Trunk Building Oaks

by | Jul 23, 2020 | Care, Most Recent, Oaks, Pruning, Styling, Willow

trunk building oaks

the bonsai files

Sneak Peek

Most of the time we can get a good trunk line with our collected trees. Sometimes, however, you have to rebuild almost from the ground up.

Trunk Building Oaks

I collected this Water oak, Quercus nigra, from my iris swamp two years ago where it had grown up as a volunteer. The lower trunk was especially interesting to me, considering that having grown in such a wet environment it really took on a lot of character as the tree got bigger. With a base measuring 2.5″, I figured I’d have a nice oak bonsai about 20″ tall give or take.

Alas, as sometimes happens this tree did not push buds all the way up the trunk. With oaks, you frankly don’t know going in. You just lift them and hope for the best (at least that’s been my experience). Oaks are great bonsai subjects, so the effort is always worth it.

 

Here’s what I ended up with (in September of last year), after letting this strong shoot run. The base of the tree makes this effort continue to be worthwhile. You just have to have “future” vision.

This is more or less the way you always build trunks from specimens like this one. You let a shoot grow out, then you cut it back to just above a node so the tree will push a shoot from there and allow you to continue building.

Doesn’t look like much, right?

Now we’ve got almost another year’s growth on the tree. I put some wire on the shoot that grew out following the second chop, so I could get a little movement in what’s going to be the trunk and avoid having it become boring (too much work goes in to allow that to happen).

Here are a couple of tips for handling your trees during the trunk-building phase. One, pay no attention to all of those branches that have chosen to festoon the leader; they’re all going to get chopped off, sooner or later, because we’re trunk building (remember?); and two, always remember to keep a node close to where your leader is emerging from its origin. If you don’t do this, you’ll end up with an empty length of trunk that may not work with your design. You can always not use an extra shoot. If you’re missing one in a spot, that may only be remedied by grafting.

As I’ve noted before, whenever you carve on your deciduous trees you need to carve until you find living tissue. In this case, I ended up with a very nice angled chop which is going to be needed sooner or later – so why not now?

There’s nothing more to do on this tree for 2020. I need additional thickening at the transition point, and the fall engorgement of the branches should help with that. Come 2021, I may be ready to build the next section of trunk.

Here’s another oak that didn’t bud quite like I wanted. I’m pretty sure it’s a Willow oak, Quercus phellos, as the leaves are mostly willow-shaped and for species in the wild this is common.

So during the 2019 growing season I was able to do a little wiring of what the tree gave me. This is something you’ll no doubt do on many occasions, if you collect trees.

If you study this photo closely, you’ll be able to see where I chopped back the leader from the shot above, after it had grown out about five feet (and thickened, which was the goal). I’ve wired up the new leader, and wired another branch/leader on the right side that can be used in the design. My goal with this specimen is the so-called broom-form, which is very common for oaks in the wild.

I’d love to hear what you think about these two oaks. Leave me a comment below.

Big Hoss Gets Carved

by | Jul 18, 2020 | Care, Elms, Most Recent, Styling, Water Elm

big hoss gets carved

the bonsai files

Sneak Peek

Two years ago I introduced “Big Hoss” the Water-elm to you. Last year I chopped the trunk so I could improve taper. Now it’s time to do some carving on the chop.

Big Hoss Gets Carved

Here’s another look at “Big Hoss” the Water-elm from May of 2019. It had grown out very well after coming home in 2018, and I needed to chop the trunk to improve taper. That left me with a nice angle cut, but frankly those look unnatural until you do something to them.

 

First let’s check in to see where we are now with this very large specimen. The leader has been allowed to grow wild, except for a little wire in the beginning to put some shape in it. This has promoted thickening at the transition point, which is absolutely vital to making this a believable bonsai down the road. I don’t want to trim the leader yet – it’s about five feet long, but the good news is Water-elms put on taper without much coaxing so the leader can be chopped back whenever I want.

Here’s a closeup. The cut is flat, and that’s boring and unnatural, so the solution (almost always) is to carve it. Water-elms do not have the healing properties of other elm species, so while this wound will roll over to some degree it will never close up completely. That’s okay, however. All I need to do is carve it and manage the dead wood. Lime sulfur and PC Petrifier will do the trick.

You probably also noticed this chop lower down. Also needs carving.

I make no bones about preferring hand carving tools … but sometimes you need 35,000 rpm to get the job done.

That went fast. There are two keys to your first round of carving an angled trunk chop: one, don’t go too deep, you’ll be carving again down the road and you can’t uncarve if you go too far; and two, make sure your carved area will shed water.

Yes, it’s time to go from 35,000 revolutions per minute to about 10 gouges per minute.

Now I’m in deep enough for this session. The wood was mostly nice and solid, except for a small area to the right. I got out the punky stuff and will treat with lime sulfur and then PC Petrifier.

This is another thing to bear in mind as you carve on your trees. You will hit spots that are soft while not appearing to be that way. It’s normal. When you do, carve out as much of the punky stuff as is prudent to do, keeping in mind the area needs to shed water, and use PC Petrifier to harden what you’ve exposed. The stuff works great!

I used the same process for this chop, the Dremel followed by the hand tool. You can see that here too I found some soft wood. Whenever you can, carve down to living tissue.

Here’s an example of finding the living tissue.

One more spot out at the end of this sub-trunk/heavy branch needed carving. The hand tool was all I needed for this one.

And this is the result for today. Those spots on the tree that didn’t look so natural are greatly improved. Once the leader has put on another diameter’s girth, the callus will be rolling over that trunk chop that I carved and it will begin to take on the look of something that happened all on its own. When you carve a tree, that’s always your ultimate goal.

Let me know what you think of today’s work. And if you’d like to take over the development of Big Hoss from this point, it’s available at our Shop. The trunk on this tree measures 5″ across; it’s a significant and outstanding specimen Water-elm.

Does Design Drive The Tree, Or Tree Drive The Design?

by | Jul 11, 2020 | Care, Dogwood, Most Recent, Styling, Wiring

does design drive the tree, or tree drive the design?

the bonsai files

Sneak Peek

We’re all familiar with the established styles of bonsai. Almost all of the trees we create will fit one of them. But sometimes the tree drives its own design, and you have to be prepared to go with it.

Does Design Drive the Tree, or Tree Drive the Design?

I bought this Roughleaf Dogwood (Cornus drummondii) back in May, and I’ve been waiting for it to get stronger in the apex before working on it. You can see why I got it – it’s got killer bark and deadwood. Now, deadwood on deciduous trees is uncommon and some of you may reject the whole idea. I get it. But I think there’s a place for deadwood on certain deciduous trees, and frankly if it doesn’t belong you can usually sense it immediately upon viewing the tree.

Regardless, if you study this tree for a bit you’ll come to the conclusion, as I did, that it’s probably not going to fit the standard informal upright mold. To be sure, there are cases where you can skillfully “force-fit” a tree to a standard stsyle. And then there are those times when you just can’t.

 

So this is looking a bit like a windswept style tree, right? I can’t argue the point. But to my way of thinking, just because you have all of the branches pointing in one direction on a tree doesn’t make it a good windswept bonsai. This is probably an arguable point with this tree, but as I studied the work I’d done it just wasn’t saying “windswept” to me.

So I turned the tree to a position that has a few things going for it: one, the very fine nebari is better shown from this viewing angle; two, by changing the position (using a block for now, and then potting it this way) I get a more viable design; and three, you can still see the fine bark and enough of the deadwood. I call it win-win.

What’s the downside of this tree-driven design? I don’t have any back branch at this time. This problem can be solved one of two ways, either by the tree pushing a bud in back (which is entirely possible, but most likely not till next spring), or I can do a foliar fill using the side branches and wiring sub-branches into the back space.

What do you think of this tree? Am I way off base with my design concept? Do you prefer the windswept look? Let me know.

Swamp Maple Progress – A Couple Of Key Developmental Concepts

by | Jul 8, 2020 | Care, Maples, Most Recent, Styling, Wiring

swamp maple progress – a couple of key developmental concepts

the bonsai files

Sneak Peek

When you develop raw material for bonsai, you’ll follow a familiar pattern. There’s plenty of detail and nuance in how it goes, though. Here are a couple of key developmental concepts you need to know.

Swamp Maple Progress – A Couple of Key Developmental Concepts

Let’s go back to the stick in a pot beginning stage on this Swamp maple. If you collect your own trees or buy them at the raw material stage, you’ll follow a familiar pattern. Stick in pot; trunk buds; new shoots; select and wire; train up leader; trim when needed; angle chop trunk; unwire and rewire as needed; prune or shear; and so on.

 

Here’s the initial styling point.

And here we are today. This is just what you want to see in your new bonsai to be, more growth after that initial surge and the work you’ve done on it. Today I want to drill down and show you a couple of extremely important developmental concepts. These are indispensable to your work, if you want the tree to both look right and maintain its health.

You almost always have to build a leader/apex/crown with collected material. That’s only part of the story, however. Building a leader from a rough chop always requires thickening up the transition point. We all know that to do that, we must allow the leader to run and get strong. But … there’s also the need to ensure that the first internode from the transition point is not too long. The last thing you want in the crown of your tree is an obvious empty space where a branch(es) needs to be. You probably won’t hear this talked or written about much if at all. Remember, there will be buds at that branch collar where the new leader emerges from the trunk. All well and good. But if your next branch is too far away from that point, you will end up having to do remedial work on your tree. It’s always best to get it right at the start.

In the case of this tree, I didn’t have to take any extraordinary measures to get a short internode. This certainly doesn’t always happen, so in cases where your leader appears to be bolting you’ll have to pinch it before it gets too long, and then let a new leader bolt from that first internode. This is how you’ll get both the thickening you need, as well as a short first internode. It doesn’t matter, by the way, if the second internode is too long. You can always chop back to that first one after you’ve got a well-thickened transition section, and regrow a properly proportioned crown.

The final notes for today. Of course there’s going to be an angle chop on the trunk – probably not until next year. I’ve illustrated roughly the line it’s going to take when it happens. There will be carving to follow, naturally. But the important thing to note here is the location of the branch at the back of the tree and near the bottom of what will be that angle chop. Why is this important? Because you don’t want an open stretch of trunk below the base of an angled trunk chop. That only invites dieback and ultimately rotting wood. The branch I’ve pointed out here will give me the best shot of maintaining sap flow after I make the chop. Sap flow promotes healing. And healing will be a key factor in maintaining the health of this maple.

Let me know what you think. Do you manage the internodal length of your new leaders on deciduous trees?

Defoliating, Potting And Styling A Large Bald Cypress

by | Jul 3, 2020 | Bald Cypress, Care, Most Recent, Potting, Pruning, Styling, Wiring

defoliating, potting and styling a large bald cypress

the bonsai files

Sneak Peek

It’s July 4th weekend, so the traditional cookouts, fireworks and defoliating Bald cypresses are in order. That’s right, defoliating Bald cypresses is a tradition for BC lovers. Today’s victim is also getting his first bonsai pot.

Defoliating, Potting and Styling a Large Bald Cypress

I wasn’t kidding when I said most BC’s get pretty shaggy as summer marches on. This one, which I’ve been working on for three years now, is a perfect example. The tree has shown good strength this year, allowing me to take the next step in building the apex and tapering transitionl that means it’s time for defoliating, potting and styling the tree.

 

I thought you’d like to see a closeup of the apex I’m building. You can see where I chopped the leader early this season. It dutifully pushed a bud in the right spot, and that bud took off and thickened up in just a couple of months.

Here’s the tree, almost completely nekkid. They look like weird brooms that you couldn’t use to sweep up anything, don’t they? But that’s all part of how we make a well-developed Bald cypress bonsai.

I’m sure you’re wondering why I left the foliage at the very top of the tree. I want the energy focused in the apex of the tree, in order to finish thickening that transition point. By letting the leader run, I’ll get what I need. So while the rest of the tree is rebudding, the apex will be drawing energy and extending.

Here we are after a trim and a trunk-brushing. When you defoliate your cypresses, it’s a good time to do some cleanup since you can really see all of the trunk.

Out of the nursery pot. The root system is healthy; the tree was not as root-bound as I would have expected, but that’s okay.

Here’s a shot from the backside. Good surface roots all around. I always bury collected trees sufficiently to protect the surface roots that come with them. This is an example of sacrificing current pleasure for future pleasure. When you lift a tree that has great rootage, it’s only natural to want to be able to see it. Unfortunately, if you succumb to that desire there’s a good possibility that one or more of those roots will dry out and die. So bury ’em deep!

I got this custom pot from Lary Howard just recently, and I think it goes beautifully with this specimen. The only thing left to do now is to make something out of that wild set of branches.

The styling part is always the most fun. This is another very good reason to defoliate your Bald cypresses about this time of year. You can very easily see the trunk and branch structure, and this certainly helps you correct any issues or just refresh and update the style you had in mind to begin with.

This is an exciting Bald cypress bonsai in the making. It only lacks two things: one, a fully developed apex including a smooth tapering transition; and two, maturity in the branches. But we’re well on our way.

The stats: trunk base is 5″ across 5″ above the soil surface; root spread 10″; finished height will be 34-36″.

Let me know what you think of this one.

Bonsai Odds & Ends – Bald Cypress Defoliation + Styling, Pocomoke Crape Styling

by | Jun 28, 2020 | Bald Cypress, Care, Crape myrtle, Flowering, Most Recent, Styling, Wiring

bonsai odds & ends – bc defoliation + styling, pocomoke crape styling

the bonsai files

Sneak Peek

We’re on the cusp of Bald cypress defoliation season. I did one today. I also did the next round of styling on a Pocomoke Crape myrtle.

Bald Cypress Defoliation + Styling, Pocomoke Crape Myrtle Styling

It’s Bald cypress defoliation time, that time of year when we get to remove all of the foliage from our BC’s and get a fresh new round of growth before the end of summer and fall show time. This is important because most of the time, most BC’s will get “shaggy” foliage by about August. If left alone, it really doesn’t get better and you won’t want to show your tree if you belong to a local club and they put on a fall show.

The problem of shaggy foliage is easily rectified by taking all of it off. For us down South, it’s often a July 4th event as that makes for good timing as the new growth takes a few weeks to really kick in. As long as your tree is strong, you can do this every year.

This specimen is going on to a new home in a few weeks. Not only is this the perfect time to take all the foliage off, it also allows for some styling work as the tree’s structure will be easy to see.

While you do have to exercise some caution when pulling off the foliage (always away from the base of the branch, and you need to hold the base of new shoots or you’ll pull them right off), this work goes quickly. Here you can see that I’ve allowed the “vestigial” branches to throw some up-pointing shoots. Why? Because this BC, just like every last one of them, is powerfully apically dominant. Lower branches get less energy as a result, so one way to remedy the situation is to encourage and allow upward-pointing sub-branches. This helps thicken up those vestigials quickly. But … time to take them off (for this round).

Here’s where I ended up after a final trim and some wiring. This bonsai has come a long way in a short time, and is pretty much at the pinching and light pruning stage. The trunk chop will be completely healed over in another year or so, and at that point the tree will be in its maturing phase as a bonsai.

While we’re on the subject of Bald cypress, here’s my big forest experiment I wrote about not too long ago. I’ve been waiting patiently for the new main tree to resume growth, and especially to push some strong buds/shoots near the trunk chop point. My patience has now paid off.

And a closeup of the main tree. I have four shoots to choose from, and I’ll be making my selection very soon. That shoot will be allowed to run for the rest of the growing season, probably with a bit of wire to guide it as needed.

You probably remember this Pocomoke Crape myrtle from earlier in the season. I did the initial styling and potting back in March, and I’ve been letting the tree grow out since then.

That low left branch was a big question mark. I even had a comment from a reader to the effect that it needed to go. I like having options, especially when I’m unsure of a design move, so I left it alone at the time.

Fast-forward a few months, and the tree has definitely settled happily into its new home. I recently did a little selective pruning, but today it’s time for some additional work.

So what about that low left branch? I was just about to remove it, and then I studied the tree some more and noticed something about the branch above it that I had initially wired and positioned downward. What if that branch went away? In this photo I’ve moved it up out of the way, and did some styling work on that low left branch. Hmm. Now I think I see why I left the branch there. The branch higher up has the challenge of emerging from what is the bottom of the trunk. While I’m sure this could work all right, it remains an awkward and not necessarily aesthetically sound location for a branch. I think it has to go.

Now that branch is gone, the one above it makes more sense design-wise, and that low left branch is exactly in the right spot with a good shape to it. I’m sure this is what I saw in the recesses of my mind when I first started out on this tree. So I’m glad I didn’t cut too quickly.

This tree is a good, strong, beautiful Crape myrtle specimen and is now posted for sale in our Shop. It’s going to make a great addition to someone’s collection.