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?
by Zach Smith | Jun 29, 2019 | Bald Cypress, Care, Elms, Potting, Pruning, Styling, Sweetgum
You’ve been following along as I’ve developed this Cedar elm, starting in 2017 when it was first collected. The tree is filling out well, and the ramification is getting tighter with each pruning/pinching. All in all, time and technique are working their magic. But … I have come to the conclusion that this pot is not quite right for the tree. I love the color and the shape, but it’s a little too small. So time for a change.
This Lary Howard oval is just the right length, and the color is tough to beat. I think this improves the tree a great deal. (It’s available at our Cedar Elm Bonsai page.)
Here’s another Cedar elm I’ve featured a time or two. This photo was taken just over a year ago.
It’s been a great year for this tree. As with the first, it’s filled in beautifully and is ramifying with each pruning. The growth is strong, as you can see.
And here we are after the haircut. When you’re developing trees at this stage, it’s best to just take your shears and cut to shape (Walter Pall calls it hedge pruning – I’ve been doing it for many years, but now it’s getting popularized, which is good.)
Here’s a nice twin-trunk Sweetgum I collected in 2018. I left the tree alone to grow and get a strong root system, so that this year I could make something out of it. And I did. It was potted a few weeks ago.
Here we are, recovered from the potting stress. The tree is putting on nice healthy foliage, so I’ll focus on pinching to manage the shape of the tree. By next year, I expect to have a real winner with this one.
And finally, a real crowd favorite is this Bald cypress forest. It’s been through some tough times, but I think I’ve got it on a good path to what will ultimately be a fine forest bonsai. Here it is last weekend (getting a bit shaggy, as BC do).
It’s BC defoliation season, and here’s what happened today. The only tree I left alone is the smallest of the replacement whips, which is lagging a little behind the others in strength. I should have a nice fresh set of foliage on this forest in about three weeks.
by Zach Smith | Jun 9, 2019 | Bald Cypress, Care, Collecting, Elms, Potting, Sweetgum, Water Elm
Here’s a nice, slender Bald cypress from this year’s crop. I had planned from the start to hold the tree and make it into a flat-top style. It’s grown out enough now that I can do the initial styling on it.
About 20 minutes later, this is what I ended up with. It’s a good start. I’m going to get a lot of vigor in those two leaders, so I can’t afford to ignore it for long. When you’re making a flat-top, the thickening leader(s) can get away from you very quickly.
The flat-top style for BC is the fastest to make. The reason for this is, you’re playing to the tree’s natural habit of extremely vigorous apical growth. So you basically cut away just about everything but one or two leaders. The tree wants to get very tall very fast, so it pumps everything it has into those leaders. Which is another way of saying, in about three weeks I’ll be unwiring and rewiring the leaders, and wiring the secondary branches that will have grown.
We’re still in Sweetgum collecting season. Yesterday I lifted this nice specimen. It’s got a lot of character considering it’s not all that old, maybe 10 years. The trunk base is 2.5″, and it’s been chopped a few times along the way by the unwitting road crew.
This Bonsai South Collection Water-elm got its first bonsai pot yesterday, a very fine Lary Howard piece. The tree grew naturally this way, all I had to do was cut away everthing that didn’t look like a bonsai. It should continue to develop quickly this year.
And finally, another Bonsai South Collection Water-elm.
You come across trees in the course of your bonsai avocation that just have that special something. For me, this is one of those. Just a great natural specimen. The branching is of course under construction, but should develop rapidly.
What really made this bonsai for me was when this exquisite Lary Howard pot came available. Every great bonsai needs a great pot. It would be hard to beat this composition.
Let me know what you think of all these trees.
by Zach Smith | Jun 1, 2019 | Care, Potting, Styling, Vines, Wiring
You may remember this Muscadine grape, Vitis rotundifolia, from last summer. It came out of the ground with two trunks, so I planned to make a twin-trunk bonsai out of it.
Something of a start. There’s a lot of character in the trunk. Major development work needed in the structure of the bonsai (it was pretty ho-hum at this point).
Last fall the smaller trunk died. I have no idea why. But that completely changed my plan for this bonsai.
Here’s the tree with this year’s spring flush of growth on it. Obviously strong, so I’ve got something to work with.
I’m not seeing how I can make a viable upright bonsai from this specimen, given how it’s grown out. So I either have to chop it back and see what happens, or change the design. I’m thinking a semi-cascade may work. Let’s find out. First order of business, change the position of the trunk.
Next, make the leader “semi-cascady.”
Trim back, clear out the overgrowth, find the lines, put on some wire.
Let’s get some movement into the branching.
And finally, repot, reduce the weight of the apex and do a final trim.
I think this bonsai in the making is much better than my original vision. Which just goes to show, when your tree throws you a curve ball just relax and redesign.
Let me know what you think.
by Zach Smith | May 25, 2019 | Care, Elms, Potting, Pruning, Styling, Water Elm, Wiring
When we found this Water-elm last August (2018), I knew it was going in my collection. I had lost a similar specimen back in 2014. There’s something about those two trunks!
Today (5/25/19) it was time to style and pot this tree. Most of the bonsai is there; I just had to “find” it.
That nice branch on the right-hand trunk came with the tree. I want to keep it, but it has to be brought down some and then chased back to get the foliage closer to the trunk.
Here I’ve trimmed the foliage back a good bit. The branch is still over long, but I’m hoping to get back-budding on it so I can cut it back even further. I’ll know in a couple of weeks.
Moving over to the left-hand trunk, I wired a low branch and positioned it. Then I removed some small branches on the inside of both trunks. In a twin-trunk bonsai, branches should not be left growing on the inside of the trunks. This is not horticulturally sound, and usually doesn’t make the tree look any better either.
More clearing out of unusable branches on the insides of the trunks.
While I have a complete crown on the right-hand trunk, I don’t on the left-hand trunk. So I’ll have to make one. I have two nice leaders at the top of the trunk, so here they’ve been wired and positioned.
The right-hand crown was way too bushy, so I removed a lot of the foliage and did some strategic pruning to open up the structure.
The final step was potting the tree. I think this gorgeous Lary Howard oval really goes well with it.
The tree is a little right-hand heavy in the apex, but allowing the left-hand crown to fill out is going to shift this to a more balanced condition. It will also help to chase back that low right-hand branch some more.
I’m very excited about this Water-elm. By next year, it should be just about show-ready.
Let me know what you think.
by Zach Smith | May 13, 2019 | Care, Potting, Styling, Vines, Wiring
I lifted this Trumpet vine, Campsis radicans, in June of 2017. Why not go straight to a bonsai pot with it? While this is not a good idea most of the time, vines are hard to kill and are reliable at producing roots.
Here’s the tree a year later. The growth has been good, and it’s shaping up into a nice upright tree form.
So I decided the pot was not quite right for this specimen for a couple of reasons: one, it’s a personal piece in my collection, the tree not necessarily; and two, I felt it was a bit “heavy” for the composition. So I picked out another pot and lifted the tree to transplant it. What did I find coiled up in the pot? Well, it’s not a snake though it sure could pass for one. This is about two years of Trumpet vine root growth. It all had to go.
Here’s the tree in its new home, a fine Lary Howard oval. This pot is a lot “lighter” than the previous one, which I think complements the graceful trunk line much better.
Now we wait and see if the root surgery was a success.
I spotted this specimen recently, growing in a tangle of weeds, Monkey grass and oak saplings. What could you make out of this?
Ah, there’s the future bonsai!
A few weeks later, the vine is re-establishing itself. I trimmed off the stubs that weren’t needed, giving me a perfect trunk line.
Now it’s easy to see where this one is going. It has nice trunk taper and movement, and I already have a start on the leader and branches. I think I’ll end up keeping this one for myself.
