Quercus pubescens No.7 with new foliage

Tree was defoliated month ago. Those are pictures from today with nice tiny fresh foliage. 

Betula No.3

I was asked by one of my bonsai friends to post few update pictures of this little birch write few words about development. It was collected back in spring 2012. With such material development is usually slow, in my opinion. 

You have to grow completely new branches from scratch and even more importantly you have to grow new apex of the yamadori tree. Growing new apex is obviously not easy task with fat collected trees. Creating convincing transition between original trunk and new leader is lengthy process. You can do it with growing massive sacrifice branches on selected leader. This takes a lot of foliage to generate enough energy to thicken leader to desirable width. If you decide to stop growing sacrifice branches too early you will fail to create decent transition. You can find too many such trees on various forums or exhibitions. This mistake is hardly possible to repair later. 

Similar approach has to be applied when you want to build nicely tapering branches on the tree. This method requires rater big root ball and is not possible to do it quickly and effectively in small bonsai pot. You have to accept that tree looks bushy most of the time, with huge leaves and long shoots. It is hard to resist the temptation of cutting crown back to nice shape. Obviously there is long way ahead of us in development if this tree. 

Summer 2015, tree in current stage of development. 

Trunk chop without final dead wood work. Excess wood was removed this spring. Further hollowing of the trunk will be done later. 

Current leader thickness, far from needed thickness to create natural appearance. 

Bark detail

In Summer 2012 with fresh branches. 

In Spring 2012 on beginning of its journey in my garden. 

Carpinus "The Yossarian" with new foliage

New foliage is emerging after defoliation performed on beginning of June. We are expecting extremely high temperatures during next week, so it was time for pictures with undamaged foliage. 

Betula pendula No.2

This birch bonsai was wired a little in spring. Few days ago it was just about right time to remove all the wires. All shoots were shortened and now tree will grow undisturbed for few weeks and than it will be cut back again. Tree needs another ten or so years to look credible, but that is part of the game with deciduous bonsai. It is marathon, not sprint. 

Carpinus betulus "Rusnak" new foliage

It took about 20 days to decent new foliage emerged on top of the tree after defoliation. It will take few days to harden and mature. But I can see some new branches and it was the purpose, improving ramification. You can see on comparison of leave size between pictures of bottom branches which were intact. Bottom branches need thickening to improve structure, so I will leave sacrifice branches until autumn to gain sizes. They already have about 4 mm-5 mm. I think they could gain few millimeters more. You have to sacrifice look of your bonsai in development if you want to build proper structured tree. I think if you are trying to keep underdeveloped tree in show-able stage you slowing down its development. Try to resits to cut all branches on "proper" length and let nature do its work. It will pay of in long term.  

  

Carpinus betulus "The Wild Boar"

During last few days I was working on this hornbeam. Now this is lucky tree, it grows well and it is producing a lot of foliage as you can see on "before" picture. Tree was partially defoliated, on top mostly and shoots were shortened. You can find few words about its history and some pictures from its development since 2010 here. 

before works

Here you can see reverse tapering, must be solved in future

New growth appears already on top

As one can see, it is challenging tree. One point is that it is terribly heavy, moving it around in the garden is nightmare. When I do it I always wonder if I will not leave this hobby and go back to collecting stamps instead.  

But this is minor problem compared with design challenges ahead. Tree has revers taper as you can see on some side pictures. I think about solving it by embedding rock into nebari and grow new roots over it, but that's just idea for now. Nebari from front is too wide and I think I will narrow it in the future. And big wound on front needs carving but it is not so problematic, just needs time. 

Fraxinus ornus No.2

Tree was defoliated in May and it took less than one month to fully replace missing foliage. On the pictures you can see the tree in its current stage. I will remove foliage from its top again in few days. 

Carpinus orientalis

When I was young kid we used to play ice hockey on our street. Actually, it was only hockey, without ice. We were pretending real hockey on asphalt with old tennis ball. All members of the team were pretending they are somebody else, some former or present Czechoslovak hockey stars. I recall just few, but I will not bother you with names. Due to my level of hockey skill I could chose somebody from second line, tough.

In bonsai art trees pretend a lot, also. They pretend they are older than its actual age mainly, among other things. And many acers and hornbeams pretend they are aged pines, unfortunately.

April 2015 after restyling

This oriental hornbeam was restyled in April this year. It is collected yamadori tree and from design point of view I consider it to be quite challenging. Even after last styling I was not quite sure where we are heading. As tree grow through spring I left it untouched. Time to remove wire was approaching in late May. I removed them and I was planing to cut back fresh growth. As tree was standing on the shelf during late spring, with overgrown shoots, I was looking at it daily.

When asking for help on club meeting have you ever get recommendation to wait “and tree will tell you”? I used it few times, as joke mostly. Trees will not tell you, usually.

As I keep looking on this tree, I stared to have feeling it is trying to tell me something. I had feeling it keep telling me it does not want to be pine. And it was whispering me it wants to be weeping willow. Strange isn't it?

And we are back at pretending. If dozens of acers can pretend they are perfect pines, can my hornbeam pretend it is weeping willow? As it was standing on turntable, after I removed all wires, I had feeling it will be the best option for the tree. Idea is little bit unusual, I know. I'll keep listening what tree will tell me during next seasons and I will see.

I shortened shoots on tree anyway to work on fine ramification. You can see result on the picture.

Larix decidua

Larch bonsai was wired in winter, repotted in spring and now I had to remove all wires. Few spring shoots are here. Looks untidy but it is very healthy and it is growing well. I have to be careful and provide him a lot of water these days. In case it dries too much it will shed needles and turn yellow. So I water it a lot, as all of my trees. I will apply more guy wires soon to get major branches into better positions, since they go up always, as soon as wiring was removed.  

Tilia cordata

In middle of the May I posted few pictures of this Linden bonsai. It was partially defoliated since it was growing strongly. Now tree is back in shape, and in few days I will remove leaves again. But for now I will enjoy its current stage. 

Betula pendula No.1 "The White Lady"

Since my last post about this little tree it was time for some editing. New growth was reduced and it was partially defoliated. Few weeks ago I applied new moss but it is not the best one. But in current hot weather it will do the job and it helps a lot to keep tree wet during the day.