Crataegus Bonsai

A few of you have asked if it’s finished yet, or still standing, and the answers are no and yes. I still have drywall to do, the bottom half to stain, and trim to put up. It’s fun to work in. Four skylights and a bank of windows. Here it is as it looks today—

This tree has been sitting on my benches for about three years. It has some interesting twists, and some very challenging angles in old wood that made it a compromising puzzle to find the best front and inclination.

The first year it was planted any which way—which happened to be upright—in a box of pumice to get the roots growing again. It had just been collected. The next year I put it in a box as a cascade to let it grow strength and to look at it that way. Well, eventually I disagreed with myself and potted it up this spring as an upright again. I imagine the tree is getting dizzy.

This is a photo essay of the styling of it—

The Rocky Mountain juniper before styling.

One of the best features of the tree, a very old cascading, twisting branch.

The large right upper branch was stripped and carved.

Final photo. Tree is 32" from apex to bottom of the cascade. The lower branch in particular needs growth to fill out and balance the lower cascade. Also the training pot is too big to be a final pot. So there is still development to be done with this one, as ever. Whenever was a bonsai done in a day?

I enjoyed working on this tree. The rigidity of the basic structure—the old branches—did not allow the usual harmonies to be imposed on them. And so I left the tree pretty much as it was. I think in the future a very interesting tumbling pattern of foliage pads could develop, almost like water coming down a waterfall over an erratic pattern of rocks.

Last summer I mentioned the practice of ‘hamisu’ which is the misting of bonsai during hot summer days. This light topical watering wets the foliage, trunk, pot and first half inch or inch of soil. It refreshes the tree.

If you water the trees in the morning on hot days, they will often need this lighter watering once or twice following that. This is especially true when the temperatures rise above 90 degrees F. Hamisu is most effective when the sun is lowering in the sky.

Be careful watering too late in the day when you have fungus problems. There is juniper tip blight, Phomopsis, to be concerned with, for instance. Any water on the foliage should dry before night sets in during the warm months.

Michael

A trident that has grown too vigorously tends to have the thick, youthful branches that this tree shows. In June, a day before the juniper styling shown in the last post, this tree was pruned for a new structure. It will be defoliated several times a year to develop a more delicate branch ramification.

Before pruning, with wildly growing, thick branches.

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A primary feature of this old tree is the fused root base.

The top was cut out, lowering the tree by about 8 inches. The remaining branches will soon be flushed with new shoots, which will be defoliated in about 40 days. This will bring more shoots, so that in one year's time ramification can build exponentially. I will post future photos of this tree as it progresses.

Here is a short photo essay of a styling session in the Midwest with a client tree:

We talked of putting a soda can beside this to get some idea of scale, but as you can see we forgot about it. The pot was about a 30 gallon pot, however, and the two of us lifted it together for safety when moving it.

Looking up inside the tree before work began. It took an hour to clean out all the dead branches and foliage. From the outside you won't see any of this, it all looks all healthy and green.

And afterwards.

A couple areas outlined in red where the tree needs to grow to balance the design. The tip of the lowest left branch has been left to grow and strengthen the area; soon it will be cut back a bit, and then the redirected sap flow will fill out the branch with foliage.

Although I can’t completely agree with the ethics here, this is wacky fun video of a musician playing around with a bonsai…  I suspect my teacher would be horrified that I laughed when watching it.

A bit of hilarity during the separation of an airlayer:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=441764784501&subj=1657753329&oid=124983264544

A few of the blooming accent plants, one stone and a shoe on my benches outside:

One of the Northwest native (and legally collectable) orchids, Giant Helleborine. In a pot it only reaches a few inches, and the flowers are about 3/4". Lives near rivers. Easy to grow.

One of the Saxifrage family, Heuchera.

A stonecrop... on a stone.

A dwarf Iris with one last bloom. These tend to be the equivalent for slugs to creme brulee, and I could never find the one that was happily nibbling on this one.

Another Saxifrage. This in one of my old pots that I had designed as a 'boat' pot, but which I've since been corrected is an 'iron.' As in for ironing clothes. You can learn a lot from students if you listen up.

Off in the hinterlands collecting trees, I came up empty-handed. And then I found this water stone. A no tree day, but a one stone day. A good day.

And this one is not really an accent although I have it out there between the bonsai along with the other accents. I could tell some story like 'Well, the boot never did fit.' But actually I bought it at an estate sale.

Here are a few photos from a Zelkova serrata styled during a demo. The photos show the progression from ‘pre-broom bush’ to ‘not-quite-broom but no longer bush.’ These are the highly technical terms for the grey areas after the vigorous use of a saw but while we’re waiting for new growth… It will, eventually, be a broom style Zelkova. Thanks to the excellent Peter Chapman for the use of these photos, and the Puget Sound Bonsai Association who sponsored this event on April 26, 2010.

Before...

During...

And after. Further developments will be shown as we go along in this several-phase demo in Seattle.