by Zach Smith | Feb 18, 2017 | Bald Cypress, Care, Collecting, Flowering, Hawthorn, Hornbeam, Potting
Today was another opportunity to collect some great new material. Here are a few of the trees I brought home today.
First up is yet another terrific Bald cypress, Taxodium distichum. This one has a 5″ trunk 5″ above the soil surface, and is chopped at 27″. The buttress is superb, and runs down into the soil. I always bury my newly collected trees deep, to ensure the surface roots don’t dry out. In the case of this cypress, the buttressing runs way down into the soil. When this one finally gets raised in its bonsai pot, the effect is going to be stunning.
How’s this for a great American hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana)? The base is nice and wide, the taper outstanding, and the muscling is so typical of the species. The basal diameter is 3.5″, and it’s 20″ to the chop.
And last but not least, here’s a really awesome Parsley hawthorn, Crataegus marshallii. I’m planning to keep this one for myself. I just love the fluting in the lower trunk, and it’s got nice taper in a relatively short specimen. The trunk base is 2.5″ above the root crown, and I’ve chopped it at 13″. I’m planning a finished height of about 18″.
Leave a comment below and let me know what you think.
by Zach Smith | Jan 28, 2017 | Care, Collecting, Hornbeam, Potting
Today I went out in hopes of collecting some bald cypress. The water was up, however, so I had to fall back to Plan B. I ended up with some yaupons, huckleberries and even a pine. But the best find of the day was this tree, a truly great American hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana.
This one checks all the boxes. The flaring root base and radial roots are terrific, the trunk has very nice muscling and movement, and the taper is great.
I’m thinking this view shows off everything better. What do you think?
And here it is, after I dusted the cut ends of the roots and potted it up. Notice how the roots are buried, to ensure they stay moist. And of course the trunk chop is sealed to prevent it drying out.
The base on this specimen is 4.5″, and it’s 24″ to the chop. I would expect the final height of this tree will be about 32-34″. The plan for this year is to let it grow out to get established in its nursery container. I’ll wire the primary branch structure sometime in late April. And of course there will be a new leader that will be allowed to run in order to produce a tapering transition from where the chop is into the new apex.
I should know in March whether I was successful with this one.
Leave a comment below and let me know what you think. I’d love to hear from you.
by Zach Smith | Jan 1, 2017 | Bald Cypress, Care, Collecting, Elms, Hawthorn, Hornbeam, Maples, Oaks, Sweetgum
Happy New Year to all of you!
And many thanks to all of you who helped Bonsai South grow in 2016. We’ve been doing better each and every year since I relaunched the business in 2010, and I’m happy to report that 2017 looks like it will be another record-setting year.
What can you expect this coming year and into the future? The mainstay of our business is obviously larger collected specimens of various species – Bald cypress, Hawthorns, Oaks, American hornbeam, Sweetgum, Elms, and so on. We’ve also done well with field-grown specimens of not only these but also non-native species such as Chinese elm. Our plans for 2017 include adding more species along with greatly expanding our growing field; obviously we will also continue the tradition of collecting the best material we can find. We expect to roughly double 2017 production, with plans for much more in subsequent years.
I get a lot of inquiries about new material, as you can imagine. The Winter 2017 collecting season begins now, so in the coming weeks I’ll be posting photos of new collects. When spring gets here there will be lots of new material for sale.
As always, we welcome any specific requests for trees you may have. Just send me a note via our Contact page.
by Zach Smith | Dec 18, 2016 | Care, Collecting, Hornbeam, Potting, Styling, Wiring
American hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana, is hands-down one of the best bonsai species for beginners. I’ll be out looking for new material next month, but in the meantime I had this lone specimen left on the bench. I collected it last year. What I liked about it, aside from the size and obvious potential, was that it featured rough bark. This happens sometimes with hornbeam, but frankly it’s unusual.
This tree took its time coming out in Spring 2016, so I fed, watered and otherwise ignored it. Only recently did I take note of how well the leader thickened up as the growing season drew near its close. That told me one thing, that the tree had produced a great root system. This is typical for American hornbeam.
Given the fact that next month it’ll be time to go collect new hornbeams, I thought it might be a good time to play around with this one (it’s hard not to make bonsai, regardless of the time of year).
The first order of business was to address the chop. The tree had produced a nice bud right at the chop, and that bud had grown into a very strong leader. No time like the present to make the angled cut that will produce the tapering transition needed in the apex.
Here’s the tool of choice for this operation – a trunk splitter. It takes a bit of practice, but you eventually become adept at figuring out just the right spot to begin the angled cut.
This is as far as I can go with the trunk splitter. Now it’s time for the knob cutters.
And this is the final result. Now I have a good angled cut that takes the original trunk right into the new leader. As the leader grows and fills out, it’ll continue to thicken which will make the tapering transition look smooth and natural.
Given how strong the tree’s root system is, I felt it was perfectly all right to go ahead and put it into this nice unglazed Chuck Iker round. I’ve wired the branches in the apex and wired up a new leader. Once the 2017 growing season is over, I think this will be a stunning tree. And isn’t the fall color nice, too?
This tree does have one significant flaw I need to address next year. It lacks a nice surface root in the front of the tree. I plan to layer it this coming spring. Given how vigorously hornbeams root, I’m confident I’ll be successful.
Do you grow American hornbeam? Have you had good luck with the species? Leave us a comment below.
by Zach Smith | Nov 20, 2016 | Care, Hornbeam, Pruning, Styling
American hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana, is one of my favorite species for bonsai and a great choice for beginners. This particular specimen has been with me through six growing seasons now. This past year I repotted the tree, which gave me a good opportunity to do some work on the roots, and of course the tree responded as hornbeams always do. Here’s where it ended the growing season:
I let the tree grow out because it continues to need thickening of the branches, plus following the root-pruning I didn’t want to begin the pinching and refining process in the same year. This can be done starting next year.
This operation took me about 15 minutes. I removed all of the downward pointing branches and the crossing branches, and brought the profile of the tree inward. I also shortened the very long leader, which was allowed to grow unchecked to continue thickening the transition point as I build taper in the apex of the tree. I left this cut long, just to protect buds that are already apparent lower down on this leader. I’ll recut in the spring, and begin the process of finishing the very top of the tree.
Stay tuned for updates on this specimen in 2017. Also watch for new hornbeam stock, which should start appearing around March or April.
Comments are welcome, as always.
by Zach Smith | Aug 14, 2016 | Bald Cypress, Care, Collecting, Hornbeam, Potting, Styling, Sweetgum
These two bald cypresses came out of the swamp together, having grown for some time as natural companions. I could see a two tree flat-top pairing right off the bat. Knowing I could create the entire crown of each tree in a bonsai pot, I went ahead and put the pair in this Byron Myrick oval. Then I waited.
It took a couple of months, but I finally got enough growth going to start wiring the new leaders. Not much to look at, are they? (Actually, they grew like crazy bushes; I took off over 90% of the growth before doing this wiring.)
A couple months later, we’ve got some good growth going. Time for a trim and more wiring.
They’re back to not looking like much, but if you strain you can see the crown taking shape on the larger specimen. I’d predict that by the end of next growing season, I’ll have a really nice flat-top structure in place. I’ll keep you posted.
Here’s a sweetgum bonsai that I just made today. It too doesn’t look like much, but that’s because I cut off all the large leaves in order to promote a new crop of smaller leaves. I’ll diligently pinch the growing tips, which is the secret to training sweetgums during the growing season. I should have a nice bit of foliage on the tree by next month.
This is a small specimen, with a trunk base of 3/4″ and a height of 14″. What I like about it is, it’s a good example of the natural growth habit of sweetgum, which is columnar. By keeping the branches short, I can emphasize this great feature of the species.
The pot is a beautiful oval by Chuck Iker. In case I get fall color this year, the pot color will complement it very nicely.
Finally, I wired up this Eastern hophornbeam, Ostrya virginiana, which I had direct-potted this past winter when I collected it. I cut off the leaves the other day, to promote a final flush of growth this season.
Hophornbeam is one of the relatively few species of trees that holds its leaves through winter – American beech and Southern sugar maple being two others in my neck of the woods. They also feature a nice rough bark, versus American hornbeam with its smooth bark. They’re difficult to collect, as they don’t like to have their roots disturbed.
This specimen has a 1″ trunk base and is 11.5″ tall. Another great Chuck Iker pot.
