Tilia Cordata (Linden) #1

Orion_metalhead

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Linden I dug from a customer's garden I was cleaning up this spring.

I like the overall shape. Need to determine what Im going to aim for next year.

Age: 2yr?
Training 1yr
Width: .25"
Height: 4"

20191110_191217.jpg
 

leatherback

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As linden has relatively large leaves, I would focus on growth. Get yourself to grow this into a 2 inch trunk. They do take well to trimming, and letting it grow in a large pot, cutting branches every 1 or 2 years can help.

Getting taper is harder in Linden and may require low sacrifice branches or big chops
 

Orion_metalhead

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Good advice. I don't mind letting it grow slowly next year.

Do they heal over quickly?
 

Orion_metalhead

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Repotted today. Really favorable root structure.

Original
20200302_195358.jpg

Out of pot...
20200302_195509.jpg

Beautiful potential for a nice nebari.
20200302_195857.jpg

New front and angle for now. There were a few nice fronts, but I went with as it was in previous picture. Plan is to slowly uncover the trunk to nebari but for now leaving as is.
20200302_200816.jpg
 

Leo in N E Illinois

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Young trees like this it is important to keep the nebari buried if you are trying to create a flat, radial spread of roots. Every time you repot, you must aggressively train the nebari, prune overly large roots off right at the trunk. All roots, all the way around, on trees this young, should be close to the same diameter, as the diameter differences will only become greater as time passes. Next year, remove those 2 fat roots right at the trunk when you repot. Then keep the entire nebari buried, at least 1/4 to 1/2 inch, so new, finer roots can sprout from the trunk to replace the fat ones you eliminated.

But it is a nice start.

The "normal or wild form" of linden has leaves that are quite large, and don't reduce as much as one might like. There is a cultivar, or a group of cultivars that are called "Little Leaf Linden", these are better for bonsai. The normal form, you should think "go large", a finished tree in the 3 foot tall range can be really impressive. As Shohin and small bonsai, the big leaves are always an issue.
 

Orion_metalhead

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Hm.. I hope you corrected the roots more than you are showing. Right now you have all the makings of a 2-root nebari, the way I see it.

I trimmed it back more after this picture. There are two more roots out the back in good places you cant see in the picture. I didnt want to remove too many roots though because Ive never repotted this tree before and havent seen how it will respond to root pruning. I removed all downward facing roots, anything crossing, etc. I also want the tree to put on some thickness to heal the weird scar where it originally popped through landscape fabric and figured leaving some root mass would help that.

Young trees like this it is important to keep the nebari buried if you are trying to create a flat, radial spread of roots. Every time you repot, you must aggressively train the nebari, prune overly large roots off right at the trunk. All roots, all the way around, on trees this young, should be close to the same diameter, as the diameter differences will only become greater as time passes. Next year, remove those 2 fat roots right at the trunk when you repot. Then keep the entire nebari buried, at least 1/4 to 1/2 inch, so new, finer roots can sprout from the trunk to replace the fat ones you eliminated.

But it is a nice start.

The "normal or wild form" of linden has leaves that are quite large, and don't reduce as much as one might like. There is a cultivar, or a group of cultivars that are called "Little Leaf Linden", these are better for bonsai. The normal form, you should think "go large", a finished tree in the 3 foot tall range can be really impressive. As Shohin and small bonsai, the big leaves are always an issue.

Thanks Leo. The tree didnt have a lot of fine feeder roots close to the trunk so I played it safe and left the thicker roots a little long where there were some feeder roots present. As I chase the root mass back towards the trunk on the thicker roots, it will give the smaller roots a chance to catch up. For now, goal is health on this tree, since it didnt have a lot of vigor last year.
 

eryk2kartman

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Ive Linden too, it take beating, mine was chopped to a stick from 6ft tree, it did bud back all over the place, i found you have to be on point as it likes to bud just at the junctions with trunk and it creates swallowing.
They can take abuse for sure, mine had a ugly 2 thick roots, i cut them off during the winter without repotting and it made no difference on the tree:) best of luck with yours.
 

Paulpash

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Another few recommendations:

#1 plant at an angle at the next repot
#2 wire in some movement now. Use wedges to prop up the trunk to the desired angle so you can see how much and where to bend. They are probably the most flexible deciduous tree I've ever wired (and I've messed around with a LOT of them in 30 years).
#3 Identify your sacrifice and get it growing strongly.
#4 if you haven't already, come up with a plan of the final height - this will help with how severe and often the trunk line moves (smaller trees have bends far lower & in quicker succession than bigger trees). My advice is to go for a bigger tree because of the leaf size.
I'm currently ground growing one so I've walked the start of another project from scratch and not just talking out of my ass.
 

Orion_metalhead

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Thanks Paul. Regarding your responses:

I had the tree at an angle and repotted it this direction because I liked the movement from the roots beneath to the low left branch. Ill be leaving both of the two right branches as sacrifice branches for now. Ill be able to best angle the tree after a little more growth.

I like the idea of wiring this so maybe Ill wire the sacrifice branches to get a feel for how flexible this tree is and to maybe get a 2nd and 3rd option for a different leader.

Final height... not sure yet. Maybe Ill keep it short and stubby.
 

SC1989

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I have two big ones in front of my house. Didn’t know they are suitable. Anyone air layer these. They are too clumped up to dig up I think
 

leatherback

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Be carefull with the triplet situation. Having this intersection where 3 branches come together will over time create a bulge in the trunk which will be nearly impossible to get rid off.
 

Orion_metalhead

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Yeah, I'll be removing that back branch next season. I wasnt originally sure of a direction but I have a better idea after this year's growth.
 

Orion_metalhead

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Pruned and repotted this today. It's going to remain under my basement hatch, so it won't be exposed to freezing temps. If it leafs out, I'll throw it under lights for a few weeks.

Before Pruning:
2021.02.24 - A.jpg

After Pruning (Removed one of the three larger branches):
2021.02.24 - B.jpg

Out of the Pot:
2021.02.24 - C.jpg

Raked out the root ball a bit:
2021.02.24 - D.jpg

Roots Pruned:
2021.02.24 - E.jpg

Pot Prepped:
2021.02.24 - F.jpg

Fully Repotted:
2021.02.24 - G.jpg
2021.02.24 - H.jpg


Potential Future Plan (Not to scale):
2021.02.24 - I.jpg

I still have a back branch which I am hoping backbuds closer to the trunk this year. If that is the case, I will use that as the tree's first branch and let this lower, smaller branch in the above drawing grow as a sacrificial to help thicken up the trunk. I am trying a different soil this year as well. I never had a chance to cover the trees from rain this year, so the soil was wetter than I would like so next year I'll have to do a better job at keeping the trees out of the rain.
 
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