Dogwood - Cornus alba for bonsai?

leatherback

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Hi all,

I have been roaming the web for a bit trying to find ggood examples of cornus bonsai. I am however unable to find them. Why is this? Does anyone know?

I love the firetruck red bark on young branches, and would expect these to make spectacular bonsai in winter. (In summer the foliageis probably tooo large).

Today I dug one from my garden. 3 years old, maybe 1 1/2 inch trunk at soil level. Potted it, to see what can be done. Any tips welcome.
 
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Lorax7

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I’m training a red twig dogwood as bonsai now, but I’ve only been working on it for a year so it’s way too early to tell how it’s going to work out.
 

M. Frary

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Not sure why but there has to be a reason.
I run over all kinds of them at work every day.
A lot do grow into interesting shapes on their own.
 

leatherback

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Not sure why but there has to be a reason.
:) Exactly why I am pos{t}ing the question..
They seem like a perfect species for great winter images.
Maybe being a colonizing species means they do not ramify well, dropping branches like Birch do?
 

leatherback

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Yup. Found those. And those are about the best bonsai I could find; They are good, but I would expect loads at that level, considering this stuff grows like weed.. And these are cornus mas, not cornus alba. So.. is it not possible to grow them as good bonsai?
 

petegreg

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Hard to say. What I've seen here C. alba are only suckering shrubs in parks. C. mass, on the contrary, can grow into small sized trees.
 

just.wing.it

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Yup. Found those. And those are about the best bonsai I could find; They are good, but I would expect loads at that level, considering this stuff grows like weed.. And these are cornus mas, not cornus alba. So.. is it not possible to grow them as good bonsai?
I do believe @Maros has a nice thread on that tree here on Bnut.

Edit:
Yeah....here....https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/dogwood.18287/page-3
 

Maros

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I do believe @Maros has a nice thread on that tree here on Bnut.

Edit:
Yeah....here....https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/dogwood.18287/page-3

I have three Cornus mas trees, one I call "Vesna" (https://belanmaros.blogspot.com/search/label/"Vesna") could be seen in my Dogwood thread you linked already.

DSC_9179%2Be.jpg


DSC_9180e.jpg


The second one is the tree I call "Attila" (https://belanmaros.blogspot.com/search/label/"Attila") collected in Hungary in 2012.

DSC_9189edit.jpg

DSC_9190 edit.jpg

Third four trunk tree I brought home this spring, and it is doing really well.
My experience is that Cornus mas is quite easy to collect (I admit I managed to kill one, biggest I ever collected though) and once established it is growing really well. Ramify nicely and soon creating nice bark on new growth blending with old wood well. Soon after establishing it is able to flower and bear fruits as well. Autumn colours could be nice but it is a bit tricky because they tend to drop all leaves at once while experiencing the first frost. Colouration could be different from tree to tree.

Since this spring I have one new Cornus sanguinea and it looks like it is a nice tree for bonsai as well, colours of the autumn foliage nicer than Cornus mas, a bark is also more reddish. Hard to judge its survival rate now because my sample is not big enough. But tree I collected produced about 1 meter of the shoots in abundance, so this one will make it I hope.
 

M. Frary

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I have three Cornus mas trees, one I call "Vesna" (https://belanmaros.blogspot.com/search/label/"Vesna") could be seen in my Dogwood thread you linked already.

DSC_9179%2Be.jpg


DSC_9180e.jpg


The second one is the tree I call "Attila" (https://belanmaros.blogspot.com/search/label/"Attila") collected in Hungary in 2012.

View attachment 218112

View attachment 218113

Third four trunk tree I brought home this spring, and it is doing really well.
My experience is that Cornus mas is quite easy to collect (I admit I managed to kill one, biggest I ever collected though) and once established it is growing really well. Ramify nicely and soon creating nice bark on new growth blending with old wood well. Soon after establishing it is able to flower and bear fruits as well. Autumn colours could be nice but it is a bit tricky because they tend to drop all leaves at once while experiencing the first frost. Colouration could be different from tree to tree.

Since this spring I have one new Cornus sanguinea and it looks like it is a nice tree for bonsai as well, colours of the autumn foliage nicer than Cornus mas, a bark is also more reddish. Hard to judge its survival rate now because my sample is not big enough. But tree I collected produced about 1 meter of the shoots in abundance, so this one will make it I hope.
I'll be keeping my eyes open for one to try.
 

hinmo24t

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was looking for some info on these. i have a yellowtwig cornus dogwood (and a kousa dogwood 8' tall pre bonsai) my mom found on clearance at walmart haha. its been sitting around for awhile and has a 1" + trunk diameter.
and great branching for cutting next year. whats cool is its not easy to find any examples of this aside from twiggy bush, but mine is in the form of a tree.
 
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