Carpinus betulus No.14 "Old Sam"

March 2015

This small tree is one of my many hornbeams. It was collected on yamadori trip in March 2012. I remember was actually looking for some other species that spring, since my collection of hornbeams was big enough already. But I found this little tree and it was too good to be left in forest in my opinion.

Hornbeams are naturally creating nice nebari but this one has very good one. It is not well visible yet but you will see its beauty in further posts, maybe it will be clear after next repoting into ceramic pot. It could happen next spring, depending on this season.
Tree has also very good taper and unusual movement of the trunk, it almost look artificial like from nursery.

I know majority of the people will not like thin secondary trunk. And I will bet bottom dollar I get recommendations to remove it. But it will stay where it is. :)
Hornbeam was potted into mix of zeolite and rough peat, with some Osmocote granules added. Since first day it get a lot of feed and water and was sitting on sunny place in my garden. First season was fine, new branch structure was created.

Unfortunately after first winter large part of trunk dried out. You can see in on one of the detail pictures. This is something what happens to hornbeam quite usually. In case spot is large like on this tree it can be big problem. It is part of bonsai life and future design must be adapted to current situation of the tree. I can see two options here. I will try to reopen callus around dead part of the trunk and hope it will callus over, which is highly unlikely but worth a try. Little horticultural experiment if you like. If this fails whole dead part will be carved and connected with top trunk chop. We will see how it will play out.

You can see only one picture in leaves, it is pretty obvious there is not a lot see on such tree in summer yet. Recently I did some editing and wiring of it and you can see the result. Position of tree will be slightly changed in few weeks, I will tilt the tree a bit. 

Wires will be left there till late spring and after defoliation it will go off. You will find update here.  


March 2012

March 2012

March 2012

March 2012

June 2012

June 2013

March 2015

March 2015

March 2015

March 2015

March 2015

I use cut paste rarely, but I will give it a try here. 

Nebari, looks impresive, hmm?

Aerial 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Bonsai Winter Protection