ZPC | Bonsai South

Huckleberry #5

by Zach Smith | Sep 8, 2018 | Blueberry, Care, Collecting, Styling, ZPC

Vaccinium species

Collect date: 12/23/17

Trunk base: 3.5″ across

Height to top chop: 18″

Finished height (est.): 22″

Estimated age: 35-50 years

Years in training: 0

Video #1

This Huckleberry was collected in December of 2017, and allowed to grow undisturbed for all of 2018. I’ll begin training next spring. This is a very nice twin-trunk specimen, 35-50 years old. It should develop fairly quickly. I expect to be able to pot it in 2020. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

Repotting Mr. Van Winkle

by Zach Smith | Apr 6, 2018 | Care, Oaks, Potting, Pruning, ZPC

It’s been a couple of years since I repotted my big Willow oak, Quercus phellos. Last year I named him Rip Van Winkle, because he waited until May to finally bud out. (I was afraid he was R.I.P. Van Winkle.) Anyway, when I did the repotting back in 2016 I tried something different when I went back into the pot, namely, I added a drainage layer of pea gravel to the bottom of the pot. I didn’t have any firsthand experience to know if this actually does any good for bonsai – after all, we need to prepare soil that’s free-draining before we even consider potting up a tree. But I was willing to give it a try.

Willow Oak - Quercus phellos

The first question you may be asking is, Was it really necessary to repot this tree after two years? The best answer I can give is that what goes on below the surface of the soil is more important than what goes on above. Don’t forget, we’re expecting trees used to growing in open ground to survive and thrive in a small, shallow space. This means their roots cannot travel where they need to go to gather water and nutrients. We provide an environment in the pot designed to give oxygen, water and those needed nutrients as best we can. When the tree grows roots, the spaces that allow for sufficient water and oxygen get filled with roots. Eventually, there’s just little to no soil left and the tree won’t stay alive under those circumstances. Now, does this happen after two years? For most species, no. But there’s no reason not to pull a tree of this age (40+ years), especially considering how late it came out last year. Plus I know from the last repotting that Mr. Van Winkle grows a lot of roots in a short amount of time.

Willow Oak - Quercus phellos

My first step was to loosen the securing wire, remove the training wire from one of the branches and clean the trunk with vinegar-water (white household vinegar and water mixed 50:50) and a toothbrush.

The bark on this tree is very tough, so I was able to give it a good scrub. I also have done some light pruning, being careful not to trim the lower branches too much as they still need to gain heft.

Willow Oak - Quercus phellos

Here’s the tree after I pulled it and removed the pea gravel that was in the bottom of the root mass.

Note: I didn’t see any indications that would suggest a drainage layer improved the growing environment of this tree. There were roots in among the gravel, which is exactly what you would expect. As for drainage, a shallow pot like this one can only produce so much hydraulic head to cause the water to drain; a drainage layer of less than 1/2 inch doesn’t really change this significantly.

Willow Oak - Quercus phellos

Here are the roots, combed out and trimmed. You can see the really nice radial roots.e.

Willow Oak - Quercus phellos

Going back into the pot. One thing I’m doing at this repotting is to raise the tree slightly in order to better display the nebari. This is one of the key things to bear in mind when you work with collected trees (those you get from me, for sure). It’s always best to bury the radial roots, as this will keep them from drying out as the tree recovers. To be sure, you want to display nice roots on your trees, but from a practical standpoint it’s more important to keep them alive in the beginning than to be able to see them. In time they’ll be revealed, as in this case.

Willow Oak - Quercus phellos

The dry soil has been worked around the roots using a chopstick, to fill any gaps. Gaps in the root zone = dead roots in that area.

Willow Oak - Quercus phellos

This is the same picture as the very first one you saw in this article..

I’ve placed it here for you so you can have a birds-eye comparison of how it looked when I started and how it looks afterwards (that’s the photo to your immediate right).

Willow Oak - Quercus phellos

The final result for today, after a thorough watering.

If you compare this photo with the first one (to the left) you can see that I’ve revealed a little more of the nebari, making the tree look even more impressive than before.

Now I’ll wait for it to leaf out, so I can continue its development.

Let me know what you think of today’s work.

Note:

Comments are closed. Remember to use the new Insider’s Club Form to post your questions and comments. This helps everybody learn and help and this is where I am now posting responses to your inquires and comments. (You’ll find the forum by scrolling up; it’s on your right.)

Hawthorn Gets New Home. Nice!

by Zach Smith | Mar 13, 2018 | Care, Hawthorn, Potting, ZPC

If you’ve spent any time browsing through our site, you’ve seen my awesome Riverflat hawthorn (Crataegus opaca). After several years, this tree is really well developed and frankly is one of my all-time favorites.

One thing I’ve come to realize over the past year is that given the tree’s development, it’s outgrown the pot it’s in. I love the pot, don’t get me wrong. It’s a beautiful Paul Katich piece. But it’s just too small for this tree. I love the spread of the tree, which I think reflects the species well, so I don’t want to take it in too far. So the way to solve the problem is, get a bigger pot.

Byron Myrick is one of my go-to guys for custom pots. Here’s the piece he made for me.

I put a layer of prepared bonsai soil in the bottom of the pot, then pulled the tree and set it in. The size couldn’t be better suited!

Tied down, filled in and watered. I think this Riverflat hawthorn has found its new home!

Note:

I Love This Tree, It Just Keeps Getting Better

by Zach Smith | Nov 12, 2017 | Care, Collecting, Hawthorn, Styling, Wiring, ZPC

My great Riverflat hawthorn, Crataegus opaca, is finishing up year six in my care.

The leaves will be off the tree soon, but just as the deciduous tree gives us different looks throughout the year I like this in-between one too.

For those of you who haven’t worked with collected trees yet, this photo above (the earliest one I have for this tree) is very instructive.

While you may have the impression that the tree came from the wild just like this, except for the wire that’s obviously on some of the branches, I can tell you it did not. When I collected it, all of the branches that held foliage were higher than everything you see on this tree. I chopped it dramatically. Why? Because bonsai is all about scale and proportion. I wasn’t going to bring home a 10-foot tall tree; there wouldn’t have been any point in doing so, because you don’t make a bonsai out of a 10-foot tall tree.

So where do you begin, and how do you “calculate” what you’re bringing home to make into a bonsai?

First of all, let’s think height. Most bonsai are not more than 48″ tall. There are good reasons for this, not the least of which is you can’t lug around a tree that size very much. Don’t get me wrong. I love big bonsai. But I also love not having back trouble. So I limit the number of really big bonsai I maintain. With that in mind, let’s figure that our average bonsai is going to be around 20″ tall. A 20″ tall bonsai ought to have a trunk that’s about 2-3″ across, at the soil surface or above the root crown. When you go out to lift a tree from the wild, you want to zero in on those trees you can work with in order to create good proportions from soil surface to apex. That means a tapering trunk to produce the forced perspective you need. And you have to be prepared to build a quickly-tapering leader near the apex. My rule of thumb is that I’ll chop the trunk at a point where its diameter is half what it is at soil level. This works beautifully.

The next thing to consider with a newly collected trunk is the branch structure.

You’re going to need one, of course. Deciduous trees are pretty good about producing trunk buds. These tend to appear at points where leaves originally appeared as the seedling was growing up. You can’t see those dormant buds anymore, most of the time, but they’re there. With a little luck, you get some new shoots to work with. In the photo above, you can see the result. This is what you build your branches out of.

I’ll post more updates on this tree in 2018. The one thing I’m waiting for is flowers. It takes time for a hawthorn to produce flowering spurs in a bonsai pot. I like to think I’ve gotten that far. There’s been very little hard-pruning of this specimen this year, as it’s reached a good stage of maturity as a bonsai. So I’m hopeful about flowers. But time will tell.

I added the first photo above to the Progression on this tree. It’s becoming a really interesting story.

God Bless The Ever-Reliable Crape Myrtle

by Zach Smith | Nov 3, 2017 | Care, Crape myrtle, ZPC

Living in the Deep South has some advantages. Fall color on bonsai trees is not one of them. So imagine my surprise when I noticed this guy last evening

Lovely fall color, right? Crapes tend to produce fall color down here when most other deciduous species just end up with ugly leaves that fall off. So God bless them. I’ve got splashes of color on my benches right now thanks to the Crapes. You may recognize this tree as my legacy Crape myrtle from Allen Gautreau. I repotted it this year and began the redesign work vital to improving the tree. It’s a bit overgrown, but I needed it to grow out this year before getting another hard pruning this coming spring. I should be able to achieve nice ramification in 2018. Another repotting may be needed in 2019; I’ll know better then. Crapes are super-rooters. I hope you’re having some nice fall color where you are.

Don’t Ignore Problems At This Time Of Year

by Zach Smith | Oct 29, 2017 | Hawthorn, ZPC

As the growing season comes to an end, we have certain chores we do to prepare for winter. Deciduous trees are either in full color or already dropping foliage. Watering needs decline from two or three times daily to once every few days. Cold frames are getting filled.

It’s the ideal time of year to ignore problems that may have cropped up during the growing season. Some are easier to see than others. In the case of this Riverflat hawthorn, I spotted this issue last weekend when I turned the tree to examine it.

If you look closely, near the base of the carved out chop area you can see what looks like a bullet hole. When I first spotted it, the giveaway was a little sawdust. I immediately thought it might be a boring insect going to work. I had previously treated this area with PC Petrifer® wood hardener, in order to ensure the carved area remained hard as it weathered.

It would have been easy to just ignore this problem until spring. But that’s not a good approach to take. Often you ignore a problem right through the timeframe when you can do something about it. At that point it’s often too late. I’ve been guilty of this before, and I like to think I’ve learned my lesson. I don’t ignore these problems any more.

I first took the step of pouring some Bifenthrin® pesticide into the hole, in order to kill anything that might be down in the wood.

Today I got out my Dremel®. A problem area like this needs to be addressed, first by carving down to durable wood (if possible).

Here’s the result after just a bit of carving. I’ve smoothed down the area surrounding the hole. There wasn’t any evidence of any insect present, which was a relief. So if something stopped by for a chew, either I killed it right away or it decided to move on.

By the way, when you’re carving any sort of chop, uro or shari, be sure they’ll shed water when you’re done. If you examine this carving work closely, you’ll see I designed it specifically to ensure this happens. You don’t want standing water on dead wood.