Sunday Evening Hawthorn Notes

by | Apr 28, 2019 | Care, Flowering, Hawthorn, Potting, Pruning, Styling, Wiring

Yesterday was my first one-on-one workshop for 2019. We got a lot of work done, mostly on three large BCs. This is a great time of year to do just about everything bonsai. Problem is, it’s hard to get it all done!

Right now in my garden we’ve completed first flush, and than invariably means trees that need a first trimming for the season. Below we check in on my big Riverflat hawthorn (I really need to name this tree).

This tree continues to rock along. Last year it got a new, larger home that suits the tree perfectly. And it’s clearly happy; the elongted shoots tell the tale.

A couple minutes of work later, here we are.

This is one of those trees I could study all day long. I never get tired of it.

Spring is also the time for making new bonsai. I had a great time today putting together a couple of new three-tree Parsley hawthorn groups. These smaller specimens naturally lend themselves to this style of bonsai.

And one more. There are two things to remember when you’re creating forests of tall trees: one, be sure that your tallest tree(s) have their foliage concentrated in the upper half to third of the trunk; and two, don’t let the branch spread get out of hand. If you observe these two rules, your trees will look quite mature and believeable.

All in all, it was a great bonsai weekend. The weather was great, and the trees even better.

New Bonsai Coming – Crape & Hawthorn

by | Mar 9, 2019 | Care, Crape myrtle, Flowering, Hawthorn, Potting, Styling

I lifted this ground-grown Crape myrtle specimen last summer. From a bare trunk it grew shoots very quickly, and I was able to wire the complete structure in the same season.

This is the same tree, nine months later. It’s got a nice structure and the leader is developing well. I will need to cut it back hard after the spring flush, which will thicken the transition point, and by this coming fall this will be a very nice Crape myrtle bonsai. The flowers are purple, and it’s almost certain to bloom this summer (and every summer).

The pot is a custom piece by Byron Myrick.

I expect to post this tree for sale once it has recovered from potting, most likely by the end of March.

I have a bunch of gallon-size Parsley hawthorns I haven’t planted out yet. Why not make a group planting with a few of them?

A nice result. If you have some smaller stock that you’d like to do something with, group plantings are a good answer. You get a nice bonsai right away.

The trunks on the larger two specimens are 1/2″, and the height of the planting is 16″. The pot is a terrific piece by Lary Howard.

This specimen should be posted for sale in mid- to late-April.

What To Do When Your Bonsai Misbehave

by | Feb 3, 2019 | Blueberry, Care, Flowering, Styling, Wiring

I’m writing about this Huckleberry, Vaccinium species, for two reasons: one, it’s a prime example of a bonsai to be that has misbehaved on its way from wild specimen to styled specimen; and two, from being lifted in Winter 2018 and direct-potted, then left to grow out through the season, in year two it has decided to bloom quite nicely.

Now, it’s worth noting that Huckleberry does not root vigorously when taken from the wild, so you have to give the tree time and good support in order to get it properly established. As with some other species, it is acid-loving. Even with frequent rain, assuming yours is slightly acidic as ours is, it helps to add soil acidifier to your feeding regimen during each growing season. It’s just good practice, and if your municipal water has a pH of 8.3 as mine has, you really don’t want to not treat from time to time if you get in a dry spell.

Here’s what I was talking about. You can see the flowers are just about to open, and there are plenty of them on the way. It remains to be seen if the tree will set fruit, but I’ll certainly keep you posted.

Now to the more serious issue with this specimen. If you’ll study the first photo for a bit, it’s apparent that the main trunk is really sparsely branched. In fact, it suffered some dieback and so really needs to be nursed along. This is one of my main goals for 2019 for this specimen. It’s also a key principle of developing bonsai. Your trees must be healthy to reach their full potential. When they don’t respond the way you expect them to, meaning sluggish growth or sparse branching, this is a problem that must be corrected before you dive into whacking on the tree. For example, it’s clear that I have to chop this trunk again. Trying to do so now, with the root system insufficiently strong, could very well damage the roots it has and possibly kill the tree altogether.

So what can be done today?

A surprising amount of work, as it turns out. When I collected this specimen, it was a twin-trunk. True to the fact that it didn’t thrive in a shallow container with little soil, the smaller trunk died. But lots of new shoots came up from the base (this is typical growth for Blueberries, which are multi-trunk bushes by nature). Today I selected the best one and wired a structure for it. Not too shabby looking.

I also wired the shoot on the main trunk closest to the top of the tree and redirected it upward. I need this shoot to grow unrestrained for a while, to thicken and thereby increase the vigor of the main trunk. I’m also in hopes that with improved vigor I’ll get more adventitious buds to sprout. I only need them from about halfway up the trunk into the apex. Then I can create a structure for the main trunk and continue the development of this Blueberry bonsai.

So to answer the original question, What do you do when your bonsai misbehave? you have to nurse them along to ensure vigor, then step by step make a design happen. Sometimes the tree gives you more to work with, sometimes you have to graft branches. The main thing is to take this process one step at a time and not get impatient. It may take years more than you originally planned, but the effort usually pays off.

One more thing: I’m also thinking that an oval pot would better suit this specimen. What do you think?

Here’s Something Expected, And Something Unexpected

by | Jul 11, 2018 | Bald Cypress, Crape myrtle, Flowering, Styling

We’ve been following along with the development of this Crape myrtle, Lagerstroemia indica, for a couple of months now. It’s a small specimen that I made from a venerable old Crape left to me by my friend Allen Gautreau. I love the trunk of this literati bonsai, and the Chuck Iker pot really complements the tree well.

Here’s something totally expected. Crapes are about the most eager thing to bloom I know of. In fact, even the cuttings I take will often bloom after they’re potted up. So I wasn’t at all surprised when I noticed flower buds forming on this tree. It’ll probably put on a few more flowers for the year, and after that I can focus on developing the branches.

Now for the unexpected. I collected this large Bald cypress, Taxodium distichum, back in February. It responded very well, throwing nice long shoots by April. So as per normal practice, I just fed and watered it and let it grow.

When summer starts to really set in, it’s common for BC foliage to start looking poorly. This is especially true if you use an automatic overhead watering system, like I do. The trees have to get enough water, but when the air circulation dies out the interior foliage suffers. For established specimens, this problem is remedied by defoliating. You’ve seen how I do this in a recent video. But I have never recommended, nor have I ever done, a defoliation on a tree in the first year after collection. The reason for this is pretty obvious: you don’t want to stress a tree any more than you have to. Better to leave the tree alone than to risk harming it.

But ….

Last week I decided to test my own rule on this tree, so I defoliated and did an initial wiring on it. That made me nervous! While I know the tree has already been producing roots, would it have enough to recover from the complete removal of foliage? Well, no better way to find out than to try it.

The other day I thought I noticed a bud or two. That looked promising. Today? All the branches you see have new buds on them, and there are also new trunk buds. So I’m pretty confident the tree has come through the experiment intact.

I plan to try this technique on other specimens in year one, so I can see if it helps or hurts the recovery and growth. I’ll let you know how it goes.

The Mystery Is Solved: It’s A Swamp Azalea

by | Jul 9, 2018 | Flowering

A couple of years ago I went on a collecting trip to a piece of property owned by a client’s brother. I had been hoping to harvest some American hornbeam, but there just weren’t any to be found. I did, however, run across a species I had never encountered in all my years of collecting. The young man who was guiding me had done some course work in forestry. He told me the species was Sweetbay magnolia, Magnolia virginiana. I collected a couple of them just to see how they would do in pot culture. Last fall, a small specimen I had kept produced some very fat buds that I speculated had to be flower buds. The Sweetbay magnolia blooms in summer, so when the buds didn’t open in spring it wasn’t a surprise. Then recently they started moving, and I was sure I’d get a chance to see how the Sweetbay looks in bloom. You may have read my latest blog that featured it.

Well, reader Pierre K posted a comment to the effect that my tree might not be Sweetbay after all, but rather Swamp azalea. Huh? I did some quick research, and the flowers didn’t seem to match. But then … one of them opened up, and it turns out that Pierre was right. Rhododendron viscosum is a wild native azalea that is found in the swamps from the Eastern U.S. into the South and all the way to Texas.

Here’s a photo of a bloom I took this evening. Isn’t it lovely?

It’s Time To Make Some More Bonsai

by | Jul 8, 2018 | Care, Crape myrtle, Flowering, Hackberry, Pruning, Styling, Vines, Wiring

There are distinct phases in the bonsai year. Spring 2018 is just a memory now. But that’s okay. Summer is never dull. While you can’t do everything in summer you can in spring, I guarantee you’ll keep busy if you know what needs doing and how your individual trees will respond. Here are a few examples to consider.

I lifted this Crape myrtle, Lagerstroemia indica, in May. True to the species, it came back quickly and with great vigor. Within a month I had this design under way.

Crapes love summer. They grow fast and bloom like crazy from about July through August and even into September. If you’re developing a bonsai, the fast growth is just what you want.

Today I had to do some more trimming (that vigor thing, you know). While I was cleaning up the chop point and one of the earlier trunk chop points lower down on the tree, I happened to turn it. What did I see? I’m thinking a better front. What’s your preference?

This Hackberry, Celtis laevigata,came home in February. Spring brought some cool weather, so I’ve been patiently waiting for this and a lot of other specimens to kick into high growth gear. It finally paid off, and today looked like a good time to do an initial styling on it. The leader remains thin, so I’ll let it run wild for the remainder of the 2018 growing season. Next year, this tree should develop quickly.

You may remember this photo from March. This is a branch on a Sweetbay magnolia, Magnolia virginiana. That big fat bud at the terminus is not a foliar bud – at least that’s what I thought at the time it set, namely last fall. I’ve never grown the species, so I wasn’t sure what I was looking at.

The buds are opening now. And they are definitely flowers! Pretty awesome.

I decided to advance my knowledge of this species the hard way, by slip-potting this specimen. Yes, the branches are way too long, but once the flowering is over I should be able to cut them back and reduce the profile of the tree.

I think I’ve got a nice literati bonsai to be, assuming it doesn’t object to the “out of season” potting.

Back in May I posed the question, “Is this a Catbird grape?” This was because of the leaf shape as the specimen recovered from collecting. I figured once the initial recovery growth settled down, I’d find out for sure.

It’s not a Catbird grape; it’s a Muscadine. You can see that very large leaf in the left of the photo. While the older leaves are of a very different shape, all of the growth now is quite round. So the scientific name, Vitis rotundifolia (“round leaf”), makes perfect sense.

I decided to slip-pot this specimen too.

Plus some wiring and trimming. You can see the connecting root of the two trunks, which I’d buried to protect it when I first lifted the specimen. It’s 3″ across at the base. This was the time to expose it. The pot is an exquisite handmade piece by Lary Howard.

I’m planning to keep this one for my personal collection. If you’d like a Muscadine let me know. There are plenty around here.

And that’s what I did today.

Let me know what you think.