I’ve never grown Korean hornbeam, Carpinus coreana, as bonsai. I bought a few small specimens last winter and planted them out so they could thicken up in the ground and provide me with stock plants for cuttings. This past summer was pretty hard on them. One died and the other three struggled. I’m not sure if they didn’t care for our excessive heat down here in the Deep South, or if they simply weren’t well-enough established to make it through with robust good health. Regardless, the season ended with three left and I’ll be watching them closely this year to see how they like it in my landscape.
Here’s where it gets weird. Today I’m out strolling in the growing field and I stop to take a close look at these small Korean hornbeams. What do I see? Buds swelling and a couple unfurling! Now, I’m used to Chinese elms emerging early in the season, but early means late February or early March. It’s just what they do. But having no experience with Korean hornbeams, I can’t explain why they’re wanting to break dormancy now. Our weather has been pretty cool since Christmas, with a number of light freezes and highs ranging mostly into the 60s. We got one day late last week with the high around 70. I’m not willing to believe that’s enough to make most species start to move sap. Oh, the Japanese magnolias are blooming and the Louisiana irises are pushing, but that’s their programming. I saw some out-of-season leafing of landscape trees back in the Thanksgiving-Christmas interlude, thanks to unseasonably warm weather. But these Korean hornbeams were not budding then; this has happened in the past week or so.
So I’ll ask my readers: if you grow Korean hornbeam, what’s your experience with them breaking dormancy? Do they emerge sooner than other species? Or is this out of character for them?
Hi Zach. I’m sorry that my question is unrelated but I wasn’t sure where to post it. Here in NJ we are experiencing a blizzard today. Massive amounts of snow and at least 60 mph winds. This is only my third winter since I discovered bonsai. The past 2 winters the snow has always stopped quickly and I would remove it from my wintering bed. Is it even necessary? We are expecting a second round of snow tonight but it is down right nasty out there and would much rather spend the blizzard watching movies with the kids. Thanx.
You don’t have to remove the snow from your wintering bed. It actually helps insulate your trees. I hope this helps.
Zach, I am in the middle of North Carolina about 25 miles south of the Virginia border. We have had low 20° nights for about a week now. At 3PM today it is 32° and in early tomorrow morning I’m expecting around 13°.
I have a selection of Korean Hornbeam. One 35-40 year old bonsai. A forest planting with around 15 trees in it that are going on 3 year old trees. One small one that is five years old in a bonsai pot and another 10-15 two year, heading into 3 year old seedlings in a flat.
All of them have developed buds on them. Here they are not trying to open like you describe but starting about three or four weeks after the old leaves die and drop new buds start forming and swelling. Every time we get a warm spell 3-4 days long they get a little bigger. When the cold hits them again they stop and sit idle.
I think it may be the nature of that particular tree to take advantage of any chance to grow and then sit and wait when it gets cold. It is ready to really take off when spring gets here. In my experiance what you are seeing is normal.
Thank you, Mac! I feel a lot better with these trees trying to put on buds now. It looks like they’ll show some strength this coming spring.