by Zach Smith | Feb 20, 2016 | Bald Cypress, Care, Hawthorn, Potting, Yaupon
I’ve felt for some time now that spring would be coming early this year. Turns out I was right. I had bald cypresses budding a couple of weeks ago, which isn’t surprising for trees “remembering” where they came from south of here, but yesterday I noticed that most of my newly collected hawthorns are budding – including my parsley haws, which is very exciting.
Today was the first of two weekend collecting trips left for the 2016 winter season, the last being next week. The season has been shortened by at least two weeks if not more. But I have to say I’m not sorry to see spring getting here. Each year I like winter less and less.
A new bonsai friend who has some property was kind enough to let me collect some material today. I was pleasantly surprised to find a couple of nice yaupons, Ilex vomitoria. The one at left features three trunks that have really nicely interplay and movement. With a little luck, I should be able to build the branch structures of these trunks in a single growing season. The important thing is going to be to wire the new growth before it hardens off; yaupon branches get very stiff quickly and they’re arrow-straight, so if you don’t get some movement into them early in the game it’s not going to happen. Why not just use thick wire to bend them? Because the branches also snap easily.
This specimen has a 3″ trunk base, with the tallest trunk being 13″ to the chop. The pot is a nice Byron Myrick oval.
This yaupon is very cool. The two trunks hug each other so tightly that the smaller one is literally “embraced” by the larger one.
The trunk is 1.5″ in diameter at the base, and the taller one is 13.5″ to the chop. The pot is another Byron Myrick piece.
I’m really looking forward to styling this tree. Stay tuned for updates.
This was my prize of the day. I’ve never worked with American holly, Ilex opaca, before. Apart from the incredibly sharp spines on the leaves, which can easily deter you, most of the specimens I see don’t have a lot of trunk character. This one is just a show-stopper.
I have no idea whether or how well American holly backbuds, but I’m going to find out soon. Assuming it cooperates with a new leader and some branches, I should have a nice showable tree in three or four years.
The trunk base is 3″ above the root crown, and it’s chopped at 14″. It’s potted in a vintage Richard Robertson oval.
I’d love to hear what you think of these hollies. Leave me a comment below.
by Zach Smith | Jan 30, 2016 | Care, Oaks, Yaupon
I visited the nursery of a good bonsai friend two years ago. At the time he offered me a couple of live oaks, Quercus virginiana, that he had planted in the landscape and needed to get rid of. Naturally I said yes. I’ve never had good luck finding live oaks to collect through the years, so getting hold of some larger material was something I couldn’t pass up.
Today was the day. I was able to collect four good-size stumps, which will take a few years to grow out but given time will produce very nice live oak bonsai.
Here’s one of the larger specimens, sporting a 3.5″ trunk. Oaks of this size are a challenge to collect, since they typically have a substantial taproot that holds them firmly in the ground. Fortunately, my friend has a large John Deere® tractor. We were able to pop the taproot easily.
This tree doesn’t look like much at this point in time, but I can easily visualize a classic live oak with broad spreading branches starting with this stump. It’s going to take several years, but the results should be well worth the effort.
As an unexpected fringe benefit, my friend had some yaupons, Ilex vomitoria, growing in the meadow he’s developing behind his house. I took the opportunity to collect some female specimens (the berries tell the gender – yaupon is dioecious, meaning you have separate male and female plants).
Here’s a nice specimen with taper, great trunk character and movement. Collectible yaupons are not that plentiful, so I didn’t hesitate to tackle it.
If you study this tree, you’ll notice that the tapering comes to an end about 2/3rds of the way up. If I leave the trunk as long as it is now, this flaw will be very obvious as the apex grows out. The only answer is to chop it.
Here’s the result. It’s a shorter tree but will be a better tree. The trunk base is just under 2″, and the height to the chop is 8″. When all is said and done, this yaupon will be about a 14-16″ tall specimen.
Here’s another specimen with loads of character. The dead area of the trunk is what this tree is all about. It’s 1.5″ at the base and 12″ to the chop. I’m thinking this will be a very fun project.
Last but not least is this raft-style specimen. It’s common to see yaupon growing in clumps. This particular specimen featured good trunk character and some taper. I went ahead and potted it in this very nice Byron Myrick oval. Developing the individual trunks should be a three-year project. The two larger ones are about 2″ at the base, the small one 1/2″, and the tallest one about 15″ in height.
With my good fortune today I should have live oaks and yaupons for sale before long. If you’ve been looking for either, let me know and I’ll be sure you’re on our new tree alerts email list.
by Zach Smith | Dec 20, 2015 | Care, Potting, Pruning, Styling, Wiring, Yaupon
I’ve commented before that our native yaupon, Ilex vomitoria, makes an excellent bonsai subject. The only problem I’ve encountered through the years is that very, very few specimens in the wild grow with any natural taper. This obviously limits the material that can be collected and developed into bonsai in a short time.
This specimen caught my eye back in January of 2014 because it had a nice old gnarly trunk base with some interesting deadwood. True to form, the existing trunks were arrow-straight. I chopped the trunks and figured I’d grow the tree more or less from scratch. Yapon buds well on old wood, even if you don’t leave any foliage on it. So I was able to take this one through a few rounds of grow and clip, and this is where I was with it this past August. As you can see, it’s starting to take shape.
Four months later, I’m getting a nice primary branch structure on each of my trunks. Also, the tapering transition for each of the original four is looking very smooth. A little carving will help the process along. So I can go ahead and pot this yaupon without concern.
Here’s the tree in its “training pot,” a nice rectangle I got from Chuck Iker three years ago. The reason this pot has been relegated to the training category is simple though odd: in Winter 2014, during our big snow and ice storm, this pot literally froze to the bench. When I went to move it and its tree to a safer location, a couple of the feet stayed on the bench! Super glue put them back on, but the pot remains imperfect as a result.
And here’s the final result, after some wiring and shaping. This yaupon will fill in fast in 2016. I think it’s got fantastic potential.
If you’d like a nice multi-trunk yaupon for your bench, this tree is available at our Miscellaneous Bonsai sale page.
by Zach Smith | Oct 31, 2015 | Care, Pruning, Yaupon
In my first post on this topic, I briefly described the challenge we face in taking photographs of our trees that actually reflect their real-world appearance. Distance, camera angles, lenses, and so on can all contribute to distorted views of our trees. At the same time, photographing our bonsai can be a valuable tool for improving their style and appearance. Once you’ve mastered how to take photos that are accurate representations of your trees, you can then use them to spot flaws and make styling decisions.
You’ve seen this native female yaupon, Ilex vomitoria, before, as I’ve shown you its progression from bare trunk to bonsai-in-the-making. Now we’re at the end of the 2015 growing season, and I’m very pleased with where I am on this tree. However, I can tell you that when I photographed it the other day and then processed the photo, what I saw was nothing like the way the tree looked to me on the bench. In a word, it’s much easier to see how disorganized and unkempt the tree is in this image than it is in reality. The photo just screams for something to be done to this tree.
The first thing that was not apparent to me in viewing this tree from time to time as it’s grown this year is, the trunk is obscured by a crossing branch that pretty much shuts down the visual flow of the tree. Is your eye drawn to that spot right smack dab in the middle of the trunk, as mine is? I always tell students and lecture-demo attendees that you can easily tell where the flaws are on your trees by noticing where your eye stops moving. A well-designed bonsai causes your eye to continually move as you view it. Not with this yaupon. With this yaupon, you can’t help but zero in on that spot in the middle.
Here’s a closeup of the main offending branch. It’s this single branch that has destroyed the continuity of my tree. It’s got to go.
Here are two more branches that don’t belong. One of them is emerging too close to the trunk (it’ll ultimately interfere with another branch in back), while the second is shooting off into the space of another branch that is properly placed. So both of these have to go, too.
(Following a little concave cutter work….)
I’d recommend taking some time to study this photo in comparison to the first one above. By removing a single branch, I’ve restored the flow of this tree by uncovering the trunk line. No longer does your eye get stuck at that tangle of foliage crossing the trunk halfway up the tree. The movement of the trunk and how it ties into the first few branches are a key element of this bonsai. Think of it as Design 101. Now, would I have spotted this problem without the photo to help point it out? Most certainly, in time. But the photo showed it to me immediately. (Note: don’t misunderstand this lesson to mean that you can’t have foliage in front of or crossing your trunk. This obviously must happen, otherwise you end up with a two-dimensional bonsai that’s visually static. But it’s where and how the crossing foliage occurs that either harmonizes with your design or undoes it. This crossing foliage must never disrupt the primary line and movement of the trunk. In the case of this tree, the crossing foliage was in exactly the wrong spot before I removed it. A bit higher along the trunk you can see crossing foliage, and this does not cause a problem. For examples of this principle, take a look at the trees on my Gallery page.)
Here’s the tree after its final cleanup. Though it’s not easy to see in this photo, I’ve gone into the interior of the tree and removed crotch branchlets, crossing branchlets, some pointing straight up and all pointing straight down, and I’ve removed the basal foliage from each. This last work is another key design technique for making your trees look more mature and realistic. The foliage on mature trees is found clustered at the ends of the branches and sub-branches. If you study them in nature, you’ll find the foliage does not appear snuggled up against the trunk, nor is it found all along the branches. If you study photos of bonsai, you’ll find countless examples that tend toward the “potted shrub” form. And you may have been instructed to chase your foliage in toward the trunk, all dense and crowded and, well, “something doesn’t look quite right but I’m supposed to think it’s okay because they told me to do it this way.” No. The legendary John Naka said it long ago, your trees should have spaces for the birds to fly through. It was his way of saying don’t grow potted shrubs and call them bonsai. It’s not how trees grow. Observe old, natural trees. Let your eye follow the branches outward from the trunk, and you’ll see their foliage is way out at the ends. This is how they grow in the real world. If you design your bonsai this way, they’re guaranteed to look more mature and more realistic.
Incidentally, this year I’ve learned to really appreciate yaupon as a species for bonsai. Perhaps its best feature is you can let it grow all year long, pruning, pinching, wiring, watering, you name it, and give it no special protection or care; summer heat has absolutely no impact on the foliage (see the third photo above – it’s still fresh and green); and it appears the webworms, which moved onto my property this year with a vengeance and ate a lot of bonsai foliage, do NOT like the taste of yaupon. I don’t even recall seeing a webworm near either of my specimens. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons the species name is vomitoria. No kidding.
We’ll continue to follow the development of this bonsai in 2016. In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you if you found this blog post helpful.
by Zach Smith | Aug 8, 2015 | Care, Pruning, Wiring, Yaupon
You may remember this yaupon clump, Ilex vomitoria, collected in Winter 2014. I collected the specimen because of its neat root structure. I like clump-style bonsai, provided they’re designed and developed well. In the case of this one, I knew there was a good deal of work ahead of me because the individual trunks had no taper, which is a characteristic of yaupon in the wild.
This photo was taken in March 2015, one full year from bare trunk with nascent buds. I have a lot of nice shoots I’ve allowed to run in order to thicken. This phase of development is all about building taper into the trunk(s) of your bonsai. You do this by chopping the original trunk about 2-3 diameters in length from the ground, if building from the ground up. Once the new leader has run enough and thickened enough at the base, you repeat the process. It’s time-consuming but necessary in order to make your bonsai believable.
Here’s this specimen three and a half months later. Isn’t that an amazing amount of growth! If you look closely you can see how much thicker each of the new leaders has gotten – thick enough for their next chop.
I’ve taken each of the trunks back significantly in this shot. I haven’t cut back quite as drastically as I might have, considering the fact that each new leader is now showing taper (and has movement I wired into it, which I want to preserve). Because of this, I think there’s an opportunity to reduce the amount of time needed to develop this clump by using another technique I’ve written about before. By allowing buds near the base of each trunk to grow wild, thereby thickening the new trunk base, I can continue to build the tapering transition while moving forward with the finer development of each individual tree in this clump. It could save me two or three years easily.
In this final shot, I’ve wired up a new leader for each trunk except the one that had none – it’ll bud where I want it to – and done some carving on each of the original chops to help smooth their transition points. The only additional work I’ll do this year is to wire branching on each trunk as buds develop.
My plan for spring of 2016 is to reduce the size of the root mass on the clump, and possibly even go to a bonsai pot with it. But that decision can wait till next year.
This pre-bonsai is available at our Miscellaneous Bonsai & Pre-Bonsai sale page. I think it’ll be relatively easy to continue building it from here into a fine specimen in just a few years.
by Zach Smith | Jul 19, 2015 | Care, Pruning, Wiring, Yaupon
We’ve been following the progress of this yaupon, Ilex vomitoria, for a while now. Hollies grow well in summer, and you can see in the photo that this one has been no different. Today it was time to do some more development work.
First I cleaned the trunk, soil surface and pot, then I did some initial pruning to re-establish the tree’s silhouette. Notice the sacrifice branch denoted by the arrow. It sprouted near the base of a new shoot that will form part of the structure of the tree, growing straight up. As you probably know, branches that grow straight up tend to get very thick very quickly as they reach for the sun. This is ideal for a sacrifice branch. The faster I can get the thickness I want on the structural branch, the better. So I won’t touch the sacrifice branch for the rest of the 2015 growing season.
Here’s a closeup of the sacrifice branch I’m talking about. Notice that it’s almost right up against the trunk of the tree, meaning it’s in the ideal location. You can see I’ve also wired the structural branch that will become part of my design. Holly shoots get very stiff very quickly, so if you want movement in them you must wire them early-on.
You may recall that in my last post featuring this tree I had cut the leader I let grow to thicken and help establish the tapering transition from the original trunk chop. In today’s work, it’s time to bring the apex back even farther. This process is one you will do over and over again as you develop your trees. If you do it correctly, you’ll have a seamless-appearing trunk taper from soil to apex. This is a big part of creating the optical illusion that a bonsai is larger and older than it really is.
In this final photo, I’ve cut back the apex to my new leader and wired it into position. I’ve also added some wire to other structural branches, and done a final trim.
This specimen has a trunk base of 2.5″ and will have a final height of about 22″. Developing the crown, along with ramification of the lower branching, is the final step in making this a fine specimen yaupon bonsai. I should be able to accomplish this in about three years.
