Story of my bonsai tree: Hornbeam No.11 - "The Yossarian"

It was one of the cold days in March 2010 when I went to forest with my backpack filled with diggers tools. When I came on spot there was last patches of snow here and there, but it was clear that spring is inevitably arriving. So I started searching around, and on seep hill side I found this tree which was prepared last year. Actually, I did found two on one spot, approximately 5 meters apart, next to hornbeam No.11 was his bigger brother hornbeam “Wild Boar”.

Trees were on spot where they get hits from bigger and smaller rocks from nearby quarry. And some big rocks were sitting right on the trunk of this tree, as you can see on pictures. Mother nature with help from mining industry formed this yamadori. Digging was relatively easy and tree was out in about an hour. And from first moment I loved this tree. I had a feeling it can be nice bonsai one day.

Hornbeam in September 2014

So the tree is Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus).As quite common with this species it has good nebari. Since it was growing inclined, in hard terrain, and sitting directly on large rock buried below the tree roots are curved downwards.

When brought home it was potted into plastic bowl into mixture of zeolit and rough peat. For this tree I used zeolit in fraction 4-8mm which proved to be good decision retrospectively. Personally I favor this fractions for bigger trees and have better results as with finer mixtures. 

3-2010

...buried under large rocks oh hill side

rocks are partially gone and tree is emerging. Fiskars on the picture is my best purchase related with collecting trees, cuts roots up to 40mm...

So we were safe home and there were only few things which could have been done. Do not move to much, fertilize from first day with combination of organic and chemical fertilizer and water a lot. I tried to place the tree on sunny spot in the garden. I believe it is much better to promote its growth.

first day in new home, in zeolit

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When I was thinking about its future structure I was not sure where shorten original branches. Since at that time I was in bonsai for first year it is no big surprise. With such approach I was trying to be on safe side and not to reduce tree to much, knowing I will have to reduce it later, after season or two. It obviously slowed down development of the tree a bit. 

and with Dominika month after collection

and 2 years later, April 2012, same Dominika and same tree ...

...in April 2014, Dominika and Maros Jr., who was born later than tree came to my garden :)

March 2013 just before repotting

new pot ready for the tree, mixture of zeolit and Keramzit with Osmocote feed

...and potted, finally.

3-2014

General structure of the tree was discussed with Walter Pall when he was on our workshop, back in 2011. So branches were reduced and later carved to somehow more natural shapes. Last year I let grow long branch which you can see on the picture fixed with wire to the big root. I wanted to increase its thickness. Since it was partially achieved I cut branch off now. New branches, one from top and second from bottom of the original branch are wired and pointed in right direction now. I will let them grow for few seasons undisturbed. This way branch will have much better taper and structure. 

4-2011 with me, branches shortened and carved, basic structure remained till today. Only one branch died back on main trunk.

4-2012

4-2013

Earlier pictures were made with compact camera and therefore they are of lower quality. Newer pictures are made with camera Nikon D90. With D90 I use lenses Nikon35mm f/1.8G, mostly. This lenses are relatively cheap and they are making fantastic pictures, even in bad light conditions. 

4-2014, unfortunatelly moss from this picture died, new one used since summer 2014

5-2011

6-2012

6-2013

The tree was several times wired. On the beginning it was easy and fun. Last wiring was done this week, and it was still fun, but not easy task anymore. It was not wired last year and it made whole stuff this week more complicated.

It took me few evenings to do wiring, seen The Godfather 2 and The Matrix Revolutions during the work – pretty long movies, ha?

Personally, I do not expect any extensive wiring in the future, just minor correction maybe. So I will watch much shorter movie (movies?) next time? 

7-2010

7-2011

10-2013

January 2015, before wiring

As I wrote already in some of my previous posts I would like to name some of my better trees. For this one I was using name which no longer fits this bonsai anymore. Now I think I will name it “The Yossarian”. Because bonsai hobby must be also fun, and Catch-22 is on of my favourite books.

...and after wiring, final result

I like how much change this bonsai made during last 2 years, and generally from its collection from the wild. Looking on finished tree recently I was more than happy, I have to say. I like how it looks now, even if it looks too much like bonsai and not so much like the natural tree. Or it is only my actual feeling?

I will see how it will look like with leaves on, and than later in next season. But I can imagine, it will look even better after few more seasons, when branch structure will be much more refined and the tree will have better 'mochikomi'. 

my favorite nebari detial, connected roots, stone, scars...

When working with it this week, I was thinking about scars on the branches and I think about drill them and connect holes together, may be this way the tree will look older and more natural. I will think about it during the season and may be start to work on it. 

stump from die back branch, my mistake, cut it too short. And problematic trunk spot with bark peeled off, fortunately not growing, hopefully slowly healing.

When potting this bonsai into pot last year there was problem of getting all roots below ground level. Mainly, because of larger roots are curved and their shape did not allow to do it. So, one of the major roots must have stayed over the ground level. After some time I took Dremel and worked it a bit. Edited it with flame torch and steel brush, and so on. Now it looks good to me. We will see how it will look like after few more years of natural ageing process. 

Detail of root which must have stayed above ground level...

...carved...

...burned...

...weathered this week.

Inspirational Tree

Inspirational Tree - English Oak/ Quercus robur/Dub letný

Hornbeam No.11 ready for wiring

I did took out Hornbeam No.11 from winter storage few days ago. I did little Zen-Budhist exercise by removing all dry leaves. It is ready to style now. Will work on it today and report with full story of this tree when finished.

Healing of wounds on my trees

On one of the forums I was asked about how to handle big wounds on trees and if there is good example how it was done on some of my trees. On collected trees from wild it is one of the hardest task from design point of view, in my opinion. Complete healing of big wounds is hardly possible. Only power tools, Dremel, fire and natural ageing process are the right answer. With smaller wounds healing is possible. So here are few pictures of wound healed on small Oak, tree collected from wild in 2010. Wound is closed completely by now. 

4-2011

7-2011

7-2011

6-2012

11-2014

Story of my bonsai tree: Hornbeam No.3 - Gemini

 

Let me share with you story of this bonsai tree. This bonsai is Carpinus betulus, from collected yamadori material as most of my trees. This particular specimen was collected from the forest as one of my first trees at my bonsai beginnings in April 2009. It was collected with large root ball with a lot of heavy soil. Therefore and due to large nebari it was planted into rather big wooden box. At that time I was not removing a lot of original soil, which I still consider wise, no rinsing with water etc. Whole stuff was pretty heavy so I did not moved it around a lot.

Dnes by som sa s Vami chcel podeliť s príbehom tohto bonsai. Je to Hrab, Carpinus betulus, vykopaný z prírody ako väčšina mojich stromov. Tento bol vykopaný v apríli roku 2009 ako jednen z mojich prvých stromov.  Vykopal som ho s veľkým balom a mal dosť ťažkú zeminu. Z toho dôvodu, a pre široké nebari som strom zasadil do veľkej drevenej debny lebo žiadna iná nádoba nebola po ruke. V tom čase som stromom neodstraňoval všetku pôvodnú zeminu, čo mimochodom aj dnes považujem za dobré a rozumné riešenie, žiadne striekanie koreňov vodou a tak. Strom bol tak dosť ťažký, a kým bol v drevenenom boxe, tak som ho málo kedy premiestňoval. 

2009 shortly after collection

4-2010

4-2009

8-2010

I liked this tree from very beginning, even if second straight trunk was promising huge challenge. I posted tree pictures on one of forums and I get several recommendations to remove second trunk and to keep only curved one. If I did that back in 2009 by present times single trunk bonsai could have been almost finished. And after repotting into final bonsai pot, I would consider it presentable, even in winter time. 

Od začiatku som mal stom veľmi rád, aj keď druhý priamy kmeň od začiatku predstavoval veľkú výzvu. Na jedom z fór kde som vtedy strom zverejnil mi pár ľudí odporučilo ten druhý strom odstrániť. Ak by som to bol vtedy urobil, tak dnes mohol z toho druhého stromu byť prezentovateľný bonsai, a to aj v zime bez olistenia. 

5-2013

5-2012

6-2012

6-2014

4-2014

4-2014

But I did not intend to separate trees for single moment. Trees are grown together and actual separation would not be easy task anyway. And, most importantly, by separating them plant would have lost its main design feature, and it is its nice nebari which is grown together. So decision to keep both trunks brought another important issue. Where to make trunk chop on too tall straight trunk? 

Ale ja som nad ich oddelením neuvažoval ani chvíľu. Stromy sú zrastené a ich oddelenie by bol aj tak veľký problém. A čo je najdôležitejšie, ich oddelením by strom stratil najdôležitejšiu črtu a to je jeho/ich nebari ktoré je zrastené dokopy. Rozhodnutie nechať isch spolu teda so sebou prinieslo ďalšiu otázku. Na akú výšku znížiť kmeň priameho stromu?  

 

I failed to chop it on spot when collected back than. I did not know it and I was afraid it will not back bud where needed. As you can see on pictures I did one lowering of the trunk during 2010. I kept looking on the tree and I knew it is not good. It was not chopped low enough. So I did another reduction during repotting in spring 2011. That said it is clear I lost two years of development new leaders on the trunk. 

Mohol som to urobiť hneď v lese, keď som ho vykopával, ale nemal som ani potuchy kde by to bola tá správna výška. A nevedel som ako nízko strom nahodí puky. Ako je vidieť na fotkách, tak som pôvodnú výšku zredukoval v roku 2010. Ale aj tak to nebolo dosť nízko a tak som ho redukoval ešte raz v roku 2011 počas presádzania. Z toho je zrejmé, že som na tej časti stromu stratil 2 roky zbytočne. 

3-2011

3-2011

3-2011

 So now I keep three leaders, which were growing in lowest positions on the trunk, growing without disturbing during whole seasons. There is still big difference between diameters of new parts of the trunk and base. Few more seasons of vigorous growth will change dimensions and hopefully tree will look more credible. My plan is to keep it grow to reach height of second curved tree. When it will be reached another necessary changes must occur. Branches on curved tree now growing towards straight one must be removed and some others redesigned to make both trees look natural. But there is enough time for those changes and I will keep current branch structure for few years. 

Takže teraz na tom kmeni nechávam  rásť tri konáre a počas sezóny ich neredukujem. Zatiaľ je medzi priemerom pôvodného kmeňa a nových výhonov veľký rozdiel v ich prierezoch. Bude to trvať niekoľko ďalších rokov kým sa proporcie zmenia a strom bude vyzerať prirodzenejšie. Môj plán je nechať ten strom narásť do rovnakej výšky ako je výška zahnutého stromu. Ak to nastane tak bude potrebné urobiť na zahnutom strome ďalšie zmeny. Niekoľko konárov smerujúcich k priamemu kmeňu bude musieť byť odstránených a ďalšie asi budú prepracované aby spolu oba stromy pôsobili prirodzene. Ale na to je ešte pár rokov čas a tak súčasnú štruktúru vetiev nechám nateraz takto.

There are several cuts on trunks and they will be worked with power tools later this year. I try to make them look as natural as possible. 

Na kmeni  a pôvodných konároch je niekoľko miest ktoré bude potrebné opracovať Dremelkou v priehu roka, tak aby vyzerali čo najprirodzenejšie. 

 

Since spring 2011 tree was repotted into mix of Terramol, Zeolit, pine bark and coconut fibre. Pot is still very big, but due to relatively light substrate mix it is much easier to move around the garden when needed. I think I will keep the tree in present pot for few more seasons since I want vigorous growth of straight tree. Tree is aggressively feed by everything I use for all trees – Osmocote, Chicken manure, liquid fertilizers and bat guano. 

 Od jari 2011 bol strom presadený do zmesi Terramolu, Zeolitu, borovicovej kôry a kokosového vlákna. Nádoba je stále dosť veľká ale vďaka relatívne ľahkému substrátu sa už dá lepšie prenášať. Keďže chcem aby strom silne rástol, hlavne ten priamy, tak ho v súčasnej nádobe nechám ešte pár sezón. Strom je silne prihnojovaný všetkým čo zvyknem používať pre moje stromy - Osmocote, granulovaný kurací trus, tekuté hnojivá a netopierie guáno.

 

8-2011

Tree was wired several times in previous seasons. And I did full wiring of the tree during last few evenings and trust me it was hell lot of wire used. But it was fun and I'm happy with result so far. Wire will go down just before leaves will emerge because with leaves on it will not be possible, and wires will bite in very fast in spring. I will report with spring pictures in April. 

Strom už bol pár krát drôtovaný počas predchádzajúcich rokov podľa potreby. A počas niekoľkých večerov som teraz znova kompletne nadrôtoval všetko čo bolo treba. A toho drôtu bolo teda poriadne veľa, to mi teda verte. Ale bola to dobrá zábava a s výsledkom som spokojný. Drôty pôjdu dole tesne pred narašením listov. Ak bude strom olistený tak to už nebude možné a na jar sa môžu skoro zarezať. Keď budú dole tak sa podelím s výsledkom. 

 

1-2015 on beginning of the wiring sesion

I try to name some of my trees since beginning. I was calling this one Brothers for some time. But during this  work session I realized they do not look like brothers really. Thanks to interconnected nebari of both trees, they remind me lovers, so I will probably call them Gemini. What do you think?:)

Od počiatku dávam niektorým svojim stromom mená. Tento som volal Bratia, ale ako som na ňom pracoval teraz tak pozerajúc sa ako sa korene nebari prepletajú pripomínajú mi skôr milencov. Tak ho asi nazvem Blíženci. Čo myslíte? :)