Potting | Bonsai South

This Is Either Going To Be Great Or Awful

by Zach Smith | Jul 2, 2018 | Care, Potting, Pruning, Styling

The seasoned bonsai enthusiast often takes on projects that, at least in the beginning, seem full of promise but later on go a bit sideways. That’s another way of saying that trees usually do what they want, and it’s not at all unusual for you not to appreciate what they’re doing. Take this Sycamore, Platanus occidentalis, as a prime example. There’s no denying that if you venture to make a bonsai out of this species, you’re asking for a challenge regardless. But what if you find your way into the realm of sumo bonsai with it? I’m thinking it can only turn out great or awful. Here’s everything that we’ve done together so far (which means I’m not taking all the blame).

Once upon a time there was this massive Sycamore tree growing at the back of my property. I needed all of the trees to go, because I needed the property to be cleared. So the only thing that remained of the massive Sycamore, once the clearing had been done, was a massive stump.

The next year, I noticed this small specimen growing between two of the huge surface roots of the stump. Nobody grows Sycamore bonsai, so how could I resist? What you see to the left is a somewhat interesting specimen. It has some bark, nice taper, and a god-awful below-ground root-thing. Yes, it just had to go in a pot; I mean, who doesn’t get tired of working with great material?

It doesn’t look so bad in the pot, does it? With the ugly root thing underground, all we have to focus on is a decent trunk with great taper. The trunk base is 3″, and it’s chopped at 12″. From here, it’s not so hard to visualize a bonsai.

Moving ahead to now, I can report that the tree recovered in the nursery container and pushed quite a bit of growth last year. Unfortunately, the part of the trunk above the barky base died back last year, but I just let it grow out however it needed to. I mean, this is not the make or break for Bonsai South or me personally.

Today it was time to cut off the dead stuff. By the time I got done with trunk splitter and knob cutter, this is all that was left. As I noted above, this is the tree doing what it wanted to do.

When things get really weird with a tree, I’ve found that often it’s best just to push the weirdness as far as you can. After I’d chopped and nibbled what was in the nursery pot, I decided it was time to see what was beneath the soil. Wouldn’t you know, there was a huge amount of root there. So why not go ahead and put whatever this thing is into a bonsai pot? Again, nothing to lose.

I went ahead and reduced the leader some more, and this is all that’s left. Is it great, or is it awful? I’ll be honest: I kind of like it.

If it lives and does anything resembling bonsai-ness, I’ll post an update. In the meantime, feel free to weigh in with your impressions.

A Fun Friday With Cedar Elms

by Zach Smith | May 4, 2018 | Elms, Potting, Styling, Wiring

Here’s one of the Cedar elms, Ulmus crassifolia, that I collected in March. It’s a smaller specimen, with a trunk base of 1″ at the soil level, but it’s packed with character. I’ve been keeping an eye on it now since it first started showing buds a week after lifting. Notice how far the shoots have extended. I know from experience that this means the tree is producing feeder roots.

All good so far, but … is this the best front for the tree?

That was partly a trick question, but only partly. When I first started eyeing this tree as a soon-to-be bonsai, this angle caught my attention. Can you tell why? Notice, if you will, that first low branch in this photo. Every tree you make into a bonsai is going to have some distinctive characteristics that, when arranged properly, produce the artistic rendering of a tree in nature. The low branch on this tree must be my first branch. Why? Well, every tree has a first branch, right? And that first branch emerges from the trunk somewhere around a quarter to a third or (occasionally) half-way up the trunk. This branch is visually “anchoring,” meaning it’s the first spot your eye moves to when you view the tree from the ground up. It has to be where it needs to be, it’s that simple. Now, compare this photo to the one above. Where’s the first branch in that one? Not in the right spot, that’s where. So from this angle, I’ve got that first branch right where I need it.

Fast-forward a few steps, and you can see what that first branch means to this bonsai-to-be. I have only three branches total to work with in the main body of the tree. But that’s really all I need. Remember, in bonsai, as a general rule, less is more. You can express an entire tree in a half-dozen branches. Here I have three, and a new leader that will itself hold maybe a handful. That’s the entire bonsai. It’s going to be a Cedar elm that looks for all the world like a real tree.

The trunk base is 1″, and the finished height will be about 14″. It has lovely trunk movement and character, and it’s staring to bark up nicely.

(The pot is a Byron Myrick oval.)

Here’s how you pack a whole lot of fun into about 10 minutes’ worth of work. I lifted some smaller Cedar elms specifically so I could make forests out of them. Here’s three that had enough growth as of today to make me confident in potting them up. The largest of these trees has a trunk base just under 1″. The height of the planting is about 16″. This Chuck Iker round with cloud feet seems perfect. What do you think?

Both of these bonsai will be available in the coming weeks. I’ll send out an alert when they’re ready.

Art In Small Packages

by Zach Smith | Apr 15, 2018 | Care, Crape myrtle, Potting

I’ve posted blogs about this old Crape myrtle, Lagerstroemia indica, that Allen Gautreau and I collected in the early 90s. He left it to me when he passed. I’ve since done some redesign work and put the tree in a different pot. That’s not the topic of this blog, however; rather, the oversized branch in the crown of the tree, which I removed as part of the redesign, was rooted last year and subsequently placed in a very small pot just for fun. Crapes are hard to kill, so it did its thing last fall, and naturally came through winter despite the really cold temps we had.

This is what my experiment looked like back in November of 2017. What’s cool about this specimen is the nice curves in the trunk. As with most species, Crape myrtles will grow perfectly straight branches. But Allen had trained this branch over some period of time, most likely cutting it back and allowing it to regrow a number of times. The result was curvy and nice, the sort of effect we strive for in our bonsai.

The only real problem I had with the composition above was simply a practical one. The pot, though nice in its own right, presented a problem in regard to the health of the small bonsai I’d made. For any of you who have worked much with shohin bonsai, perhaps the biggest challenge is keeping them moist. A common way to do this is to bury or partially bury the small pot in a container of soil or sand. This works fine, but you have to be aware that roots will grow through the drain hole of the small pot into the larger one. These you remove when you want to display the tree. And of course, you have to be cognizant of the repotting requirements of the tree. Crapes, being “super rooters,” must be repotted more frequently than most other species. So this small Crape was not going to thrive for long in the very small pot I’d first selected.

To fix the problem, I moved it into a nice Chuck Iker round I had. This additional room should make the difference. I also changed the planting angle, and I think the tree is much improved as a result. To give you an idea of scale, the trunk base of the tree is about 3/8″ in diameter. The style is obviously literati.

But the best part about this very small bonsai is that I think it qualifies as art. As we apply various techniques we’ve learned in the course of our bonsai studies, sometimes the unexpected happens. I think this is one of those cases. I loved the curves of the trunk from the start; finding the right potting angle and the right pot have really made this bonsai shine.

Repotting Mr. Van Winkle

by Zach Smith | Apr 6, 2018 | Care, Oaks, Potting, Pruning, ZPC

It’s been a couple of years since I repotted my big Willow oak, Quercus phellos. Last year I named him Rip Van Winkle, because he waited until May to finally bud out. (I was afraid he was R.I.P. Van Winkle.) Anyway, when I did the repotting back in 2016 I tried something different when I went back into the pot, namely, I added a drainage layer of pea gravel to the bottom of the pot. I didn’t have any firsthand experience to know if this actually does any good for bonsai – after all, we need to prepare soil that’s free-draining before we even consider potting up a tree. But I was willing to give it a try.

Willow Oak - Quercus phellos

The first question you may be asking is, Was it really necessary to repot this tree after two years? The best answer I can give is that what goes on below the surface of the soil is more important than what goes on above. Don’t forget, we’re expecting trees used to growing in open ground to survive and thrive in a small, shallow space. This means their roots cannot travel where they need to go to gather water and nutrients. We provide an environment in the pot designed to give oxygen, water and those needed nutrients as best we can. When the tree grows roots, the spaces that allow for sufficient water and oxygen get filled with roots. Eventually, there’s just little to no soil left and the tree won’t stay alive under those circumstances. Now, does this happen after two years? For most species, no. But there’s no reason not to pull a tree of this age (40+ years), especially considering how late it came out last year. Plus I know from the last repotting that Mr. Van Winkle grows a lot of roots in a short amount of time.

Willow Oak - Quercus phellos

My first step was to loosen the securing wire, remove the training wire from one of the branches and clean the trunk with vinegar-water (white household vinegar and water mixed 50:50) and a toothbrush.

The bark on this tree is very tough, so I was able to give it a good scrub. I also have done some light pruning, being careful not to trim the lower branches too much as they still need to gain heft.

Willow Oak - Quercus phellos

Here’s the tree after I pulled it and removed the pea gravel that was in the bottom of the root mass.

Note: I didn’t see any indications that would suggest a drainage layer improved the growing environment of this tree. There were roots in among the gravel, which is exactly what you would expect. As for drainage, a shallow pot like this one can only produce so much hydraulic head to cause the water to drain; a drainage layer of less than 1/2 inch doesn’t really change this significantly.

Willow Oak - Quercus phellos

Here are the roots, combed out and trimmed. You can see the really nice radial roots.e.

Willow Oak - Quercus phellos

Going back into the pot. One thing I’m doing at this repotting is to raise the tree slightly in order to better display the nebari. This is one of the key things to bear in mind when you work with collected trees (those you get from me, for sure). It’s always best to bury the radial roots, as this will keep them from drying out as the tree recovers. To be sure, you want to display nice roots on your trees, but from a practical standpoint it’s more important to keep them alive in the beginning than to be able to see them. In time they’ll be revealed, as in this case.

Willow Oak - Quercus phellos

The dry soil has been worked around the roots using a chopstick, to fill any gaps. Gaps in the root zone = dead roots in that area.

Willow Oak - Quercus phellos

This is the same picture as the very first one you saw in this article..

I’ve placed it here for you so you can have a birds-eye comparison of how it looked when I started and how it looks afterwards (that’s the photo to your immediate right).

Willow Oak - Quercus phellos

The final result for today, after a thorough watering.

If you compare this photo with the first one (to the left) you can see that I’ve revealed a little more of the nebari, making the tree look even more impressive than before.

Now I’ll wait for it to leaf out, so I can continue its development.

Let me know what you think of today’s work.

Note:

Comments are closed. Remember to use the new Insider’s Club Form to post your questions and comments. This helps everybody learn and help and this is where I am now posting responses to your inquires and comments. (You’ll find the forum by scrolling up; it’s on your right.)

Bonsai South News + Odds & Ends

by Zach Smith | Mar 25, 2018 | Care, Collecting, Potting, Sweetgum, Yaupon

In the next two weeks we will be launching our updated website. Cathy has created a wonderful new design, which will be much more functional and easier for you to use. We’ll send out an announcement when we launch.

Meanwhile, here are a few odds and ends that you might find interesting. For example, we just removed the Dwarf yaupon hedge (Ilex vomitoria ‘nana’) from in front of the house. The house was built in 1985. We’ve lived here since 1995. Considering the size of the individual plants in the hedge, each must be 40 years old or older. Some looked like worthwhile bonsai candidates. Here’s one.

You can get an idea of how much material I had to remove to find this potential clump-style bonsai to be. But it’s got a lot of potential. Next we wait to see if it comes back all right.

So I had to have another part of my yard dug up recently, and this Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua), which I mentioned in a previous blog, had to be lifted or it wasn’t going to survive. I went ahead and put it in this Chuck Iker round, and it seems to be recovering.

Speaking of pots, a long-time and very good client of mine, Lary Howard, also makes custom pieces. You’ll be seeing more of his outstanding work on this site in the near future. Meanwhile, here are a few I just received to give you an idea. This one is a rustic piece. Very well-crafted.

Another unique example of Lary’s work.

And this one is going into my personal collection. I don’t even know if I have a tree for it yet.

And now, the final and odd end for this episode of odds and ends. This close up is of a Sweetbay (Magnolia virginiana) I collected in Winter 2017. The foliage is coming out now, as you can see. But what’s that big fat bud in the center, and why isn’t it opening? This bud set last fall. Just a month or so ago, leaf buds began to form around this center bud. Could it be a flower bud? This and a few others appear at the ends of the branches that formed last year. I’m not familiar with the growth habit of this species, so I can only speculate. If it is a flower bud, then you’ll see a follow-up when it and the others open up. For now, it remains a mystery.

This will probably be my last blog until the new website launches. See you then!

Hawthorn Gets New Home. Nice!

by Zach Smith | Mar 13, 2018 | Care, Hawthorn, Potting, ZPC

If you’ve spent any time browsing through our site, you’ve seen my awesome Riverflat hawthorn (Crataegus opaca). After several years, this tree is really well developed and frankly is one of my all-time favorites.

One thing I’ve come to realize over the past year is that given the tree’s development, it’s outgrown the pot it’s in. I love the pot, don’t get me wrong. It’s a beautiful Paul Katich piece. But it’s just too small for this tree. I love the spread of the tree, which I think reflects the species well, so I don’t want to take it in too far. So the way to solve the problem is, get a bigger pot.

Byron Myrick is one of my go-to guys for custom pots. Here’s the piece he made for me.