by Zach Smith | Feb 9, 2019 | Bald Cypress, Care, Collecting, Potting
Today was our third BC collecting trip of the season. It could well be the last – many BC are budding out now, including some we collected in early January. I have successfully collected Cypress after budding, but the longer you wait the riskier it gets. So we’ll see.
Here’s one of the more interesting specimens from today’s group. Not only does it have killer surface rootage, great taper and movement, it also has some nice natural branching I may be able to work with. It’s not well organized at present, but a little wire should fix that.
Here’s a good illustration of one of my guiding principles when collecting trees. Notice how much of that rootage is buried now! It’s vital that the chopped large roots of your collected trees be kept moist. As you know, the soil in our containers dries from the top down. Just an inch or so beneath the surface, the soil can be moist while the surface soil is dry. That’s all it takes to protect your tree. So be sure to bury them deep enough to keep those roots moist. I know it’s hard to hide beautiful surface roots, but they’ll emerge in a year or two when you pot up the tree. Patience!
This Cypress has a 3″ trunk base 3″ above the soil surface, and it’s chopped at 28″. I envision a 36″ bonsai when all is said and done.
This is the best specimen we brought home today. The trunk base is 4″ across 4″ above the soil, and the fluting is just terrific. Notice how it has a gentle twist as it rises up the trunk.
Once again, bury those roots!
This tree is chopped at 30″. I plan to train it in the flat-top style. The slender, graceful trunk lends itself perfectly to the style.
Let me know what you think of today’s catch.
by Zach Smith | Jan 21, 2019 | Care, Collecting, Hornbeam, Potting, Yaupon
Today we hunted hornbeam. The native species is American hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana. It ranges from Canada all the way to the Deep South, and west a little past the Mississippi River. I rate it as one of the best bonsai trees for beginners, because it takes readily to pot culture, it grows all season long, and ramifies easily with good leaf reduction. If you don’t have one and you love deciduous trees, you need one.
This specimen has nice trunk movement and taper. There’s also trunk “muscling,” that’s not readily apparent in this photo. The root base is very nice, but it’s buried to protect it. Assuming it survives collecting, I expect to have a good start on a bonsai by summer.
The trunk base on this specimen is 2.5″ across, and it’s chopped at 13″.
Here’s another nice one I brought home today. When you’re collecting hornbeam, look for specimens with low forking of the trunk. This will often allow you to chop to a tapering trunkline with good movement, as is the case here. I’ll be able to go a long way toward completing a branch structure, including the crown, by the end of the growing season. Nothing like shortening the timeframe.
The trunk base on this one is 2″, and it’s 11″ to the chop. Very very nice.
Native Yaupon, Ilex vomitoria, is tough to find with decent taper and trunk movement. This twin-trunk specimen was a treat to run across – not to mention the fact that it’s a female. So I had to bring it home. Yaupon is easy to collect successfully – just hard to find.
The trunk base of the larger trunk is 1.5″ across, and it’s 17.5″ to the chop.
This isn’t something you’ll often see at Bonsai South. It’s an American beech, Fagus grandifolia. American beech is a very challenging bonsai subject. Why? Because it only wants to grow in one flush, which happens in spring. Any pinching of foliage you plan to do, you do it when the shoots extend. But don’t expect anything else to happen. Occasionally I’ve seen some additional growth in late spring, but it’s just not enough to move your design along. So everything you plan for an American beech must be done before budburst, with a little pinching after. Slooooooow to make into a nice bonsai.
With that said, don’t you just love the light gray bark and persistent golden leaves? These features do make you want to try your hand at them, even if you’ve been frustrated a bunch of times. So here I go.
The base of this one is 2″, and it’s chopped at 18″. I was encouraged by the nice branches already in place (another reason I went for it).
That’s a good overview of today’s work. Let me know what you think.
by Zach Smith | Jan 19, 2019 | Care, Collecting, Hornbeam, Oaks, Potting
I acquired this American hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana, from another collector last summer. It had been wired, a new leader grown out, then allowed to grow to get strong. Today it was time to make the next move with it.
I took the leader way back. It needs to thicken more at the base, but I want to be careful to create taper in it as it develops.
I also removed the strong upright shoot on the first right-hand branch, to make it less heavy. This branch will need to be kept “cool” this growing season. It’s not out of scale, but it has outpaced its brothers.
The last thing for today, carving down the chop area. I’ll be doing additional carving later on, but I needed to cut away some dead wood to get down to live tissue, to encourage callus formation.
I sealed this area, along with the cut point on the leader. Now I wait till spring.
I’ve had my eye on this Water oak, Quercus nigra, for a few years now. It’s suffered some mistreatment, hence the long shari in the upper part of the tree. I’m fine with that, it gives the tree extra character.
The trunk base of this specimen is 1.5″ at the soil, which is adequate to make a nice smaller specimen. I figured on going directly to a bonsai pot with it. There’s a risk doing this, of course, but I don’t mind taking some risks here and there.
There’s not much left, is there! But bonsai is all about finding the essence of your tree. You have to be brutal enough to take off everything that doesn’t add to the “tree-ness” of your bonsai. It’s often tough to make yourself do it, but with enough practice you’ll get right to the hard pruning. Your trees will be better for it.
I think the Byron Myrick rectangle really goes well with this oak.
If this one makes it, I should have plenty of new shoots to work with come spring, and by fall I expect this specimen should be filled out nicely. Water oak grows very quickly, and that makes it very good for bonsai – in fact, right up near the top of the oak list.
Let me know what you think. Leave a comment below.
by Zach Smith | Jan 12, 2019 | Bald Cypress, Care, Collecting, Potting
We had another good Bald cypress collecting trip today. Here’s the take, waiting for cleanup.
Here’s a nice buttressed specimen that’s not too big. I specifically searched today for nice material in the mid-size range. The trunk on this one is 4″ across about 4″ from the soil, and it’s chopped at 25″. If you’re looking for a formal upright Cypress, this is going to fill the bill.
One of the more unusual specimens I found today. This tree has a 3.5″ trunk about 4″ above the soil. It’s chopped at 24″. But what’s out of the ordinary about it is that it’s got trunk fluting all the way around and most of the way up. Rarely do I find a specimen with this size trunk that’s fluted this way. Should I call it “Mr. Flutey”? Oh, nice roots too!
Now this was a real surprise. Someone chopped this tree about three years ago (it wasn’t me, as far as I know), and for some reason left it where it was. I suspect another enthusiast was on the hunt, chopped the tree, and then for some reason wasn’t able to complete the job. Luckily, the tree had a new leader that was just about perfect. There was plenty of other growth near the chop, which I removed when I cleaned it up. And so, with the exception of some carving I’ll need to do to overcome the strong callus rolling, I have an almost perfect trunk line for development. This means I can get this tree designed in pretty short order.
Which is the better front? I guess I’ll figure that out as I work on the tree.
The trunk on this specimen is 4″ about 4″ from the soil, and it’s chopped at 24″. Lovely buttressing, great roots.
I also put some effort into finding specimens I can train in the flat-top style. I love the slender trunk and gradual taper on this tree. Very graceful. The trunk is 2.5″ and it’s chopped at 24″. Flat-tops can be trained faster than formal and informal uprights, since most of the growth is in the apex of the tree and that’s also where most of the strength is. So you can get to a mature-looking specimen a lot faster.
Here’s the star of the show for today. This is a big guy. The trunk is 5.5″ about 6″ above the soil, and it’s chopped at 26″. What’s really impressive about it, beside the fine buttressing and subtle trunk movement, is the taper. The trunk is only 2.5″ in diameter at the chop. This makes developing the crown of the tree much easier. All too often you’ll see collected or ground/container grown BC that just don’t have much taper. This presents a real challenge when you try to make believable bonsai from them. It can be done, but if done right it takes a very long time and some real carving skill. For my money, I’d rather just start with material like this.
Let me know what you think of today’s haul. Leave a comment below.
by Zach Smith | Jan 6, 2019 | Care, Collecting, Elms, Maples, Potting, Privet, Styling, Water Elm, Wiring
While we were out collecting Bald cypress yesterday, I happened across this Swamp maple, Acer rubrum ‘Drummondii.’ I don’t often collected Swamp maples, because they don’t seem to last in good health longer than a couple of years, but when I saw the fluting of this trunk I figured it was worth the risk. Swamp maples generally don’t have tap roots in the wild, so they’re super easy to lift. I just sawed around the tree 6-8″ from the trunk and pulled.
As I did with the last one of these I collected, I did not remove the native soil from the root zone. All I did was put it into a nursery container and surround it with coarse mix. I sealed the trunk chop, of course. And now I wait.
Last week I had a reader express an interest in Chinese privet, Ligustrum sinense. I had a specimen I’d lifted a few years ago but had been relegated to a lonely corner. As I studied it, I decided there was a really nice trunk line I could cut to. So here it is, chopped and ready for a pot. Notice the fibrous roots! This is the way privet always grows. They are super rooters.
There’s never any issue with going straight to a bonsai pot with a privet. I had this lovely Chuck Iker piece all empty and waiting, so in the tree went. I sealed the chops, of course.
I’ll be able to grow the entire structure of this bonsai to be in 2019. Stay tuned for updates when I get some shoots.
FYI, the trunk base on this specimen is 1.5″, and it’s 8″ to the top. It won’t be a Bonsai South Collection tree, but I’m confident it’ll find a good home sooner rather than later.
I collected this Water-elm, Planera aquatica, back in July. Also not destined for the collection, it’s nonetheless a very nice specimen with great trunk character. I love the interplay between the trunks. Come spring, I’ll slip-pot it into a nice bonsai container and post it for sale.
The base is 4″ across, with each trunk 1.5″ at the base. Height is 16″.
by Zach Smith | Jan 5, 2019 | Bald Cypress, Care, Collecting, Potting
Bald cypress should be in every bonsai enthusiast’s collection. But even more, a collected Bald cypress bonsai should be in everyone’s collection. BC is one of our specialties at Bonsai South. Each year we do our best to find and lift really high quality raw material. Today Cathy and I made our first trip of the collecting season. Here are a few specimens we brought home.
I often like to show these trees after they’ve been cleaned up and made ready for pot or tub. Why? Because it helps to dispel one of the great myths about collecting deciduous trees, namely, that you have to get lots of roots and leave those radial roots really long in order for the tree to survive collecting. This is absolutely incorrect. I’ve been collecting trees for over 30 years now, and when I started out I went with the conventional wisdom and left lots of root. One big problem with this is, when it comes time for your tree to go into a bonsai container, you have to chop the roots again! Believe me, this is not something you want to do. So over time, I experimented with chopping roots to fit the eventual bonsai container, and guess what? They lived!
This specimen is a perfect example of how far to reduce that root zone when collecting. As I tell those who like to collect their own, don’t be afraid to chop!
It does take some time to remove the tangled grass roots and gumbo mud from these specimens, but in time they yield. For this size tree, a tub was the best container. The trunk base is 5.5″ across 5.5″ from the soil level, and it’s chopped at 28″. I’d estimate its age at 40-50 years. The buttressing/fluting is very impressive. I see a wonderful informal upright Bald cypress bonsai in four or five years.
I’m always excited to find specimens that naturally lend themselves to the flat-top style. If you study this style, you’ll find that the best looking specimens have tall, slender trunks. This one is chopped at the same height as the specimen above, 28″. But the trunk base is only 3.5″ about 4.5″ above what will be the soil level. It’s got a little trunk movement, which is good, and a really nice feature: a subtle twist to the trunk from the base up to about half the height. There’s also subtle fluting, which is nice to find in a specimen with this small a trunk.
Now this one is tucked into its pot. You can see the subtle twisting better in this photo.
And one more example from today. This one has a 5″ trunk 5″ from the soil, and it’s chopped at 25″. Another nice informal upright BC bonsai to be.
Let me know what you think of today’s haul. There will be more to come in the next several weeks.
