by Zach Smith | Sep 14, 2019 | Care, Elms, Potting, Styling, Water Elm, Wiring
There’s no denying that fast development in our bonsai is a good thing. To be sure, time in training really brings a bonsai to a fullness of design. But getting the design established quickly is, in my view, very important. Some species lend themselves to this effort much better than others. Elms are in this category.
About a year ago I published this photo of a tree we had collected roughly a month earlier. Not surprisingly, it grew out with vigor and that allowed me to do the rough design.
In just over a year from initial design, this is the stage of development for this specimen. The branch structure is well-established, and you can probably tell it’s been pruned a couple of times this season.
The next phase of development for this bonsai is to continue refinement of the foliage pads. My technique over the years has been to shear to shape as the rough design develops. It’s only after that phase is completed that I zero in on specific sub-branching to finish the refinement. Of course, no bonsai is ever finished, but you do have distinctive periods where the tree is showable in its intended form.
Here’s another really great specimen that I potted earlier this year. While the pot is a terrific piece, I knew shortly after potting the tree that what I needed was a round container rather than an oval. But that could wait; I needed more root growth and strengthening first.
I just acquired this Ashley Keller round, and it certainly better suits the tree. I removed a little root when I moved the tree over, but it didn’t skip a beat.
The main chore I have right now is to continue developing the crown of the left-hand trunk. That will be completed during the 2020 growing season. I also obviously need to hard-prune that low right branch on the right trunk, which came with the tree when it was collected. But that too is a 2020 chore.
And another specimen, as it appeared back in April. While you can see the form taking shape, it frankly doesn’t yet look like much. The key at this point is to allow the branches to grow out and thicken, so they are in proper proportion with the trunk.
Five months later. Is this fast growth or what? This tree has been wired, pruned, unwired and pruned some more in a handful of months. I love it!
This one got a late start on its bonsai journey, with the initial styling and potting this June. Wonderful trunk taper, movement and character. Some nice branches to work with. And I think the Lary Howard round just makes this bonsai.
Not bad for three months’ growth, right? I’ve done some trimming and of course had to unwire most of the wire. It’s such a strong tree that when I went to lift it from the bench to photograph it, a pair of roots had escaped a tiedown hole and grown down through a bench slat. I’m talking eighth-inch roots!
So this one will get the same treatment as the others, little to minimal pruning going into fall, removal of the last bit of wire if called for, and then dormancy care. Next year should complete the design.
I’d love to hear what you think of these trees. I’m pretty proud of them.
by Zach Smith | Sep 8, 2019 | Care, Ficus, Maples, Oaks, Styling, Wiring
I love working with unusual species, and making bonsai that defy the normally accepted rules for design. Here are a few examples of current projects.
First off is a Red oak, Quercus nuttallii, that I collected in East Texas a couple of years ago. (East Texas lies at the extreme western end of the range for the species). This is another example of a tree that decided to only bud low on the trunk. I let it get strong last year, and this year chopped the trunk way back. It’s nothing to write home about at present, but I have a leader I let grow that was cut back hard earlier this season. My original thought was to just grow it out. However …
Considering how big the leaves of a Red oak are, it struck me that making a shohin bonsai out of this specimen will absolutely fly in the face of bonsai orthodoxy. Imagine a tree only 8-10 inches tall, with pretty big oak leaves. That’s got to be something pretty cool, if I can pull it off. the base of this one is 2.5″ across, so it’ll taper pretty dramatically when all is said and done. I’m thinking it’ll make a nice statement.
I’ve blogged before about edible fig, Ficus carica. I made this one from a cutting a couple of years ago, and it’s now grown into a decent shape. The base is up to 1″ at the soil, and as you can see it produced a good bit of fruit this year. I may pot it next year, if I think it’s ready.
Edible fig is one of those species you can’t make much headway wiring. It’s best to just prune them to shape – with the understanding, of course, that they decide which branches to keep and which to shed.
I’m posting this Boxelder (Ash-leaf maple), Acer negundo, with trepidation. I know, it’s a terrible species for bonsai and I don’t hesitate to share my disdain for them. At the same time, what’s bonsai without a challenge? So I lifted this one in August(!), and defied it to live. Naturally it did. Had it been a prize anything else, it would have audibly croaked as I lifted it from the ground. But not Boxelder!
If you’re going into bonsai no man’s land, you have to go all the way. So I wired and pruned this survivor. Now I ignore it till either the wire bites in or next year, whichever comes first.
Let me know what you think of all this.
by Zach Smith | Sep 7, 2019 | Care, Potting, Privet, Pruning, Styling
Privets seldom disappoint. This one has put on a lot of growth in just a couple of months, and I can tell by the strength of it that a slip-potting now shouldn’t cause any problem for it. But first, some design work.
Most bonsai design work is “grow and clip,” regardless of how you approach a tree. Wiring is certainly important for branch placement, but you’ll prune and pinch many more times than you’ll wire any tree. In this photo, you can see how much growth I’ve removed.
The final step before potting this tree is to bring in the profile. It’s often hard to make yourself cut a tree back as much as it needs to be, but over time you get better at making those decisions.
And that’s all it took! This privet is going to fill out in 2020, and should bloom for the first time in 2021. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.
by Zach Smith | Sep 1, 2019 | Care, Oaks, Pruning, Styling, Wiring
I love oak bonsai. Oaks are, in fact, among the best deciduous species available for bonsai. They take to pot culture well, backbud well, have great bark, and many species have small leaves. What’s not to like? Here’s a Water oak I lifted this summer in order to make way for some landscape modifications. Though it didn’t but all the way up and down the trunk, it did give me enough to work with.
Chop, wire, shape. This specimen isn’t much to look at, but I can grow out the leader next year sufficiently to make the transition at the chop look realistic. From there it’ll just be a matter of creating a branch structure.
Here’s another Water oak that budded even lower on the chopped trunk. The base on this one is so nice it’s worth growing out. The project should take four or five years, but it promises to be fun.
The first step is to chop back that long leader, so that this coming year I can build another section of the trunk. Doesn’t look like much of anything, does it?
I first showed you this oak back in February. When I first lifted it, I was convinced it was a Water oak. As the tree grew out, the leaves kept getting bigger and bigger. I’m now convinced it’s what we call Red oak commonly but is officially Nuttall oak (if further research produces a different result, I’ll update you).
The growth has been outstanding this year, so much so that I’ve had to cut it back four or five times. The only problem with the growth, however, is that it’s been mostly concentrated in the upper half of the tree. It did produce a late bud lower down the trunk, so that’s worth taking advantage of.
First a little trimming to bring the height down.
Making use of the low back branch in order to put some foliage where I need it. When this branch fills out next year, it will be a critical help to the design.
Same thing for that first left side branch – wire and position. A nice tree form is taking shape.
A little wire on a branch in the crown, a final trim, and I think I’ve got a nice oak bonsai in the making. Let me know what you think about this tree. Personally, I really like it. I think the leaves are going to reduce well-enough to make it believable.
by Zach Smith | Aug 31, 2019 | Care, Collecting, Elms, Pruning, Styling, Water Elm, Wiring
“Big Hoss” is a really big Water-elm we brought home last summer. Recently I posted him for sale as raw material. I’ve been studying this unique piece of material since we first happened upon it. No question it’s an awesome specimen. But how to make the most of it?
After clearing out some unnecessary shoots, it was time to make a decision with regard to the fork in the trunk that’s part of the charm of this tree. This was easy. My reciprocating saw made short work of it. The bigger problem lies in the part of the tree above this fork. While it does have gradual taper, and while my intention has always been to use all of that trunk, the more I’ve looked at the tree the more I realized that this is not the answer. Why? The base of the tree is nice and stout, and it tapers pretty quickly to the area of the fork. Then, for the next 18 inches the character of the tree changes. So we end up with stout at the bottom, slender up above, with that neat fork planted right in the middle. Stout and slender won’t go together in this tree, so I’ve got to get rid of slender as a design element. The question being, of course, where exactly to chop.
Here’s the winning spot. Notice now that I’ve done away with slender and created more stout. There’s no stylistic conflict anymore.
A little wire and a little shaping. This tree has a ways to go, but the direction is completely clear and there’s little doubt the ultimate form of this bonsai will be rock-solid. The leader will be allowed to grow out untrimmed until sometime next year. I need it to get a lot thicker at the base, so callus will start to roll over the top of the angle cut. Likewise, the branch at the base of the cut will provide some callus there. In about two years it’ll be time to do some carving on the chops (both of them); by that time the result should look very natural. Let me know what you think. Did I do right by Big Hoss?
Here’s Big Hoss’s “brother,” another specimen from last year that got styled back in April. You may remember where we left off.
This tree has put on an amazing amount of growth. Notice how much the leader thickened in four and a half months. It’s been chopped back, and has grown out new shoots. I’ve also been able to cut back a lot of the other growth. Come 2020, this tree may be ready for a bonsai pot.
by Zach Smith | Aug 18, 2019 | Care, Oaks, Privet, Pruning, Styling, Wiring
You’ve been following the development of this Water oak (Quercus nigra) since last year. The tree was collected in February of 2018, but failed to bud except in one spot. The obvious answer was to make bonsai lemonade out of that lemon.
Here’s the tree last November, after a good whacking. Because I had good taper where the transition was, I didn’t hesitate to pot the tree in this Byron Myrick rectangle.
Now we’re a year from the first photo above, and the branch development is clearly robust. I like the way the proportions of the tree are coming along. The only chore to be done today is to do some strategic pruning.
With a few branches taken off, and the overlong branches trimmed back, you can get a much better sense of where I’m going. I’ve left the leader alone, in order to continue to beef it up all along its length. That will be vital in making this a believable bonsai. I’m beginning to question the value of the low left branch in the final design, but I’m not willing to take it off yet. What do you think? Does it add to the design?
Here’s the next Chinese privet (Ligustrum sinense) that gets styled. I’m always amazed at how fast they grow.
I love it when I run across a specimen I can chop to make a short, fat bonsai out of. This one has a 1.5″ trunk base and is chopped at 4.5″. I can make the whole design in under 10″.
And one last privet for today. This one also has a 1.5″ trunk, but is chopped at 8.5″. It’ll make a nice 12″ tall bonsai. I collected this one and the one above on July 28th. I’m betting I’ll be wiring both of them next month.
