Roughleaf Dogwood Ugly Duckling Update

by | Sep 12, 2020 | Care, Dogwood, Flowering, Most Recent, Styling, Wiring

roughleaf dogwood ugly duckling update

the bonsai files

Sneak Peek

I got this Roughleaf dogwood in May and first styled it in July. It’s got some unique challenges, but part of our gaining mastery in bonsai is to be able to tackle and overcome such challenges. Here’s a step in that direction.

Roughleaf Dogwood Ugly Duckling Update

This is where we left off with this Rougleaf dogwood back in July. It’s a challenging specimen, to be sure; you might even call it an ugly duckling. But hey, if bonsai were easy would it really be any fun?

 

 

 

I love working with species that grow like weeds. Truth be told, unlike its cousin the Flowering dogwood, the Roughleaf can almost be thought of as a weed since it’s so prolific in the wild. But once you work with them and learn their characteristics, you’ll be more than happy to have this weed on your bench.

So check out the growth and thickening of the leader in this photo compared with the one above. That’s just two months ago!

Okay, down to business. Our ugly duckling has done its part by keepin’ on keepin’ on; time for me to step in and make it look better. There are a few chores today: one, carve down some of that dead wood near the leader, to make the taper seamless; two, wire and position branches to get the design closer to something that looks tree-like; and three, see if I can correct the biggest issue this tree came with.

 

 

 

Here’s the issue that third chore is designed to start correcting. Back in July, when I first tackled this guy, the total lack of foliar depth made for a very difficult bonsai subject. There just wasn’t any way to make it look like a balanced specimen (I’m not a windswept fan to begin with, and I didn’t think this tree had any business being one).

Now I’ve got a tiny shoot that co-exists in the spot where the low branch emerges from the trunk. It naturally wants to go toward the back, so I’ll take advantage of that.

This view shows the tree after I carved off some of that dead wood near the leader. Notice how smoothly the trunk line now continues on up into the apex. Two things are at work here: one, the leader is a lot thicker now and looks much more natural; and two, by carving down that stub in the transition point I was able to literally create a smoothly tapering trunk line all the way into what will ultimately be the crown of the tree.

 

Here I’ve positioned that low shoot into the back of the tree. It’s a start on some visual depth.

The last chore for today was to trim back the branches in the lower part of the tree (with less trimming on that left-hand branch near the transition – it needs more thickening). I didn’t touch the leader. Next spring I’ll prune it back to a couple of nodes and continue the crown-building process. Given the growth rate of this species, I’m betting I can finish out the crown by Summer 2021 and have this ugly duckling in a bonsai pot!

I’d love to hear what you think of this tree.

A Big Huckleberry Gets Styled

by | Sep 7, 2020 | Blueberry, Care, Flowering, Most Recent, Pruning, Wiring

a big huckleberry gets styled

the bonsai files

Sneak Peek

Huckleberries are one of my favorite species (actually multiple species) for bonsai. With small leaves, and flowers and fruit in scale, you can’t ask for much more.

A Big Huckleberry Gets Styled

On December 26th of last year I lifted this large Huckleberry (Vaccinium species). With a trunk base of 2.5″, I’m guessing this specimen is about 30-35 years old. I was able to cut to a fork and induce some nice trunk taper, and the trunk came with enough movement to make for a nice future design.

Huckleberries are easy to lift – I’ve had 90% success with them. So if you’re inclined to collect your own, you should be able to find one or more of the native species in your area as they are widespread across the U.S.

 

 

 

One thing to bear in mind about Huckleberries is that they root slowly in a pot. This is not a problem, you just have to plan your styling and ultimate potting work with that in mind. They have a fine root system, similar to azaleas, and like the azaleas they love acid soil. Also something to bear in mind for those periods where drought visits. Keep some soil acidifier handy, or be prepared to water with vinegar solution (1 tablespoon of white vinegar per gallon, once weekly during the drought, is usually sufficient).

As you can see, and as you’ll experience if you delve into the blueberries, they produce multiple buds/shoots wherever they come. This is common to many species, of course, and isn’t all bad. You get to choose from among slightly different possibilities, both in size and direction of growth.

So with this specimen I have a couple of chores today. I have to select strategically placed shoots/branches and cut away the rest, and I have to pick a leader and wire it up. Blueberries, bushes that they are, do not exhibit apical dominance. This doesn’t mean you can’t get a leader to run, you just have to encourage the shrub/tree to do so.

It’s always best to work from bottom to top, so here’s the first obvious edit – I need my first branch on the right-hand side of the tree, since the trunk line on this one runs from right to left. That low left branch had to go.

 

 

 

You can see here that I’ve worked my way up the tree, removing excess branches from all those clusters. This process took about 10 minutes altogether. But the result is worth it, because now we can see what’s going to be a real tree form when I’m done.

Finally, I wired up a leader near the apex. There’s some more wood above the leader, but I won’t do the angle chop until next spring to take advantage of what will be strong growth at that time for healing.

Here are the final edits plus a little more wiring and branch positioning. You may have noticed that the Huckleberry produces naturally horizontal branches (along with some that want to point a little upward or downward). This really facilitates your styling work. In this case of this specimen, I’m well on my way to a good design thanks in large part to the growth habit of the species.

I’m a big proponent of blueberry bonsai, and I encourage you to collect or acquire at least one specimen. I’ll be offering this one and a few others in Spring 2021.

 

How about another Spekboom? This is one I started last year, and I left it alone until recently to grow out enough so I could start a somewhat larger bonsai with it. Today I did some strategic pruning to get the design under way. In 2021, this one is really going to develop nicely.

In this awesome reverse progression you can see where I started with this one a month ago. (The rocks are there to help stabilize the tree.) It has already put on new growth, so today’s editing was a next necessary step.

Let me know what you think of today’s show and tell.

 

Bonsai Odds & Ends – Trumpet Vine, Yaupon, Spekboom

by | Sep 6, 2020 | Care, Jade, Most Recent, Styling, Vines, Wiring, Yaupon

bonsai odds & ends – trumpet vine, yaupon, spekboom

the bonsai files

Sneak Peek

For those of you interested in vines for bonsai, here are a couple. Plus a Yaupon and another Spekboom in the works.

Bonsai Odds & Ends – Trumpet Vine, Yaupon, Spekboom

Last year I pulled up some Trumpet vines from an area of ground I was leveling. Like most vines, they are tough to kill and grow rampantly. But the big question is, why isn’t the species grown as bonsai? I’ve fooled around with them for years, and they seem to do all right in pot culture. I don’t think it’s realistic to expect them to flower in a pot, but I can’t imagine that it’s impossible. Regardless, it appears I’m the only person in the U.S. who grows Trumpet vine as bonsai. That must mean it’s a real challenge, so that makes it hard to resist.

This specimen is one of those I pulled up last year, and recently I decided it was worth potting into a bonsai pot. The trunk movement is hard to beat, and for me it was easy to see a design before it started coming back from all the pruning.

 

 

 

From this photo, taken just a month after the one above, you can probably get an idea of why I wonder that this species isn’t grown more as bonsai. I mean, it’s already got a design and all I have to do is keep it trimmed to maintain it.

Here’s another of the group, which I potted up a couple of weeks after the one above. I love the taper and twisting movement of the trunk – vines do tend to grow without taper, but movement isn’t hard to get. This photo is post-potting, with the foliage that’s left looking all scraggeldy.

 

 

 

True to the resiliency of the species, here’s the next step for this specimen – new little fronds/tendrils pushing from most of the nodes. I started the design of this one last year, once it had recovered from collecting. The primary branches were wired into position, and then I just let them run so they’d thicken up. As with all the vines you’ll ever work with, I had to go in late last summer and cut all those tendrils out of everthing else nearby on the bench. Yes, they do tend to aggressively invade their neighbors’ spaces. “Bad Trumpet vine!”

Yaupon (in this case Ilex vomitoria, our native species) make great bonsai. They grow fast, have naturally small leaves and the evergreen species make a good leafy show on the bench in winter. Here’s one I collected this year, a female (it had berries on it when I dug it). It took a while to recover, but it then grew well enough to allow me to do the initial styling. Next year I should make a lot more headway with it.

Yaupons do root slowly, so remember if you do decide to acquire one that you must treat them accordingly. Following collection, give them at least a year to get established in the growing pot. Never try to go directly to a bonsai pot with a Yaupon – I have done that experiment for you, and it doesn’t work.

You can see that this specimen needs thickening in the leader. Yaupons are not apically dominant, so I can grow out the horizontal branches at the same time I let the leader run. It’ll take about three years, but I should have a very presentable bonsai by then.

 

How about another Spekboom? This is one I started last year, and I left it alone until recently to grow out enough so I could start a somewhat larger bonsai with it. Today I did some strategic pruning to get the design under way. In 2021, this one is really going to develop nicely.

In this awesome reverse progression you can see where I started with this one a month ago. (The rocks are there to help stabilize the tree.) It has already put on new growth, so today’s editing was a next necessary step.

Let me know what you think of today’s show and tell.

 

Bald Cypress Fun In 2021

by | Aug 30, 2020 | Bald Cypress, Care, Most Recent, Styling, Wiring

bald cypress fun in 2021

the bonsai files

Sneak Peek

It’s not too soon to think about trees I’m going to work on in 2021. Here are a few Bald cypresses that are on the list.

Bald Cypress Fun in 2021

I rarely do any Bald cypress trunk-building – I much prefer to collect them already built so all I have to do is make the apex and branching. But here’s a small specimen that died back following collection, and now that it’s pushing strong growth I have an idea about making a shohin BC. Most BC bonsai tend to be pretty tall, if not hefty too, so why not a specimen under 12″? It’ll be interesting to see how much I can get built with this one next year.

 

 

 

For those of you who have been following my blogs all year, we collected this one back in January. That massive hunk of wood you see is firmly attached to the tree, and I can only speculate that it was a large tree on its own and then died as this one grew up over and around it. The wood at the base is fused to the living tree. So I thought then and now, “Can it become a feature?”

That extra wood above the soil needed to be treated with lime sulfur to help preserve it, so I did that the other day. Until it fades it looks like a woody iceberg. I’m frankly not sure if it’s a feature or an obstacle to the ultimate design. What do you think?

I wired and did the initial styling on the living tree, and a plan that’s a little different has set itself in my mind. We’ll see where it goes in 2021.

“Iceberg dead ahead, Matey!”

Here’s another big one that grew sluggishly earlier in the season, and has only recently picked up strength. I can’t do anything with it this year, but that’s fine. I’m thinking flat-top in 2021, since I already have some classic pyramidal-style specimens in progress.

Let me know what you think. Are you already planning for 2021?

Shohin American Elm Progress

by | Aug 22, 2020 | American Elm, Care, Elms, Most Recent, Styling, Wiring

shohin american elm progress

the bonsai files

Sneak Peek

You can build a shohin bonsai quickly, provided you have the right species to work with. This American elm is a good example of this.

Shohin American Elm Progress

I’ve shown you this small American elm pre-bonsai before, the theme being you can build a small tree by first building a tall tree. This is a good example of the technique, which you should master as it teaches quite a few skills you’re going to use often along the way.

The first thing to take note of here is the two changes of direction in the trunk, both of which take place in a space of less than six inches.

This photo is from July of this year, a few weeks after a much taller tree got cut down to size.

 

 

 

This closeup is to show you the two cuts that were made at the same time. The original trunk had some curve near the base, and forked to the left at that point since a node existed there and a branch had emerged and was allowed to grow out for thickening of the base. Notice not only the change of direction but also the change of thickness (created taper). This is vital when building a small informal upright bonsai.

So I selected a few branches and a leader and wired them (carefully!). Tender shoots are very easy to pop off a branch or trunk – and I have done so many times.

A week after the above shot was taken, you can see growth pushing and especially in the leader which is wired upright to encourage it.

This shot was taken just shy of a month after the one above. See what can happen with a vigorous species! But that’s American elm for you.

Now it’s time for the next round of work. I can’t let the leader go unchecked, as doing so will adversely affect the taper in the apex.

It’s worth studying this photo closely. What’s very important is the thickness of the leader that I’ve cut back to three nodes’ length. If I allowed the leader to continue growing over the next month, the transition point between the second chop point and the new leader would have been ruined. Why? First of all, its thickness would have quickly approached that of the chop point. Remember that as the crown grows out, more thickening is going to happen. In order to properly finish off the tapering trunk, I had to stop the leader from drawing more strength than it’s going to when it buds back out (this will happen in a week or so). This is what I often refer to as “cooling off” a branch or leader. Also, I’ll be pruning the leader back to the first node once the new growth there has pushed out a couple of leaves. This will ensure I don’t ruin the taper I’ve been creating, and will also keep the strength reigned in. By the time this last round of growth is over, it’s going to be about time for the season to be coming to an end. My goal at that time will be to keep any residual strength under control. That will allow me to pot up this tree in Spring 2021 and finish out the design by focusing on ramification.

Let me know what you think of this little guy.

Where Should That BC Trunk Chop Go?

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

where should that bc trunk chop go?

the bonsai files

Sneak Peek

Essentially all collected large Bald cypresses are trunk-chopped. In the wild they may be 20 feet tall. When you get them home they end up 2 feet tall. Then you start building.

Where Should that BC Trunk Chop Go?

 

I acquired this nice stout Bald cypress back in May. It’s definitely a masculine tree, with a solid 4.5″ base (5″ above the soil) and decent fluting. As you can see, it pushed a very strong leader and that leader was dominant enough that it ended up with no real competition. Considering that this view of the tree is definitely the front, I was presented with two options: one, proceed with the angled chop despite the position of the leader; or two, chop it off and wait for new buds and hope one of them is smack dab in front. I decided to go with option one. The idea of losing all that progress just didn’t appeal to me, and besides, I’m very confident I can make it work as-is.

 

 

 

I do the angled trunk chop from the bottom up, using a large trunk splitter. Here you can see I’ve taken about half the bite out of this trunk so far. The leader lies below the original chop, so I need to get out my saw and level off the chop point before continuing.

Here’s what this ends up looking like. You can see the horizontal cut ends right where the leader emerges from the trunk. I need more wood up here in order to keep the rolling callus from producing a reverse taper (but not as much as you see here!). More carving is needed.

This is a textbook example of how a BC angled trunk chop should look. When the callus starts to roll, it’s going to be stronger at the top than the bottom. If you can picture the shape of the callus as more or less the reverse of the chop, you’ll see that when it’s rolled over completely I’m going to have a very smooth taper all the way from the bottom of the chop through to the base of the leader (and on up from there as I grow and chop the leader itself). The whole process will take about five to seven years, given the size of the wound. The trunk measured about 2.5″ across at the original chop, so that’s a good bit of ground for the callus to cover. But it will.

I figured that while I was at it, I might as well wire out the branches in the main part of the trunk. I left the branches on the leader alone, because they’re all going away when it gets chopped back. For now, I want all the growth up there I can get so the leader thickens going into fall. I’ll chop in late winter, in preparation for the emergence of the next leader in spring.

So back to the original question: Where should that BC trunk chop go? Ideally, in front. But you’ll eventually get a changeup from your tree instead of a fastball, so you adjust and make it work. This is going to work, and it’s going to work well. It’ll just take some time.