Kievnstavick's Collection (aka The Journey of Sticks to Trees)

[Kievnstavick]

Following a couple of other people, this thread will encompass all of my trees that I currently have in training. The point of the thread will be to show off my projects as they go from sticks in pots to bonsai without flooding the forum with new posts. It will also be a written record for my projects with the aim of having an easy reference for if/when a project gets their own thread.

So without further ado, here are my sticks in pots...


Abies koreana "Ice Breaker"

(Image is lightly edited to reduce the washed out look from the as shot image. Still playing with editing. OG image is attached.)
A witch's broom Korean Fir. This tree already has a thread made prior located here.

Acer palmatum "Bonsai" (yea I know, but that is what the tag listed as the variety.)

I acquired this maple in spring of 2022. I let it grow all year trying to figure out what I wanted to do with it. At the start of Spring 2023, I started an air layer that has taken. I have since put a container around the roots to get the air layer roots a bit more independent before I separate the two.

 

[Cajunrider]

Ice breaker is a beauty.

 

[Kievnstavick]

Acer shirasawanum

I received this maple in early fall 2022 from a friend that was moving out of state. He initially cut the leader and let the two arms grow. The photo is after I moved it into a pond basket and cleaned up the branching. I am still trying to figure out exactly what I want to do with this guy, but I am leaning to doing a hard chop to rebuild branching. Either just at the arms or lower down.

Acer saccarinum

Started growing in my garden in early 2020. I transplanted it into a pot. I then got the bright idea of keeping the tree small. From that point I started my deep dive into the art of little trees. I guess this could be considered "my first tree." I am aiming to eventually turn this into a raft.

 

[Kievnstavick]

Adansonia digitata
These three baobabs have their own thread posts on them.
Thread for #1

This picture was taken after the summer pruning so it was looking a little naked, but it soon regrew it's leaves.

Thread for #2

This one I am letting it try to escape the pond basket. I don't think it will really achieve that before the bonsai shuffle sometime next month.

Thread for #3


The wire on this one has since been removed. I wired the branches to the side in the hopes of coaxing it to develop more branching.

 

[BrightsideB]

Is the Acer shirasawanum grafted? Looks nice!

 

[Kievnstavick]

Is the Acer shirasawanum grafted? Looks nice!

Reviewing some older photos during repotting, there is a definite line where the dark bark starts. I would say it is very possibly grafting with a really nice healing scar.

 

[Kievnstavick]

Albizia saman (aka Samanea saman)
One of the six one-year old monkeypod trees that I have growing. They have their own thread located here. I have lots of seeds to experiment with, so that will be the master thread until the trees become more interesting on their own.



Alnus rubra
This sprouted in on of my pots and grew naturally with a strange twist near the soil line. I heavily pruned it mid summer to encourage more budding down low. It achieved exactly what I was hoping for. I have a lot more saplings that sprouted this year to collect.

 

[Kievnstavick]

Amelanchier canadensis
Out of a bundle of ten, only two ended up surviving sadly. I'll try some more next year. The thread for these are located here. They are for a ROR contest.


Bruxus sempervirens
Another tree I acquired from my friend that moved states in fall of 2021. It was a little lengthy, so I gave it a hard chop to reset some of the growth. Pictured here is a little over a month since the chop.

 

[Kievnstavick]

Carpinus japonica (I believe)
I bought this tree during the summer from a local club member. I've done some minor pruning and clean up of the branches. I mostly need to start building the branches on this tree.


Cercidiphyllum japonica
I acquired this tree in the fall of 2022 during a fall sale for a club. I have been pruning the branches and cutting back the new growth. I plan on repotting this next year so that I can finally know what I am working with down below.

 

[Kievnstavick]

Chamaecyparis obtusa "Alaska"
I still need to get this into some bonsai substrate and sort out the roots, but I have thinned out the foliage from overgrown stock to the current image.



Chamaecyparis obtusa "Lemon Twist"
A little bit of a unusual cultivar to train due to the wispy foliage. This picture was taken after I removed oddly vigorous growth and removed potential problem branches. I also cleaned up some dead wood that I found on it. I was originally aiming for "leaning over a lake" vibe, but I might change that up a tad in the near future.



Chamaecyparis obtusa "Nana Gracilis"
Another cultivar with foliage more closely resembling the standard species. I placed this in a training pot this year and wired some branches. The rock was placed there to help stabilize the planting as a counter weight and prevent the tree from falling out of the pot. The wires have since been removed.



Chamaecyparis thyoides "Ericoides"
I did a more severe cut back on this then I have done in the past. I am aiming for a more cathedral/multi-trunk style of growth. Next year I plan on just letting it grow after a repotting to sort out the roots some more.

 

[Kievnstavick]

Pictures from mid-summer

Abies squamata "Flakey"
I picked this up from a nursery back in 2021 with large branch extensions and a dead (and squishy) apex. I have been unable to find out if this is a cultivar or a 'rare' Chinese species grafted onto better rootstock. My first attempt at air-layering a vigorous apical branch failed this year. Next spring I'll attempt an air-layer on the trunk itself near the apex. I'll be quite happy if I can get this on it's own roots as the grafting stock is vary apparent with the different colored back and texture. If all else fails, I just turn this into a manicured landscape piece and wait for to see if I can harvest seeds from it.



Cotoneaster horizontalis
An interesting growth style of shrub. I aquired it back in 2022. The very angular branching first attracted me to it. A handful of club members shared their failures with this shrub and I set this one aside for awhile not really knowing what to do with it. After seeing a Crime Pays, Botany Doesn't video of one of these in the wild down in New Zealand, I had a renewed interest in getting this shrub to work out. I learned that the spindly growth is a response (and natural growth) to pruning and is meant to deter forging creatures from being able to access the inner growth of leaves. Making it's own cage. So my plan is to learn if I can manipulate how the spindly growth elongates and attempt to recreate what it would be like in the wild.



Prunus Crop Cherry
My dad gave me a root sucker of one of his cherry trees. It has very interesting growth for a multi-trunk style or maybe a future mother-daughter. Still growing it out with some minor work to introduce some movement.

 

[Kievnstavick]

Cryptomeria japonica "Elegans"
I acquired these three during a early fall browsing of my local nursery. Since my previous Cryptomeria died, I have been wanting a new one. I originally intended to leaves these as is to allow as much energy generation as possible before the spring repotting, but after a few windy days I decided to cut them to a third of their original height.

These images are not edited mostly because I am tired and lazy at the moment and I have to go to work soon

 

[Kievnstavick]

Euonymus alatus
I bought this from my local nursery during the spring of this year. I had repotted it into a one gallonrotmaker pot as a trial of sorts. The bush had some random die off of the lower branches. I am not sure if it was a product of underwatering during our minor heatwave or it having to do with the lower branches not getting enough light. I plan to just let this one grow and hope for some lower budding. The fall show for this guy was not very impressive as most of the leaves stayed dark green. It might have been due to how quickly it got cold for us this year.


Iilex crenata "Dwarf Pagoda"
I aquired one of the three back in 2021 from a nursery. The other two were given to me by a friend who moved out of state. This year I gave them a pretty severe hair cut to develop better taper and branching as I plan to make these into smaller bonsai.

 

[Kievnstavick]

Juniperius
I acquired this in 2022 from my friend who moved out of state. I have done some excavation and replacement of the soil he previously used as it remained too wet for too long. I hadn't taken the time to figure out what specific species it is. I performed a pruning on it this year.



Juniperius chinensis "Shimpaku"
I was gifted this from a client of my teacher for helping her out. I performed a minor pruning on it to try and set it up for better branching next year. I am still trying to figure out what I want to do with it in regards to grow it out or cut it down.

 

[WavyGaby]

Juniperius
I acquired this in 2022 from my friend who moved out of state. I have done some excavation and replacement of the soil he previously used as it remained too wet for too long. I hadn't taken the time to figure out what specific species it is. I performed a pruning on it this year.

View attachment 519271

I like your thread title. This one looks like a Juniper procumbens (Garden Juniper)

 

[Kievnstavick]

Thank you. I figured it was a true enough statement haha

Thanks you the identification. It is at least one step closer then it's a juniper

 

[Adamski77]

Carpinus japonica (I believe)
I bought this tree during the summer from a local club member. I've done some minor pruning and clean up of the branches. I mostly need to start building the branches on this tree.
View attachment 507564

Cercidiphyllum japonica
I acquired this tree in the fall of 2022 during a fall sale for a club. I have been pruning the branches and cutting back the new growth. I plan on repotting this next year so that I can finally know what I am working with down below.

View attachment 507566

Carpinus looks great... very solid piece of material... fingers crossed for further development...

 

[Kievnstavick]

Larix
I acquired this back with all of the rest of my moving out of state trees. This year I have done a slight soil replacement as it was holding too much water for too long. I have done some minor pruning and I am waiting for the tree to gain more strength for next year. Pictured is a combination of three photos to have the needles in focus from front to back, It was my first attempt at focus stacking as a trial.

 

[Kievnstavick]

Picea glauca "Conica"
One of my "first" trees from when I started this hobby. I acquired it back in 2021. The large portion of the lower trunk has almost doubled in size. It was place in this grow bag in the begging of 2022. This year I got the courage to cut it down and turn the old leader into a dead wood feature. I put wire on the dead portion to help guide a branch to become the new leader.


Picea glauca "Conica"
I acquired this one at the same time as the previous tree. I performed some pruning on it in early summer. Looking back, I wish I was a bit more aggressive with my pruning cutting the trunk to one of the lower branches.



Yet another Picea glauca "Conica"
I received this from my friend who moved out of state. I have excavated and replaced portions of the soil because it was holding too much water for too long. I gave it a very heavy prune to reset it's growth and build some taper into the branches. Before it had a very nice triangular shape to it, but the lack of taper and ramification to the branches bothered me. I also neglected to rotate this tree over the summer, so the growth was very much biased to one side. Just one of those cases where you have to make it ugly in order to start improving it.

 

[Kievnstavick]

Picea glauca var. densata
This picture was a bit over exposed so the edit image is a bit "washed out". The shiny foil didn't help things haha
I acquired this in early 2022. I repotted it and did some very minor pruning as I waited to see how the tree would grow. This year I decided to air-layer the leader as a trial. As fall approached, it had some signs of root growth so I separated it from the mother plant. Leaving the angled trunk as the new leader. The old leader was left with a single branch growing to the right. I am hoping to grow it out to make some believable taper before turning it into a dead wood feature. I included a picture of the slightly exposed roots.




Picea pungens "Apache"
I acquired this from a nursery in 2022 for a cheap nursery stock contest. My goal is to keep it as a smaller tree. In early spring of this year, I decided to give it a moderate hair cut and turn its leader into a sacrificial leader to thicken the trunk.