was time to style and pot this tree. Most of the bonsai is there; I just had to “find” it.
That nice branch on the right-hand trunk came with the tree. I want to keep it, but it has to be brought down some and then chased back to get the foliage closer to the trunk.
Here I’ve trimmed the foliage back a good bit. The branch is still over long, but I’m hoping to get back-budding on it so I can cut it back even further. I’ll know in a couple of weeks.
Moving over to the left-hand trunk, I wired a low branch and positioned it. Then I removed some small branches on the inside of both trunks. In a twin-trunk bonsai, branches should not be left growing on the inside of the trunks. This is not horticulturally sound, and usually doesn’t make the tree look any better either.
More clearing out of unusable branches on the insides of the trunks.
While I have a complete crown on the right-hand trunk, I don’t on the left-hand trunk. So I’ll have to make one. I have two nice leaders at the top of the trunk, so here they’ve been wired and positioned.
The right-hand crown was way too bushy, so I removed a lot of the foliage and did some strategic pruning to open up the structure.
The final step was potting the tree. I think this gorgeous Lary Howard oval really goes well with it.
The tree is a little right-hand heavy in the apex, but allowing the left-hand crown to fill out is going to shift this to a more balanced condition. It will also help to chase back that low right-hand branch some more.
I’m very excited about this Water-elm. By next year, it should be just about show-ready.
Let me know what you think.
by Zach Smith | May 16, 2019 | Bald Cypress, Care, Chinese Elm, Styling, Wiring
This is a run of the mill Bald cypress seedling (about 3 years old in 2017) that I decided to play around with in July of that year. How about a windswept cypress, I thought? So I wired it from bottom to top and stuck it in a Byron Myrick oval I had on hand. The base of this tree is about 3/4″ at the soil, and it’s about 22″ tall.
A couple months later I decided to turn the tree around. Now this does not make for an awe-inspring bonsai, no matter which way you turn it.
The thing to keep in mind, however, is that time does every bit as much to make a nice bonsai as we do. This doesn’t mean we don’t have to employ sound design principles. What it does mean, however, is that while you’re employing sound principles (and maybe an unsound principle here and there), the tree gets older. Unless you do something to harm the health of your specimen, it is going to get older just as surely as you are. More age is never a bad thing in bonsai.
So here, in 2018, I’ve performed the master stroke of eliminating extra branches. Only kidding. There’s no mastery in that stroke. It’s what’s called trying to figure out what this tree ought to be. The tree, I hasten to add, remains silent the whole while.
Okay, here we are in May of 2019 and I’ve discarded that whole windswept idea. Does that mean you can’t have a windswept Bald cypress bonsai? Not at all! I just think that this quality material is not suited to it. As a flat-top starts to take shape, this tree looks a lot better.
Here’s an important detail. Notice in the photo above that one of the crown leaders is crossing your field of vision and sweeping back toward the right. This is simply a vestige of that original windswept concept. In this photo, I’ve moved it back into a harmonious position.
But … there’s still something not quite right with this specimen (though it’s gotten a lot better).
And this is it. The trunk was configured in what is called the “C” shape, which is a very difficult trunk shape to work with (sort of like the “S” curve Chinese elms I despise). So I had to correct this problem. Now the tree actually looks like something with a future, even though it’s been made from quite ordinary material. At five years’ age, and the trunk base now at 1″, only time and some proper technique are required to make this a very nice bonsai.
Let me know what you think.
This tree is available for someone who’d like to continue its development going forward. The price is $175 delivered, and it goes to the first one to email me about it.
