Help with a Hornbeam

[ElyDave]

I've had this hornbeam for about 5 years or so, and had been styling it as an formal upright, but I'm just not happy with the proportions, it's too tall and slim for my liking. In a redwood, the proportions would work, but with the relatively large leaf of the hornbeam it doesn't look quite right to me.

I was thinking of air layering where the arrow is, to turn it into two trees, bending the main branch below the layer up to a new apex.

Thoughts?

 

[leatherback]

Considering the lack of taper and movement above your proposed layer.. how about layering higher?

 

[ElyDave]

Could be good place to try, I'd picked my location because of the strong branch to the left to make a number 1 branch. The lack of taper is really annoying and it's just not put any girth on at all.

I could also try putting in the ground for a few years, I have plenty of space to try that. Or even layer it AND put it in the ground

 

[leatherback]

I'd picked my location because of the strong branch to the left to make a number 1 branch.

You know.. There is no hard and fast rule that you cannot cut the bottom part lower than where you have layered the top

When layering, base the location of the layer on what the top will look like.

I could also try putting in the ground for a few years

You could. But it would not fix the taper & straightness. Cutting back at some point will be part of the game.

 

[Shibui]

The layer looks like it will produce a tree with much better proportions but will still be too small for the leaf size. The only remedy for that is to increase the size which also means increasing the trunk thickness for proportion. est way to achieve that is to plant in a larger grow pot or the ground.
The lower section after layer is removed will not be much of an improvement. When that branch is raised the tree will be only just shorter than the current tree so the proportion problem will still be there. Probably need to be reduced way further to get better taper and proportion but that ill still require further growth to thicken the trunk. Not sure how hornbeam respond to hard trunk chop.

Whatever you do it looks like a long term development project to achieve a well proportioned hornbeam bonsai.

 

[Woocash]

Yes it’s not a traditional base, but I like it and there is a bit of taper in the first few inches already. A chop just above the top chop mark and a few years in the ground would do it some good I reckons.