Native Species Only

[Zach Smith]

Blackgum does not seem to care much for pot culture. I've had no real luck with the species. Black cherry has way too many challenges, but with that said I pulled up a seedling two years ago and stuck it in a nursery pot. I'll find out if growing from seedling size makes any difference.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Another native species not mentioned, I think, is your local member of Vaccinium - blueberries, cranberries, bilberries, and huckleberries. For our European members if you live far enough north you have lingonberries.

If your water source for watering your bonsai is low in calcium, you can grow these fairly easily. The more calcium in your water the more effort is needed in designing your potting media. They all need an acidic media, one favorable to their endomycorrhizae. Composted bark is an ideal main component, a good mix used by nurseries is composted bark, Canadian peat moss and a small portion of hardwood sawdust. This is what is used in nursery mixes. The hardwood sawdust is to feed the mycorrhiza.

Most Vaccinium are quite winter hardy, if you collect your local species you will not need to give them much temperature protection. The smaller species are good for kusamono, or small size bonsai, they won't form much of a trunk. The huckleberries are most ''tree like'' and the highbush blueberries are quite useable, but their long lived component is their root system. And for all of them, you can eat the berries. They all have white or pink bell shaped flowers that are very attractive in spring.

 

[ABCarve]

Another native species not mentioned, I think, is your local member of Vaccinium - blueberries, cranberries, bilberries, and huckleberries. For our European members if you live far enough north you have lingonberries.

If your water source for watering your bonsai is low in calcium, you can grow these fairly easily. The more calcium in your water the more effort is needed in designing your potting media. They all need an acidic media, one favorable to their endomycorrhizae. Composted bark is an ideal main component, a good mix used by nurseries is composted bark, Canadian peat moss and a small portion of hardwood sawdust. This is what is used in nursery mixes. The hardwood sawdust is to feed the mycorrhiza.

Most Vaccinium are quite winter hardy, if you collect your local species you will not need to give them much temperature protection. The smaller species are good for kusamono, or small size bonsai, they won't form much of a trunk. The huckleberries are most ''tree like'' and the highbush blueberries are quite useable, but their long lived component is their root system. And for all of them, you can eat the berries. They all have white or pink bell shaped flowers that are very attractive in spring.

What about adding elemental sulfur to the mix. The micronized kind used for fungus. Does it wash out with all the watering? Is the composted bark a watering issue for over watering?

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

What about adding elemental sulfur to the mix. The micronized kind used for fungus. Does it wash out with all the watering? Is the composted bark a watering issue for over watering?

Yes the fine powder (micronized) sulfur can wash through, it also can dissolve faster. For both reasons re-apply at least 3 or 4 times a year, especially if leaves start to get chlorotic. If no chlorosis, enough is probably staying in the pot.

Yes, the bark & peat moss mix will hold more water, watering might not need to be daily. Blueberries do tolerate wet conditions, most blueberries can be submerged all winter, they only need to be above during the growing season. They are almost as tolerant of flooding as cranberry. But you must keep the potting media aerated.

A peat moss mix will compact if it is allowed to approach dry. When re-wet, it will not expand to recover aeration. If a peat mix is kept moist without approaching dryness it will retain its initial aeration properties. Repeated drying out will cause the media to contract until it is a tight, anoxic mass. So it is critical that if you use peat for your blueberry it never be allowed to get too dry. THis habit of compacting is the reason that yearly repotting is a good idea.

 

[barguy8194]

Some updates on the trees I posted a little while ago:

Leaves are coming out on the birches. A little slow, definitely behind the rest of the birches still in the ground, but good signs for now. Small leaves so far which I like a lot.

Buds forming on both spruces, the black spruce and the white spruce. Happy with the progress. I’m letting the black spruce sit untouched this year as I just collected it. I might just let it live in this pot untouched for two or three years until it’s time to repot. The white spruce, I’ll let sit this year and will repot next year. I did some minor trimming this year and I’m following the “one insult per year” pretty carefully with this one, being a Home Depot nursery specimen.

The tiny pine has some candles just barely beginning. Not entirely sure what to do with this one... thoughts?

And the black cherry... has leaves. Not really where I wanted them. One bud near the top that I like so I’ll just leave it alone for the year and hope that fills out more.

 

[GreatLakesBrad]

Some updates on the trees I posted a little while ago:

Leaves are coming out on the birches. A little slow, definitely behind the rest of the birches still in the ground, but good signs for now. Small leaves so far which I like a lot.

Buds forming on both spruces, the black spruce and the white spruce. Happy with the progress. I’m letting the black spruce sit untouched this year as I just collected it. I might just let it live in this pot untouched for two or three years until it’s time to repot. The white spruce, I’ll let sit this year and will repot next year. I did some minor trimming this year and I’m following the “one insult per year” pretty carefully with this one, being a Home Depot nursery specimen.

The tiny pine has some candles just barely beginning. Not entirely sure what to do with this one... thoughts?

And the black cherry... has leaves. Not really where I wanted them. One bud near the top that I like so I’ll just leave it alone for the year and hope that fills out more.

Fun stuff. I really like the birch, looks like a funky little trunk?

 

[barguy8194]

Fun stuff. I really like the birch, looks like a funky little trunk?

Yeah, one of them has some nice dead wood that will be really cool once the tree develops enough to work with it. They were both collected off the side of a back road where the DOT does some heavy brush cutting every year or two, looks like this one has been cut back twice from that.

 

[barguy8194]

This is the tiny Pinus strobus with a little wire. Old needles died and fell off, helped clean up the image a bit. I’m experimenting heavily with this one because eastern white pine has a bad reputation of not reducing needle size, but this one is so small the needles are still only growing in at about 1” length. I put a heavy curve into the trunk, hopefully that will set in a year or so. When I repot I’ll probably change the planting angle a bit.

Thoughts?

 

[ABCarve]

Hard prune before growth starts. I had iffy results with pruning extension growth later on in the spring. Watch for tent caterpillars and borers...

they are a pain in the ass after a few years. I had mine for 15. I collected it because it was old, big and had rough pine-like bark. The gunmetal smooth bark is not all that interesting. The flowering sucks too. Prunus Serotina flowers are not at all "cherry-like" more spiky small racemes of flowers, that just look odd...not unattractive, just odd.

I found after a few years, that the tree would drop branches for not reason. Additionally, it develop extremely odd roots in bonsai soil--thin, thick masses of them that dropped off at repotting. I suspect this was a function of the age of the tree I collected.

Your mileage may differ. I won't bother to collect this species again unless I find another tree with that rough bark.

Just thought I'd let you know, I gave up....compost heap but still alive. The thing was a fungus magnet and borers started the drip, drip, drip of sap flow. It had a very high grief to happiness ratio.

 

[rockm]

Just thought I'd let you know, I gave up....compost heap but still alive. The thing was a fungus magnet and borers started the drip, drip, drip of sap flow. It had a very high grief to happiness ratio.

Sorry to hear it. They are heartbreakers.

 

[Nybonsai12]

This is the tiny Pinus strobus with a little wire. Old needles died and fell off, helped clean up the image a bit. I’m experimenting heavily with this one because eastern white pine has a bad reputation of not reducing needle size, but this one is so small the needles are still only growing in at about 1” length. I put a heavy curve into the trunk, hopefully that will set in a year or so. When I repot I’ll probably change the planting angle a bit.

Thoughts?

As someone who had a decent strobus(as far as strobus go) and sold it, my suggestion if you insist on playing with it would be to put it in the ground in the spring and forget about it for a few years.

 

[Bonsai_Bentley]

I have read about them dropping branches and dying back quickly/easily... I would love an old, gnarly white or yellow birch, but I’m not sure I’ll have one anytime in the next few decades until my skills improve enough to keep one alive that long.

@barguy8194 With fast growing trees like birch or zelkova you have to build the secondary and tertiary branches slowly. Like, super slowly. By that I mean that you let the branch grow out to 5-6 nodes an then cut it back to one. Rinse and repeat and over time you'll develop nice branches. Some will die back, but not as many.

 

[Aaronkslater]

I'm from nh originally, Its been mentioned but bears mentioning again. Pitch pine. I've had great results, barks up early, grows vigorously, responds well to candle manipulation by putting out shorter needles and back buds more than most pines. Don't try and dig mature specimens from sand... rock pockets or collect small ones and grow them out, they grow fast.

 

[barguy8194]

I'm from nh originally, Its been mentioned but bears mentioning again. Pitch pine. I've had great results, barks up early, grows vigorously, responds well to candle manipulation by putting out shorter needles and back buds more than most pines. Don't try and dig mature specimens from sand... rock pockets or collect small ones and grow them out, they grow fast.

I’m on the hunt for some pitch pine. Unfortunately, I’m in Grafton County, which is the only county where it’s not listed as growing in the wild. So I’ll have to make a road trip this spring in search of some good material. My list for this spring includes some tamarack, pitch pine, hornbeam, and some American elms.

 

[mattspinniken]

Your top choices:
-Larch - look for areas that have larch with good bark.
-Eastern White Cedar -old and tortured only don't bother with young ones
-Pitch Pine ( apparently they grow by you, I wish they grew around here).
-Fruit trees from old orchards or cow chomped fields
-Landscape Yews

Look for good areas to collect. Hunt around for people that own interesting property like bogs, fens, old orchards, shoreline, mountain-y spots. Ask permission.

Also, I have not found Birch to be difficult. I think it is important to grow them slowly like others have suggested. Another tip is to collect them with white bark because it may take a very long time to develop.

 

[hemi71cuda]

Red and black spruce are definitely worth looking for. Shorter needles than most other species. The only shorter spruce needles I’ve seen are Ezo. I’ve got a nice red spruce that was collected in either Maine or Vermont and almost bought a big black spruce from a club member who collected it in Canada.

 

[barguy8194]

Red and black spruce are definitely worth looking for. Shorter needles than most other species. The only shorter spruce needles I’ve seen are Ezo. I’ve got a nice red spruce that was collected in either Maine or Vermont and almost bought a big black spruce from a club member who collected it in Canada.

Always keeping my eye out for nice red and black spruces. I have a little one that I’m working into a formal upright (in the earlier pictures) but it’s tiny, definitely a long, long term project.

 

[Eckhoffw]

I’m getting into this year and collection time is approaching. I’m in northern New Hampshire (USA) and I’ve decided that (with the exception of playing with Sequoiadendron giganteum (Giant Sequoias) because... well, I want to... ) I only want to work with species native to my home range (50 or so miles radius).

That leaves me with a couple options that I know will make interesting pieces, but from my reading, many are difficult to work with in some way.

Here’s what I’ve mostly narrowed it down to:

- Yellow and paper birch (betula alleghaniensis and papyrifera)
- sugar, silver, and red maple (Acer saccharum, saccharinum, and rubrum)
- eastern white and red pine (Pinus strobus and resinosa)
- red, white, and black spruce (Picea rubens, glauca, and mariana)
- Eastern white cedar (thuja occidentalis)
- balsam fir (abies balsamea)
- common and creeping juniper and eastern red cedar/red juniper (juniperus communis, horizontalis, and virginiana)
- eastern hemlock (tsuga canadensis)
- white ash (fraxinus americanus)
- red and white oak (quercus alba and rubra)


There are several others (a couple cherries, black walnut, some willows, tamarack/larch) and this is by far not a comprehensive list, but there’s a pretty good list.

Any “masters” want to pick a couple from the list and make suggestions about which ones to avoid?

Thanks for making this thread!
I have the same mindset for collecting material next year and I’m so happy for all this great information! Especially being in a similar climate zone.

collecting natives seems to make so much sense for many reasons.
Not only will appropriate care be easier to give, but inspiration for developing the trees is right outside.
excited to see what you come up with.
thanks again!

 

[Forsoothe!]

I have a prospective forest I collected trees for two years ago from an Aspen grove. I mean a real grove, -they expand the grove by suckering, so I had to snoop around and tug on little ones to find the individuals that had some nominal root in the ground in addition to just the runner. The ground was a mat of interwoven roots of the earlier generations making for an impossible job to get anything larger than a pencil. There were almost no roots and I thought it was just a fools errand, but they all survived the first winter and this spring I expect to assemble them into a forest that the world will recognize as the finest art ever created. I'm hoping one of you will do your part and nominate me for a Nobel or maybe Pulitzer or whatever...

As a follow-up, I made a forest from both of those collections this fall. Not much to look at, but mission accomplished. They clear-cut that lot this fall so I went in and collected two more forests. I will grow them on and keep the best looking one and trade off the other two, eventually. My game is volume. The chances of making something work is greatly increased when you have spare parts, and being able to hide mistakes greatly enhances my standing as someone who never misses. I lie a lot, too.

 

[Orion_metalhead]

Ive heard Aspen are tough to work with. Have you found that to be the case?