Harvesting A Hefty Huckleberry

by | Dec 26, 2019 | Blueberry, Care, Collecting, Potting, Pruning
It’s Huckleberry collecting time, and today I harvested a hefty one. Here it is, right out of the ground with the roots washed off. The trunk base is 2.5″ above the root crown. This is about the trunk size limit for the species, as near as I can tell. I’d estimate the age at 25-35 years.
Those of you who have followed my work for any length of time know I’m a firm believer in chopping roots hard. Why? It’s all about the bonsai pot. If you can’t get the roots you’ve chopped into a bonsai pot, with some room to spare for the new roots that are going to sprout from the cut ends, you’ve just handed yourself a big future headache! Yes, I’ve been guilty of this in the past, and more than once. But I do learn, even if it’s sometimes a slow process. So these roots are cut back enough to comfortably fit the bonsai pot this tree will go into. Is the tree at risk? Absolutely not! When you collect deciduous and broadleaf evergreen trees, you’re removing not only most of the root but also most of the branching as well. This balances the tree perfectly, so when new roots and shoots get going there’s no undue stress. The tree “wants” to live, and it does what it has to in order to live. (Note: Boxwoods are a special case among the broadleaf evergreens, in that you have to leave foliage on the branches or you risk losing them; you can thin the branching, just don’t cut back to a bare trunk or branches.)
Here I’ve reduced the trunk to its proper line. I’ve also turned the tree. Is this a better front? It does have something going for it.
This is the better front. If you compare this photo to the one above, you can see the trunk has a little curve in it from this angle and that’s definitely better. There’s also a good rootage presentation from this angle as well.

And here’s the tree potted up. The trunk is chopped at 15-16″, which should produce a finished height of about 24″ or so. I love the color and character of the trunk, and I’m confident this Huckleberry is going to be a fine bonsai in three or four years.

Let me know what you think of this specimen.

What Lies Beneath – Zag When You Gotta

by | Dec 24, 2019 | Care, Elms, Potting, Pruning, Styling, Water Elm, Wiring
The mildness of winter (so far) plus the need to get things moving for 2020 encouraged me to pot up this Water-elm. It’s a nice smaller specimen, an unconventional triple-trunk. The larger ones are 3/4″ thick, with the entire base 2″ across. The first thing to figure out is the right front. Here’s one option.
Another option. The trunks seem a little too evenly spaced here.
I think this is it. There’s uneven spacing between the trunks, and good perspective among them. Also nice complementary movement among the trunks.
As for training at this time, I only needed to trim away some unneeded shoots and trim back some others. A little wire for a couple of stronger shoots was also called for. Once growth begins in spring, I’ll look to add more wire and finish the basic design. Then it’s all about grow and clip, which Water-elm seems to have been created for. I’ll have a complete bonsai by the end of the 2020 growing season.
Here’s where the tree zigged on me. When it came out of the ground, there was the main trunk and then, from the base of an original shoot that grew into two of the three current trunks, a large surface root. I left that root when I potted up the tree. Why? To remove it would have rendered the appearance of the tree odd and off-balance at the base, and I wanted to avoid that. At the same time, I left the main root base longer than I should have. True to form, new roots sprouted from all around edge of the cut base. In order to keep them going forward, I’d end up having to pot the tree relatively high in its bonsai pot. That won’t do with this specimen, which needs to be in a low-profile pot in order to look right. The only solution is to zag. I can’t cut off that surface root on the right, so I have to take off a good chuck of the base along with all the roots growing from it.
Here’s what I was able to make happen. The tree now sits low enough in the pot to make a believable multi-trunk specimen. I also retained the balance provided by the root on the right side. I think the zag worked.
The end-result says it all. The pot, by the way, is a nice unglazed Lary Howard round with a unique design cut into it that’s reminiscent of cobblestone. I think it suits the tree very well. Let me know what you think.

More Collecting, A Couple More Examples

by | Dec 15, 2019 | Care, Collecting, Elms, Potting, Privet
Here’s a quick update for today – a balmy Deep South winter day, high 75, meaning the weather wasn’t miserable for lifting trees. This triple-trunk Chinese privet, Ligustrum sinense, is actually a connected root specimen. The trunks are nice, with great taper, and the one on the right has beautiful movement. The small trunk in front is also pretty gnarly, but I’m not sure I can keep it considering its position and the fact that this needs to be the front of the future bonsai. But that can be decided later on. For a sense of scale the largest trunk is 1.5″, the next 1″ and the smallest 3/4″. Height of the tallest is 5″ at the chop. This one has a lot in a small package.
I’ve had this Zelkova, Zelkova serrata, in the ground for a few years now. Last year I chopped the trunk to build taper. The trunk base has reached just over 1″, so I decided to go ahead and get another specimen going for the 2020 inventory. I’ve got others still in the ground that I’ll continue to grow out.
Potted up and trimmed a little more. The tree is chopped at 10.5″, but that’s just until it buds in spring. I’ll re-chop to a leader that’s in the right spot relative to the transition point. For now, I want to protect the leader from dieback. For those of you who haven’t worked with Zelkovas, I can highly recommend the species. They grow very quickly, as many elms do, and this allows you to create a showable bonsai in just two or three years. This one already has some branching I should be able to use to create a design. But I’ll wait till spring to wire it, to give the roots a chance to firm up.

An Early Start On Collecting Season

by | Dec 14, 2019 | Blueberry, Care, Collecting, Flowering, Hawthorn, Potting, Pruning
I planted out some Parsley hawthorn whips a few years ago. True to the old adage, “first year sleeps, second year creeps, third year leaps,” this year I’ve noticed a number of the specimens have put on some heft. A few have reached my minimum for lifting, namely, a trunk base of 1″. While I’ll certainly leave most to get bigger still, it’s nice to have some smaller specimens to offer.
I’m not sure what happened to this one or when, but it’s grown itself into a raft. Nice.
Here’s the first one on the potting bench. I have to choose between two leaders, either of which would do fine. You can see I’ve got some good roots to work with. My experience with hawthorn has been that they do quite well with a lot less root than you think they need when collecting them. My survival rate through the years has been 90% or better.
Yep, not much root at all. I’m still trying to decide on the leader.
I went with the straighter one. Not sure if it would have been better the other way, but the good news is this tree will produce multiple buds where I chopped that other leader. If I want, I can grow a new leader from one of those buds. So it’s not a big deal one way or another.
And here’s the raft, all potted up. I’m thinking this is going to make a very cool bonsai. What do you think?
I lifted this Huckleberry today. I’m very excited about it. I see a round pot and foliage confined to the upper part of each trunk. It’ll take a season or two to grow the left hand trunk the way I want it, but the results should be spectacular.
I have a choice of more than one front with this specimen. Which would you choose?

A Huckleberry Bonsai For 2020

by | Nov 27, 2019 | Blueberry, Care, Flowering, Potting, Pruning, Styling, Wiring

So it’s time for Thanksgiving weekend, and aside from overeating that can only mean bonsai fun for me.

I collected this Huckleberry, Vaccinium sp., this past winter. Except for minimal training work, I’ve just let it grow to get established. With the weather see-sawing back to warm (we went from 22F overnight last week to 70F overnight last night – yeah, that’s South Louisiana weather!), I figured why not learn something new.

Where’s the front? I’m not sure yet, but that doesn’t stop me from starting the trimming process. Huckleberries are vigorous growers, so I’m very confident in my design fleshing out next year regardless of what I do now.
More pruning of long stuff.
Now that’s pruned back good!
It does take a while for Huckleberries to put on some good root growth, but this one did its thing in just a year. Like I said, I just let it grow this year without trying to rush things (today’s the day to rush things, right?).
More wiring, shaping, and into a pot by Lary Howard. I switched back to this front. The leader will be cut back in spring, once it buds out at the first node. I left it long in case of dieback. I think this composition is nice. The slanting style isn’t my favorite, but now and then you come across a tree that just insists. I always like to go with the flow whenever possible. Let me know what you think. I’m personally very fond of Huckleberries.

Bonsai Questions That May Have A Yes Answer

by | Oct 19, 2019 | Care, Chinese Elm, Elms, Potting
Black cherry, Prunus serotina, is very common where I live and probably where you live too. They’re lovely trees, too, with dark plated bark and glossy green leaves. The fruit is edible though tart and not very palatable. The wood of larger specimens is prized, and when you burn it for firewood you get a nice aroma in the house. But no Black cherry bonsai …. You’d think that the species would be commonly grown as bonsai, by those of us who love native species. The problem is, collecting decent size specimens just doesn’t work out. Why? They tend to suffer dieback with no warning, and are easily infected by fungi. So I gave up trying to collect them years ago. And then, three years ago, I spotted this seedling in the yard. It made me wonder if a bonsai could be grown from the ground up. Here’s where I am so far. The base is only a half-inch in diameter, but you can’t argue with the lush foliage I got this year. Next year I’ll either let it keep on growing, or cut it back and see if it recovers and continues to grow well. Stay tuned.
Can you root a 1″ Sycamore cutting? It looks like the answer may just be yes. I have a relatively young specimen I’m allowing to grow for shade, and last month I decided to remove a low branch I was tired of dodging when I mowed past. The thought struck me, what have I got to lose if I dust this thing, stick it in a pot and put it off in the shade? It took about six weeks, but I was able to find some roots near the base. So I carefully covered them back up and resumed ignoring it. And then it kept on pushing foliage. We’ll see if it makes the winter.
Can you miniaturize an Iris? I have a large hole in the yard that’s been thoroughly colonized by Louisiana irises over the past 20 years. They produce lovely purple blooms each spring. I got this crackle glaze pot from Lary Howard earlier this year, and it seemed like the perfect place to try the experiment. The taller blades you see are a good bit smaller than those in nature, less than half the height. But check out the small little tuft off to the left. It’s coming off a small rhizome that branched off the main one. So this seems promising to me. I can’t imagine the thing will bloom, and even if it does the flowers won’t be small (unfortunately). But I’m still excited about the plant.
Here’s why I’m hopeful about the Iris. This is native horsetail (scouring rush) – it is not a dwarf variety! I put a few canes in this 2.5″ Chuck Iker pot a few years ago. As each year came and went, the canes got smaller and smaller. Now some measure only 1 mm in diameter. The regular size for horsetail in nature is about 1/2 inch.
And the final question of the day. Can I lift a ready-made Chinese elm forest in July and grow enough roots on it by October to allow me to slip-pot it successfully? I’ll know the answer next spring, but I’m betting it’s yes.