Defoliating, Potting And Styling A Large Bald Cypress

by | Jul 3, 2020 | Bald Cypress, Care, Most Recent, Potting, Pruning, Styling, Wiring

defoliating, potting and styling a large bald cypress

the bonsai files

Sneak Peek

It’s July 4th weekend, so the traditional cookouts, fireworks and defoliating Bald cypresses are in order. That’s right, defoliating Bald cypresses is a tradition for BC lovers. Today’s victim is also getting his first bonsai pot.

Defoliating, Potting and Styling a Large Bald Cypress

I wasn’t kidding when I said most BC’s get pretty shaggy as summer marches on. This one, which I’ve been working on for three years now, is a perfect example. The tree has shown good strength this year, allowing me to take the next step in building the apex and tapering transitionl that means it’s time for defoliating, potting and styling the tree.

 

I thought you’d like to see a closeup of the apex I’m building. You can see where I chopped the leader early this season. It dutifully pushed a bud in the right spot, and that bud took off and thickened up in just a couple of months.

Here’s the tree, almost completely nekkid. They look like weird brooms that you couldn’t use to sweep up anything, don’t they? But that’s all part of how we make a well-developed Bald cypress bonsai.

I’m sure you’re wondering why I left the foliage at the very top of the tree. I want the energy focused in the apex of the tree, in order to finish thickening that transition point. By letting the leader run, I’ll get what I need. So while the rest of the tree is rebudding, the apex will be drawing energy and extending.

Here we are after a trim and a trunk-brushing. When you defoliate your cypresses, it’s a good time to do some cleanup since you can really see all of the trunk.

Out of the nursery pot. The root system is healthy; the tree was not as root-bound as I would have expected, but that’s okay.

Here’s a shot from the backside. Good surface roots all around. I always bury collected trees sufficiently to protect the surface roots that come with them. This is an example of sacrificing current pleasure for future pleasure. When you lift a tree that has great rootage, it’s only natural to want to be able to see it. Unfortunately, if you succumb to that desire there’s a good possibility that one or more of those roots will dry out and die. So bury ’em deep!

I got this custom pot from Lary Howard just recently, and I think it goes beautifully with this specimen. The only thing left to do now is to make something out of that wild set of branches.

The styling part is always the most fun. This is another very good reason to defoliate your Bald cypresses about this time of year. You can very easily see the trunk and branch structure, and this certainly helps you correct any issues or just refresh and update the style you had in mind to begin with.

This is an exciting Bald cypress bonsai in the making. It only lacks two things: one, a fully developed apex including a smooth tapering transition; and two, maturity in the branches. But we’re well on our way.

The stats: trunk base is 5″ across 5″ above the soil surface; root spread 10″; finished height will be 34-36″.

Let me know what you think of this one.

Bonsai Odds & Ends – Bald Cypress Defoliation + Styling, Pocomoke Crape Styling

by | Jun 28, 2020 | Bald Cypress, Care, Crape myrtle, Flowering, Most Recent, Styling, Wiring

bonsai odds & ends – bc defoliation + styling, pocomoke crape styling

the bonsai files

Sneak Peek

We’re on the cusp of Bald cypress defoliation season. I did one today. I also did the next round of styling on a Pocomoke Crape myrtle.

Bald Cypress Defoliation + Styling, Pocomoke Crape Myrtle Styling

It’s Bald cypress defoliation time, that time of year when we get to remove all of the foliage from our BC’s and get a fresh new round of growth before the end of summer and fall show time. This is important because most of the time, most BC’s will get “shaggy” foliage by about August. If left alone, it really doesn’t get better and you won’t want to show your tree if you belong to a local club and they put on a fall show.

The problem of shaggy foliage is easily rectified by taking all of it off. For us down South, it’s often a July 4th event as that makes for good timing as the new growth takes a few weeks to really kick in. As long as your tree is strong, you can do this every year.

This specimen is going on to a new home in a few weeks. Not only is this the perfect time to take all the foliage off, it also allows for some styling work as the tree’s structure will be easy to see.

While you do have to exercise some caution when pulling off the foliage (always away from the base of the branch, and you need to hold the base of new shoots or you’ll pull them right off), this work goes quickly. Here you can see that I’ve allowed the “vestigial” branches to throw some up-pointing shoots. Why? Because this BC, just like every last one of them, is powerfully apically dominant. Lower branches get less energy as a result, so one way to remedy the situation is to encourage and allow upward-pointing sub-branches. This helps thicken up those vestigials quickly. But … time to take them off (for this round).

Here’s where I ended up after a final trim and some wiring. This bonsai has come a long way in a short time, and is pretty much at the pinching and light pruning stage. The trunk chop will be completely healed over in another year or so, and at that point the tree will be in its maturing phase as a bonsai.

While we’re on the subject of Bald cypress, here’s my big forest experiment I wrote about not too long ago. I’ve been waiting patiently for the new main tree to resume growth, and especially to push some strong buds/shoots near the trunk chop point. My patience has now paid off.

And a closeup of the main tree. I have four shoots to choose from, and I’ll be making my selection very soon. That shoot will be allowed to run for the rest of the growing season, probably with a bit of wire to guide it as needed.

You probably remember this Pocomoke Crape myrtle from earlier in the season. I did the initial styling and potting back in March, and I’ve been letting the tree grow out since then.

That low left branch was a big question mark. I even had a comment from a reader to the effect that it needed to go. I like having options, especially when I’m unsure of a design move, so I left it alone at the time.

Fast-forward a few months, and the tree has definitely settled happily into its new home. I recently did a little selective pruning, but today it’s time for some additional work.

So what about that low left branch? I was just about to remove it, and then I studied the tree some more and noticed something about the branch above it that I had initially wired and positioned downward. What if that branch went away? In this photo I’ve moved it up out of the way, and did some styling work on that low left branch. Hmm. Now I think I see why I left the branch there. The branch higher up has the challenge of emerging from what is the bottom of the trunk. While I’m sure this could work all right, it remains an awkward and not necessarily aesthetically sound location for a branch. I think it has to go.

Now that branch is gone, the one above it makes more sense design-wise, and that low left branch is exactly in the right spot with a good shape to it. I’m sure this is what I saw in the recesses of my mind when I first started out on this tree. So I’m glad I didn’t cut too quickly.

This tree is a good, strong, beautiful Crape myrtle specimen and is now posted for sale in our Shop. It’s going to make a great addition to someone’s collection.

Elm Wednesday

by | Jun 24, 2020 | American Elm, Care, Elms, Most Recent, Pruning, Styling, Wiring

elm wednesday

the bonsai files

Sneak Peek

As summer kicks into gear, it’s time to prune and wire/re-wire your elms. Here are some trees that I’m working on.

Elm Wednesday

Back in April I hard-chopped this Water-elm to eliminate a straight section of trunk. The goal was to make a better specimen out of this tree. You’ll end up doing this any number of times in your bonsai journey, and it’s never easy. But once you reconcile that nagging sense that your tree can be a lot better with the immediate loss of a lot of work, you’ll end up with much better trees.

This one is moving forward now, just a couple of months later. Sure, there’s a long way to go to rebuild the apex of this bonsai, but the work will go much faster than you might expect and the result will be well worth it.

Notice that I also hard-pruned the rest of the tree. Again, this is how your building process should go. Trees can get quickly overgrown, and hard-pruning is one of the most difficult things to make yourself do. I can honestly say I’ve never regretted cutting off more when pruning a tree; but cutting off less, that has been a problem on many occasions.

This Water-elm is currently in the Bonsai South collection, though I suspect it’ll go on the block before too much longer. This shot is from just over a year ago. It’s been through a few rounds of “grow and clip” since then.

Notice how I’ve used the same technique in hard-pruning this tree. Each round of growth has thickened the branches and increased the ramification. I’ve almost got the branches to the desired thickness. By the end of this growing season, I should be almost done with the design. At that point, pinching and maintenance pruning will be the main techniques used to keep this bonsai in top shape.

This tree just got potted about a year ago. I knew when I first collected it that I had a very special bonsai to be, and I was really eager to work on it. The initial design was easy, and this will most likely be your experience with most of your trees. The next steps often get a lot harder.

A lot has happened since the photo above was taken. With a year of growth accomplished, the ultimate form of this tree is coming into focus. Branches have been grown out and cut back hard. Some that need more thickening have been wired and pointed upward to encourage them to run. By this time next year, I should be entering the more detailed phase of tree-building. As always, though, you can’t take shortcuts and end up with a good result.

Last Water-elm for today, a really terrific raft I’ve been working on since last year. It’s been through a round or two of shearing. Each time it gets closer to the design goal.

Everything is filling out with each new round of growth. As I’ve mentioned before, shearing (or “hedging”) is one of the best techniques for developing deciduous bonsai that have their basic design in place. Shearing increases ramification and reduces leaf size. This is absolutely vital to the end-goal of making your bonsai believable. In the case of this specimen, it’s really starting to look like a natural forest.

This one is on sale at our Shop page for a few more days. If you’re into raft-style trees, this is about as good as they get.

Let’s shift gears back to this American elm I styled and potted a couple of weeks ago. I’m a big fan of American elm, and highly recommend them for bonsai. They are tough customers, and are not susceptible to Dutch elm disease even if you’re in a part of the country where the disease has decimated the species (bonsai do not get tall enough to allow the disease to complete its life cycle).

Here’s where this little bonsai to be was after I got through whacking it down to size.

And here come the buds! This is two weeks after the initial potting, and in another two weeks I’ll have shoots that are several inches long. All I’ll need to do is pinch and prune, and remove the wire when it starts to bite. By keeping the form of this tree in check, I’ll have nice small leaves to finish out the season. With a little luck, I’ll get some nice yellow fall foliage when the time comes.

Watch for this tree to hit our Shop page sometime in the next month.

Last but not least, here’s a Zelkova I’ve had in the field for about four years now. It’s been chopped and regrown, and now has a workable trunk that’s just under 2″ in diameter. Today I lifted and potted it, and I expect it’ll come back out in a couple of weeks. I should have a basic design built by the time fall gets here.

Let me know what you think of these specimens.

Pasture Privet Parade

by | Jun 21, 2020 | Care, Collecting, Flowering, Most Recent, Privet

pasture privet parade

the bonsai files

Sneak Peek

Cow pastures are the best place to collect Chinese privet. Cattle browse the soft foliage, and in time this produces specimens with great character ….

Pasture Privet Parade

 

Did you know that cow pastures are the best place to collect Chinese privet? Of course you did, I just said that in the Sneak Peek above. Here’s the thing. Privet is a fast growing broadleaf evergreen or, as some would prefer to say, a fast-growing noxious weed. They grow fast and straight with an untapering trunk or (quite) often many untapering trunks. If you were growing one in the ground, ideally you’d go out every day or three with your hedge trimmers and give it a whack. That’s a lot of work, and you’d have to do it for at least 10 years to get a good result. Unlikely to happen, right?

If you live in a part of the country that’s been invaded by privet, and you have access to cow pastures where they tend to grow near the fencelines, it’s a likely place to find nice specimens. The cows browse. The privets keep on coming back. The process continues. Over time, you end up with privet specimens that have good to great trunk taper and really nice character.

A week ago I harvested about a dozen pasture privets. Here are a handful that are already back-budding. This first one is a good example of a tapering specimen with terrific character that will make a fine small bonsai in short order.

A “Siamese twin trunk” specimen. The two trunks are fused and twisting, and will make an unusual but striking bonsai once developed.

This is one of the larger specimens I brought home. Trunk movement doesn’t happen by itself with privet, so it’s clear to me that this one has been worked on by cattle for the better part of 20 years.

We always want our trees to look older than they really are. This one is old to begin with, but even if it wasn’t the mottled coloring of the trunk would make it look old.

How about this twin-trunk? With a base 2″ across but only standing about 6″ to the higher chop, we’re looking at a very fine shohin bonsai to be.

How about this one? You can almost feel the tough times this privet has been through. It’s another shohin specimen, but will pack a lot of character in a small space once it’s developed.

And the last one for today. You can’t beat the trunk movement and taper, and there’s natural shari on the side and in back. I’m really looking forward to styling this one.

So let me know what you think of my pasture privet parade. If you haven’t grown Chinese privet as bonsai, you should give one a try.

Styling A Big Bald Cypress

by | Jun 19, 2020 | Bald Cypress, Care, Instruction, Most Recent, Pruning, Styling, Wiring

styling a big bald cypress

the bonsai files

Sneak Peak

The big collected Bald cypresses start out pretty much the same way. They recover pretty much the same way. Then comes that day when you dive in ….

Styling A Big Bald Cypress

I acquired this big Bald cypress last month from another collector. It’s got a super nebari, plenty of radial roots with a good flare down into the soil. Plus there’s trunk movement and taper. The thing to do now that it’s pushing roots out of the pot’s drain holes is to build an initial design.

This process, incidentally, is one you’ll do over and over again. Deciduous trees are mostly collected the same way, and start out as bare trunks. This works exceptionally well with Bald cypress since it buds so freely on old wood.

Now, looking at this specimen you might be wondering how it’s going to look like anything. To be sure, there’s a paucity of branches. But that’s only the second worst blank canvas to start with when designing a bonsai. It’s far worse when you have too many branches. So this is a good one to work with, since I only have limited design choices (not to worry, it’s plenty).

 

So a little editing and I start at the bottom, two branches at a time. When you’re working young BC branches, try to crack them gently as you position them after wiring. Breaking the longitudinal fibers helps the branch set its position more quickly and easily. I know some artists who say you can do this completely without wire. While this is true, there’s also a risk and that’s when a bird or falling branch lands on your well-placed branch. The wire helps keep it where you put it, so I always recommend wiring.

Here we go up the tree. Couple more branches get their turn. Notice that things are starting to look up, because I’m putting (present and future) foliage masses in their necessary spots.

Were you wondering about that empty space on the left side of the trunk just below the chop area? I had a branch in back of the tree that allowed me to fill that gap. The design is unfolding very nicely.

You probably noticed that pretty thick branch under the leader. I could have wired and man-handled it downward, but the fact is most of the energy of this tree is near the top so by simply cutting off the branch I’m sure to get a couple of buds in that same spot. I’ll simply choose one when it reaches a nice shoot stage and wire it. It’s nice to have a forward facing branch once you get in the upper third of the tree (you have to be careful with these, don’t overdo them and don’t place them too low).

Finally the coup de grace. This tree is strong enough to get its angle chop this year rather than next. That will give me a head start on the tapering transition. The leader needs to continue growing, and I’ll let it do just that, but I can also start getting callusing of the angle chop this year.

So this tree is on its way. If you’d like to take over the development, it’s available in our Shop. I’d estimate you could realistically go to a bonsai pot with it in just a couple of years.

Big Cedar Elm Update

by | Jun 14, 2020 | Care, Cedar Elm, Elms, Most Recent, Pruning, Styling

big cedar elm update

the bonsai files

Sneak Peak

It’s time to check in again on my big Cedar elm. I write often about the stick/stump to bonsai path. This is one of the best examples I have on my bench.

Big Cedar Elm Update

Above is a shot of this tree as a stump, then this photo of the initial wiring back in 2017. That was just a few months after it was collected. I normally like more trunk in my collected trees, but this one came only with great radial roots and lower trunk movement and taper. You work with what you get.

 

I’ve blogged before as this tree has been built from the ground up. The obvious biggest challenge in this tree is to create roughly the top half of the tree. This procedure is a multi-step, multi-year process and there’s no short-cutting it if you mean to get it right.

I let the latest leader grow all last year, and it’s now about six feet in length. So … time for another chop. Where to chop is the question, of course.

How about this possibility?

No, of course not. There’s almost nothing going for chopping the trunk in this spot. There’s no taper and you can’t see any movement from this angle.

This spot is much better. It complies with my rule of thumb that calls for chopping a branch or leader two or three basal diameters from the point where it emerges from the trunk or trunk chop.

Here’s a closeup of my new chop. I’ll get a new leader here, most likely from a bud that forms near one of the lateral branches you can see.

 

And finally, a trimming of the branches to finish off today’s work. This tree continues to develop per my plan. Just another few years and this will make quite a Cedar elm bonsai.

That lowest branch has been bothering me for a while. I think the tree looks better without it. What do you think?