Volunteering at the Smith Gilbert Gardens

Dav4 · Feb 8, 2014

The Smith Gilbert Gardens http://www.smithgilbertgardens.com/ is located in Kennesaw, GA about 30 minutes northwest of Atlanta. For the last 3.5 years, I've been lucky enough to be a member of the group of volunteers, directed by Rodney Clemons, that maintain the bonsai collection there. When I first started there, the collection was ok, but through the effort of Rodney, along with certain individual donations, the quality of the collection has improved tremendously. I've decided to start this thread to document some of the great trees we work on, and will hopefully update it periodically.

Unfortunately, I don't have any older pictures of the garden or trees, and if you live down here, you know it's been cold. All of the trees are off of display or wrapped in thermal sheeting...when I get back in a month, the benches will hopefully be full. Anyway, here are a few pics of the display area from today.

Dav4 · Feb 8, 2014

I got to the garden a bit late this morning and found the other guys in the midst of repotting several very nice older specimen trees that had just been donated and dropped off that morning. I got to do a quick cleaning and repotting of this amazing Scots pine.

Jaberwky17 · Feb 8, 2014

As I looked at the first photos, my question is: in your normal climate, what is the foliage like on these trees?

Dav4 · Feb 8, 2014

The tree was removed from the pot...lots of mycorrhizae present. Their was a fair amount of either decomposed akadama or clay muck throughout the rootball. The bottom was worked hard...the sides were, too, but we were more cautious. I think at the next repot, we will try to replace more of the old soil. the tree was wired back in to the pot and new soil added. Before wiring the tree in, the lowest left branch was removed. hopefully next fall, I'll get to wire this one out...awesome tree.

Dav4 · Feb 8, 2014

Next in line was this huge Chinese elm...absolutely massive (car keys for reference). The old chop scars had been treated for years with wood hardener...of course, the wood still rotted (all the way through the trunk

) and created some wonderful opportunities for carving and added a lot of character to the old trunks. We pulled out all the punky wood and will keep working the deadwood as time allows.

Dav4 · Feb 8, 2014

Here's the tree re-potted and thinned out a bit. We raised it a bit was we want to start exposing some of the more shallow roots.
Edit: I forgot to mention the tree was rotated maybe 10 degrees counter clockwise...the trunks movement was improved and you get to see more of those awesome hollows.

Martin Sweeney · Feb 8, 2014

Dav4,

Thanks for the peak inside the collection. I was unaware of this collections existence, so thanks for broadening my knowledge of the world around me a little more. I look forward to more updates.

Regards,
Martin

Dav4 · Feb 8, 2014

Jaberwky17 said:
As I looked at the first photos, my question is: in your normal climate, what is the foliage like on these trees?

Among those pictures are two trident maple forests and very old bald cypress. You can go to the link for the garden that I provided in the first post and see these trees in leaf. I'll eventually get around to photographing them in leaf this spring, as well, and I'll post the pics here.

Dav4 · Feb 8, 2014

Martin Sweeney said:
Dav4,

Thanks for the peak inside the collection. I was unaware of this collections existence, so thanks for broadening my knowledge of the world around me a little more. I look forward to more updates.

Regards,
Martin

My pleasure, Martin. It's a pretty good collection, and it's improving every year.

dick benbow · Feb 8, 2014

I've been at it as a volunteer for about as long as you at the Pacific Rim Bonsai collection.
They have a wonderfull system of housing that allows trees to be kept on display in cold weather and yet seen by the public. basically it's a plexiglass house with removal front panel.
At night or in really cold weather ( like the last two Days) the front panel is installed and a heater turned on for protection.
These houses are a bit of work to clean and put away in the spring and then clean and install
in the fall.
We do have greenhouse protection (2) for trees not on display and soon we'll be working on them with repotting.
I do appreciate your posting and sharing your experince. Looking forward to spring and seeing the trees you have on display. Keep up the good work.....

JudyB · Feb 8, 2014

Great thread Dave. That elm is wonderful and interesting, thanks for sharing. If I could ask, what was the reasoning behind the lower branch removal on the pine?

Dav4 · Feb 8, 2014

JudyB said:
Great thread Dave. That elm is wonderful and interesting, thanks for sharing. If I could ask, what was the reasoning behind the lower branch removal on the pine?

It probably isn't obvious from the pictures here, but that lowest branch actually comes from the front of the tree and was very obviously forced around the trunk and to the back to provide depth. So, it looked a bit contrived...and its absence makes the trunk bigger and more powerful. Once we get some wire on the branches and place them, along with lowering the remaining lowest left branch with guy wire, the design will I hope be much more dynamic and a real improvement.

Dav4 · Feb 8, 2014

We also repotted a very large styrax, a ginko, several other elms, and a camellia. They all went into a hoop house to be protected from the cold for the next 6 weeks or so.

JudyB · Feb 9, 2014

I figured that it was something like that on the pine. How nice that people will donate such trees to a public collection. Keep updating as you go, nice to see.

Dav4 · Feb 9, 2014

dick benbow said:
I've been at it as a volunteer for about as long as you at the Pacific Rim Bonsai collection.
They have a wonderfull system of housing that allows trees to be kept on display in cold weather and yet seen by the public. basically it's a plexiglass house with removal front panel.
At night or in really cold weather ( like the last two Days) the front panel is installed and a heater turned on for protection.
These houses are a bit of work to clean and put away in the spring and then clean and install
in the fall.
We do have greenhouse protection (2) for trees not on display and soon we'll be working on them with repotting.
I do appreciate your posting and sharing your experince. Looking forward to spring and seeing the trees you have on display. Keep up the good work.....

Thanks Dick. During a normal winter here in the metro Atlanta area, we'll only experience a few nights with temps cold enough to be dangerous to these trees. The simple and easy thing to do is place the trees on the ground for a few days and otherwise leave them out on the display benches. This winter we've had at least 3 mornings where temps were in the single digits so more extraordinary measures were taken...I don't think I've ever seen the trees wrapped in the thermal sheeting before.

lordy · Feb 9, 2014

Dave, it's nice to get behind the scenes with some of these collections. I appreciate your sharing with us. Keep 'em coming.

Dav4 · Mar 1, 2014

I only got to spend half a day at the garden today as my son kicked off his spring lacrosse season this afternoon (love lacrosse!!!). Still, we got a fair amount done before we broke for lunch. This huge trident got a much needed repot...rumor has it that some time ago, Kathy Shaner dubbed it "The Southern Waitress". That's Rodney Clemons standing next to the tree.

Dav4 · Mar 1, 2014

This Japanese Whitte Pine isn't nearly as impressive as the previous tree, but it's still pretty cool. I started wiring this one out last December, but only got around to finishing it and repotting today. I wish I had a before picture...this one was truly ugly with long branches moving straight out and up with most of the foliage at the very tips. The jins on the lower trunk were large branches that cluttered up the image and were removed. It's amazing what some selective pruning and descent wiring can do to improve a tree. This one will only get better with time.

Cadillactaste · Mar 1, 2014

Never fails to put me in awe...thanks for sharing some amazing mature bonsai.

Adair M · Mar 1, 2014

Dave,

Good job on the trees!

I do have a question, and I hope it's just the camera angle, but both the Scots pine and the Elm appear to be potted a little high. Are they mounded a bit, or is the soil level?

One of the comments that Boon gave me about the trees displayed at the Atlanta Bonsai Society show last year was they were all potted high.

It was a good day for bonsai today. I "assisted" Owen Reich at a Plant City Bonsai workshop today.

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