by Zach Smith | Dec 29, 2019 | Care, Flowering, Hawthorn, Potting, Pruning, Styling, Wiring
I enjoy making new bonsai material by taking cuttings from the trees I work with. I also enjoy working with the species Riverflat hawthorn, Crataegus opaca. Unfortunately, those two pleasures seldom happen together.
I have found Riverflat hawthorn cuttings to be extremely difficult to root. Maybe it’s operator error, but maybe it’s just a quirk of the species. Regardless, this photo represents a single specimen I got to take about six or seven years ago. It’s been completely container grown since that time, and this is how it looked back in 2017. That’s a standard small concrete mixing tub which measures about 24″ long by 18″ wide, to give you an idea of scale.
Here’s the tree a couple of days ago, after I pruned off a good bit of the growth. The base of the trunk has thickened some more in the two years since the photo above was taken, and is now right at 1.75″ above the (nice) surface rootage. While I could either leave the tree in this container or plant it out, it’s actually big enough to work with.
A lot more pruning needed doing in order to start simplifying this specimen. It’s not always easy to choose which branches to keep, but in this case it wasn’t all that hard. I had selected a front for the tree years ago, and there was no need to change it.
As you can imagine, the tub had a lot of roots throughout. The easiest way for me to get the tree out so I could really reduce them was to pretend I was collecting it from the ground. So I sawed it out.
I washed off the roots and started cutting. One of the obvious features of the bonsai to be is those surface roots. Now I just need to remove crossing roots and enough root mass to fit the tree into a pot.
This is what I ended up with. The good thing about Riverflat hawthorns is they root very well and vigorously (not the cuttings, but once they have roots they really go gangbusters).
I just got this Chuck Iker round recently, and I think it works very well with this tree. The chop is at 12″. I know that stub at the top looks funny; I left it long to ensure I don’t lose it altogether; I should get buds not only on it but also at the chop point. Once that happens, I’ll prune it back. And I wired out a basic design. You can see in this photo some spots where in the past I pruned off large branches I was using to make the tree get bigger. Though you can’t see it in this shot, they’re already mostly healed. As time goes on, they should add to the character of this bonsai to be. So that’s my tale of a Riverflat hawthorn cutting. Let me know what you think.
by Zach Smith | Dec 14, 2019 | Blueberry, Care, Collecting, Flowering, Hawthorn, Potting, Pruning
I planted out some Parsley hawthorn whips a few years ago. True to the old adage, “first year sleeps, second year creeps, third year leaps,” this year I’ve noticed a number of the specimens have put on some heft. A few have reached my minimum for lifting, namely, a trunk base of 1″. While I’ll certainly leave most to get bigger still, it’s nice to have some smaller specimens to offer.
I’m not sure what happened to this one or when, but it’s grown itself into a raft. Nice.
Here’s the first one on the potting bench. I have to choose between two leaders, either of which would do fine. You can see I’ve got some good roots to work with. My experience with hawthorn has been that they do quite well with a lot less root than you think they need when collecting them. My survival rate through the years has been 90% or better.
Yep, not much root at all. I’m still trying to decide on the leader.
I went with the straighter one. Not sure if it would have been better the other way, but the good news is this tree will produce multiple buds where I chopped that other leader. If I want, I can grow a new leader from one of those buds. So it’s not a big deal one way or another.
And here’s the raft, all potted up. I’m thinking this is going to make a very cool bonsai. What do you think?
I lifted this Huckleberry today. I’m very excited about it. I see a round pot and foliage confined to the upper part of each trunk. It’ll take a season or two to grow the left hand trunk the way I want it, but the results should be spectacular.
I have a choice of more than one front with this specimen. Which would you choose?
by Zach Smith | Nov 27, 2019 | Blueberry, Care, Flowering, Potting, Pruning, Styling, Wiring
So it’s time for Thanksgiving weekend, and aside from overeating that can only mean bonsai fun for me.
I collected this Huckleberry, Vaccinium sp., this past winter. Except for minimal training work, I’ve just let it grow to get established. With the weather see-sawing back to warm (we went from 22F overnight last week to 70F overnight last night – yeah, that’s South Louisiana weather!), I figured why not learn something new.
Where’s the front? I’m not sure yet, but that doesn’t stop me from starting the trimming process. Huckleberries are vigorous growers, so I’m very confident in my design fleshing out next year regardless of what I do now.
More pruning of long stuff.
Now that’s pruned back good!
It does take a while for Huckleberries to put on some good root growth, but this one did its thing in just a year. Like I said, I just let it grow this year without trying to rush things (today’s the day to rush things, right?).
More wiring, shaping, and into a pot by Lary Howard. I switched back to this front. The leader will be cut back in spring, once it buds out at the first node. I left it long in case of dieback. I think this composition is nice. The slanting style isn’t my favorite, but now and then you come across a tree that just insists. I always like to go with the flow whenever possible. Let me know what you think. I’m personally very fond of Huckleberries.
by Zach Smith | Nov 22, 2019 | Bald Cypress, Blueberry, Care, Flowering
Here’s one of my landscape Bald cypresses that I’ve grown from seed since 2000. It gets bigger and better each year. Isn’t the color just terrific?
This one is just starting to put on its bronze for the year. Once the colors start, you’ve got maybe a week before the tree is bare. This tree has developed well this year – from collection in February to the initial styling and then slip-potting. It’s always nice when you can get a faster result.
I’ve got some nice red leaves on this Huckleberry. It needs a bit of a trim.
After the trim. I left a leader on the right-hand trunk alone, so it could continue to run and thicken. Once spring gets here, the growth will kick off again and that will include a lot more ramification. With more sub-branching to choose from, I’ll be able to build a better fine structure on this tree.
This tree is also getting closer to its first bonsai pot. The planting angle above strikes me as not quite as good as this one. If I do go this route, my choice of leader on the right-hand trunk will shift – but that’s why I’ve been growing two of them, so I’d have a choice. If I do go with the prominent one, it will need wiring come spring because it’s too straight (I can’t do it now for fear of cracking it, with no way for the tree to do any repair work).
And finally, check out all the flower buds! This pretty much guarantees me a decent show as spring gets close next year, not to mention some fruit toward summer. I really love growing Huckleberries as bonsai.
by Zach Smith | Sep 28, 2019 | Blueberry, Care, Crape myrtle, Flowering, Styling, Vines
Though the holidays are not yet upon us, it’s not too soon to start thinking of 2020. A lot of the work we do now will have an impact on how our trees develop next year. Today I looked at a few flowering and/or fruiting specimens that will make great progress in 2020. This Crape myrtle was grown from a cutting made a few years ago. It’s a small specimen, but nonetheless it’s developing a nice classic Crape myrtle shape. I’ve been helping it along with some wiring, and added a little today. This one should make a nice starter bonsai this coming year.
Here’s a starter size Muscadine I lifted earlier in the season. The base is very nice, and it has a low leader than I’ll continue to let run to thicken. This is about a two- to three-year project to a bonsai pot. For now, there’s no real benefit to wiring or trunk-chopping. For vines, it’s generally best to trunk-chop in the spring when you can expect strong growth and healing.
I have grown to love Huckleberries. Not only do they flower in a pot, they fruit as well; I even ate some berries off a specimen earlier this year. This one was collected in Winter 2019. I think the tight twin-trunk configuration is pretty cool. I’ve let it grow all year with little interference; today I want to take the next development step.
So I carved down to the respective leaders on the two trunks, then put a little wire on the tree to establish a basic shape. This one is a larger specimen, having a 2″ trunk base. I anticipate a finished height of about 16″ when all is said and done.
And finally, one more Huckleberry I wired and shaped earlier in the season. This one doesn’t need any more work today, but I wanted to show you what can be done at this stage of the process. Huckleberries (blueberries) are good bonsai subjects. They do root slowly, however, so you have to take this into account. The branches also can be brittle, so some extra care is needed when you wire and shape them (you’ll inevitably crack a branch here and there). By the third year in a pot, they get really lush with growth and that’s when you can expect fruiting to begin. Blueberries also like acid soil, so remember to keep some soil acidifier handy. Let me know what you think of these specimens.
by Zach Smith | Jul 4, 2019 | Bald Cypress, Care, Elms, Flowering, Potting, Styling, Wiring
I potted this small Cedar elm earlier this season. It’s been growing away, minding its own business. Recently we had a couple of storms and somehow this tree got picked to be blown off the bench. It stayed in the pot and no branches were broken, but the second time the tree got a bit disturbed in the pot. I secured it and set it back on the bench, though not facing the same way as before. I’ve been looking at it ever since, and finally thought there might be a better front.
Is this a better front? I think it has possibilities. What do you think?
July 4th is also a good time to defoliate Bald cypress. I don’t typically defoliate BC in year one, and that’s the case with this one. However, it’s also time to do some summer styling work. I’m making a flat-top out of this specimen. I created the branching and leaders earlier in the season, then waited for more growth. I got just what I expected.
The first step today was to reposition the leaders. What you’ll find if you create a flat-top cypress is, the leaders do not want to lie flat! So you have to fight this fight until you win. It usually takes two or three rounds of wiring. Here I was able to pull the leaders down.
And the final step for today was to wire a couple of secondary shoots and position them. This is very important to do at this time. It’ll pay off before the end of the growing season.
I seldom work with azaleas. Their horticultural requirements are a good bit more difficult for me to navigate, especially considering the large number of deciduous specimens I have on my benches. The Satsuki azalea “Chinzan” is different. In fact, I have found casually that this variety will take a tremendous amount of neglect. I’ve had the “mother plant” to this one for almost a decade now, and it grows each season and blooms its head off whether I pay any attention to it or not (it does get watered, of course). A few years ago I separated this smaller specimen from the mother plant, and proceeded to set it on the bench and neglect it. Chinzan didn’t care. So today I figured it was time to see if anything could be done with it.
Here’s a shot of the uninspiring base.
And here’s what I made out of it. One of the things I love most about bonsai is that you truly can make nice specimens from less than stellar material. In fact, this is what we artists bring to the whole endeavor. That plant two photos above was most definitely nothing to write home about. This small bonsai is no masterpiece, but I think it makes a credible bonsai. What do you think?
