Hartinez
Masterpiece
Hey everyone. I’ve posted over the last couple of years about a few Cotoneaster Coral Beauty that were created from a bare trunk line. I’ve really enjoyed their progression and have found them quite hardy and able to take quite a bit of work. Here are those threads. I employed the same process to these trees as I do to the trees in this thread.
Cotoneaster in general have several characteristics that are desirable for bonsai, but Coral Beauty in particular seems to trunk up in nursery pots faster than most others I’ve seen. even the one gallon size. Paired with the naturally small leaves and vigorous growth these little trees can make great shohin or mame bonsai in a short amount of time. This variety in particular then creates a great opportunity for beginners, or long time hobbyists who want to CREATE there own tree from scratch.
I thought I would create a thread showing my step by step process for starting one. Keep in mind, I’m no pro and I’ve killed many trees over the years. I can only speak to my own personal experience and results and can’t guarantee the success of any of these trees in a different climate or or horticultural situation.
ok here we go.
I bought 3, one gallon Coral Beauty Cotoneaster from a local whole sale nursery that sells them at 8 dollars a piece. When choosing these trees I considered several factors. Surface roots, Trunk girth, current health of the tree, and potential trunk lines. The surface roots can be deceiving though as often times with nursery plants a better and sometimes worse nebari can be found below the soil surface.
these were my selected trees.
1) do a general cutback of the existing branching in order to do the soil surface Clean up. A final trunk leader and branch selection will be done once the nebari and surface roots have been better exposed.
2) using a chopstick or root rake remove the top of the soil surface looking for a wider surface root layout. This amount will be different for each tree. I went as far as 1” below the existing soil line on 1 tree. Be careful though, because going further down does not always yield a better nebari, the opposite in fact. Use your gut and stop when you feel you’ve found the best nebari available. Use a root pruning scissors to cut and remove roots above your finish trunk line or to remove roots growing directly vertical above soil level. More root work will be addressed when these trees are repotted
3) once you’ve found your desired nebari, begin the decision making of locating your new trunk line that best enhances your exposed nebari. Once you’ve decided upon a trunk line, remove every branch that does not fit in with that final line. I prefer to remove most if not all branching, leaving only a bare trunk. In som cases I will leave more branching or subtrunks, if I feel a more attractive and unique final product will be revealed. Use knob cutters to cut as close to the trunk as possible. I don’t always, but in this case I used a cut paste to seal most of the concave cuts. I left a few uncovered as I plan on carving Uros into these wounds.
4) overpot the trees and existing Root balls into a substrate of your choice and a pot of your choice. I try not to go too much bigger than the original size. I used pond baskets and a cutdown nursery container and pure pumice. I feel it retains the necessary moisture and gives the tightly packed roots the oxygen needed to begin extending new growth.
At this point I just water as usual and will begin to fertilize once new growth begins to extend.
as a reminder, this process may not always be successful and these 3 trees may also not be successful, but experience tells me Cotoneaster can take this work and in many cases even more.
this thread was in response to a thread @misfit11 started regarding the abundance of beginners seen on the site. My aim is to give options to those beginners that want to try there hand at creating their own tree and are ready to move past the big box mallsai. Hopefully we can get some more great progression threads and continue the quality of this site!
if anyone has any suggestions, concerns, questions or other input to this process, don’t hesitate.
Mame coral beauty Cotoneaster, 3 month progression
Bought this great little cotoneaster coral beauty for $10 on June 4th. Loved its inherent trunk line and could see, based on the trunk line, that the base was plenty thick and leaves plenty small to make a convincing composition. Here it is after chopping , removing duff and loose soil and...
www.bonsainut.com
Another Mame Cotoneaster - triple trunk or double trunk?
Hey all. Here is another little tree I started last year. You can see it’s initial stages in This thread here along with another mame Cotoneaster I’m a big fan of. After exposing more of the base the triple trunk I had planned was starting to not look as good. The base was didn’t flare the...
www.bonsainut.com
Cotoneaster in general have several characteristics that are desirable for bonsai, but Coral Beauty in particular seems to trunk up in nursery pots faster than most others I’ve seen. even the one gallon size. Paired with the naturally small leaves and vigorous growth these little trees can make great shohin or mame bonsai in a short amount of time. This variety in particular then creates a great opportunity for beginners, or long time hobbyists who want to CREATE there own tree from scratch.
I thought I would create a thread showing my step by step process for starting one. Keep in mind, I’m no pro and I’ve killed many trees over the years. I can only speak to my own personal experience and results and can’t guarantee the success of any of these trees in a different climate or or horticultural situation.
ok here we go.
I bought 3, one gallon Coral Beauty Cotoneaster from a local whole sale nursery that sells them at 8 dollars a piece. When choosing these trees I considered several factors. Surface roots, Trunk girth, current health of the tree, and potential trunk lines. The surface roots can be deceiving though as often times with nursery plants a better and sometimes worse nebari can be found below the soil surface.
these were my selected trees.
1) do a general cutback of the existing branching in order to do the soil surface Clean up. A final trunk leader and branch selection will be done once the nebari and surface roots have been better exposed.
2) using a chopstick or root rake remove the top of the soil surface looking for a wider surface root layout. This amount will be different for each tree. I went as far as 1” below the existing soil line on 1 tree. Be careful though, because going further down does not always yield a better nebari, the opposite in fact. Use your gut and stop when you feel you’ve found the best nebari available. Use a root pruning scissors to cut and remove roots above your finish trunk line or to remove roots growing directly vertical above soil level. More root work will be addressed when these trees are repotted
3) once you’ve found your desired nebari, begin the decision making of locating your new trunk line that best enhances your exposed nebari. Once you’ve decided upon a trunk line, remove every branch that does not fit in with that final line. I prefer to remove most if not all branching, leaving only a bare trunk. In som cases I will leave more branching or subtrunks, if I feel a more attractive and unique final product will be revealed. Use knob cutters to cut as close to the trunk as possible. I don’t always, but in this case I used a cut paste to seal most of the concave cuts. I left a few uncovered as I plan on carving Uros into these wounds.
4) overpot the trees and existing Root balls into a substrate of your choice and a pot of your choice. I try not to go too much bigger than the original size. I used pond baskets and a cutdown nursery container and pure pumice. I feel it retains the necessary moisture and gives the tightly packed roots the oxygen needed to begin extending new growth.
At this point I just water as usual and will begin to fertilize once new growth begins to extend.
as a reminder, this process may not always be successful and these 3 trees may also not be successful, but experience tells me Cotoneaster can take this work and in many cases even more.
this thread was in response to a thread @misfit11 started regarding the abundance of beginners seen on the site. My aim is to give options to those beginners that want to try there hand at creating their own tree and are ready to move past the big box mallsai. Hopefully we can get some more great progression threads and continue the quality of this site!
if anyone has any suggestions, concerns, questions or other input to this process, don’t hesitate.