Elm Wednesday

by | Jun 24, 2020 | American Elm, Care, Elms, Most Recent, Pruning, Styling, Wiring

elm wednesday

the bonsai files

Sneak Peek

As summer kicks into gear, it’s time to prune and wire/re-wire your elms. Here are some trees that I’m working on.

Elm Wednesday

Back in April I hard-chopped this Water-elm to eliminate a straight section of trunk. The goal was to make a better specimen out of this tree. You’ll end up doing this any number of times in your bonsai journey, and it’s never easy. But once you reconcile that nagging sense that your tree can be a lot better with the immediate loss of a lot of work, you’ll end up with much better trees.

This one is moving forward now, just a couple of months later. Sure, there’s a long way to go to rebuild the apex of this bonsai, but the work will go much faster than you might expect and the result will be well worth it.

Notice that I also hard-pruned the rest of the tree. Again, this is how your building process should go. Trees can get quickly overgrown, and hard-pruning is one of the most difficult things to make yourself do. I can honestly say I’ve never regretted cutting off more when pruning a tree; but cutting off less, that has been a problem on many occasions.

This Water-elm is currently in the Bonsai South collection, though I suspect it’ll go on the block before too much longer. This shot is from just over a year ago. It’s been through a few rounds of “grow and clip” since then.

Notice how I’ve used the same technique in hard-pruning this tree. Each round of growth has thickened the branches and increased the ramification. I’ve almost got the branches to the desired thickness. By the end of this growing season, I should be almost done with the design. At that point, pinching and maintenance pruning will be the main techniques used to keep this bonsai in top shape.

This tree just got potted about a year ago. I knew when I first collected it that I had a very special bonsai to be, and I was really eager to work on it. The initial design was easy, and this will most likely be your experience with most of your trees. The next steps often get a lot harder.

A lot has happened since the photo above was taken. With a year of growth accomplished, the ultimate form of this tree is coming into focus. Branches have been grown out and cut back hard. Some that need more thickening have been wired and pointed upward to encourage them to run. By this time next year, I should be entering the more detailed phase of tree-building. As always, though, you can’t take shortcuts and end up with a good result.

Last Water-elm for today, a really terrific raft I’ve been working on since last year. It’s been through a round or two of shearing. Each time it gets closer to the design goal.

Everything is filling out with each new round of growth. As I’ve mentioned before, shearing (or “hedging”) is one of the best techniques for developing deciduous bonsai that have their basic design in place. Shearing increases ramification and reduces leaf size. This is absolutely vital to the end-goal of making your bonsai believable. In the case of this specimen, it’s really starting to look like a natural forest.

This one is on sale at our Shop page for a few more days. If you’re into raft-style trees, this is about as good as they get.

Let’s shift gears back to this American elm I styled and potted a couple of weeks ago. I’m a big fan of American elm, and highly recommend them for bonsai. They are tough customers, and are not susceptible to Dutch elm disease even if you’re in a part of the country where the disease has decimated the species (bonsai do not get tall enough to allow the disease to complete its life cycle).

Here’s where this little bonsai to be was after I got through whacking it down to size.

And here come the buds! This is two weeks after the initial potting, and in another two weeks I’ll have shoots that are several inches long. All I’ll need to do is pinch and prune, and remove the wire when it starts to bite. By keeping the form of this tree in check, I’ll have nice small leaves to finish out the season. With a little luck, I’ll get some nice yellow fall foliage when the time comes.

Watch for this tree to hit our Shop page sometime in the next month.

Last but not least, here’s a Zelkova I’ve had in the field for about four years now. It’s been chopped and regrown, and now has a workable trunk that’s just under 2″ in diameter. Today I lifted and potted it, and I expect it’ll come back out in a couple of weeks. I should have a basic design built by the time fall gets here.

Let me know what you think of these specimens.

Styling A Big Bald Cypress

by | Jun 19, 2020 | Bald Cypress, Care, Instruction, Most Recent, Pruning, Styling, Wiring

styling a big bald cypress

the bonsai files

Sneak Peak

The big collected Bald cypresses start out pretty much the same way. They recover pretty much the same way. Then comes that day when you dive in ….

Styling A Big Bald Cypress

I acquired this big Bald cypress last month from another collector. It’s got a super nebari, plenty of radial roots with a good flare down into the soil. Plus there’s trunk movement and taper. The thing to do now that it’s pushing roots out of the pot’s drain holes is to build an initial design.

This process, incidentally, is one you’ll do over and over again. Deciduous trees are mostly collected the same way, and start out as bare trunks. This works exceptionally well with Bald cypress since it buds so freely on old wood.

Now, looking at this specimen you might be wondering how it’s going to look like anything. To be sure, there’s a paucity of branches. But that’s only the second worst blank canvas to start with when designing a bonsai. It’s far worse when you have too many branches. So this is a good one to work with, since I only have limited design choices (not to worry, it’s plenty).

 

So a little editing and I start at the bottom, two branches at a time. When you’re working young BC branches, try to crack them gently as you position them after wiring. Breaking the longitudinal fibers helps the branch set its position more quickly and easily. I know some artists who say you can do this completely without wire. While this is true, there’s also a risk and that’s when a bird or falling branch lands on your well-placed branch. The wire helps keep it where you put it, so I always recommend wiring.

Here we go up the tree. Couple more branches get their turn. Notice that things are starting to look up, because I’m putting (present and future) foliage masses in their necessary spots.

Were you wondering about that empty space on the left side of the trunk just below the chop area? I had a branch in back of the tree that allowed me to fill that gap. The design is unfolding very nicely.

You probably noticed that pretty thick branch under the leader. I could have wired and man-handled it downward, but the fact is most of the energy of this tree is near the top so by simply cutting off the branch I’m sure to get a couple of buds in that same spot. I’ll simply choose one when it reaches a nice shoot stage and wire it. It’s nice to have a forward facing branch once you get in the upper third of the tree (you have to be careful with these, don’t overdo them and don’t place them too low).

Finally the coup de grace. This tree is strong enough to get its angle chop this year rather than next. That will give me a head start on the tapering transition. The leader needs to continue growing, and I’ll let it do just that, but I can also start getting callusing of the angle chop this year.

So this tree is on its way. If you’d like to take over the development, it’s available in our Shop. I’d estimate you could realistically go to a bonsai pot with it in just a couple of years.

Big Cedar Elm Update

by | Jun 14, 2020 | Care, Cedar Elm, Elms, Most Recent, Pruning, Styling

big cedar elm update

the bonsai files

Sneak Peak

It’s time to check in again on my big Cedar elm. I write often about the stick/stump to bonsai path. This is one of the best examples I have on my bench.

Big Cedar Elm Update

Above is a shot of this tree as a stump, then this photo of the initial wiring back in 2017. That was just a few months after it was collected. I normally like more trunk in my collected trees, but this one came only with great radial roots and lower trunk movement and taper. You work with what you get.

 

I’ve blogged before as this tree has been built from the ground up. The obvious biggest challenge in this tree is to create roughly the top half of the tree. This procedure is a multi-step, multi-year process and there’s no short-cutting it if you mean to get it right.

I let the latest leader grow all last year, and it’s now about six feet in length. So … time for another chop. Where to chop is the question, of course.

How about this possibility?

No, of course not. There’s almost nothing going for chopping the trunk in this spot. There’s no taper and you can’t see any movement from this angle.

This spot is much better. It complies with my rule of thumb that calls for chopping a branch or leader two or three basal diameters from the point where it emerges from the trunk or trunk chop.

Here’s a closeup of my new chop. I’ll get a new leader here, most likely from a bud that forms near one of the lateral branches you can see.

 

And finally, a trimming of the branches to finish off today’s work. This tree continues to develop per my plan. Just another few years and this will make quite a Cedar elm bonsai.

That lowest branch has been bothering me for a while. I think the tree looks better without it. What do you think?

Building A Small Tree By Building A Tall Tree

by | Jun 6, 2020 | American Elm, Elms, Most Recent, Potting, Pruning, Styling, Wiring

building a small tree by building a tall tree

the bonsai files

Sneak Peak

I’ve written before about using the sacrifice branch to thicken the trunk base of a tree while building the future bonsai. Here’s another good example of this technique.

Building a Small Tree By Building a Tall Tree

This American elm was grown from a cutting I started about five years ago. It’s been entirely container grown. Two years ago I put it in this larger nursery container, with the idea of building trunk size. This happens faster in the ground, of course, but you can also do it (albeit more slowly) in a container. The use of a sacrifice branch is one of the best tools when container growing your trees for size.

Here it’s easy to see the future bonsai – the small tree – in this rather tall tree (almost four feet tall, to be exact). I’m after a smaller bonsai with this specimen, so there’s no reason not to chop it today and move it into the final stretch.

Here we are after the unceremonious chop. Now we’re starting to zero in on our goal.

Always look for opportunities to improve taper and movement. I was able to cut the leader back to what will become the new leader.

 

Here it’s wired up. Much better.

Now some wire on the right-hand branch. It’s now in a better position.

Time to cut off just about all the roots. This sort of pruning may look dangerous, but since I already removed 90% of the top of the tree, removing 90% of the root shouldn’t cause any harm. (I’ve done this countless times, and for most deciduous trees there’s never much risk.)

I just got in this Lary Howard round the other day. The warm ochre tones will go beautifully with the fall color of the leaves.

Here I’ve mostly defoliated the tree, and also given it a final pruning to bring in the silhouette. I should see new buds in about a week or so. I’ll then let the tree grown out for strength and then cut it back hard. That will really get the ramification process going, along with leaf-size reduction.

Stay tuned for updates.

Bonsai Odds & Ends – Oak, Privet, Crape Myrtle

by | May 30, 2020 | Care, Crape myrtle, Most Recent, Oaks, Privet, Pruning, Styling, Wiring

bonsai odds & ends – oak, privet, crape myrtle

the bonsai files

Sneak Peak

This is the time of year to be doing rapid development of many of our trees, due to their robust growth. Here are a Water oak, a Chinese privet and a Crape myrtle that moved closer to “bonsai-ness” with a little pruning and wiring.

Bonsai Odds & Ends – Oak, Privet, Crape Myrtle

I collected this Water oak earlier this year, and once it got established it just took off. I’ve had to trim it some already. With that kind of strength, the obvious thing to do was go ahead and work up an initial design.

First order of business: make that horizontal chop an angle chop.

This is quick work with a trunk splitter and knob cutter. Notice how much better this tree looks already.

There aren’t but a few branches on this tree (plus the leader) to work with. Is that a problem? Not really. The trunk chop was made 7″ above the soil, and the tree has a base of 1.75″. If the finished height of the tree ends up, say, at 16″ then the first branch will be in an okay spot and the majority of the branches will end up in the new leader anyway.

How about that low branch? I’m not sure if this is going to make a workable design element, but if you look at trees in the wild (especially oaks) they tend to have both a main trunk line and secondary trunk lines that fork off the main trunk. This one may be too low, but then again if it turns into something unique then so much the better.

This is a small Chinese privet I was able to chop to a rapidly tapering trunk line (7″ above the soil). When you get an opportunity like this, you take it. I love well-proportioned shohin bonsai.

Fast-forward a few minutes, and this bonsai in the making is trimmed, wired and shaped. It’ll grow out quickly enough to allow slip-potting in the next month.

This is a white-flowering Crape myrtle I grew from a cutting several years ago. Due to living its entire life in a nursery pot, the trunk has just reached 1″ at the soil. But … it’s going to make a cool shohin specimen.

The big takeaway from this example is how you can use a sacrifice branch/leader to thicken the base of a specimen, while at the same time working on a design that will ultimately become your tree. But there’s a caution you need to be aware of. That leader is taking 90% of the energy generated in the roots, meaning the ultimate tree is getting very little. This means you have the risk of losing branches you may have worked on for years. So there are limits to what you can do with a sacrifice branch. If you use this technique, you have to keep a close watch on the entire tree.

Here we are post-sacrifice of the sacrifice branch. This little tree is now on its way to a more complete design, now that the energy is going to be redirected.

Incidentally, I’d like to encourage you to use a saw rather than concave cutters when removing larger branches from a Crape. Even with a very sharp tool, the wood will break rather than cut smoothly. This forces you to come back and carve even if you don’t plan to. The saw makes a nice smooth cut. Get yourself a Japanese bonsai saw, which cuts on the pull stroke. It’s an indispensable tool.

Fun With Dogwoods

by | May 25, 2020 | Dogwood, Most Recent, Styling, Wiring

fun with dogwoods

the bonsai files

Sneak Peak

Dogwood (Cornus) is one of those species that just about anyone you ask would say they’d love to have one. Yet they’re uncommon as bonsai. The Flowering dogwood, Cornus florida, is a Southern icon. Yet as bonsai they’re hard to come by and not so easy to develop. Their cousin, the Roughleaf dogwood (Cornus drummondii), on the other hand, is a delight as a bonsai subject. Here are a couple I’m working on.

Fun With Dogwoods

I picked up some Roughleaf dogwoods recently from another collector. I was really excited to get them, because I’ve worked with the species for about a decade now and they are simply a delight as a bonsai subject. Their flowers aren’t as showy as the Flowering dogwood’s, but they more than make up for it by their tendency to have a denser foliage and a much more vigorous growth habit. Combine that with awesome bark and naturally good trunk character, plus ease of cultivation, and you’ve got yourself a real winner.

This specimen may not look like much at first glance, but there’s a hidden gem here.

 

If you look closer at the tree, the hollow in what’s going to be the front really stands out. Who knows how it came to pass – maybe a mowing crew passed by some time ago – but regardless it’s going to make one of the unique features of this future bonsai.

In case you were thinking that those two trunks didn’t seem to hold much promise, this is the trunkline I spotted when I first got the tree. The base is terrific, and now I’ve made the taper stand out.

One other thing worth mentioning with this chop is: notice all of the energy demand I removed from this tree. I took off probably two-thirds or more of the branching with the chop. That energy is going to be redirected into the remaining trunk, and that’s exactly what I need. The branches on this trunk are thin, though not necessarily weak, and by redirecting the energy I can count on them to take off and thicken up as they grow.

I’m planning to keep this specimen for myself. The trunk base is a solid 3″, there’s nice taper in each of the trunks, all of the tree is barky, and there’s even dead wood. Now, I know we’re not supposed to have dead wood on our deciduous trees, but it’s common to see this on older dogwoods. Their wood is good and dense, and holds up well. So if it makes sense on your dogwood bonsai, I say go for it.

The first chore was to work on the lower trunk. I chopped off all of it that didn’t look like a bonsai. I also removed a couple of branches that weren’t needed, and shortened others.

Next I simplified the taller trunk, removed unneeded branches, and then it was simple chore to wire and position the branches.

I think this specimen has a huge potential as a bonsai. I’d love to hear what you think of both these trees.