JRBonsai
Yamadori
Hi everyone,
I am a new member here at the forum and wanted to introduce you to my latest aqcuisition. I have been dabbling with bonsai for a couple of years now with a variety of species, but recently been getting more and more serious to the point where I have finally gained the confidence to start working on more serious and mature material.
So fast forward to last month, when I decided to pay my first visit to The Trophy in Belgium.
And of course I couldn't leave empty handed, so I bought a large and seriously weighty Korean hornbeam.
My arms were reduced to spaghetti after carrying it all the way to the car.
Also bought a Taxus Cuspidata with some interesting styling challenges, but more on that in another post.
So I've now acquired my first hornbeam and as far as I'm concerned it's a tree that's got good bones, but needs a lot of love to restore it back to it's former (or potential) glory.
The tree is still in it's original pot, which I don't plan to change this year. I think it suits the tree fine, but it could be shallower.
That's something to work towards in the coming years as well.
Anyway, you don't need a keen eye to see exactly what is up with this tree. It's lost a lot of branches on the left side and there is another gap in the canopy on the right, halfway up.
Thankfully the previous caretaker had left a lot of long shoots on the tree from last year's growth, which I was able to use for thread grafts to restore some branches on the left side.
Next year, if all goes well, I hope to apply the same principle to also fill the gap on the right.
Here is a close-up of the grafts:
You can clearly see the stubs where the lost branches were.
I'll keep you updated on the tree's progress. All the buds are plumping up really nicely these last couple weeks, so I expect them to burst anytime soon.
I am a new member here at the forum and wanted to introduce you to my latest aqcuisition. I have been dabbling with bonsai for a couple of years now with a variety of species, but recently been getting more and more serious to the point where I have finally gained the confidence to start working on more serious and mature material.
So fast forward to last month, when I decided to pay my first visit to The Trophy in Belgium.
And of course I couldn't leave empty handed, so I bought a large and seriously weighty Korean hornbeam.
My arms were reduced to spaghetti after carrying it all the way to the car.
Also bought a Taxus Cuspidata with some interesting styling challenges, but more on that in another post.
So I've now acquired my first hornbeam and as far as I'm concerned it's a tree that's got good bones, but needs a lot of love to restore it back to it's former (or potential) glory.
The tree is still in it's original pot, which I don't plan to change this year. I think it suits the tree fine, but it could be shallower.
That's something to work towards in the coming years as well.
Anyway, you don't need a keen eye to see exactly what is up with this tree. It's lost a lot of branches on the left side and there is another gap in the canopy on the right, halfway up.
Thankfully the previous caretaker had left a lot of long shoots on the tree from last year's growth, which I was able to use for thread grafts to restore some branches on the left side.
Next year, if all goes well, I hope to apply the same principle to also fill the gap on the right.
Here is a close-up of the grafts:
You can clearly see the stubs where the lost branches were.
I'll keep you updated on the tree's progress. All the buds are plumping up really nicely these last couple weeks, so I expect them to burst anytime soon.
