This water-elm, Planera aquatica, has grown out well since getting its first wiring earlier in the spring. Enough so, in fact, that I had to unwire the new leader a few weeks ago to keep the wire from binding. But you can see how far the leader has extended, so no surprise there.
Lately I’ve been thinking it was time for this tree to inhabit its first bonsai pot. After all, building the crown will not require growth beyond what I can get in a bonsai pot. The branches are well on their way already, and in fact need to be cut back to begin the next phase of their development. So why not?
First a trim to bring the branches back to their ultimate limit. The style of this tree requires branching that stays close to the trunk. I’m doing this because the gnarly base of this tree is its best feature, and allowing the branches to run too far will only detract from it. So for future development and care, keeping the branches close to the trunk will be necessary.
Notice I’ve left the leader alone. It needs to continue to run in order to both thicken its base as well as to help heal the angled cut I’ve made. Water-elms heal cuts best where there’s really vigorous growth, and the crown of the tree tends to be reliably vigorous.
And the final result. This Byron Myrick round suits the tree well, don’t you think? It’s a little hard to see in this photo, but the surface rootage is very nice all around. This only serves to make the trunk base that much more impressive.
The trunk is 3″ at the soil surface and 2.5″ above the root crown. The finished height is going to be about 18″.
If you’d like to take over the development of this bonsai, it’s available at our Elm Bonsai sales page.
As I wrote yesterday, creating small bonsai is not as easy as you might think it would be. So much has to happen in such a short distance – literally, since these trees are under 12″ tall – that design skill becomes critical. This begins when you select a tree to work on (or collect). With experience this happens immediately when you look at a prospective piece of material. When you’re first starting out, it takes time to develop your eye – but it comes with time, so don’t get discouraged.
This Chinese elm, Ulmus parvifolia, is about four or five years from a cutting. It had gotten about eight feet tall, nice and lanky, and lay neglected off to the side in my nursery, before I chopped it back and repotted it. That was about four weeks ago. You can see in this photo that it’s thrown some nice shoots along the trunk. What does that mean? Well, it means I can strike a blow to overcome the awful “S-curve” Chinese elm trade with a well-designed little Chinese elm bonsai. The trunk base on this piece is right at 1″ in diameter, and it’s got some nice radial roots. There’s a bit of a turn in the trunk (no exaggerated “S” here). It’s enough of a turn. So I can actually design a bonsai starting with this piece of material that will be no more than 10″ tall. I’ll do this with fewer than 10 branches. And I believe it’s going to look great.
Now you can see where I’m going with this little guy. The new leader will make the rest of the trunk of this bonsai. I’ve wired, positioned and trimmed five branches. I’m going to leave the tree alone now, letting the leader grow out to thicken it. By late summer not only will my tapering transition be looking good, I’ll also have the remainder of my apical branches started as new shoots. That’s the way Chinese elms grow.
Not a bad start, eh?
Here’s an American elm, Ulmus Americana, that was lifted out of harm’s way in a flower bed a few weeks ago. It doesn’t yet have the root system the Chinese elm above has, so I don’t have strong enough shoots to wire yet. That will happen in another few weeks. But I’m aiming for a small bonsai with this one as well.
As you study this material, a couple of things stand out. First of all, there’s taper from the base of the tree to where it’s chopped. There’s also a turn in the trunk near the base, which provides some character and interest. While there’s not necessarily anything wrong with a straight trunk, both the formal upright and formal broom styles are among the most challenging to pull off. So for the sake of ease in styling, I’ll take this nice little tree with the curve in the trunk.
Should it be chopped lower? Certainly that’s an option. I’ll make that decision when it’s time to do the initial styling. That should happen by late June or early July.
And now we come to the “ready-made bonsai” approach to the hobby. I spotted this little water-elm, Planera aquatica, last summer on a collecting trip. The trunk had a nice curve in it and there was a set of branches ready to lend themselves to a broom-form style. So I brought it home and let it grow out this year. Today I cut it back, and we’ll see what it looks like in a few weeks. For a bonsai coming in at under 12″ in height, I think it’s going to look great.
I began working on this Water-elm, Planera aquatica, last year as my quest began to rebuild a collection devastated in Winter 2014. I’d collected this one in Summer 2014, and considering the great trunk character starting with the fine root base I knew this one would make a great addition. I posted the beginning of this work last June.
Today this tree was in need of some serious attention, as you can see in this photo. I first cleaned up the trunk (I use white vinegar, 50:50 in water, in a spray bottle with a toothbrush to do the basic cleaning; water-elms will take a stainless steel brushing also). Then it was all about returning the form of this tree to the style I was aiming for. That meant trimming, pruning and more wiring.
Altogether this work took about 30 minutes. You can see I have a new lower left branch. The tree was nice enough to throw a shoot lower down on the trunk, in just the right spot. So I took advantage of it and created a new number one branch. That improves the design of this tree immensely.
This is a specimen I posted for sale not too long ago. I was able to wire up a new leader and a couple of branches at that time. You can see from this photo that the tree continues to gain strength and has thrown a number of new shoots. Time for more wiring!
Now I’m starting to get a good branch set. You’ll notice I have another branch on the right-hand side of the tree. That was lacking before. Now the design is making a lot more sense. This tree is of similar quality to the one above, and will make a fine addition to someone’s collection. If you’d like to take on the challenge, simply go to our Elm Bonsai sale page.
I collected this unique water-elm, Planera aquatica, last August. Well, it’s just a phenomenal tree! It pushed a few buds in the fall, but then the season caught up with it and it stopped growing. I had spotted some nice roots extending across one of the pot’s drain holes, so I was very confident the tree was going to make it. Here’s a shot from April of this year, and you can see the new shoots just getting started.
Well, a month works wonders for a strong tree. This past weekend it was time to do the initial styling, before the new shoots got too stiff to bend. In order to memorialize the work, I shot a video (I’m not the best videographer in the world, mind you). It’s only 25 minutes in length, but I think you might find it instructive. If you’ve worked much with deciduous material, especially collected trees, the styling path you take tends to be the same from bare trunk to finished bonsai. Here’s the first step of the process for this tree.
Just click on the play button below. I hope you enjoy the show.
I posted this fall shot of my ‘Root Around Cypress Knee’ Water-elm, Planera aquatica. The tree had been in its pot for a couple of years. Because I had not been able to give it a lot of room during the first potting, I didn’t want to wait another year to cut back the roots and give the tree fresh soil. Plus I wanted to get an idea of the condition of the knee, which is not going to last more than another season or two. This knee is composed of sapwood. While bald cypress heartwood is virtually indestructible, the sapwood is very light and rots easily. This is especially true if the wood remains in contact with water. In the case of this tree, there was a smaller knee emerging from the left-hand side of the trunk base which rotted away last year. So that left me with the main knee.
Here’s a shot of the tree from the rear, after I pulled it from the pot. You can see there were plenty of roots. You can also see the very nice nebari this tree has. This is good news for the time when that knee isn’t with me any longer. It’ll make for a good, stable looking surface root structure.
In this shot I’ve already teased out and eliminated a lot of the roots, especially finer surface roots. This exposed the lower part of the knee and allowed me to judge its integrity. There’s softness going on, and because the knee has a cut surface on the bottom its ability to absorb moisture just cannot be thwarted. Cypress wood is pretty much like a sponge. This is why when collecting the species you have to seal the top chop. Water is sucked up through the sapwood from the severed tap and lateral roots, and it’ll evaporate right through the sapwood at the top chop and dry the tree out.
Another angle on the nebari embracing the knee.
Now the roots are all trimmed and the tree is ready to go back in its pot.
The final result. I’ve raised the tree somewhat in the pot, exposing the fine nebari it possesses. Even once the knee is gone, this is going to be a fine water-elm bonsai.
The trunk base is 2.5″ in diameter and it’s 21″ tall. The pot is a beautiful rounded-corner rectangle by Byron Myrick.
You may remember the story of this water-elm clump, featured in the blog post “How to Make Bonsai Lemonade – Part 2.” I had taken a nice raft-style tree I’d been working on for years, that got almost killed off in Winter 2014, and gave it new life as a clump-style bonsai. Part of that process was potting the tree into this nice Byron Myrick tray. But there was a problem with the composition, at least to my eye. Does anything jump out at you?
While the pot is a very nice one, it just felt too large to me. When the pot is too large relative to your bonsai, it diminishes the impression of size the tree produces making it look more juvenile. The proportions are wrong. Remember, it’s not the purpose of the pot to overwhelm or “outshine” the tree; rather, the pot’s purpose is to complement and thus “frame” the tree. They have to work together. When the pot isn’t right for your tree, your eye will tend to be drawn to that fact as you view it just as it is to a flaw in the tree itself.
I’ve been waiting patiently for signs of swelling buds on my water-elms. Indeed, they come out later that most other species I work with. This past week I saw some signs, so that told me it was time to correct the flaw in this bonsai.
I just got this nice tray in from Chuck Iker. If you compare this photo with the one above, you can see how much different the tree looks now. The pot doesn’t overwhelm the tree. Moreover, the tree now looks larger and more mature. The proportions are just better.
Pot selection is one of the more difficult skills to learn when you’re studying the art of bonsai. We all tend to focus on the trees themselves, and rightfully so. Getting a tree styled properly is no mean task. But that doesn’t mean we can neglect this most important piece of the puzzle.
This tree is now available at our Elm Bonsai sale page. It should be ready for shipping in about three or four weeks max, once it’s leafing out.
Oh, and if you can discover the one rule I’ve blatantly broken with this clump, I’ll give you an ironic 10% off the price.
This water-elm, Planera aquatica, has grown out well since getting its first wiring earlier in the spring. Enough so, in fact, that I had to unwire the new leader a few weeks ago to keep the wire from binding. But you can see how far the leader has extended, so no surprise there.
