Carpinus #5

[BobbyLane]

I picked this Hornbeam up, around early 2018 from a tree nursery, i had some fun carving the hell out of it!

It was taller, you can see where the chops were made
29386922_1667309113334123_8706253898134877245_n by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

this was going to be the intended front
29186407_1662185037179864_2894087807547802592_n by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

i had this in mind at the time
29186809_1662167660514935_3641073066844195480_ny by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

it spent most of 2018 in a grow bed
Hornbeam raft potentiol by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

Hornbeam raft potentiol by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

now its back in a training pot
20190111_141938 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
20190111_141850 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

 

[BobbyLane]

This is my preferred front now
IMG_7458 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
IMG_7459 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

IMG_7461 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

the deadwood gained some real character while in the ground though...
IMG_7462 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

and you can see where the callus has rolled in around the edges
IMG_7465 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

gotta love hornbeams, so tough and resilient
IMG_7466 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
IMG_7468 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

IMG_7471 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

basic structure in place, just needs time to progress
IMG_7473 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

 

[BobbyLane]

from this angle, the tree has great taper, good base.....the low branch obscures the view a bit though and i really want to keep this branch because it compliments the tree from other angles, it also has good movement
2019-01-12_11-49-48 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

so everything stays for now anyway...update later in year

 

[penumbra]

Inspiring

 

[just.wing.it]

Wow Bobby!
You have the magic touch, pushing these trees forward quickly! Nice work!
I have 4 Hornbeams to collect this spring, yours are always an inspiration, thanks for posting.

 

[BobbyLane]

Wow Bobby!
You have the magic touch, pushing these trees forward quickly! Nice work!
I have 4 Hornbeams to collect this spring, yours are always an inspiration, thanks for posting.

Cheers buddy...yep you'll be surprised at how much trees with a well established root system can take. ive got these hornbeams to a level where they just need ramifying now. well established nursery stock can be moved on very quickly, especially when you have an opportunity to cherry pick half decent material.
ive also sold quite a few trees in last few weeks, so can put more time into others.

 

[BobbyLane]

these are some other hornbeams at the tree nursery
20180911_125115 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

this below one is pretty chunky, there is a chance there is a pretty decent nebari under there, but the soil is extremely dense and matted and the trees were pushed in quite deep, ive been on a few occasions and was unable to get a feel for the nebari, but spinning this tree around, i wasnt convinced by what i see as some inverse taper in the middle of the trunk. so many branches though, so the roots must be decent i think

a trunk like this would probably be worth the while, for someone that likes to layer bits off and make the most of it. im more in the chop it low, chop it once camp
20180911_125109 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

another
again, you can see how tight the soil is at the base, but this one has some flair and low branching, has some options still, the trunk is nothing special really.....the masses of good sized branches, give you good options for trunk lines on these and resulting taper. bit tricky not to come away with a good few scars though, depends what youre into
20180911_125103 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

however. i did recently come away with another one not pictured, ill do a thread on it in the coming weeks/months

 

[dirk hoorelbeke]

Nice start. Going to follow this one. I like the brute feeling of it.

 

[barrosinc]

Having a nursery with airpots is such an good thing!!!
You are lucky and have a great eye to buy nursery stock.

 

[BobbyLane]

Having a nursery with airpots is such an good thing!!!
You are lucky and have a great eye to buy nursery stock.

anyone can hone their eyes when it comes to picking the right trees. you just have to look at enough real/wild trees, good bonsai trees, good naturalistic bonsai trees. a lot of folk are just not prepared to put in the required effort/research/study. believe me, ive bought a lot of crap too.

anyway, i have this tree on my hard drive, that could provide some inspiration going forwards, so here's a little virtual for anyone interested...
2019-01-23_02-55-51 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr


i have this hornbeam on my drive, i think its by an eastern european artist, kind of similar to the wild tree

i want to let the first left branch grow unchecked and upright to become a more prominent feature of the tree, in time possibly a secondary trunk, obviously it wont become as impressive as the tree above, but i still see a twin canopy/apice thing going on.