by Zach Smith | May 13, 2019 | Care, Potting, Styling, Vines, Wiring
I lifted this Trumpet vine, Campsis radicans, in June of 2017. Why not go straight to a bonsai pot with it? While this is not a good idea most of the time, vines are hard to kill and are reliable at producing roots.
Here’s the tree a year later. The growth has been good, and it’s shaping up into a nice upright tree form.
So I decided the pot was not quite right for this specimen for a couple of reasons: one, it’s a personal piece in my collection, the tree not necessarily; and two, I felt it was a bit “heavy” for the composition. So I picked out another pot and lifted the tree to transplant it. What did I find coiled up in the pot? Well, it’s not a snake though it sure could pass for one. This is about two years of Trumpet vine root growth. It all had to go.
Here’s the tree in its new home, a fine Lary Howard oval. This pot is a lot “lighter” than the previous one, which I think complements the graceful trunk line much better.
Now we wait and see if the root surgery was a success.
I spotted this specimen recently, growing in a tangle of weeds, Monkey grass and oak saplings. What could you make out of this?
Ah, there’s the future bonsai!
A few weeks later, the vine is re-establishing itself. I trimmed off the stubs that weren’t needed, giving me a perfect trunk line.
Now it’s easy to see where this one is going. It has nice trunk taper and movement, and I already have a start on the leader and branches. I think I’ll end up keeping this one for myself.
by Zach Smith | Dec 28, 2018 | Bald Cypress, Care, Chinese Elm, Elms, Vines
Chinese elm, Ulmus parvifolia, is commonly called Lacebark elm. This common name was given due to the fact that the species exfoliates its bark annually, revealing a lovely underlayer with a nice orangey-salmonish color. I was cleaning up this specimen today and for the first time since I potted it the tree has shed some of its bark. That’s a milestone in this tree’s life as a bonsai, which began in 2014.
I’ve done some trimming on this tree, and will do a little more before spring. Chinese elms are among the first species to bud out each spring for me. Even though winter just began, I can’t wait for warmer weather!
I potted up this Trumpet vine, Campsis radicans, in 2017. Since that time I’ve just let it grow and recover from lifting. The trunk is nice, as you can see. Today I rubbed off the shaggy bark, leaving the smooth true bark of the species. It’ll put on another layer of shag in 2019, as it continues to grow.
The foliage is mostly off of the Cypresses, but this one is clinging to some pretty fronds. I thought it would be fun to share the image.
In another month or so, I’ll make the year two chop in the apex to continue the development of the tapering transition. When I do, I’ll post another blog on it. 2019 should be a good year in the life of this future bonsai.
by Zach Smith | Jul 8, 2018 | Care, Crape myrtle, Flowering, Hackberry, Pruning, Styling, Vines, Wiring
There are distinct phases in the bonsai year. Spring 2018 is just a memory now. But that’s okay. Summer is never dull. While you can’t do everything in summer you can in spring, I guarantee you’ll keep busy if you know what needs doing and how your individual trees will respond. Here are a few examples to consider.
I lifted this Crape myrtle, Lagerstroemia indica, in May. True to the species, it came back quickly and with great vigor. Within a month I had this design under way.
Crapes love summer. They grow fast and bloom like crazy from about July through August and even into September. If you’re developing a bonsai, the fast growth is just what you want.
Today I had to do some more trimming (that vigor thing, you know). While I was cleaning up the chop point and one of the earlier trunk chop points lower down on the tree, I happened to turn it. What did I see? I’m thinking a better front. What’s your preference?
This Hackberry, Celtis laevigata,came home in February. Spring brought some cool weather, so I’ve been patiently waiting for this and a lot of other specimens to kick into high growth gear. It finally paid off, and today looked like a good time to do an initial styling on it. The leader remains thin, so I’ll let it run wild for the remainder of the 2018 growing season. Next year, this tree should develop quickly.
You may remember this photo from March. This is a branch on a Sweetbay magnolia, Magnolia virginiana. That big fat bud at the terminus is not a foliar bud – at least that’s what I thought at the time it set, namely last fall. I’ve never grown the species, so I wasn’t sure what I was looking at.
The buds are opening now. And they are definitely flowers! Pretty awesome.
I decided to advance my knowledge of this species the hard way, by slip-potting this specimen. Yes, the branches are way too long, but once the flowering is over I should be able to cut them back and reduce the profile of the tree.
I think I’ve got a nice literati bonsai to be, assuming it doesn’t object to the “out of season” potting.
Back in May I posed the question, “Is this a Catbird grape?” This was because of the leaf shape as the specimen recovered from collecting. I figured once the initial recovery growth settled down, I’d find out for sure.
It’s not a Catbird grape; it’s a Muscadine. You can see that very large leaf in the left of the photo. While the older leaves are of a very different shape, all of the growth now is quite round. So the scientific name, Vitis rotundifolia (“round leaf”), makes perfect sense.
I decided to slip-pot this specimen too.
Plus some wiring and trimming. You can see the connecting root of the two trunks, which I’d buried to protect it when I first lifted the specimen. It’s 3″ across at the base. This was the time to expose it. The pot is an exquisite handmade piece by Lary Howard.
I’m planning to keep this one for my personal collection. If you’d like a Muscadine let me know. There are plenty around here.
And that’s what I did today.
Let me know what you think.
by Zach Smith | May 19, 2018 | Care, Collecting, Hackberry, Styling, Vines, Wiring
Everybody knows that you avoid trying to make bonsai out of magnolias. Grandiflora, specifically, with its dinner-plate sized flowers. No, I don’t go there, so this isn’t going to be about some valiant effort to overcome the species. With that said, this Tulip poplar, Liriodendron tulipifera, which is a close cousin to Southern magnolia, was growing right where my driveway begins and there was no way it could keep on doing that. I’d seen where someone out there was trying to grow this species as bonsai, and the trunk on this one had nice movement and some taper, so I figured why not. So into a nursery pot it went, and once the shoots were out enough I did some wiring on it. Isn’t that leaf size huge? So I’ll keep playing with this specimen, and if something comes of it I’ll post an update later in the season.
This is one of the Hackberries, Celtis laevigata, that I collected in February. It’s put on enough strong growth that today I felt it was time for an initial styling. Most of the growth is in the top third of the trunk that I lifted, so that means I’ll need to grow the tree a little taller. But I’m confident I can make something of it.
Not a lot to this quick styling, but I think you can see where the tree is going. I just love the movement of the trunk, and that “owl hole” or uro to the Japanese is a great feature. The leader is going to carry probably a handful or so of branches once it gains some heft … but that’s for another time. For today, this is enough to get something going.
And finally, we have this really interesting vine. I had someone contact me who was interested in our native southern grape, the Muscadine (Vitis rotundilfolia). We have plenty of them around here, so I went out and found this specimen which I was sure was a Muscadine. I never heard back from the guy, but once I started getting some tendrils pushing I noticed the leaves did not look like Muscadine leaves. They’re palmate, rather than roundish. So I pulled out my handy guide to native vines, and it appears this specimen may be what’s called a Catbird grape, Vitis palmata. Sometimes when you collect a tree, shrub or vine, the recovery leaf shape is different from the shape once the growth gets established and reverts to normal. I don’t know if it’ll happen here, but regardless I think it’ll be fun to work with this twin-trunk Grape vine.
Let me know what you think about today’s odds & ends. I’d love if you leave a comment below.
by Zach Smith | Jan 2, 2018 | American Elm, Bald Cypress, Crape myrtle, Dogwood, Elms, Hornbeam, Vines
There’s not much growing at this time of year, so I got to pondering some fascinating facts about 10 of the species I grow as bonsai. Here they are, in no particular order.
This species produces more trunk buds when collected as bare stumps than just about any other species. This makes branch selection almost problematic (too many choices!).
This species have male and female flowers on different plants. The bright red fall berries occur only on the female plants. The leaves and stems of common Yaupon, Ilex vomitoria, were brewed into a tea by Native American men for use in purification and unity rituals. These rituals included vomiting, hence the scientific name given by Europeans when they originally classified the species. Only the Yaupon tea does not actually cause vomiting. Oops.
With this species, new shoots are square when they first emerge. As they extend and thicken, they round off.
The beautiful white flowers are not flowers at all (as in flower petals), they’re white flower bracts. The actual flowers are yellow and inconspicuous, and reside in the center of the bracts.
Tricky to prune larger roots, as the bark will separate easily. Sawing works better, however, don’t saw straight through from one side or the bark will likely peel on the other side of the cut. (Even with experience you will likely make a mistake here and there when preparing collected elms.)
American elm – champion in leaf-size reduction, from 5” long in the wild to under ½” in a bonsai pot. This is the first image to your left. Six weeks later (image to your immediate left), this American elm already has much smaller leaves. Easy stuff!
This is perhaps the most popular fig species grown as bonsai, it is unknown in the wild (meaning you can’t go look at mature specimens in their natural habitat). The original plant was discovered in a Florida nursery by Joe Samuels, who eventually acquired and began propagating it. If you have one, it came from this single specimen.
This species grows continuously throughout the growing season, never pausing as most species do. There’s always fresh new growth. This trait is almost unique among species grown as bonsai.
Figs are technically among the flowering plants (angiosperms), so where are the flowers? Actually, the flowers are inside the fruit and never “bloom” as we understand the term. Typically a specialized wasp enters the tiny opening at the end of the fruit to pollinate it.
This species is quite the bean! I know we don’t tend to think of the lovely Wisteria in such terms, but as a member of the legume family Wisteria is related to all of the beans and peas. Once the stunning flowers have done their thing each year, a pod slowly but surely develops until it’s quite obvious by fall.
This was a fun topic for me. I sure hope you enjoyed the read. Drop me a comment below; I really enjoy hearing from people who love bonsai as much as I love it!
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by Zach Smith | May 14, 2017 | Care, Collecting, Elms, Styling, Vines, Water Elm, Wiring
“Dragon” the Water-elm put on a lot of growth last year, as you can see in this photo where I can’t get it all in the frame. I left it to grow without any restraint last year because the branches need to gain heft. But there does come a point where you have to prune to encourage more growth – plus you can see the apical leader is very close to being just right once I carve out the shari into it.
There comes a point in the life of most bonsai where you can put away the wire and just use “grow and clip” to achieve your design plan. I’m pretty much there with this tree. I used wire to set the direction of the new branches and leader that grew out starting last year. Once those were established, I got all the back-budding I needed to enable me to select secondary branches. Going forward, all I need to do is select those new shoots pointing where I want them.
Here’s something different. A couple of years ago I collected this Muscadine, Vitus rotundifolia, which is our native grape here in the South (and elsewhere; it ranges up to Delaware). I liked the twists of the “trunk,” so I figured what the heck?
Yesterday I decided it was time to do something with this Muscadine – after all, it had gone to all the trouble of growing like vines grow and seemed not to mind container life. So I grabbed a suitable pot and went to work.
This Chuck Iker round has a nice dark glossy glaze, which I think complements the bark color very well. I trimmed back the tendrils, so now it’s time to just wait and see what happens next. I’ve never grown Muscadine, but love exploring new and unusual species. Grape bonsai are not commonly grown, but there are nice examples out there.
I’ve been sharing with you the progress of this Sycamore, Platanus occidentalis, since I got a wild hair and dug it up earlier this year. So far it’s been one of those crazy fun projects. I have no idea if it’s going to make a good bonsai, but I’m sure going to give it my best shot.
And I swear I had no plans to go out and get any more Sycamores, but one day I noticed that one growing near the back of my property had fallen over. I assume this happened in a recent storm, but frankly it didn’t make sense to me. When I examined the tree, it was clear that either I needed to finish taking it out of the ground or it was a goner. So I figured what the heck?
Here’s what came out of the ground, minus most of the trunk and the bulk of the foliage.
And potted up. I’m pretty confident it’s going to live – I don’t know that you can kill Sycamore – but given how short a tree this is, making something like a bonsai out of it should be an even bigger challenge than the first one.
