by Zach Smith | Jan 25, 2015 | American Elm, Care, Elms, Potting
Today it was time to harvest an American elm, Ulmus Americana. This specimen has been growing away in an old garden area for the better part of a decade. I knew the trunk was at least 1″ at the base, which is usually the smallest size I’ll lift. It also had a nice slight movement of the trunk, and I had cut the tree back some years ago in order to encourage taper.
This first shot is the tree as it sat in the ground. It doesn’t look like much from this angle, does it? Not to worry.
Here’s the tree with its roots washed off, shot at a better angle. Now you can see there’s something to work with here. The specimen had a nice set of radial roots, though there’s been some haphazard growth. But that’s what the saw and cutters are for.
If you’ve ever worked with American elm, you’re bound to have noticed that the bark will separate from the tree very, very easily. Even with the sharpest of cutters and taking great care, it’s common for the bark to pull away. I always try to use a saw for the bigger cuts, as this seems to prevent the problem altogether. I also use a very sharp knife to carve the edges of cuts. Always cut toward the inside of the cut.
Now the roots have been cut back. Notice how far back I’ve cut them. It’s all got to be done with the idea in mind of how the tree will fit into a bonsai pot. This tree will end up about 15″ tall. That means the pot will be no more than about 7″ long if oval or in diameter if round. The root spread of this tree stands at roughly 4″, so you can see this will take up a goodly share of the pot’s expanse already.
Now came the fun part, finding the trunk line. Compare this shot with the one just above. I had considered training this tree as a broom-form specimen. The problem with that idea was, two of the three leaders were already too thick for it to work. I knew that as I developed the crown, these leaders would continue to thicken and produce a nasty reverse taper. Also, broom style trees typically don’t have much taper in the lower trunk, whereas this one tapered very nicely right through to the chop.
Here’s the tree in its nursery pot. It should bud nicely this spring, and at that time I’ll begin the selection of branches and the new leader. In just a couple of years this tree will make a fine American elm bonsai in training.
by Zach Smith | Jan 17, 2015 | Care, Hawthorn, Potting, Wiring
I’ve been posting frequently since winter began, but so far I haven’t spent any time writing about the activities vital to the pursuit of bonsai that can be done before the first buds swell. To be sure, those of you in the frozen parts of the country may be staring at snowbound trees on a daily basis, or perhaps the crowd of trees huddled in your garage for their own good until temperatures begin rising. Regardless, there’s really not a time of year when you can’t find something to do to advance your knowledge of bonsai or the individual trees themselves. Here are the things I’m doing right now:
1. Collecting material for 2015 (and beyond)
What’s always been true of bonsai for me is the “flow” of trees into and out of my possession. I love collecting trees, and I love field-growing trees. What I’ve learned about myself over the course of my bonsai career is that my talent lies primarily along this path:
- Selecting the basic characteristics of the tree form when collecting/growing material – this is usually just seeing the line of the trunk/trunks from base to future apex, which includes character, movement and taper
- Styling the raw material from the “stick and shoot” stage to the tertiary ramification stage
- Creating the artistic composition of tree plus pot, for those specimens I decide to place in bonsai pots
My trees tend to go on to their intended homes by this point in their development. It’s the rare tree that I feel compelled to keep for more than a few years. This doesn’t mean the others aren’t great trees, but I’m very excited about and good at getting them to that point where the art in them is emerging.
Here’s the point of all this: I’ve always figured that the more trees I worked on, the more I’d learn and the better I’d be at bonsai. With over 25 years in the hobby now, I know this to be true and so it’s been a good strategy for me. As you know, I always recommend to everyone that they work on as many trees as possible – with appropriate guidance, of course – because practice makes perfect. Like those musical scales I wrote about the other day.
You may not have the desire or the ability to collect your own material for bonsai. If so, winter is a good time to begin planning purchases for the new year. What species interest you? Is there a new one you’ve been dying to try? Are you ready to upgrade in size, or add a larger specimen? Or just add to your collection? Either way, if you have the room to add more trees it’s almost a sure bet you will. It’s just what we do.
2. Working on leafless deciduous trees
A nice little Mayhaw I lost back in 2012; was going to be a beauty.
There are two ideal times to work on the structure of deciduous trees: when they are at the “stick and shoot” stage, and during winter when there are no leaves to obscure your ability to see right through them. The appearance of any bonsai is a result of form, proportion and balance, among other factors of course. What is commonly done with deciduous bonsai is to grow them like stylized bushes with tree-like silhouettes. While this can certainly look okay, in my opinion it fails to produce the three-dimensional appearance of “tree-ness” vital to the best of deciduous specimens. To do this requires a strong vision of and dedication to the tree’s superstructure. This is not just the trunk, though the trunk is a key element. It’s also about how the branches are built, where they reside along the trunk, their angle of repose, and how they move as individual elements of the composition; what positive and negative spaces they form; the detailed structure of each branch – their “fractal” structure, if you will; and lastly, that whole of the tree which is greater than the sum of its parts.
To build the structure of your branches properly is a multi-step, multi-year process. It can be done adequately in as little as three years; more is always better, barring issues with the health of the tree or a failure to repot timely. There’s also the size of the tree to take into account. The larger the tree, the longer it takes to properly build the structure of each branch while getting it to the right size relative to the trunk size. The American hornbeam below is a prime example; it’s just entering its sixth year of training. The trunk measures 6″ above the root crown and is about 36″ tall. I have another four or five years to go to make it look right.
This one was repotted in 2013, so it’s time once again.
3. Repotting of certain trees
A perennial question about any given species grown as bonsai is, “When should I repot it?” My basic approach is, if I can collect it now I should be able to repot it now. There’s another element I also like to take into account, and that is the hardiness of the species. Take American hornbeam again as as example. This species ranges, in the Eastern U.S., from the Deep South all the way to Canada. Do you think I should worry about the root zone if I repot now? Of course, everything goes on the ground here at 15F and below, in an overabundance of caution, but I can assure you I’ve never lost an American hornbeam to cold. American elm is the same way; it ranges even farther north than hornbeam.
I’ll probably wait a little while longer to tackle this tree, but I suspect by Valentine’s Day it’ll be done.
4. Making soil
You can’t have too much prepared bonsai soil going into spring. If you do nothing else bonsai from December through March, why not make your soil? You sure don’t want to be scrounging for soil when the buds begin swelling if you have 20 trees that need repotting.
What’s a good soil mix? There are probably as many recipes as there are individuals who grow bonsai, but to my mind keep it simple is the best approach. I use Turface or Riverlite (formerly Haydite) as my inorganic component, and screened pine bark mulch for the organic. The organic is screened between 1/4″ hardware cloth and 1/16″ window screen, using my homemade sieves. I use what stays on the window screen. I also screen the fines from the Turface or Riverlite.
How particular should you be when screening out fines? For larger trees, that is, 12-48″ in height, I don’t think it’s essential. If I were dedicated to mame and shohin size bonsai, I’d wash both my inorganic and organic components. Remember, roots must breathe. The smaller the pot, the more susceptible to excess water retention, and the more water retention the more potential for suffocation of the roots. The presence of fines in a pot that’s only 1/2″ deep – meaning there’s essentially no hydraulic head to force drainage – is not a good idea.
And the recipe? I like to go with 2/3 inorganic and 1/3 organic.
The soil debate is an ongoing saga of the bonsai world, and it always will be. My advice is always to try different components and compositions and see what works best for you. Our “micro-climates” are all a little different. Some of us have more sun than others, some are in drier areas, some have automatic watering systems and others do all of theirs by hand.
5. Studying bonsai
Bonsai is a visual art, and everyone comes to the art because they saw a bonsai. You need to study as many photos of great bonsai as you can. I think there are some pretty good examples here at Bonsai South. But also go to the library and you should find some good sources on the shelves in the gardening section. Study the types of trees, their forms and styles, how they make your eyes move and keep on moving as you observe the tree. You’ll see drama, tension, grace, stability, proportion. You’ll see what your mind is telling you is a real, large tree out in nature, but it’s a small tree in a shallow pot. Most of all, your mind will be building memory patterns that you’ll use when styling and caring for your own trees. No matter what you start off with, you will have observed one or more bonsai styled along those lines. Imitate them! As it is with practicing bonsai techniques, if you imitate the style and form of great bonsai over and over again you will certainly end up creating your own great bonsai.
I have never stopped studying bonsai. You never stop learning.
by Zach Smith | Jan 10, 2015 | Care, Elms, Potting, Water Elm
I planted out this water-elm as a cutting back in 2010. I figured it would do fine, but what I really wanted to know was how fast they’d grow in the ground under ideal conditions. Out in the swamps, water-elms have a tough life and in some places go literally under water for months on-end. We know from ring counting that it takes up to 30 years for the species to put on an inch of growth under these conditions. So you can see my incentive for the experiment.
The trunk base on this tree is right at three inches, in under five years. That’s fast growth! It got to about eight feet tall before I cut it the first time. I chopped the trunk three years ago, not because the tree had no taper – it put on taper all by itself – but rather to create the tapering transition in what will ultimately be the apex of this tree.
I lifted the tree in a couple of minutes using my handy cordless reciprocating saw. After shaking off as much of the native soil as I could, next came the root washing step. This next shot shows the result. Notice the huge root that coiled down into the ground! That one needed to come off for sure.
Here’s the tree with the roots cut back the appropriate amount for the ultimate bonsai pot. I left a couple of the branches that had grown during the tree’s development; I think they may be useable in the final design. The good thing about this tree is it makes a very strong statement. The trunk has a graceful curve, but I’m inclined to call it a masculine tree. What do you think?
Finally, here’s the tree potted in a nursery container. It’ll root profusely this year and throw enough buds on the trunk to allow for its initial shaping. By next year, the tree will be ready for a bonsai pot.
The bark on this tree is exfoliating for the first time, by the way.
This tree is available in our Elm Bonsai section. A deposit holds it till spring, when it’ll be ready for shipment.
by Zach Smith | Jan 7, 2015 | Care, Chinese Elm, Elms, Potting, Privet, Soil, Watering, Wiring
From time to time I’m approached by someone who has become excited about bonsai and wants to get into the hobby. Sometimes they’ve been given a bonsai as a present, sometimes they’ve bought one from a roadside vendor or home improvement store – a “mallsai,” as it’s called. From such humble beginnings often comes a fiery passion. All too often, however, the initial surge of excitement crashes headlong into reality as the new enthusiast discovers that bonsai is one of the most complex simple things you can do. Many quit when their tree mysteriously dies; I mean, if you don’t know why, what’s the point in repeating the disappointment and especially when it costs you money to boot?
A Chinese Elm Starter Bonsai
There are key factors the new bonsai enthusiast must know and apply when starting out. While it’s not possible to guarantee success – everyone’s situation is a little different – understanding these factors literally forms the foundation of everyone’s ability to grow miniature trees, from the greatest master to the rank amateur. In fact, it’s not an exaggeration to say that until you truly understand them, you are destined to fail.
Here are my five fundamental bonsai factors for the new enthusiast:
1. Every plant is an outdoor plant, even those that may be kept indoors for a short period of time.
Many a new bonsai enthusiast is attracted to the idea that bonsai are indoor plants, and they envision them sitting on a shelf in the living room. You have to forget this idea. Yes, I know, you’ve read on the Internet about indoor bonsai and there’s lot and lots of information about how to do it. To be sure, many bonsai experts are able to maintain bonsai indoors. You are not an expert (yet). So forget this idea.
2. The most common cause of bonsai mortality is drying out. What’s extra sad about this problem is sometimes the tree dried out before you even got it, but it’s a juniper and they die very slowly and remain green right up to the end. (Not all “mallsai” are junipers. Junipers are popular in the commercial trade because they look like little pine trees, they’re hard to kill and stay green even after death, hence they can be shipped across the country and sold to unsuspecting buyers.)
The tree above is a starter Chinese elm bonsai. If you’ve read my article on Chinese elm as one of the best bonsai trees for beginners, you know how I feel about the horrid “S-curve” Chinese elm. They are the bane of the commercial bonsai industry. If you’ve ever seen one, compare it with the tree above. Though very short, less than 10″, the tree has a solid design and is well on its way to being a small work of art.
3. The second most common cause of bonsai mortality is suffocation of the roots, due to poor soil. Bonsai are not houseplants, which are potted in a completely different type of soil than is used for bonsai. Unfortunately, all too often beginner bonsai, or “mallsai,” are potted in commercial potting soil. This is done sometimes to overcome the likelihood that watering of the tree will be spotty at best during the period of time between creation and retailing to you.
If you have a “mallsai,” one of the first things you must do is understand what’s going on in the pot. Check the soil surface. If it’s rock solid and you can’t move any of the soil, then you have one of the dreaded glued-on-rocks impervious soil surfaces. Watering is impossible. If you have this, your first order of business is to break the entire surface layer off and discard it. Underneath you should find some sort of potting soil, hopefully. Whether or not you had the glued-on-rocks problem, your next order of business is to gently stick your finger into the soil to gauge how much moisture is present. If it’s soggy, you have a problem. Let the soil dry out for a couple of days before watering. If the soil is dry, water thoroughly and watch to see if the water drains out. If it drains well and quickly, you’re in good shape. If it pools and drains slowly or not at all, you have a problem which must be addressed as soon as you can. The fix is beyond the scope of this article, but you can email me if you find yourself in this situation.
4. Learning bonsai involves killing trees. If your first bonsai does not die right away, this does not mean you’re a bonsai expert. It just means you haven’t suffered your first loss yet. If you want to practice bonsai, you have to be prepared to lose trees along the way. Everyone loses trees, even the greatest of the masters. It’s part of the price you pay for the sublime enjoyment of one of the highest of the arts. So get as many trees as you can comfortably fit into your bonsai space and maintain, given your lifestyle. More is better. You learn more by doing more. If you only have a few trees, you’ll tend to overwork them and this is just as harmful as letting them dry out. Overload yourself and your bonsai time.
What’s the average life expectancy of a bonsai? Over the long haul, you an expect your average tree to live between five and 20 years. I know this may sound a bit morbid and perhaps even discouraging, but bonsai exist in a very limited space and as a result are at enhanced risk and exposure. Drying out, root suffocation and freezing are the biggest risk factors and never go away.
That’s the bad news. The good news is, you can learn the skills needed to style and shape a bonsai to “completion” in as little as three years. In five or six years, most average size bonsai are fully developed and showable (if you should choose to pursue showing your work). By the time ten years have passed, barring issues along the way, your trees should be outstanding examples of the art if properly trained and maintained.
5. Take as many classes as you can, with teachers who know sound bonsai techniques. Sooner is better. Very few individuals are successful on their own, without getting advice from some source. I did well with books and magazines back in the day, but frankly I would have been better served if I’d learned directly from someone who’d already made the mistakes I was destined to make. It’s water under the bridge for me, but it needn’t be for you. Find someone who teaches, and first learn techniques. Then practice them faithfully, on every tree you work on.
A Chinese privet bonsai, shaped and styled using time-tested techniques.
Why techniques? Bonsai is a lot like music. The finest musicians play scales daily. Why? Because scales are the fundamentals of the art of music, and fundamentals must be practiced or you won’t get to the art part. With bonsai, wiring, pruning, shaping, root-pruning, and so on are the scales and must be practiced, otherwise you won’t get to the art part – guaranteed.
This last tree is an example of a bonsai just a year in training from a mere trunk. While I knew clearly the basic style of tree it was going to be, I had no way to know the “details.” But I didn’t need to. I simply wired and shaped the branches, and made sure they were moved into the appropriate spots. All strictly based on technique. Even at this stage of its development, I felt there was art in this specimen.
If you’re a new bonsai enthusiast, you have a challenging and exciting road ahead of you as you learn about bonsai. It’s a journey we all take, and the journey’s the thing. But I hope these tips can help you avoid a few of the pitfalls along the way.
Was this article useful to you? Let me know by leaving a comment below. I’d love to hear from you.
by Zach Smith | Jan 1, 2015 | Bald Cypress, Care, Potting
I collected this bald cypress in February of 2014. When collecting cypress, there’s one indispensable feature of any specimen being considered: a good flared base with buttressing roots. Leaving aside any other necessary features of your tree and the one other iconic feature of the species – the unique knees, which we rarely find in the collected specimen – bald cypress is known for the appearance of its base. When you grow the species from seed, you’ll find that it spends some years growing more or less like a pole. The trunk is straight-sided, plunging into the soil. It looks like any other species in that respect. Then, about 15 years later, the flaring base begins developing along with the buttressing roots.
So with this specimen, it possessed the necessary flaring and buttressing roots and therefore was a definite candidate for collecting. Once back at the nursery, all of the native soil was washed from the roots prior to potting. I used a good general purpose bonsai mix, a combination of Turface and decomposed pine bark, and made sure I buried the flaring roots sufficiently to ensure they didn’t dry out. The root zone of every tree we maintain, no matter how shallow the pot, dries out from top down. While this phenomenon is also present in nature, it’s mitigated by the ability of a tree to send feeder roots far afield in search of moisture. In the compact environment of a bonsai pot, drying out is an ever-present danger to your trees. This is also true for specimens in nursery training containers, though the danger is mitigated by the typically deeper soil mass.
This tree grew well during 2014, but I’d assess its growth as about medium in strength. Part of this was probably due to the limited room I gave it. So today I decided to repot the tree into a bigger nursery container for 2015, to allow for stronger growth. This will give a specimen ready for initial styling in 2016.
In this photo I’ve removed the tree from its original nursery container and scraped away the excess soil. You can see the “water mark” where the tree was previously buried. You can also see the newly revealed flaring, buttressing roots that I had first discovered (by reaching down under the water and muck where the tree was growing and feeling around) when considering the tree for collecting.
Here’s a close-up of the buttress. 
And finally a shot from the side. The tree needs to have buttressing roots in at least three places to appear stable. This one has four. In time, when the tree goes into a bonsai pot, the entire flaring root structure will be revealed. This will be a fine bald cypress bonsai in about five years.
This tree is available at our Bald Cypress Bonsai page. It will be available for shipping in late spring, and will be shipped in its nursery container to ensure no disturbance to the roots.
by Zach Smith | Dec 20, 2014 | Care, Elms, Potting, Water Elm
I’ve worked with many students through the years, and what seems to stymie most is how to see from beginning to “end” with the particular specimen they’re working on. We select trees for certain characteristics, trunk movement and character, taper, good nebari, and so on. Except for that rare one, however, this is only the beginning. Every bonsai enthusiast has seen, either in person or in photos, stunning specimens that evoke such wonder that it can seem an impossible task to get from raw material to finished tree.
What I emphasize to my students is very straightforward: rules and techniques. It’s only the rare individual who gets to cut in line from practiced technique to art. So unless you’re a savant – I certainly was not and am not – you have to learn bonsai step by step, rule by rule, and you have to practice on, mangle and yes, kill, many trees. I do advise a guiding hand, of course, so you may want to consider taking a one-on-one class or doing a workshop. Regardless, if you want to do bonsai right you must be prepared to pay your dues one way or another.
I’ve found that one of the best ways to learn how to build a bonsai is to see how the masters do it step by step. Here’s a progression on a neat water-elm raft I collected back in 2010, taking the tree all the way through its design to the pinching and refinement/maintenance stage.
Here’s the tree a couple of weeks after I collected it. You can see the new shoots just beginning to push. I think you can also see the potential I saw. I just knew there was a bonsai in there somewhere!
I let the tree grow out for the next season, for two very good reasons: 1) to regain strength, and 2) I hadn’t yet figured out quite what I wanted to do with it. This didn’t mean I failed to recognize this tree as a future raft-style bonsai; rather, I wasn’t yet ready to tackle the necessary styling grunt work.
Here the tree is sitting in an old Tokoname tray I had had for 20 years. (What to do, what to do?)
The first thing I figured out was the pot didn’t quite work. I had this terrific Paul Katich oval on hand, and once I matched up tree to pot the first stage of making a bonsai out of this material was done. Now, it’s important to note here that you don’t necessarily take this step first. It usually comes last, in fact. But in this case there was no harm done – I knew with complete certainty that tree matched pot.
Now the tree is in the pot – wired in, of course, to prevent movement I don’t want – and the editing process is mostly done. Compare this photo with the first two above. What had potential, but at the same time was a tangled mess of a challenge, now seems much less daunting. In fact, I was able to see “bonsai” at this point.
Next came the necessary wiring of trunk and branch. In any multiple trunk specimen, it’s vital to ensure the trunks relate to one another in a harmonious way. The basic shape of a bonsai, when considered in two dimensions, is a triangle. Look at this specimen and you can see the top two sides of the triangle I intentionally created at the pruning phase.
Here’s the new raft-style water-elm bonsai all leafed out a few months later. Does this work as a forest? You bet it does. Compare it with the raw material I started with. It isn’t always easy to see the bonsai in the tree, but with practice it gets a lot easier.
Here’s the last photo I took of this bonsai before sending it on to a client. It was taken only four months after the previous photo. You can see I’m already getting good leaf-size reduction from continuous pruning and pinching.
All in all, I’m very proud of this water-elm bonsai. It’s one of my all-time favorites.
You too can learn how to master bonsai techniques. Classes begin in late-April 2015. One-on-one sessions are $150 for 6 hours of instruction.
Workshop schedule to be announced.
