Bonsai Nut
Nuttier than your average Nut
I thought I'd start a new thread on this tree, which I am excited about for the future...
We live on a lake, and at some point someone chainsawed down this river birch (Betula nigra) which was growing on the shoreline. At some times during the year, when there was a lot of rainfall and the lake level was high, this stump was submerged. When we moved into our property five years ago, I structurally pruned it, and kept an eye on it, until we had built our new house and moved in. This spring I dug it up and moved it into custom nursery flat. At the time that I dug it up, it was a hollow stump with only the back being alive. When I pulled it out of the ground, the entire front face of the stump fell off, leaving me with a half stump.
The tree was large enough that I had to build a custom container for it.
I was concerned that the foliage (when it was growing on the beach) was small and weak. So I focused on getting the tree as healthy as possible, without worrying about structure or design. At this point, I just wanted it to grow roots - and for that I needed to let the foliage run wild. In another thread people asked me what experience I had with the species, and I have none. This is my first experience.
A fair amount of die-back and dead branches... but a lot of strength as well. This winter I will clean it up a little and hope for a healthy spring!
We live on a lake, and at some point someone chainsawed down this river birch (Betula nigra) which was growing on the shoreline. At some times during the year, when there was a lot of rainfall and the lake level was high, this stump was submerged. When we moved into our property five years ago, I structurally pruned it, and kept an eye on it, until we had built our new house and moved in. This spring I dug it up and moved it into custom nursery flat. At the time that I dug it up, it was a hollow stump with only the back being alive. When I pulled it out of the ground, the entire front face of the stump fell off, leaving me with a half stump.
The tree was large enough that I had to build a custom container for it.
I was concerned that the foliage (when it was growing on the beach) was small and weak. So I focused on getting the tree as healthy as possible, without worrying about structure or design. At this point, I just wanted it to grow roots - and for that I needed to let the foliage run wild. In another thread people asked me what experience I had with the species, and I have none. This is my first experience.
A fair amount of die-back and dead branches... but a lot of strength as well. This winter I will clean it up a little and hope for a healthy spring!
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