Blue Atlas Cedar

[misfit11]

Here is a Blue Atlas Cedar that I purchased this summer. It was one of 100+ trees that were donated to the Redwood Empire Bonsai Society by a woman from Humboldt County that had inherited the collection after her mother had passed away. I considered myself very fortunate to get the tree for a very reasonable price following the very generous donation.

I've never purchased a tree so far along in development before as I usually enjoy the process of creating a bonsai. However, I felt that although I didn't have any prior experience with this species before I could make some positive improvements and make my mark in some way on the tree.

The tree itself has many positive attributes including an old gnarled base (which can take a LONG time to achieve on Cedars), nice movement, and nice, small needles with great color. The drawback, however, is that most of the growth is waaaayyyy out on the ends of long branches. This leggy growth does nothing for the image of the tree. It has been decided that grafting is in order to "compact" the image and bring it into better proportion. I intend to begin this work (with A LOT of help from workshop teachers) next spring.

Comments and criticisms are welcome. Also, if anyone has experience grafting on cedars and is willing to offer any advice it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Cory

 

[bonsaibp]

Lucky for you, you have access to more then a few teachers who can help you with that. And I agree that's the way to go. Atlas cedars do not backbud well at all.

 

[cmeg1]

Good luck with that.I really like the base of the tree.

 

[yenling83]

Nice Tree and congrats on it! If it were mine I would repot it into the mix I always use(akadama, pumice, lava) then just feed with organic and water next season untill it's really healthy and growing strong. Then take to a work shop with Kathy or Boon in early 2014.

 

[misfit11]

Update

So I decided to click a couple of pictures last night since the tree is putting on lots of new growth and is getting strong.

I took this tree to a Kathy Shaner repotting and grafting workshop back in January with the intent of possibly doing both. When I walked into the workshop Kathy took one glance at the tree and said, "that needs to be repotted". So we set to work on doing just that with her still thinking we could do some grafting that night. As we got into the rootball, it was quickly realized that serious root measures needed to be taken. The tree had been slip potted into the still way too small pot with very marginal soil at some time in the distant past. After removing this soil we got to the previous rootball where the original drainage hole mesh was still in place IMBEDDED in the rootball!! From here this thing was a complete brick! Kathy had to get out her crazy root hook (which looks like it would be perfect for bludgeoning someone to death) and began hacking at this thing like a woman on a mission. Needless to say, after we got it broken up enough for this tree to begin thriving again, there wasn't much left in the way of roots.

Kathy then asked me if I still wanted to grafting or if I wanted to wait until next year so the tree could recover. I chose the safe route. I think the tree is going to be better off for it. So without intending to do so, I ended up taking Yenling's advice from above. Thanks, Yenling! You were right!

Here's some photos of the tree in the new, more appropriately sized pot. Kathy thinks we may make the right side the front in the future.

1st photo: current front
2nd photo: right side (future front)
3rd photo: left side

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Nice. Will it back-bud?

 

[misfit11]

Nice. Will it back-bud?

No . That's why the grafting is in order. After grafting closer into the trunk, the outer stuff will be removed and a more compact image can be achieved... but as with anything bonsai, it's going to be a while. Fortunately, I'm "relatively" young, although my 40th birthday is next month. I'm not sure how much longer I can say that.

 

[JudyB]

Lovely tree, without reading the post first, I looked at the pic, and was planning on asking why the right side isn't the front.
Good that you're getting it healthy first. Grafts don't work well on dead trees!
Keep this puppy updated please!

 

[fore]

Cool tree! Nice growth this spring! Looks much happier in that new soil! Good decision to wait a yr.

 

[cvarcher]

BEautiful tree! The branches were a bit leggy

What I would have done is wire out each branch creating bends to shorten the length on each and angle them downward too. Then maybe you wouldnt have to graft.

 

[misfit11]

What I would have done is wire out each branch creating bends to shorten the length on each and angle them downward too. Then maybe you wouldnt have to graft.

That was a consideration. Some of the foliage is soooooo far out on the ends of the branches that you would have had to have done so much bending that it would have ended up looking like the wires behind your TV. Grafting is a much longer term solution but a better one and will result in a more convincing image IMHO.

I still may do some wiring and creative bending in other areas of the tree. Sadly, cedars are notorious for taking for ever for branches to set so I can be reassured that I'll get lots of practice wiring this tree.

Thanks for the nice comment and suggestion.

Cory

 

[Paulpash]

I'm glad Kathy helped you repot - Cedars are touchy about root disturbance. Did it drop any needles ?

 

[misfit11]

I'm glad Kathy helped you repot - Cedars are touchy about root disturbance. Did it drop any needles ?

Yeah. I couldn't have done this without Kathy's expertise. It has dropped a few needles just recently, but it really didn't miss a beat. It put on quite a bit of growth this season given the amount of root work we did.

Cory

 

[Paulpash]

That's just shedding old needles - nothing to be concerned about. It's when it does it after repotting you want to worry

 

[GerhardG]

Beautiful tree, the one species I dream about and will most likely never have - if it were mine I would forget the little issues and enjoy a stunning tree

 

[misfit11]

It's been quite a while since this thread has been updated and probably almost as long that anything was done with the tree. It must have been late winter 2014 that I did a grafting workshop with Kathy Shaner and we did 7 or 8 grafts on this tree. We'll, just one of those grafts took only to have my then 5 yr old throw a ball at it and take it out. Following that was when I fell away from the hobby and did little more than water my trees.

Now fast forward to 2020 and I decided to give this one another go. I contacted Jim Gremel to see if he'd graft the tree for me as he happens to be the resident expert on Cedars. He did 8 grafts. This Cedar has great potential. It has terrific bark for a Cedar bonsai. These take a VERY long time to develop fissured bark which leads me to believe that this is quite old. Given these grafts take, the branches will be styled in more of a downward fashion more indicative of a conifer. Let me know what you think

Cory

 

[mwar15]

Smart decision

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I don't think Cedars need downward branching, only the weeping ones have that going for them.
But do as you please of course!

 

[0soyoung]

I don't think Cedars need downward branching, only the weeping ones have that going for them.
But do as you please of course!

That is the beauty of bonsai = your tree is like you want it to be (maybe).

Young atlas cedars have branches going every which way. With age, branches do hang and sweep out - it gets a little bit more set in its ways.

Kinda allegorical.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

That is the beauty of bonsai = your tree is like you want it to be (maybe).

Young atlas cedars have branches going every which way. With age, branches do hang and sweep out - it gets a little bit more set in its ways.

Kinda allegorical.

Oh yes, and it's controversial too!
I mean that the branch connection to the trunk in cedars is almost always upwards, like in the Lebanese flag.
Mine are going to be those flat tops. Childhood memories!
But I also did some twisty bendy stuff on my seedlings. Just 15 years to go!