John P.’s SoCal Oak Thread

[Dan92119]

I really like Cork Oaks! I have 4 that I purchased in one gallon pots a few years ago. I bare rooted and cut off about 75% of the roots. Didn’t even slow them down!
One of the trees I trimmed a year after repotting and it grew 4 ft! Really helped with thickening the trunk.

I also have some English Oaks that I grew from seed that are a year old. I wasn’t sure how they would grow here since we don’t really get a real winter but they went dormant and woke up in the spring. Happy with them so far.

 

[John P.]

Picked out a Coast Live Oak to go in my bonsai side yard. The tree will be delivered and planted in early September. It had much smaller leaves, tighter growth and internodes than the others at the tree nursery. Of course I was thinking that it could be an air layer factory, LOL. The nursery also has a bunch of cork oaks, so the decision was difficult for me. Ultimately I decided to choose the Coast Oak since it’s native here in Coastal Orange County.



It’s around 10’ tall not including the box, and has better trunk caliper than the others, too. They have “natural” forms (like this) as well as others with trimmed side branches and single trunks. A few multi-trunks as well.

You can see the leaf size difference between it and the other ones in the same row. So much variability in these oaks due to interbreeding with other species and of course the genetic variability due to them all being reproduced sexually by acorns.

 

[John P.]

Of course I had to give cork oaks some love, too, so I ordered 30+ seedlings from The Jonsteen Company. They were shipped without containers, and were grown in cells/as plugs. Layering oaks is easy enough, so for now I’ve planted them in nursery containers at angles and “wired” them up for some movement. Since they cork up and by virtue of the same lose some of their curves, I’ve exaggerated the movement in some of them.



This one could be nice someday—a triple trunk from one acorn:

 

[HorseloverFat]

SO glad I found this thread! A TON of neat stuff happening here!

 

[Housguy]

Looking good John, I going to make a thread with that double trunk corker you have? I am happy you got that one, it is in good hands.

 

[John P.]

Looking good John, I going to make a thread with that double trunk corker you have? I am happy you got that one, it is in good hands.

Thanks! I absolutely love that tree, and am so glad you directed me to it when I visited you. It’s been putting on wonderful growth over the last month and a half. I’m in the process of air layering a branch and letting it grow wild. It’s still throwing buds on the trunk. In our climate, anyway, it seems like the perfect bonsai material. Pics soon!

 

[John P.]

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I decided that at least with oaks I am not a big fan of bonsai pots that don’t reflect the way they grow here in California (along hillsides).

So I decided to make my own.

We had our house rebuilt over the past couple of years, and chose board-formed concrete for certain elements (koi pond, exterior walls). I decided to try to combine my modern aesthetic to the bonsai pots, too, which I think I am achieving. In any event ...













More ...

 

[John P.]

I have a picture of it completed somewhere ...

 

[John P.]

Making another one ...