by Zach Smith | Feb 6, 2017 | Care, Flowering, Hawthorn, Potting, Pruning, ZPC
Here’s my specimen Riverflat hawthorn, Crataegus opaca. I repotted this tree two years ago, and knew it had since filled its pot with roots. Certain hawthorn species do not root all that vigorously, but Riverflat is not one of them.
At the same time, I’ve been faced from the beginning with a root problem. So today I wanted to take advantage of the normal repotting time for this specimen in order to address the problem and make it better. Sometimes this requires drastic action, for example layering, but in many cases you don’t have to take such steps.
Here’s the problem, namely that great big thick surface root. This root isn’t going anywhere, at least not while the tree is in my care. And since the remainder of the nebari is good, all I have to do is focus on this one root and see if I can make it better. The answer? Why carving, of course.
This work took about 10 minutes using a couple of hand tools. What I’ve done here is to carve a wedge down into the root. Beginning up near the trunk, I started carving a wedge-shaped section out of the single large root (which has produced smaller roots on either side, by the way). As I carved farther down the length of the root, I made the cut deeper. The ultimate plan will be to actually bring soil up into the wedge area, which will complete the illusion that this once-large root splits into two smaller sub-roots. I’m confident this will reduce the appearance of “heaviness” in this root.
Back to business. Here’s the tree out of its bonsai container. As I knew it would, the root mass is thick and long roots are winding around the outer edge. It’s definitely time for a root-pruning.
It’s common to be fearful of cutting off a lot of the old root mass. This should give you an idea of just how far you can go, for species that root vigorously. Everything I cut off will grow back this year, and in 2019 I’ll need to repeat this process.
Now this guy is back in his home. The pot is a custom piece by Paul Katich, and I believe it complements the tree just perfectly. The oval shape goes well with the graceful, curving trunk of this feminine hawthorn bonsai. The trunk base is 3″ above the root crown, and it’s 30″ to the tip of the apex.
Here’s a final look at the problem root. Once the exposed wood has dried, I’ll treat this area with lime sulfur just to be on the safe side, after which I’ll add some soil into the gap.
I’d love to hear what you think of this post. Was it helpful to you?
by Zach Smith | Feb 4, 2017 | Bald Cypress, Care, Collecting, Potting, Pruning
Today I finally got out to where the Bald cypresses are, more specifically the smaller ones that have grown slowly giving rise to great taper and trunk movement. I brought a bunch home, and I wanted to post some photos for those of you who love the species as much as I do.
First, the flock. I focused on smaller specimens today, and it didn’t take long to grab 11 of them. What’s interesting about collecting trees, and probably Bald cypress more so than just about any other species, is that it takes much longer to prepare the tree for a container than it does to collect it. With BC in particular, they grow among the marsh grasses, so the root balls you see in this photo are merely tangles of grass roots with some BC roots mixed in. This stuff gets tight! So all in all, it was three hours’ worth of work to prepare these for containers.
Here’s one I couldn’t resist going straight to a bonsai pot with. The trunk base is 2.5″, and it’s chopped at 18″. I think this little BC is going to make a killer bonsai. The really nice thing about it is the amazing taper! This means I can create the crown of this tree in a season or two, without having to overly worry about the tapering transition.
Here’s another amazing specimen, which to my way of thinking has got flat-top written all over it. The base is 3.5″ and it’s 28″ to the chop. Is that incredible taper or what?
This was the prize of the day. Another specimen with amazing taper, but the twisting fluted trunk really makes this one special. The trunk base is 4″, and it’s only 22″ to the chop.
I may know as soon as 2-3 weeks from now if these trees survived collecting. In the meantime, I’ll be headed out soon for more.
For those of you on our
BC wish list, I’ll be communicating with you once the new collects start budding. With the warm winter we’re having, I can’t imagine these trees won’t be out before the end of March.
by Zach Smith | Feb 1, 2017 | Bald Cypress, Care, Potting, Styling
On Sunday past I did some work on a new Bald cypress forest bonsai I started last fall. My work was limited to wiring and straightening the trunks of four of the seven trees. As I noted last fall, when building a forest bonsai the main consideration is the placement of the trunks. If you can get that right, the rest almost takes care of itself. In this post, I want to take a closer look at how this forest is composed to give you an idea of why it works.
In this first photo, we look at the starting point for every bonsai forest: the primary tree. While you may be able to make a bonsai forest without first taking the time to ensure this tree is selected and placed correctly, you’ve got a real chore ahead of you if you fail to give this part of the composition its due.
I chose to place this largest forest cypress to the right of center of the tray, at about the 1/3 position. This is not a hard and fast rule. But two things you don’t want to do are: place this tree in the dead center of the tray; and, if you place it in back of the side-to-side centerline, you have your work cut out for you when placing the remainder of your trees.
Now let’s take a look at the number two tree in the forest. I chose to place this tree more toward the center of the pot, in fact almost exactly in the center. Did I have to do this? No, there were other choices. But what’s important to understand here is that the relationship between the primary and number two trees in a forest establishes the visual route the eye takes when viewing the composition. It is by this means that the depth and perspective of the planting are constructed subconsciously.
With the first two trees of the forest in place, now we can take a closer look at the other components of one of the two sub-groups that are represented here. The photo is captioned with explanatory notes. Pay particular attention to the spacing between the trunks of the four trees. The primary and number two trees are spaced farther apart than trees number three and four. And what caps off this sub-group is the side to side spacing of the primary tree and that smallest tree way at the back of the sub-group. This one placement trick makes this forest look like it goes on a very great distance, doesn’t it?
Now we can turn our attention to the second of the sub-groups, which completes the forest. Here, in the “space” of three trees, I’ve filled in the forest both in number of trees as well as in “heft.” When you view this forest, it seems like it’s much bigger than it really is and features many more trees. Less is more, so I get the viewer’s mind to see a massive forest in only seven well-placed trees.
With the exception of the formal upright style of bonsai, there’s no more difficult challenge than the forest planting. It’s not just a bunch of trees crowded together in a shallow tray. There are rules that need to be followed, or the forest just doesn’t look like a three-dimensional creation.
This Bald cypress forest is a relatively new composition, so it obviously has a lot of growing to do. But this process can be “completed” in about three years, at which time this will be an outstanding bonsai.
Let us know what you think below.
by Zach Smith | Jan 28, 2017 | Care, Collecting, Hornbeam, Potting
Today I went out in hopes of collecting some bald cypress. The water was up, however, so I had to fall back to Plan B. I ended up with some yaupons, huckleberries and even a pine. But the best find of the day was this tree, a truly great American hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana.
This one checks all the boxes. The flaring root base and radial roots are terrific, the trunk has very nice muscling and movement, and the taper is great.
I’m thinking this view shows off everything better. What do you think?
And here it is, after I dusted the cut ends of the roots and potted it up. Notice how the roots are buried, to ensure they stay moist. And of course the trunk chop is sealed to prevent it drying out.
The base on this specimen is 4.5″, and it’s 24″ to the chop. I would expect the final height of this tree will be about 32-34″. The plan for this year is to let it grow out to get established in its nursery container. I’ll wire the primary branch structure sometime in late April. And of course there will be a new leader that will be allowed to run in order to produce a tapering transition from where the chop is into the new apex.
I should know in March whether I was successful with this one.
Leave a comment below and let me know what you think. I’d love to hear from you.
by Zach Smith | Jan 22, 2017 | Bald Cypress, Care, Collecting, Potting, Pruning
It’s not at all uncommon for us to have mild winters down here. What’s really uncommon for us is to have balmy winters down here. What does balmy mean? It means temperatures in the 80s with humidity in the 90s. And not just an odd day here or there, but days on end. We had a couple of very cold nights about a week or so ago, with temps in the low 20s. We even got some freezing rain and sleet, which I wrote about. Then it warmed up. And kept on getting warmer. We’re going to cool off a bit in the next few days – powerful storms rolled through the South a couple of days ago – but all in all we’ve been consistently above-normal this winter.
A phenomenon I’ve written about before has resurfaced this year. Some of the bald cypresses I collect come from locations a hundred miles south of where I am. These trees tend to start budding out in February. Even though I’ve relocated a number of these trees northward, they tend to bud out very early as if they were still at “home.” Here’s one that’s decided to start pushing buds now.
I was surprised when I first noticed this tree budding the other day. It wouldn’t have surprised me if it had started budding in February, as if it were still farther south. But in mid-January? Wow.
I don’t have any idea what the remainder of winter will bring, temperature-wise, but if we don’t get a killing freeze this tree will continue to push buds all the way through to spring. Today I went ahead and did some trimming and a minor bit of wiring. I’m considering changing pots, and if I do it’ll have to happen fairly soon. I’ll post an update. This tree is developing good ramification now, so I’ll need to pay closer attention to how the branches and sub-branches are positioned. You can also see that I’ve left two strong shoots in the apex. Their purpose is to thicken the leader and smooth the tapering transition. I should have this chore completed in another season or two.
BC collecting season is upon us. I should have some new material coming in within the next two weeks. For those of you on our BC wish list, you should expect to hear from us when these trees start budding. More on that to come.
by Zach Smith | Jan 8, 2017 | Care, Collecting, Oaks, Potting, Pruning, Styling
In keeping with recent fun, today I decided to chop, lift and pot a Live oak, Quercus Virginiana. This is a specimen I’ve grown from seed, along with a number of others, since 2011. While it isn’t a large specimen by any means, having a trunk base of 1″ diameter, I saw a potential structure I thought would work fairly well right out of the ground.
First I removed most of the top of the tree, by chopping the trunk. I’ve cut to a smaller section of trunk that happens to be going the right way.
Next I removed the bulk of the new leader, cutting to a smaller section of trunk that happened to be going the right way.
When I saw these roots I was astounded. My conclusion is that as a live oak grows from seed, it really sets out a massive root system to ensure its own stability. Now, I removed the tap root from this tree when it was just a seedling, but the fact is live oaks and most other deciduous/persistent-leaf trees lose their tap roots at some point in life, being left with only their radial root systems. Another fact about live oak is that you are unlikely to ever see one get blown over in a storm (I’ve never seen it happen personally). This tells me they have an amazingly stable root system, and given the fact that the root spread of a tree goes a good distance beyond the spread of the tree, and we all know how far a live oak can spread, those roots must go on just shy of forever. Anyway, I had to cut these roots back drastically to fit a bonsai pot.
A little wire, a little soil and a Byron Myrick oval later, here’s what I ended up with. The tree is fairly tall at 18″, but I think I can make a good statement with it by keeping the spread in check. I’m thinking literati Live oak bonsai.
What do you think of this one? Does it speak to you?
