Tracks_Of_Death
Seed
Hi all!
I discovered bonsai few months ago pretty much by chance. I immediately fell in love with the artform through resources like Peter Chan on youtube. As I will be moving from my childhood home down the line I decided that a great project would be to make a bonsai from each of the sentimental tree types I grew up with so they can live on now I am in adulthood.
I guess my questions would be some advice and thoughts for the design direction of the tree and tips for working with dogwood or what I can do better in general. I think it has an interesting base and a clear front but besides that, I don't have a plan. the trunk and branches are way too long and strait but that's all sacrificial to me. It will probably be a few years before the trunk thickens enough to use but hey its nice to have a goal to work towards.
The tree is a dogwood of some description. At first, I thought it was a native pacific dogwood but it flowers pink which likely makes it a typical flowering dogwood. The mother tree is likely 30 years old but has been stunted by poor light access and storm damage making it a nice garden tee in its own right. But the actual subject at hand was actually a sucker from said main tree. I dug it up roughly 2 months ago when I was fortunate that it had its own roots besides its feeder from the mothership. They wholly consist of two long roots which are visible on the surface. I accidentally bare-rooted it where I was sure I killed it when I thought it had too few roots. To lessen the strain on the roots I even cut off the top half of the tree (it was 5ft tall) and sealed the wound with mud (yes you read that correctly). Later I found out that it had more than enough and much bigger trees have been transplanted with less. I then "potted" it up with the same soil from whence it came (mulch-like with some rocks) into a water bucket with holes drilled and drainage pebbles added.
A month of nervous daily watering later the buds started to open and I was relieved that it had survived the operation. Now today it has nice green leaves and I assume its fairly healthy. I think its 6 weeks behind the main tree in terms of the growth going by the small size of the leaves.
Since potting, I am just watering and keeping it in the sun to strengthen as much as possible.
Thanks for your time! I hope you got a kick out of my janky inexperienced methods.
-Thomas
I discovered bonsai few months ago pretty much by chance. I immediately fell in love with the artform through resources like Peter Chan on youtube. As I will be moving from my childhood home down the line I decided that a great project would be to make a bonsai from each of the sentimental tree types I grew up with so they can live on now I am in adulthood.
I guess my questions would be some advice and thoughts for the design direction of the tree and tips for working with dogwood or what I can do better in general. I think it has an interesting base and a clear front but besides that, I don't have a plan. the trunk and branches are way too long and strait but that's all sacrificial to me. It will probably be a few years before the trunk thickens enough to use but hey its nice to have a goal to work towards.
The tree is a dogwood of some description. At first, I thought it was a native pacific dogwood but it flowers pink which likely makes it a typical flowering dogwood. The mother tree is likely 30 years old but has been stunted by poor light access and storm damage making it a nice garden tee in its own right. But the actual subject at hand was actually a sucker from said main tree. I dug it up roughly 2 months ago when I was fortunate that it had its own roots besides its feeder from the mothership. They wholly consist of two long roots which are visible on the surface. I accidentally bare-rooted it where I was sure I killed it when I thought it had too few roots. To lessen the strain on the roots I even cut off the top half of the tree (it was 5ft tall) and sealed the wound with mud (yes you read that correctly). Later I found out that it had more than enough and much bigger trees have been transplanted with less. I then "potted" it up with the same soil from whence it came (mulch-like with some rocks) into a water bucket with holes drilled and drainage pebbles added.
A month of nervous daily watering later the buds started to open and I was relieved that it had survived the operation. Now today it has nice green leaves and I assume its fairly healthy. I think its 6 weeks behind the main tree in terms of the growth going by the small size of the leaves.
Since potting, I am just watering and keeping it in the sun to strengthen as much as possible.
Thanks for your time! I hope you got a kick out of my janky inexperienced methods.
-Thomas