by Zach Smith | Jul 26, 2016 | Care, Hornbeam, Styling
I’ve written at length about American Hornbeam, Carpinus Caroliniana. It’s one of my favorite species for bonsai, and one of my five best bonsai trees for beginners. The tree shown here, collected in January 2015, was potted this June. There’s a lot of character in this small tree. The trunk has movement and taper. And while it doesn’t fit the standard “mold” for informal upright bonsai, I think it makes its own statement.
One of the best things about American Hornbeam is its habit of growing all season long. And I don’t mean it has periodic flushes of growth throughout the season – it literally has new growth on it all the time. As you might expect, this makes for much faster development than for many species, and much faster ramification. The leaves also reduce in size very quickly. In this photo, I’ve taken off the larger leaves to encourage new growth and smaller leaves. The tree responded as expected.
And just two weeks later, this tree has taken a big step toward becoming a true American Hornbeam bonsai. From the first photo above, this represents a total of five weeks’ work. The leaves are much more plentiful now, and no more than half the size of the original set. With diligent pinching, I should have a very full set of foliage by the end of the growing season. What’s more, the small twigs on American Hornbeam persist through winter. This means I won’t lose any progress in terms of ramification between now and the 2017 season.
If you haven’t tried our native hornbeam, you’re really missing out. It’s hardy to Zone 3, is easy to grow and has wonderful characteristics. The trunks of older specimens become “muscled.” Almost any style (except for the deadwood styles) works just fine. They aren’t fussy about watering as long as they stay somewhat moist, and are seldom bothered by pests or diseases.
This specimen is a shohin bonsai, only 10″ tall, and is available at our Hornbeam Bonsai page.
by Zach Smith | Jun 12, 2016 | Care, Chinese Elm, Elms, Hornbeam, Pruning, Styling, Water Elm, Wiring
As I wrote yesterday, creating small bonsai is not as easy as you might think it would be. So much has to happen in such a short distance – literally, since these trees are under 12″ tall – that design skill becomes critical. This begins when you select a tree to work on (or collect). With experience this happens immediately when you look at a prospective piece of material. When you’re first starting out, it takes time to develop your eye – but it comes with time, so don’t get discouraged.
This Chinese elm, Ulmus parvifolia, is about four or five years from a cutting. It had gotten about eight feet tall, nice and lanky, and lay neglected off to the side in my nursery, before I chopped it back and repotted it. That was about four weeks ago. You can see in this photo that it’s thrown some nice shoots along the trunk. What does that mean? Well, it means I can strike a blow to overcome the awful “S-curve” Chinese elm trade with a well-designed little Chinese elm bonsai. The trunk base on this piece is right at 1″ in diameter, and it’s got some nice radial roots. There’s a bit of a turn in the trunk (no exaggerated “S” here). It’s enough of a turn. So I can actually design a bonsai starting with this piece of material that will be no more than 10″ tall. I’ll do this with fewer than 10 branches. And I believe it’s going to look great.
Now you can see where I’m going with this little guy. The new leader will make the rest of the trunk of this bonsai. I’ve wired, positioned and trimmed five branches. I’m going to leave the tree alone now, letting the leader grow out to thicken it. By late summer not only will my tapering transition be looking good, I’ll also have the remainder of my apical branches started as new shoots. That’s the way Chinese elms grow.
Not a bad start, eh?
Here’s an American elm, Ulmus Americana, that was lifted out of harm’s way in a flower bed a few weeks ago. It doesn’t yet have the root system the Chinese elm above has, so I don’t have strong enough shoots to wire yet. That will happen in another few weeks. But I’m aiming for a small bonsai with this one as well.
As you study this material, a couple of things stand out. First of all, there’s taper from the base of the tree to where it’s chopped. There’s also a turn in the trunk near the base, which provides some character and interest. While there’s not necessarily anything wrong with a straight trunk, both the formal upright and formal broom styles are among the most challenging to pull off. So for the sake of ease in styling, I’ll take this nice little tree with the curve in the trunk.
Should it be chopped lower? Certainly that’s an option. I’ll make that decision when it’s time to do the initial styling. That should happen by late June or early July.
And now we come to the “ready-made bonsai” approach to the hobby. I spotted this little water-elm, Planera aquatica, last summer on a collecting trip. The trunk had a nice curve in it and there was a set of branches ready to lend themselves to a broom-form style. So I brought it home and let it grow out this year. Today I cut it back, and we’ll see what it looks like in a few weeks. For a bonsai coming in at under 12″ in height, I think it’s going to look great.
by Zach Smith | May 23, 2016 | Care, Hornbeam, Oaks, Pruning, Watering, Wiring
When we create and maintain our bonsai, we never work on them every day. No matter whether it’s potting, wiring, pruning, or even pinching, bonsai is a “go and stop” endeavor. This excludes watering, of course. I highly recommend you water your trees daily (this is a joke, of course; water your trees daily when it fails to rain, or your bonsai will truly be finished works of art).
And so, the creation process involves many steps and decisions. Beginning with the bare but terrific trunk, which I do most of the time, you have to build the tree structure from nothing. This means trunk buds that become shoots, shoots that get wired to shape in order to make them into branches, branches that thicken and subdivide into sub-branches, leaves that start getting smaller as this process continues; a new leader that is wired and positioned, then extends and thickens, then gets cut back with a new leader that extends and thickens, rinse and repeat as many times as needed, then apical branches developed from buds that become shoots that get wired and positioned. Whew!
As you build your bonsai, you make decisions based on the stage of the tree’s development and your knowledge of the tree’s growth habit. Here’s an example of this concept. I repotted this American hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana, earlier in the season, and also did some carving to enhance the trunk:
Collected in 2010 and having a massive trunk, this hornbeam was destined for a lengthy development period in order to thicken the tree’s branches. There must be a good proportion between trunk thickness and branch thickness, otherwise the eye/brain does not believe the illusion. Trees in the wild grow their branches in correct proportion to the thickness of the trunk, because … well, just because. No bonsai artist is out there interfering, and barring some other human meddling they just grow how they’re supposed to. The lowest branches tend to be anywhere from 1/4 to as much as 1/2 the trunk thickness at the point where they emerge. When making bonsai, this is one of the basic challenges and cannot be ignored.
Here’s the after shot from the repotting. The carving that needed doing got done, and the tree got some fresh soil (American hornbeam roots very vigorously in a bonsai pot). I also re-exposed the surface roots, which are coming along just fabulously.
Here we are, just over six weeks later. The rampant growth is obvious, and it helps to point out the fact that hornbeams are not apically dominant trees. This means you can usually develop side branch thickness as quickly as you can new leaders. Not a bad feature.
So what to do with this tree? I decided it just needed a haircut, nothing more dramatic. This coming winter I’ll cut the tree back harder, so the ramification will improve in 2017.
And after. The tree still looks somewhat disorganized, but that will change once I do the hard pruning and really tighten up the foliage. Hornbeam (and other species) like to push their shoots as far as they can. For apically-dominant species, this is to help the tree grow taller faster. For non apically-dominant trees, it’s to increase spread and the tree’s ability to gather sunlight to manufacture food.
Here’s an updated photo of my awesome willow oak, Quercus phellos. It was time for a trimming, plus I needed to do some work on the lowest two branches. I decided I didn’t like the straight, boring though thick lowest right branch so I cut it off in winter. Unfortunately, it didn’t bud back so I’ll abandon it for two new shoots. You can see I’ve wired them into position.
I also cut back hard on the first left branch, to continue building taper in it.
I probably won’t do any more trimming on this tree in 2016, unless a branch in the crown starts getting too strong. Those are coming along well, I just need to build ramification.
I’d love to hear what you think of either of these trees.
by Zach Smith | Apr 6, 2016 | Care, Hornbeam, Potting, Styling
Now that spring has taken hold, a number of my newly collected specimens are starting to get established and closer to their initial training. One thing I like to do whenever feasible is to directly pot new trees into bonsai containers. I do this in part because it shortens the time from initial collecting to finished bonsai, and who doesn’t want that? Of course, there are some important considerations when undertaking a direct-potting approach. For one, you need to have either a mostly complete trunk or stick with specimens that have enough apical dominance that you can create the appropriate taper through to the apex in two or three seasons. Bald cypress and hawthorn are two species that have sufficient apical dominance to allow you to do this. But with just a few exceptions, you want to stick with trees that are complete trunks only needing a branch structure.
This is an Eastern hophornbeam, Ostrya virginiana. It’s a cousin to American hornbeam – they’re both members of the Birch family, Betulaceae. When I ran across this one during a collecting trip, I saw a complete trunk with nice character (damage, actually) and even some branches to start with. It was a no-brainer to direct-pot it into this beautiful little Chuck Iker round. The trunk base is 1.25″ and it’s 11″ to the tip of the apex. It’s mostly leafed out now and starting to push shoots. I would expect it’ll be ready to sell in another month.
Hophornbeam differs from hornbeam in a few important ways: one, it eventually develops a rough, plated bark which is very attractive; two, the leaves are persistent through winter as they do not produce an abscission layer (like beech), light tan in color and easy to spot; and finally, the leaves are somewhat coarser than hornbeam’s and remain lighter green in color through the growing season. They ramify and reduce leaf-size well as hornbeam does. One other significant difference is that they are surprisingly hard to lift in large sizes with a high success rate.
Oh, and hophornbeam also shares with hornbeam the common name ironwood. If you’ve ever tried to chop one down with an axe, you understand what that means.
I think this is a nice little specimen with a great future as a bonsai.
As with the hophornbeam above, when I spotted this Chinese privet, Ligustrum sinense, I knew it was going straight to a bonsai pot. Except for a couple of stubs, I didn’t have any branches to work with but I knew that wasn’t a problem. The trunk line was pretty much complete and perfectly tapering – I just needed to finish out the apex. You can probably see where I chopped the trunk up near the apex to the thinner (new) trunk line. And now I’ve got plenty of buds to wire into a branch set once they’ve extended enough. That should happen in another three or four weeks.
I think this terrific Byron Myrick oval really suits the tree. The color will complement the color of the bark and provide a nice contrast with the leaves once the tree fills out.
The trunk base on this specimen is 1.5″ above the root crown, and it’s chopped at 13″. Finished height will be about 16″.
Watch for this tree to go up for sale in May as well.
by Zach Smith | Mar 5, 2016 | Care, Hornbeam, Potting, Pruning, Tools
Today it was time to perform a chore I’ve really been anticipating – and not in a good way. My very big American hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana, has been in its training pot now for three years. Hornbeams root vigorously in a bonsai pot, so this chore could not wait another year.
In this first photo, I’ve removed the tree from its pot and placed it on the potting bench. The soil surface is covered with moss, and there are numerous weeds that also have to go.
The first step was removing the moss and plucking weeds. This step is also where you get to figure out how healthy your roots are. There are some very simple, telltale signs that tell you there are problems in the root zone. One is actually smell. If you have root rot, it’s going to stink. The roots will also be black and mushy to the touch, pulling away in nasty clumps. Healthy roots are usually a light, orangish-brown color (as the ones you see here are). If your soil is properly composed, they will appear as a fibrous network. They literally run all over the place! This is both good and bad. If your repotting goal is to straighten out roots, as it should be if you’re developing your nebari, much time will be spent teasing the roots out of the soil mass. If, on the other hand, you’re repotting to refresh your fibrous root system and give it room to renew its growth, your work is simpler.
Another thing you need to do when repotting your trees is to work on any defects of the surface roots. In the case of this tree, I have two that are regrowing from their original chops. This one has smaller sub-roots growing from either side of the chopped root. I made a cut into the end of this root years ago with my knob cutter, in order to begin the process of subdividing the root to make it look more natural. Today I need to continue this work.
This one, on the other side of the tree, needs more attention. Time to pull out the dremel and carving tools.
In a few minutes, I’ve carved a narrowing groove up the root. This helps to visually correct the abrupt appearance of the root chop. Over time, this wound I’ve made will start healing over. As it does, I’ll come back and carve down into the center more deeply. Eventually, this single root will appear to be a branching root with good taper.
Back on the other side, I’ve continued the process I just mentioned by carving higher up on the root and carving down through the center of the root near the end where it was originally chopped. The two sub-roots will continue to thicken, in time making a smooth appearance.
Time to reduce the root mass. Here’s the fast, easy way to begin this process. I highly recommend it for large trees.
Less than a minute later.
The bottom gets it, too. I need to cut half of the depth off the root mass.
Now we’re just about ready for our new pot. The permanent home for this tree, a nice Byron Myrick rectangle, is a bit smaller than the training pot. So it took some additional trimming to provide room for the necessary fresh soil all around the tree.
The end-result. An impressive, beautiful tree in a fine bonsai container. Notice the position of the tree, slightly to the right of center so that the movement takes the apex over the opposite side of the pot. It’s a little hard to see in the photo, but the tree is potted slightly to the rear of the pot. The depth of the pot matches the trunk thickness, 6″. And finally, the length of the pot is about two-thirds the eventual finished height of the tree. Proportion is essential to proper bonsai design.
One final note: in order to further improve the appearance of the surface root on the right side of the tree, I carved it down a bit to create just a little taper in the main part of the root. It’s a subtle change, but I think it does help.
What do you think of this tree? Leave me a comment below.
by Zach Smith | Mar 1, 2016 | Care, Hornbeam, Styling, Tools
Here’s my big American hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana. Six years on, it’s developing into a unique and impressive bonsai. The trunk base is 6″ and it stands about 28″ tall (the apex needs to finish out).
You can probably see the two big problems with this tree: one, there’s a sizable hunk of wood where I originally took off a big side branch/secondary trunk; and two, the point where I chopped the trunk has an abrupt-looking transition into the apex. The solution? Carving time!
Here’s a closeup of the area where the big side branch had been removed. I’ve started to bite off chunks of wood with my trunk splitter and knob cutter. The idea, ultimately, is to make this area smaller and to look as if it was part of the natural development/life of the tree. Not, in other words, like a bonsai artist did something to it. The art of bonsai is largely illusion, as I’ve mentioned before. Our job is to make something look like something else – and something natural at that.
I’m getting closer to bringing the knob flush with the trunk. Now, it’s worth noting here that when I originally removed the big side branch that emerged from this point, I intentionally left the branch collar. The roots on this side of the tree were undoubtedly being fed by this branch, so to take it off flush at that time would have almost certainly resulted in the death of those roots. By leaving the collar, I left a route around the removed branch for sap to pass. I hoped for a bud under the removed branch, which I got, and I planned to wait for years to take off the excess wood. Often we get in a hurry to get to a certain result we can visualize. But as I tell my granddaughters, “Patience, grasshopper.”
The biting and fine carving are now done. Once the wood weathers, it’ll blend in better with the trunk color. I’ll also get some callus rolling over, though I doubt it will ever completely close. But I don’t think that will mar the appearance of the tree.
Now on to the second problem with the tree, namely the “shoulder” left over from where I first made the trunk chop. You can see the callus has rolled over nicely; however, I do need to do some carving to improve the appearance of this uro. But first thing’s first.
After a few minutes of judicious biting and carving with a knife, I’ve improved the taper of the tree. Should I have cut it more acutely? Perhaps, but I want to be careful not to make too dramatic a tapering in this area. I want to get more thickening at the base of the new apex, and I’ll see if the tree won’t give me a sacrifice shoot for that purpose this year. If I can add another 50% to the basal thickness of my new apex, the whole thing should blend together well. I’ll know in a couple of years. If it doesn’t work out, I can do some additional carving in the shoulder area.
As a final step, I put some cut seal on the living carved edges. This should protect them until they can heal.
This tree is ready for both a root-pruning and to be placed in its final bonsai pot. With a little luck, that should happen this coming weekend.
