by Zach Smith | Feb 22, 2015 | Care, Chinese Elm, Elms, Potting
The second thing to bud out in spring, right behind crab apples, is Chinese elms. Today I decided to lift a tree I’ve been growing in the ground for the past five years.
Here’s the tree in the ground. If you look closely you can see where I chopped the trunk three years ago to create taper. The cut has rolled over very well, and should be completely healed in another three or four years.
The first step was to cut back the two leaders. You may be wondering if this doesn’t reduce the leverage you can get when it comes time to push the tree back and forth to get under it. Actually, you get more than enough with a shorter stump, and it’s always best to let the saw do as much of the work as possible.
Two or three minutes later, here’s the result. I cut the tree approximately six inches from the trunk all around. This is more root than I’ll need, but I can always cut more off.
The rough washing of the roots is now done. This is an amazing amount of roots!
There are two levels of roots on this tree, and since I’ve got a great root spread high up I can easily lose the bottom level.
After the final root washing. I have three more steps: cut the roots back to their final length; shorten the two leaders; and pot the tree.
The final cuts are made. At this point I’m not sure which leader I want to use in the design of this tree. It’s possible both could play a part, but I won’t know for a while. As for the roots, they’ve been cut back severely to allow the tree to both fit into an appropriately sized bonsai pot, as well as to develop a tapering root structure over time.
Since the tree does not need further trunk thickening, I decided to put it into a training pot (a nice Paul Katich piece that unfortunately cracked in shipment). I can develop both the new apex as well as the branch structure over the next few years, while allowing the tree to get used to a smaller living space.
The trunk base on this one is 2.25″ in diameter, and the height to the top chop is 11″. The nebari is outstanding.
What do you think? Chinese elm is one of the best bonsai trees for beginners, but every bonsai enthusiast should have at least one in his or her collection regardless of how experienced they are.
by Zach Smith | Feb 15, 2015 | Bald Cypress, Care, Potting, Wiring
I collected this bald cypress in January 2013. I couldn’t resist a great flaring base, great trunk movement, twisting gray bark, and that interesting “elbow” on the right-hand flaring root.
I let the tree grow out unrestrained in 2013. When 2014 came, I selected the new leader for the tree and made the second, angled chop in the apex of the tree. The new leader was allowed to run, which began the rolling over process at the original chop point. By last summer I felt the tree was ready for a bonsai pot, and I happened to have gotten this extraordinary Chuck Iker round that worked perfectly. Its color is virtually the same as new cypress bark.
Now, as you observe this tree one of the things that stands out is the abrupt change of taper in the apex. This is nothing unusual; in fact, it’s one of the developmental processes you go through with any trunk-chopped specimen you grow as bonsai. A tapering transition must be built. This process is different with bald cypress, due to the powerful apical dominance of the species. Instead of a straight cut, then select your leader and let it run, then angle cut and ultimately carve to smooth, you have an intermediate stage where the initial angle cut is only part-way between the new leader and the opposite side of the trunk. This tree has moved beyond that point, and is ready for attention in the tapering transition point.
Here’s a close-up of the transitioning point. It’s easier to see where the problem is. Next is the transition from another angle.
You can see where the callus tissue has begun rolling over nicely from the edges. But they’re pretty ragged, so today is a good time to fix that too.
First cut. I have to remove the excess wood in the lower part of the second chop. This is a vital part of making the eventual tapering transition believable.
Next cuts. Carving this area down is going to make the tapering of the trunk more believable. It’s all visual trickery.
Remember, the art of bonsai is the art of illusion. Our basic goal is to make a two foot tall tree look like a 100 foot tall tree. So we establish a tapering trunk from ground to apex, in order to trick our mind into seeing something taller. We build a set of branches that reflect the tapering trunk in silhouette as well as individually, with their own sub-branching that reflect the trunk-primary branch relationship. The bottom line is, if I don’t get this part of the development right, the rest just won’t work. You may have seen many bonsai where this essential work was not done or not done properly.
Now I’m done cutting for this round. It’s important to understand that the new leader still has to thicken at its base. I’ve already cut it back for spring (it was two feet taller), and I’ll allow a new leader to run for a while. I expect to cut back hard again by June, and the final round of growth for 2015 should bring me much closer to the ideal transition I’m working toward.
Finally, a trim and wiring. This year should see a tremendous advance toward making this a fine specimen bald cypress bonsai.
Do you like this tree? Let me know. Leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you.
by Zach Smith | Feb 14, 2015 | Bald Cypress, Care, Potting, Soil
I collected more bald cypress today. As I suspected would happen, many are budding out. This shouldn’t present any problem with their surviving, but it certainly will delay their rebudding. Still, how can you say no to really nice bald cypress?
Here’s one of the larger ones I collected, sporting a 4″ trunk. I chopped it at 26″. Looks like a nice formal upright.
You may notice that this tree has a lot of fibrous roots. Pretty much all of the ones I got today were like this. It’s a good thing, since it improves the likelihood of survival; but it presents a challenge when it comes time to pot up the tree. I typically use a regular nursery mix when potting up new collects, and this mix is usually not dry. This makes it a bit hard to work in between all those roots – but it has to be done.
Here’s another of the larger specimens from today. I really like the turn of the trunk on this one, as the taper is outstanding. 4″ trunk, chopped at 22″. Either an informal upright or flat-top style will work.
This one had really great fibrous roots, great radial roots (as with the others) and a little buttressing to boot. Nice on a smaller specimen. The fibrous roots were good enough to encourage me to go ahead and pot it into this nice Chuck Iker round. How about the movement of the trunk and the taper?
For reference, this cypress has a 2.5″ trunk and is 21.5″ to the chop. And I know you’re curious about that long branch sticking out in front. This tree was budding out when I collected it, so I’ll use the branch to gauge when the tree is starting to move again.
by Zach Smith | Feb 7, 2015 | Care, Hornbeam, Potting
Yesterday was my first collecting trip of 2015 for American hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana. If you’ve been following my blog posts for a while, you know American hornbeam is right at the top of my list for best bonsai species. It’s easy to collect, the survival rate is high, it roots very well in a pot, and it’s fast to train as it grows all season long. You do have to be selective when choosing specimens to harvest. Most tend to be untapering, though when they’re old enough they all present the desirable “muscling” of the trunk. But with persistence you can find what you’re looking for, if you’re inclined to collect your own.
For those who prefer their material already collected and ready to train or maintain, here’s an idea of what’s coming in spring. This specimen has a 3″ trunk diameter 4″ above the soil surface and is 22″ to the chop. The muscling of the trunk is amazing! I think this will make a tall, masculine bonsai in a couple of years. (For those of you who like shorter specimens, yes, the trunk can be chopped again below the curve. In this case I figured we can always take more off, but it’s a lengthier process to put back on.)
I was fortunate to find several of similar quality yesterday. Look for them to start showing up for sale around May.
Finally, on very rare occasions you can collect a ready-made bonsai from the wild. I’ve had this occur in far less than 1% of all the trees I’ve collected. Yesterday I came across this specimen. Nice twin trunk with branching and sub-branching, pretty much styled by nature, ready for a bonsai pot. All I had to do was cut to the appropriate leader on the larger trunk and trim back the silhouette.
By the way, how big do you think this tree is? I’ll update with the answer tomorrow. (Answer: 3/4″ trunk diameter by 13″ tall.)
And now, all that’s left is to wait till April to see if these trees came through the harvest.
by Zach Smith | Feb 5, 2015 | Care, Elms, Hornbeam, Potting, Wiring
The technique of creating bonsai comes down to one basic principle: making a series of decisions that guide a living tree or shrub toward becoming a miniaturized version of its normal self. This may seem obvious when you think about it, but often we have this vision of a bonsai in mind in the face of the reality of a piece of material that looks nothing like what you want it to be. In other words it looks like Point A, not Point B.
“Okay,” you may be thinking, “so how do I go about making good decisions?” This depends, of course, on where your bonsai or pre-bonsai is in its development. For example, let’s say you have a shrub you bought from a nursery or box store. It’s got lots of branches – more than you need, which is very good – and a good tapering trunk line. In such a case, your decisions come down to the following:
- Choosing the front
- Selecting the branches
- Wiring the branches (and the trunk, if it needs shaping)
- Moving the branches to the appropriate positions
- Potting the tree (if it’s the right time)
Now all you have to do is make these decisions good ones!
I know that sounds a little simplistic, but learning sound technique is a repetition of the process of making good decisions on material in varying states of development. As you practice bonsai you get better at making these decisions.
So, for the decision pathway described above here’s a good example. This blackgum was a much taller sapling that had branching up and down the trunk. In the lower half of this sapling was a bonsai-in-the-making. The decisions I made were as follows:
- Cut the tree down to a side branch suitable for a new apex that continued the tapering from soil to crown; make sure there is a suitable set of branches
- Find the front of the tree; often this is driven by where the branches appear on the trunk
- Wire the side branch I cut to and direct it upward to make the new apex
- Wire and position the branches, then trim to the appropriate shape – the planned style is a basic upright broom-form
- Pot the tree in a suitably-sized bonsai pot
The result is quite good, don’t you think? This bonsai-in-training looks just like a tree in winter.
Here’s a very different tree with a very different decision pathway. In 2013 it went from a nursery container to a bonsai pot. As collected, it had some mature branches that were kept for the design. I had chopped the trunk and directed a new leader for the eventual apex. Once in the bonsai pot, I let it grow well into summer. In this photo, the tree is clearly overgrown. But … that decision was the correct one for the tree at this stage of its development.
What was next for this tree? I actually had a couple of options: one, cut the tree back hard and encourage budding toward the interior; or two, let it grow out again through October. In this case, either option would work equally well. This was a mature bonsai in the making, with a trunk the size it needed to be, all the trunk character it needed, and a branch set and apex well on their way to refinement. There was no rush, in other words, nothing that had to be done at this point.
If you build a large collection, you’ll find your decisions beginning to span the collection. That complicates things, of course, but it also mitigates the temptation to overwork a small number of trees.
Here’s a tree you’ve seen before. Nice natural raft, collected and put in a big training pot and then left to grow for a couple of years with literally no attention other than feeding and watering. When the time came, what was the decision pathway?
- Pot the tree in an appropriate bonsai pot
- Select the trunks suitable for the raft; do any preliminary trimming necessary
- Wire the trunks and any branches needing shaping
- Thoroughly trim, meaning work each new trunk to the proper shape; do any additional trimming or rough carving needed
- And finally, make sure the trunks as a group exhibit the proper balance and interplay
Here’s the tree following execution of Decisions 1 and 2. Notice how each decision – each step – brings the tree closer to the desired outcome for the specific work session. Now, you can only do so much in any single session. No, let me rephrase that: you should only do so much in any single session. Newcomers to bonsai tend to be so excited over their first tree that they want to work it to masterpiece status in one go – and I mean trees that are literally seedlings with barely any branches to speak of. This is a normal and natural desire. I think we all share it. But it’s got to be overcome. Very few species will tolerate much overworking, and most end up poorer in quality when the misplaced enthusiasm ends.
Here we are following Decisions 3 and 4. The trunks are wired and shaped. Everything that doesn’t look like a bonsai has been trimmed away. The trunks have a good interplay and the overall shape of the bonsai is appropriate.
And that was the end of the session for this tree at that time. I next left it alone to grow out for a while.
What sort of decision making process do you use when you work on your trees? Do you wing it, or actually plan step by step? If you’d like to share your approach, just leave a comment below.
by Zach Smith | Jan 31, 2015 | Bald Cypress, Care, Potting
Today was a bald cypress collecting day. The weather was perfect, ice on the windshield when I left but warming to near 60 degrees by the time the field work was done. There’s nothing like collecting trees and not working up a sweat (or getting soaked or freezing).
Here are a few of the new pieces with the root washing mostly done, awaiting final trimming and potting. To give you an idea of scale, the center tree has a 3″ trunk above the root crown and is 22″ to the chop. It had good enough fibrous roots that I direct-potted it into a nice Byron Myrick oval. I’ll try to post a photo of it tomorrow.
I got some very nice material today, and hopefully all of it will survive. My success rate has been about 80% in the past few years, so that bodes well. I should know in about eight weeks.
Look for new cypress specimens for sale by late April.
Update 2/1: here’s the middle tree potted up. I love the graceful movement of the trunk. My plan for this one is a so-called “young tree” style, with the traditional first branch-second branch-back branch design. For those of you who have worked with bald cypress before, you know that the species produces trunk buds more prolifically than most. This usually gives us free reign when it comes to selecting new branches. By May I should be wiring new shoots. I’ll post an update this summer.
The final shot is from the back of the tree, so you can see all of the flaring roots and buttressing. This one is awesome, more so because the trunk diameter is only 3″ above the root crown. Usually it takes a good while, and more heft, for a bald cypress to develop a good buttress. My landscape specimens I grew from seed started 15 years ago are just now doing this, and they have 8″ trunks.
Growing conditions seem to govern this part of the development of a bald cypress. I always collect specimens growing in shallow water, and this along with crowding of other trees apparently produces more compact growth and the tendency to put on flaring roots. These flaring roots, as they grow in size, create the buttressing we prize so much.
If you’ve never grown bald cypress, it’s definitely a species you’ll want to add to your collection. They’re easy to grow and train, as long as you know how to develop the crown. I’ll be posting some information on that in the coming weeks.
