Anyone With Birds Nest Spruce?

[Tidal Bonsai]

I picked up these two pieces of birds nest spruce stock to train as shohin. Last year during summer dormancy, I gave them both their first stylings.


They were healthy going into the fall, and still looked green and healthy coming out of winter storage. Once I put them out on the benches to get some sun, large amounts of branches/needles started to die back. I assumed they were dead until today I started to notice buds turning green and appearing to be ready to pop despite there being no needles on the branches?!?!


Is this:

A. Me getting very lucky after styling them too roughly?

B. Part of their natural growth habit being a bowl type grower?

C. Something else entirely?

 

[Shogun610]

From what I’ve learned.... Spruce work is done in stages. So if you repot , you wait a year until styling / pruning till the elongated growth hardens off. I’ve only repotted Blue Spruce and Ezo in the late winter / early spring this year , and they were already wired. But I won’t be touching those till next year to wire and prune again.

 

[Tidal Bonsai]

Totally possible I did too much at once by teasing out the roots in the spring and styling in the summer. Just unsure if this was poor handling of the material, or part of their growth habit?

One would think if I was a bad plant dad, the tree would just completely die, not push new buds all over the tree. Needless to say these are being completely left alone this season

 

[Shogun610]

Not all of my stuff survived winter either.. but they were practice , in bad root health anyway.
Perhaps they should have been pruned/styled in the fall.. sugars and starches would have been moved back to roots by then. . Maybe it was too much for them to handle.. spruce are a pain... that’s why I’d only select a Yamadori .. I tried ball and berlap spruce ... clay is a total root killer.

 

[BonjourBonsai]

I've killed a number of dwarf alberta spruce by styling and reporting in the same year. Last spring, I slip potted this birds nest spruce and did some serious pruning. It responded with growth over the summer. I'm waiting to see if it wakes up this spring. I think @jmmzpsu14 is right that you need to go slow. Your design work is awesome though. I hope they pull through for you. I take @sorce 's approach of first you got to make it ugly to heart. In fact, it seems that's about all I can do. I'm still waiting for the beauty part!

 

[Tidal Bonsai]

Thanks! This is not typically how I operate, but when given cheap nursery stock I usually get more ambitious. Usually it doesn’t come back to bite me, but this year it did.

 

[BonjourBonsai]

I love cheap nursery stock. In MD, HD discounts it's stock by 50 pct in October and then again after Christmas. I got some awesome single trunk mugo pines in January. Lowes marks down even more but they are but more hit and miss.

 

[Kodama]

Can I ask what your winter storage method was for this? I too have Birds Nest Spruce that had some branches that seemed fine through winter (heeled into mulch bed) but got crispy as things warmed. Mine is still in nursery pot but only did medium style/wire in fall. I think it was from the last thaw-freeze cycle where snow / ice was on some branches and/or the relentless cold wind. Wondering if these need overhead protection in winter? I might need to build a better shelter

 

[Tidal Bonsai]

Can I ask what your winter storage method was for this? I too have Birds Nest Spruce that had some branches that seemed fine through winter (heeled into mulch bed) but got crispy as things warmed. Mine is still in nursery pot but only did medium style/wire in fall. I think it was from the last thaw-freeze cycle where snow / ice was on some branches and/or the relentless cold wind. Wondering if these need overhead protection in winter? I might need to build a better shelter

I had them out in my shed for the winter, but there may have been some suprise freezing nights they may have been exposed to.

 

[BonjourBonsai]

I put mine against a North facing wall, on the ground and covered it with leaves. I have another one which I acqired in October and wintered it the same way. I haven't pruned or repotted that one yet. It looks to be in the same shape, more or less as the one I pictured above.

 

[Kodama]

Hmmm...hardiness on these is zone 3... but wondering if some of the roots died that affected the branches from being frozen..thawed...frozen?

 

[Tidal Bonsai]

Interesting, we did have an exceptionally cold winter this year

 

[Lazylightningny]

I have killed a lot of spruce, so I am now very conservative in my approach. They have to be extremely healthy to do work on them, and they generally don't like too much work done in the same year.

Here's a bird's nest I've been babying since 2018, working on ramification. I just repotted it this year, and may not do any further work to it.

 

[sorce]

On the ground.

@MiyagiFan ...it's not winter.

Sorce

 

[Kodama]

View attachment 366413

View attachment 366412

On the ground.

@MiyagiFan ...it's not winter.

Sorce

Hmmm...looks good! Did you have any wind protection on the ground?

 

[sorce]

Not really. It's right in front of that yellow box. That yellow box was propped up on 2 pots and the red bench sideways is just to keep the chickens out.

This was a shot for "the localist of the local", since only my ERC were still Purple.

Sorce

 

[BonjourBonsai]

View attachment 366413

View attachment 366412

On the ground.

@MiyagiFan ...it's not winter.

Sorce

Do you plan to work on this tree this year?

 

[sorce]

Do you plan to work on this tree this year?

Probably just cut it back hard to see if it grows something somewhere worth forming.

Sorce

 

[Bonsaidoorguy]

Started this one a couple of years ago from nursery stock.

 

[BonjourBonsai]

Probably just cut it back hard to see if it grows something somewhere worth forming.

Sorce

Alright, cool because, as is, it doesn't look ugly enough!