emk
Mame
My wife and I bought a Dawn Redwood from a local nursery in 2005 and have had it growing in the back yard for almost three years now. When we got it, I wasn't really thinking of it as a bonsai subject, so I didn't plant it accordingly. Now we realize that this tree is going to quickly outgrow the space we have for it, so I'm considering training it as bonsai after-the-fact.
It's about 6 or 7 feet tall and has a base caliper of 1.5". It's in a shady location (under several other trees) and in clay soil. It's been growing pretty quickly with lovely healthy foilage, though last spring we had a early spring warm-up following by a sudden prolonged cold-snap, so it suffered a bit from that and had to push out a second crop of needles instead of extending as much as it might have wanted to.
Since the tree has such a nice, straight trunk (up until about the forth major whorl of branches), I think it would make a handsome Columnar Formal Upright style bonsai (short branches of roughly the same length up the trunk with foliage starting almost at the base of each branch - I've only seen the style discussed in Koreshoff's book).
The first thing I'd like advice on is whether I should A) leave the tree where it is; B) transplant it in a sunnier location on a tile (to keep the root mass shallow and evenly spread) and in grit-amended soil to make it easier to pot later; or C) pot in a grow box so I have better control over sun/climate exposure and soil quality.
Secondly, I need some tips on how to improve the trunk's taper. Here's what I'm thinking: The base has some low branches I can use as sacrificial branches to grow unchecked for a few years to thicken the trunk below that point (I would remove 2 of the 3 in that first whorl so it doesn't just swell at that point). The next "whorl" only includes one branch, so I could prune that back a bit, but let it likewise grow as a sacrificial branch to thicken that next section of trunk a little less that the lower section. I'd remove the bar branches above (the third "whorl") and then do a trunk chop at one of the next major branches and train it to be the new leader (the trunk get's curvy beyond that point anyhow). Basically, it seems like a waste to me to chop all the way down to the first whorl, especially since I'm not at all confident of my ability to train new leaders to form perfectly straight trunk lines. Then again, this is my first attempt at a formal upright, and my first time working with this species, so I'm completely open to advice!
It's about 6 or 7 feet tall and has a base caliper of 1.5". It's in a shady location (under several other trees) and in clay soil. It's been growing pretty quickly with lovely healthy foilage, though last spring we had a early spring warm-up following by a sudden prolonged cold-snap, so it suffered a bit from that and had to push out a second crop of needles instead of extending as much as it might have wanted to.
Since the tree has such a nice, straight trunk (up until about the forth major whorl of branches), I think it would make a handsome Columnar Formal Upright style bonsai (short branches of roughly the same length up the trunk with foliage starting almost at the base of each branch - I've only seen the style discussed in Koreshoff's book).
The first thing I'd like advice on is whether I should A) leave the tree where it is; B) transplant it in a sunnier location on a tile (to keep the root mass shallow and evenly spread) and in grit-amended soil to make it easier to pot later; or C) pot in a grow box so I have better control over sun/climate exposure and soil quality.
Secondly, I need some tips on how to improve the trunk's taper. Here's what I'm thinking: The base has some low branches I can use as sacrificial branches to grow unchecked for a few years to thicken the trunk below that point (I would remove 2 of the 3 in that first whorl so it doesn't just swell at that point). The next "whorl" only includes one branch, so I could prune that back a bit, but let it likewise grow as a sacrificial branch to thicken that next section of trunk a little less that the lower section. I'd remove the bar branches above (the third "whorl") and then do a trunk chop at one of the next major branches and train it to be the new leader (the trunk get's curvy beyond that point anyhow). Basically, it seems like a waste to me to chop all the way down to the first whorl, especially since I'm not at all confident of my ability to train new leaders to form perfectly straight trunk lines. Then again, this is my first attempt at a formal upright, and my first time working with this species, so I'm completely open to advice!