by Zach Smith | May 28, 2016 | Care, Pruning, Sweetgum
I assembled this Sweetgum forest, Liquidambar styraciflua, last year. As you can see in this photo taken just today, it has responded beautifully. Sweetgums are apically dominant, so each tree in the forest is doing its level best to get as tall as it can in a big hurry. This is all well and good, except for the smaller trees I’ve crowded in with the bigger ones. They’re in some danger of getting weaker and possibly dying if I don’t actively manage the growth of the larger trees.
It’s also time to actually work on styling the individual trees in this composition. I think you can see just what a challenge that is! You can’t even see inside this planting, much less get in there and make pruning decisions. So, what to do?
Well, it’s a good time of year to defoliate Sweetgums that are well-established. And that will make it possible for me to actually see how each tree has grown and correct any problems early in the game.
Defoliating an established bonsai is a tedious chore. I mean, they have so many leaves, right? The good thing about Sweetgums, and this is true for maples as well, is that the leaves are attached to the branches by means of petioles which are often as long as the leaves themselves. So what you do is just snip the petiole of each leaf. In about a week, the petiole will have formed an abscission layer where it attaches to the branch and fall off on its own. This also protects the latent bud in the leaf axil.
In the photo here, I’ve gone through and evaluated each tree’s structure in light of its place in the forest. That means taking off low branches on the larger trees, removing branches that are growing toward the interior of the forest in such a location that they won’t get sufficient sunlight, removing crossing branches, shortening branches, and so on. The entire project took about 30 minutes. But the forest is shaping up nicely, don’t you think?
I expect all of these trees to be back in leaf within 2-3 weeks. As I begin to pinch the emerging new growth, the leaves should start getting smaller and in better proportion.
I’d love to hear any comments you may have on this forest.
by Zach Smith | May 15, 2016 | Care, Elms, Potting, Sweetgum
May is Sweetgum, Liquidambar styraciflua, collecting time. We were gone the first week of the month on vacation so I’m a week behind, but the work has now begun. Here are a couple of specimens I’m sure will make nice bonsai:
This one is on a lateral subsurface root, meaning it needs to be a connected-root style tree. In a couple of weeks it should be producing new buds, and that’s when I’ll have an idea where I’m going with it. Trunk base is 1.75″ and it’s 10″ to the tip of the taller leader (which needs to be shortened, by the way, it’s pretty ugly right now).
This specimen is a little more traditional, with a nice turn to the lower trunk. Incidentally, I didn’t wire that curve into the trunk, it grew that way on its own. This one also has a 1.75″ trunk base and is 10″ to the chop. It’ll be ready for an initial styling next month.
I lifted this Cedar elm, Ulmus crassifolia, today and direct-potted it into this lovely Chuck Iker round. It had terrific branching straight out of the ground; all I had to do was cut it back to shape. The trunk base is just under 1″ and it’s 12″ tall. Nice upright specimen, don’t you think?
In a couple of weeks I’ll know if I was successful with this one. Cedar elms are tough as nails, so I’m pretty confident.
By the way, this is another of my best bonsai trees for beginners. If you don’t have one, get one. You won’t be sorry.
I expect to post these trees for sale next month.
by Zach Smith | Apr 10, 2016 | Care, Pruning, Styling, Sweetgum, Wiring
Several years ago I began growing the Sweetgum, Liquidambar styraciflua, you see below in a nursery container. It grew fairly typically for Sweetgum, nice and straight as it reached for the sun attempting to become 80 feet tall. Periodically I would chop the growing trunk to a smaller branch and then let it grow some more. I also had allowed a couple of low branches to run wild, in order to thicken the trunk base.
In August of 2014 the young tree had reached a point where I felt it was time to give it a tree shape. In the photo at left, you can see the very young shoots that have been wired into place. You may also be able to see the point where I chopped the growing trunk, in order to bring the tree back into proportion.
Fast-forward a year, to August of 2015. Those tender young shoots I had wired a year earlier now have some heft to them, not to mention pleasing movement. This is one design principle to always keep in mind: trunk movement should be reflected in branch movement. You don’t want a curving trunk and arrow-straight branches. This is why we wire young branches, so they won’t look static to the eye when the bonsai is being viewed. Also, when you wire young branches be sure that you put both up and down and side to side movement in them. Otherwise the bonsai will not look as realistic as a natural tree.
Here’s the tree just over a month later, after trimming the strong growth to produce a nice silhouette. At this stage of development, I’m left with working in the crown area of the tree. This Sweetgum bonsai is about 70% of the way to “completion.” I know that 2016 is going to be the time when I finish the design.
It’s now April 9th, 2016 and this Sweetgum, now very rootbound, is waiting to push buds. In fact it’s lagging other specimens for this very reason. So with the basic design development about 90% complete, there’s really no reason not to put this tree into a bonsai pot. If you look closely you can see two new buds along the leader emerging from the chop halfway up. These will be wired to provide two branches filling up the empty space that currently exists. I’ll let them grow out, then wire and shape and let them run. Once they harden off, it’ll only be a matter of pinching and developing the ramification needed to complete this part of the tree.
It’s a little hard to see in this photo, but the two lower branches are chock full of buds. These will ultimately produce the ramification needed in the lower part of the tree.
One more thing to notice in this photo is how drastically I root-pruned the tree. It’s common for new bonsai enthusiasts to shy away from the drastic root-pruning trees need in their development phase. What this results in is trees with rangy, poorly tapering surface roots. This critical element of bonsai design can’t be overemphasized.
Here’s the tree in its bonsai pot, a nice Chuck Iker round. The color of the pot will complement the bright green of the Sweetgum leaves when they come out.
This tree has a trunk base of 1.25″, and it’s 13.5″ to the tip of the apex. It’s available at our Sweetgum Bonsai sales page. Ship date late next month.
by Zach Smith | Dec 19, 2015 | Care, Elms, Oaks, Pruning, Sweetgum
Winter is supposed to be a time where all sorts of bonsai activities more or less come to a halt, but the fact is there are a number of chores we can and should do in order to move our trees along. One reason to get these chores out of the way is to keep from having to do them in spring, when repotting tends to take center-stage.
This water oak, Quercus nigra, has been growing from a volunteer seedling for several years now. I chopped it a couple of years ago and left it alone to see what it would do. It produced what’s known as a “sling shot,” where you have two leaders in a Y shape, and it’s universally considered ugly (and it is, let’s face it). So today’s task, one of a number in the ultimate development of this pre-bonsai specimen, is to eliminate the sling shot and set the tree up for its next round of growth.
Step number one: saw off one of the legs of the Y. I chose the thicker of the two for a couple of reasons: one, its movement was at a little sharper of an angle than the other, which I didn’t care for; and two, it was thicker. One of my goals is to create adequate taper in the trunk of this tree. By cutting to the thicker of the two legs and letting it grow out, I would be limiting the amount of taper I could expect going forward.
Next I chopped the new leader. It’ll bud very near the chop and I’ll allow a leader to grow unrestrained in 2016. This should thicken the original transition area and make the tapering look much more realistic by the end of the next growing season.
I couldn’t leave that big stub where I chopped off the right-hand leader, so the next step was to saw it down in anticipation of next year’s growth. This chop will start rolling over, and I have to be sure it looks right or else I’ll need to re-chop. I hate doing development chores on trees twice (or more).
Here’s a final shot from an different angle. While there’s no real need yet to try and figure out where the front of this tree is, it’s fun to speculate on possible future directions for it. With that sizable chop – which granted in time will heal over – I may consider turning it into an uro down the road.
One final comment about oaks. They don’t seem to need to be sealed like most other species, though I do seal all of mine. Oaks are known to have the ability to compartmentalize damage that occurs to them, which is no doubt one of the reasons they can live so long.
This sweetgum, Liquidambar styracifula, grew this way all by itself from a volunteer seedling. I really like the cool snaky curve and it’s got good taper already. Developing trees like this one is a pretty easy process – you just chop and grow a new leader repeatedly until you have the trunk you’re after.
And here it is, sawed off and the chop sealed. Easy as pie. One thing I will have to do this coming spring is to watch for competing leaders and select the most suitable one. But the most difficult part of that will be remembering to do it.
Last but not least is this Chinese elm, Ulmus parvifolia, three or four years from a cutting and planted out a couple of years ago. The trunk base is now about 1″, and my plan is to grow it to at least 2″ before lifting it. First things first, of course, and that means managing the growth so that I get taper and decent trunk movement.
Right now this specimen is a twin-trunk. I’m not sure that will be the ultimate plan, but if not then the secondary trunk is in a great spot to help thicken the primary trunk.
Just a couple of quick cuts, and now this tree can continue to grow in 2016. It’ll probably take until about 2018 to get to the size I want. So stay tuned for more updates.
by Zach Smith | Dec 5, 2015 | Care, Elms, Hawthorn, Sweetgum
It’s still a couple of weeks before the official start of winter, but I’m very close to having benches full of winter silhouettes. This is one of the reasons I love deciduous trees. You definitely get four full seasons out of them, from spring budding through summer vigor, fall color (we do get some down here), and finally the bare branches that define the winter-hardy tree. I for one am always impressed by the quiet dignity of an old deciduous tree in winter. If you study them long enough, you can get a true sense of all the decades of silent watching they’ve done. Nothing else is needed of them but just being. They serve their purpose through the generations.
A deciduous forest is quite a sight. This sweetgum group, Liquidambar styraciflua, has just begun its journey as a bonsai in 2015. Next year all I need to do is pinch the new growth and let it continue to get established as a coherent group. Pretty simple work.
This water-elm clump, Planera aquatica, looks really good for its first full year of training. It’s already starting to develop the twigginess that will make this group look like a real forest.
And finally, my big riverflat hawthorn, Crataegus opaca. I absolutely love the way this tree looks. It’s very close to completely built; I only have the crown to grow out, which should be mostly done next year. I’ll then be able to focus on improving the tapering transition. By the end of the 2017 growing season, this tree will be spectacular.
by Zach Smith | Nov 29, 2015 | Care, Elms, Pruning, Sweetgum, Water Elm
The only thing I envy about my fellow bonsai artists from up North is the fall color they get to enjoy on their deciduous trees. In the Deep South we typically don’t get a lot of fall color. When we do, it arrives suddenly – this weekend for 2015, to be precise – then the leaves all fall within a few days and winter ugliness begins. I was pleased this year to see a little fall color in my garden, and wanted to share a couple of trees with you.
Here’s the sweetgum I recently posted for sale. One reason I love sweetgum is that it’s one of only a few species that will actually produce reds and purples in fall down here. We mostly get yellows and browns, which are certainly attractive in their own right but you just can’t beat the reds and purples in my opinion.
Here’s my “root around cypress knees” water-elm. It’s in need of a trim, but I wanted to show it before pulling out the shears since I knew I’d knock off a lot of the leaves in the process. This is typical water-elm fall color. I sometimes get it, but most of the time don’t.
And after a quick shearing. These remaining leaves may hang on for a few days; but for now, they look really nice.
