Hornbeam

[PeaceLoveBonsai]

Here's a Hornbeam I recently acquired. It came wrapped in burlap, so I did a bit of root trimming and potted it up in this Bokeno pot.


Close up of the trunk.


Its about to bloom.

Kid for scale.



I don't have a ton of Hornbeam experience, so any thoughts, suggestions or resources is always appreciated.

 

[Rusty Davis]

I don't have any advice but looks like a fun start

 

[CWTurner]

Gdy,
Great looking kid. Nice work there.
The tree has potential but I would air-layer that odd top off of it.
Then chop the trunk above tbe first branch on tbe right, and remove the small left branch.
Im not sure that the left branch isnt too fat to keep.
TWO trees!
CW

 

[JudyB]

You should at least chase that low branch back to the first twig, and hope it pops a bud back closer to the trunk as it's too straight now. The great thing about hornbeams are the quirky branch movement they grow. Air layering looks like a possibility for this, I think the top is almost more interesting as a tree than the bottom. Cool pot and stand... kid included???

 

[PeaceLoveBonsai]

Gdy,
Great looking kid. Nice work there.
The tree has potential but I would air-layer that odd top off of it.
Then chop the trunk above tbe first branch on tbe right, and remove the small left branch.
Im not sure that the left branch isnt too fat to keep.
TWO trees!
CW

Agreed. I see an air layer in the future.

 

[PeaceLoveBonsai]

You should at least chase that low branch back to the first twig, and hope it pops a bud back closer to the trunk as it's too straight now. The great thing about hornbeams are the quirky branch movement they grow. Air layering looks like a possibility for this, I think the top is almost more interesting as a tree than the bottom. Cool pot and stand... kid included???

Yes, kid included

 

[sorce]

I see an airlayer in the past.

And another with some follow thru in the future!

It's worth trying to long game the base.

Nice pot!

Sorce

 

[PeaceLoveBonsai]

I didn’t do anything to this tree for a year. Just watered and fertilized. This spring I re potted, but didn’t do a lot root work. The roots on this tree are great. Here’s the tree before work:

It continues to have a funky top. It’s growing very strong, so I decided to air layer.


I’ll continue to update this post with progress. Here’s hoping two shohin hornbeams are soon to come.