by Zach Smith | Dec 24, 2019 | Care, Elms, Potting, Pruning, Styling, Water Elm, Wiring
The mildness of winter (so far) plus the need to get things moving for 2020 encouraged me to pot up this Water-elm. It’s a nice smaller specimen, an unconventional triple-trunk. The larger ones are 3/4″ thick, with the entire base 2″ across. The first thing to figure out is the right front. Here’s one option.
Another option. The trunks seem a little too evenly spaced here.
I think this is it. There’s uneven spacing between the trunks, and good perspective among them. Also nice complementary movement among the trunks.
As for training at this time, I only needed to trim away some unneeded shoots and trim back some others. A little wire for a couple of stronger shoots was also called for. Once growth begins in spring, I’ll look to add more wire and finish the basic design. Then it’s all about grow and clip, which Water-elm seems to have been created for. I’ll have a complete bonsai by the end of the 2020 growing season.
Here’s where the tree zigged on me. When it came out of the ground, there was the main trunk and then, from the base of an original shoot that grew into two of the three current trunks, a large surface root. I left that root when I potted up the tree. Why? To remove it would have rendered the appearance of the tree odd and off-balance at the base, and I wanted to avoid that. At the same time, I left the main root base longer than I should have. True to form, new roots sprouted from all around edge of the cut base. In order to keep them going forward, I’d end up having to pot the tree relatively high in its bonsai pot. That won’t do with this specimen, which needs to be in a low-profile pot in order to look right. The only solution is to zag. I can’t cut off that surface root on the right, so I have to take off a good chuck of the base along with all the roots growing from it.
Here’s what I was able to make happen. The tree now sits low enough in the pot to make a believable multi-trunk specimen. I also retained the balance provided by the root on the right side. I think the zag worked.
The end-result says it all. The pot, by the way, is a nice unglazed Lary Howard round with a unique design cut into it that’s reminiscent of cobblestone. I think it suits the tree very well. Let me know what you think.
by Zach Smith | Dec 8, 2019 | Care, Elms, Pruning, Styling, Water Elm, Wiring
This nice Water-elm got its first bonsai pot in late February of this year (2109). I had collected it as a bare trunk, and chopped it where you see the obvious mark.
So here we are, just under 10 months later. There’s been a good bit of wiring and trimming during that time, and the tree is shaping up well. But … time for a cut and style!
Whenever you’re doing this sort of work, you need to examine the tree closely for this problem – namely, overgrown apical branches. Just about everything you’ll grow for bonsai will be apically dominant, and it’s this phenomenon that can literally ruin a tree. I’ve caught this one in time, but I do have to take strong measures to rebalance the tree’s energy.
This is the first step in controlling the imbalance, namely, cutting back the strong branch hard. Now, it will react as you’d expect, and try to regrow what I hacked off. As long as I come right behind and keep the branch trimmed, I’ll win the fight.
The problem is not as bad over on the right, but if I don’t cut back pretty hard it’ll just keep on thickening and get out of balance as the left one did.
And this completes the pruning of the crown of this tree. It’ll bud like crazy some spring, so I’ll need to be on my toes. But I’ll achieve at least tertiary ramification in the crown in 2020.
In this photo, I’ve done the rest of the cleanup pruning and trimming. All that’s left is to do some necessary wiring to get the structure back in line.
All set for the start of the 2020 growing season. This tree should be ready for grow and clip, for the most part, by next summer.
by Zach Smith | Oct 13, 2019 | Care, Elms, Pruning, Styling, Water Elm, Wiring
There are some tried and true bonsai design principles. The reason they’re tried and true is because they conform to fundamental design principles that are not strictly endemic to bonsai. Balance, proportion, perspective, positive and negative spaces, all of these are valid across the visual arts. So if we can learn and apply them to our bonsai, it’s hard to go wrong. This is a small Water-elm specimen with a trunk base of about 1″. It will, once designed, make a nice smaller bonsai not more than 12″ tall. You can see from this photo that the trunk tapers, and this automatically produces perspective. Now we have to strive for proportion and balance, and positive and negative spaces.
First I cut away all of the extra branches. The best bonsai are those that use the fewest branches possible to execute the design. For a small tree such as this one, the main body of the trunk will have only four or five branches. More would not make it better. So with the attitude of this tree slanting toward the right of the viewer, I know my first branch needs to be on the left. After that I need back and right branches, and so on until I reach the leader. You can see that I’ve trimmed away everything that does not fit with that plan.
The rest is wiring, positioning and trimming to shape, and that doesn’t take long at all. I have branches that, once they develop, will fill out the body of the tree. I have a leader emerging at the stub of the trunk, and this part (along with the lower branches, in time) I can develop using the grow and clip method. So with just a little study and then execution, I have created perspective, proportion, balance, and positive and negative spaces on this specimen. All I need to do next year is to move it to a bonsai pot and continue trimming to shape.
Here’s another specimen. It’s similar but different, as they say. There’s good trunk taper and movement, and I have plenty of branches to choose from. The first step is to visually determine where I want branches, then cut away the ones that I don’t need.
Some quick snipping, and I’m down to the bare bones which is all I need.
And now I have another bonsai in the making that has very good styling. This tree will be ready for a bonsai pot around next May or June. Let me know what you think. Has this been helpful? For those of you who are already planning your 2020 bonsai learning events, we will once again be conducting one on one workshops for both beginners as well as more advanced enthusiasts, starting in April. I’ll be announcing the schedule early next year, but if you’re interested feel free to shoot me an email and I’ll put you on the list.
by Zach Smith | Oct 12, 2019 | Care, Elms, Styling, Water Elm, Wiring
I love forest and group plantings. They come in several different forms: actual “forests” of multiple specimens of trees, rafts, multi-trunk groups, and so-called clump-style. It’s hard to beat a well-executed bonsai forest. In this year’s Water-elm collecting effort, we intentionally sought out multi-trunk specimens. I knew that in our collecting area they’d be easy to find and of outstanding quality. Here’s one example of a raft-style specimen, featuring seven individual trunks with great movement and proportions. The trunks range up to 1/2″ thick, and the overall height will be about 14″.
Here’s another raft, a very cool specimen with two larger trunks and three smaller ones. In this case the larger trunks have about 1″ thickness each, and overall the planting will be about 14″ tall.
And last but not least, a nice triple-trunk with (again) good trunk movement and proportions. The largest trunk here is about 3/4″, and the overall height will be about 12″.
Now for something different. From time to time I run across a specimen that’s very upright, almost formal upright. Here’s one such case. The base is about 2.5″, and it’ll end up being roughly 24″ tall when I’m done. You can see the slight movement of the trunk, and the taper is of course outstanding as I was able to chop to a smaller upright to continue the trunk line. You may notice the surface root that looks like it got gnawed on. I suspect that’s just what happened. It makes for a nice feature. Fall is a good time to do some wiring on many species. Water-elms are well-suited to it.
The first step is to cut away all of the branches that aren’t going to be part of the design. Things are clearing up already!
We go from the bottom up, as always.
And here’s what I ended up with, in short order. You may wonder if there’s any issue with trimming a tree at this stage of the growing season. I’ve always had good luck. The tree has already started storing up food for winter, and will continue to do so. There may be a little additional growth in the next few weeks, but I don’t need a big push to ensure the health of the tree. I’d love to know what you think about today’s specimens. Do you grow forest and group bonsai?
by Zach Smith | Sep 14, 2019 | Care, Elms, Potting, Styling, Water Elm, Wiring
There’s no denying that fast development in our bonsai is a good thing. To be sure, time in training really brings a bonsai to a fullness of design. But getting the design established quickly is, in my view, very important. Some species lend themselves to this effort much better than others. Elms are in this category.
About a year ago I published this photo of a tree we had collected roughly a month earlier. Not surprisingly, it grew out with vigor and that allowed me to do the rough design.
In just over a year from initial design, this is the stage of development for this specimen. The branch structure is well-established, and you can probably tell it’s been pruned a couple of times this season.
The next phase of development for this bonsai is to continue refinement of the foliage pads. My technique over the years has been to shear to shape as the rough design develops. It’s only after that phase is completed that I zero in on specific sub-branching to finish the refinement. Of course, no bonsai is ever finished, but you do have distinctive periods where the tree is showable in its intended form.
Here’s another really great specimen that I potted earlier this year. While the pot is a terrific piece, I knew shortly after potting the tree that what I needed was a round container rather than an oval. But that could wait; I needed more root growth and strengthening first.
I just acquired this Ashley Keller round, and it certainly better suits the tree. I removed a little root when I moved the tree over, but it didn’t skip a beat.
The main chore I have right now is to continue developing the crown of the left-hand trunk. That will be completed during the 2020 growing season. I also obviously need to hard-prune that low right branch on the right trunk, which came with the tree when it was collected. But that too is a 2020 chore.
And another specimen, as it appeared back in April. While you can see the form taking shape, it frankly doesn’t yet look like much. The key at this point is to allow the branches to grow out and thicken, so they are in proper proportion with the trunk.
Five months later. Is this fast growth or what? This tree has been wired, pruned, unwired and pruned some more in a handful of months. I love it!
This one got a late start on its bonsai journey, with the initial styling and potting this June. Wonderful trunk taper, movement and character. Some nice branches to work with. And I think the Lary Howard round just makes this bonsai.
Not bad for three months’ growth, right? I’ve done some trimming and of course had to unwire most of the wire. It’s such a strong tree that when I went to lift it from the bench to photograph it, a pair of roots had escaped a tiedown hole and grown down through a bench slat. I’m talking eighth-inch roots!
So this one will get the same treatment as the others, little to minimal pruning going into fall, removal of the last bit of wire if called for, and then dormancy care. Next year should complete the design.
I’d love to hear what you think of these trees. I’m pretty proud of them.
by Zach Smith | Aug 31, 2019 | Care, Collecting, Elms, Pruning, Styling, Water Elm, Wiring
“Big Hoss” is a really big Water-elm we brought home last summer. Recently I posted him for sale as raw material. I’ve been studying this unique piece of material since we first happened upon it. No question it’s an awesome specimen. But how to make the most of it?
After clearing out some unnecessary shoots, it was time to make a decision with regard to the fork in the trunk that’s part of the charm of this tree. This was easy. My reciprocating saw made short work of it. The bigger problem lies in the part of the tree above this fork. While it does have gradual taper, and while my intention has always been to use all of that trunk, the more I’ve looked at the tree the more I realized that this is not the answer. Why? The base of the tree is nice and stout, and it tapers pretty quickly to the area of the fork. Then, for the next 18 inches the character of the tree changes. So we end up with stout at the bottom, slender up above, with that neat fork planted right in the middle. Stout and slender won’t go together in this tree, so I’ve got to get rid of slender as a design element. The question being, of course, where exactly to chop.
Here’s the winning spot. Notice now that I’ve done away with slender and created more stout. There’s no stylistic conflict anymore.
A little wire and a little shaping. This tree has a ways to go, but the direction is completely clear and there’s little doubt the ultimate form of this bonsai will be rock-solid. The leader will be allowed to grow out untrimmed until sometime next year. I need it to get a lot thicker at the base, so callus will start to roll over the top of the angle cut. Likewise, the branch at the base of the cut will provide some callus there. In about two years it’ll be time to do some carving on the chops (both of them); by that time the result should look very natural. Let me know what you think. Did I do right by Big Hoss?
Here’s Big Hoss’s “brother,” another specimen from last year that got styled back in April. You may remember where we left off.
This tree has put on an amazing amount of growth. Notice how much the leader thickened in four and a half months. It’s been chopped back, and has grown out new shoots. I’ve also been able to cut back a lot of the other growth. Come 2020, this tree may be ready for a bonsai pot.
