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Have a customer, who had one of these "S" Curve Import Chinese Elms...
You know, the drill. The one's folks keep hidden away in the furthest most point of their benches, or even under their benches... away from prying eyes. For fear that they might be spotted and one would have try and quickly come up with some sort of a reasonable answer as to why it exists within their collection.
Perhaps it is just a friend's and you are holding it for them? Or, good ol' Grandma bought it for you at the nickel and dime store along with some shoots of bamboo sitting in decades old stale water?
Well, I am going to show you what to do with it, so never again would one have to feel the terrible wrath of the "Bonsai Shame"... You will never again not be able to invite others over for a Barbecue, and have to worry about burning the meat just to create enough smoke so that your guests have watery eyes and will not be able to see past the plumes of smoke to see what may lay beyond! We will not be slicing and dicing... no magical formula that needs wiping, even no worries about endless grinding to remove that troubled spot, No! And yet, this method is only guaranteed to work on the most terrible of trees... Have a tree that's not so bad, don't try it! Have a tree that makes you glad, put it away! This method is only for those that make you sad...
So, my customer, has a tree that he has let go because of not really know what or where to go with it to make it have even the slightest possibility of becoming a decent or good tree. I told him I did, so he said have at it... so I did...
First off, "S" Curve Chinese Elms naturally when let go, will want to weep. So they are the perfect candidate for a "Weeping Willow Style". Their leaves also will reduce very far down, so the scale of them plays the part. Lastly, if one has ever seen a really cool, and very old example of the growing in nature, next to the side of a body of water, they often will have some really nice movement to the trunk, and yes... dare I say it? Will resemble an "S" Curved Import. So, Bonus... Right? Finally a solution, that one cannot say, there is noting one can do with this type of material, to make it a nice tree... No more, don't bother wasting your time comments.
So, where to begin?
First off unless one has a very big piece of material, which is usually not the case... most have trunks in the neighborhood of around an inch... one needs to consider the height of where the overall design will end up at. If one examines Willows in nature, especially the really cool picturesque ones along side slow flowing rivers, or even ponds, they are usually not very tall trees... Somewhere in the 20 ft. range max? So, no need having a tall tree that does not suit the image. Also, what often happens with these imports is that they have had the bends put into the trunk, and then been allowed to just grow from there... So, one will often find a straight trunk... some bends, and then again a straight stovepipe trunk shooting up to form the apex. This stove pipe area needs to come off! Don't argue, just grab the saw and cut!
So, what I normally will do when designing a Weeping Willow style, is find a branch some where near the top of the curves that I can then bend up to make my continuation of the trunk. Since I want it to play the part of it being the continuation of the trunk... it should then be able to have some bend put into it, to continue the pattern of the curves below it. One last point, here... if one is using this branch now as a leader to form the continuation of the trunk, and to form the apex... make sure that when bending, that the top of the leader, or top of the tree, ends up coming around to the front, and forward. This gives the lean forward, that one is seeking of the apex of the tree in Bonsai.
Next... With Willows, the branches coming off of the tree, always go up first before then returning back down. So, try when wiring to get this detail right! Will greatly add to the authenticity as well as help establish character within the tree.
Maintenance and Future Development... Chinese Elms in a Weeping Willow Style are very easy to maintain. However, they will require some work and will require a lot of wiring. So, if you don't know how to wire very good, Great! Here is your chance to learn!
So let's assume that one has wire the secondary branches of the tree down. What I do, is then cut all of the finer branching coming off of the these branches, to the first pair of leaves... No leaves close in? Then cut about a quarter of an inch away from the secondary branch and leave a stub. New growth will pop from the base.
With this style where one wants new growth to grow and form is actually more at the ends of the main branches, before the bend up and then back down of the secondary branching. This will allow for allot more secondary branches hanging down to develop. With Weeping Willow Style, one does not really use branching beyond secondary... Now, I know some are like what? You don't use it? No... reason being that if the secondary branches all hang down, all we would need any finer branching off of these to do would be to hold foliage.
When one examines a Willow... Often the branches coming down don't really have finer branches off of them, but instead have just leaves... So, what one needs to do to help establish this is to routinely go through a couple of times a year and cut back all of the foliage on the secondary branching to the first set of leaves. Allow for the areas above on the main branches to grow, to form more secondary branching, and when they are long and strong enough, one adds wire and bends them down and into place.
Easy, Peasy... Here are some photos of the tree I did for the client and the work that I have described here, and it's involvement. Hopefully no one has to endure the "Shame" any further...
Thanks!
Original tree. Before starting.
Cut above curves, with original apex removed, as suggested.
Close up of the cut.
Wire applied and left back branch, bent up and around forward to form new continuation of trunk and apex. Branching on right wired and secondary branches bent down.
Finished image of first style.
You know, the drill. The one's folks keep hidden away in the furthest most point of their benches, or even under their benches... away from prying eyes. For fear that they might be spotted and one would have try and quickly come up with some sort of a reasonable answer as to why it exists within their collection.
Perhaps it is just a friend's and you are holding it for them? Or, good ol' Grandma bought it for you at the nickel and dime store along with some shoots of bamboo sitting in decades old stale water?
Well, I am going to show you what to do with it, so never again would one have to feel the terrible wrath of the "Bonsai Shame"... You will never again not be able to invite others over for a Barbecue, and have to worry about burning the meat just to create enough smoke so that your guests have watery eyes and will not be able to see past the plumes of smoke to see what may lay beyond! We will not be slicing and dicing... no magical formula that needs wiping, even no worries about endless grinding to remove that troubled spot, No! And yet, this method is only guaranteed to work on the most terrible of trees... Have a tree that's not so bad, don't try it! Have a tree that makes you glad, put it away! This method is only for those that make you sad...
So, my customer, has a tree that he has let go because of not really know what or where to go with it to make it have even the slightest possibility of becoming a decent or good tree. I told him I did, so he said have at it... so I did...
First off, "S" Curve Chinese Elms naturally when let go, will want to weep. So they are the perfect candidate for a "Weeping Willow Style". Their leaves also will reduce very far down, so the scale of them plays the part. Lastly, if one has ever seen a really cool, and very old example of the growing in nature, next to the side of a body of water, they often will have some really nice movement to the trunk, and yes... dare I say it? Will resemble an "S" Curved Import. So, Bonus... Right? Finally a solution, that one cannot say, there is noting one can do with this type of material, to make it a nice tree... No more, don't bother wasting your time comments.
So, where to begin?
First off unless one has a very big piece of material, which is usually not the case... most have trunks in the neighborhood of around an inch... one needs to consider the height of where the overall design will end up at. If one examines Willows in nature, especially the really cool picturesque ones along side slow flowing rivers, or even ponds, they are usually not very tall trees... Somewhere in the 20 ft. range max? So, no need having a tall tree that does not suit the image. Also, what often happens with these imports is that they have had the bends put into the trunk, and then been allowed to just grow from there... So, one will often find a straight trunk... some bends, and then again a straight stovepipe trunk shooting up to form the apex. This stove pipe area needs to come off! Don't argue, just grab the saw and cut!
So, what I normally will do when designing a Weeping Willow style, is find a branch some where near the top of the curves that I can then bend up to make my continuation of the trunk. Since I want it to play the part of it being the continuation of the trunk... it should then be able to have some bend put into it, to continue the pattern of the curves below it. One last point, here... if one is using this branch now as a leader to form the continuation of the trunk, and to form the apex... make sure that when bending, that the top of the leader, or top of the tree, ends up coming around to the front, and forward. This gives the lean forward, that one is seeking of the apex of the tree in Bonsai.
Next... With Willows, the branches coming off of the tree, always go up first before then returning back down. So, try when wiring to get this detail right! Will greatly add to the authenticity as well as help establish character within the tree.
Maintenance and Future Development... Chinese Elms in a Weeping Willow Style are very easy to maintain. However, they will require some work and will require a lot of wiring. So, if you don't know how to wire very good, Great! Here is your chance to learn!
So let's assume that one has wire the secondary branches of the tree down. What I do, is then cut all of the finer branching coming off of the these branches, to the first pair of leaves... No leaves close in? Then cut about a quarter of an inch away from the secondary branch and leave a stub. New growth will pop from the base.
With this style where one wants new growth to grow and form is actually more at the ends of the main branches, before the bend up and then back down of the secondary branching. This will allow for allot more secondary branches hanging down to develop. With Weeping Willow Style, one does not really use branching beyond secondary... Now, I know some are like what? You don't use it? No... reason being that if the secondary branches all hang down, all we would need any finer branching off of these to do would be to hold foliage.
When one examines a Willow... Often the branches coming down don't really have finer branches off of them, but instead have just leaves... So, what one needs to do to help establish this is to routinely go through a couple of times a year and cut back all of the foliage on the secondary branching to the first set of leaves. Allow for the areas above on the main branches to grow, to form more secondary branching, and when they are long and strong enough, one adds wire and bends them down and into place.
Easy, Peasy... Here are some photos of the tree I did for the client and the work that I have described here, and it's involvement. Hopefully no one has to endure the "Shame" any further...
Thanks!
Original tree. Before starting.
Cut above curves, with original apex removed, as suggested.
Close up of the cut.
Wire applied and left back branch, bent up and around forward to form new continuation of trunk and apex. Branching on right wired and secondary branches bent down.
Finished image of first style.
Last edited:
