Ezo Spruce

Brian Van Fleet

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Yes beautiful! Very spruce-like. Brian for "final" image are you leaving apex pointy or with a somewhat rounded silhouette?
Thanks, it's also cool having "sibling" spruces developing side by side. For mine, I envision a fairly pointed top, with the silhouette very close to what it is now, after some century-old spruces between holes 1 and 10 on the golf course I grew up playing. Somewhere I have a bunch of pix.
 

fourteener

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Thanks, it's also cool having "sibling" spruces developing side by side. For mine, I envision a fairly pointed top, with the silhouette very close to what it is now, after some century-old spruces between holes 1 and 10 on the golf course I grew up playing. Somewhere I have a bunch of pix.

We see lots of old spruce around here and I have never seen a rounded off top on any of them. If your carrying a natural spruce look into your tree, a pointed top is the only way to go. If you want to make it look like something else it might be an option. I think it's harder to manage as a heavy top will begin to create bulges in your trunk that will become a problem.
 

MACH5

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Thanks, it's also cool having "sibling" spruces developing side by side. For mine, I envision a fairly pointed top, with the silhouette very close to what it is now, after some century-old spruces between holes 1 and 10 on the golf course I grew up playing. Somewhere I have a bunch of pix.


Yes I think I will keep mine pointy as well.

We see lots of old spruce around here and I have never seen a rounded off top on any of them. If your carrying a natural spruce look into your tree, a pointed top is the only way to go. If you want to make it look like something else it might be an option. I think it's harder to manage as a heavy top will begin to create bulges in your trunk that will become a problem.

Sure! I asked since I have seen spruce from WP with rounded apexes.
 

october

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Absolutely beautiful tree and work! This is an exceptional bonsai.

Rob
 

Nomiyama

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The spruce is looking really nice Brian. All those years of hard work are finally paying off.

Chris
 

Vance Wood

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We see lots of old spruce around here and I have never seen a rounded off top on any of them. If your carrying a natural spruce look into your tree, a pointed top is the only way to go. If you want to make it look like something else it might be an option. I think it's harder to manage as a heavy top will begin to create bulges in your trunk that will become a problem.

You have not climbed high enough to get to the upper limits of their range where altitude, weather and environmental events crash in on them and beat them into the ground. However for the most part a Spruce will grow straight as an arrow upward regardless of what happens to it. If it is upright it is really upright. This particular tree is very well done but I think the pot does not do it justice.
 

Brian Van Fleet

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Have you given any thought to rooting any cuttings from the pruning of this tree? It is my understanding that Ezzo roots well from cuttings. I remember a past issue of International Bonsai had an extensive article on the subject.
You know, I struck almost 30 cuttings in fall 2014 from this Ezo @Vance Wood suggestion. About 10 made it until fall 2015, still green, but no growth at all. This spring, 4-5 were still green, and just in the last couple weeks, they all put on a new fresh flush of growth! Pretty amazing they can sit for 18 months on reserves, and suddenly spring to life.
image.jpeg

Wonder how the parent tree is doing...
 

Eric Group

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You know, I struck almost 30 cuttings in fall 2014 from this Ezo @Vance Wood suggestion. About 10 made it until fall 2015, still green, but no growth at all. This spring, 4-5 were still green, and just in the last couple weeks, they all put on a new fresh flush of growth! Pretty amazing they can sit for 18 months on reserves, and suddenly spring to life.
View attachment 103758

Wonder how the parent tree is doing...
This is a great little tale for a propagation addict like myself... never give up til it is crispy and brown!
 

Vance Wood

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It is a good lesson. Sometimes we give up on stuff long before we should have. This is a very good example. My Zombie Mugo is another.
 

MACH5

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Nice Brian! Good to know because I may do the same. Parent doing well. I just did a light repotting into an actual ceramic pot. I could not take it with that plastic oil pan anymore! Now budding well. I will see how it does and depending I may style it in the fall. The only area that's weak is the apex. I am not going to touch it until it gets stronger. Luckily it is the apex which should not stay weak for long?
 

Brian Van Fleet

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You know, I struck almost 30 cuttings in fall 2014 from this Ezo @Vance Wood suggestion. About 10 made it until fall 2015, still green, but no growth at all. This spring, 4-5 were still green, and just in the last couple weeks, they all put on a new fresh flush of growth! Pretty amazing they can sit for 18 months on reserves, and suddenly spring to life.
2.5 years later, the 4 surviving ezo cuttings were potted up to a larger container. Hope my future grandkids like 'em!
IMG_0061.JPG IMG_0062.JPG
 

Vance Wood

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2.5 years later, the 4 surviving ezo cuttings were potted up to a larger container. Hope my future grandkids like 'em!
View attachment 136020 View attachment 136021
I did not know you were actually doing the cuttings. If I remember correctly there was a method for doing this that required the cuttings be planted at an angle on little mounds. If you can get your hands on Yuji Yoshimura's old book the process is detailed in it if you are interested in doing this again.
 

Brian Van Fleet

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You sold it, now someone else is selling it?
It looks quite different in that last picture...
I think summers were hard on it here, and so I sold it to Sergio (MACH5), who worked on it for a couple years and decided it was more traditional than his tastes were leading him, so he's now selling it. He was very kind to offer first right of refusal, and I'd take it back in a second if I thought it would thrive in my climate. It's a great species and good stock.

That last photo was before he worked on it with Mauro. I had it pretty tightly pulled down.
 

Leo in N E Illinois

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Those cuttings show just how slow ezo spruce are to grow.

I have a 2 gallon nursery stock Picea orientalis. It looks similar in most ways, and is available in North America, both as seed and as nursery stock. I would not want to take the time needed to raise any of these species from seed. Even Picea glauca is slow enough from seed I find the prospect of 10 years before anything can really be done discouraging.
 

orangeyeoman

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It's been a little over 4 years. Are they still alive? Growing?
 
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