bast
Seedling
I realize sumac isn't the greatest for bonsai, with its pinnately compound leaves etc. but I just wanted to share this one, as it's kind of interesting (at least to me), and goes along with my personal journey into the world of bonsai. It's nowhere near a good bonsai yet (or maybe ever), but I'm having fun watching its progression anyway, to see where it leads.
The story: In August 2023, I went on a bike ride with more intent than normal - I wanted to get some cuttings of a smooth sumac that I have ridden past many times before. I thought looked cool and could be nice to have on my property. This was before I really got into bonsai or really knew much of what it was about; I just wanted more trees. I was a bit naive and impatient, so I didn't notice or care that the season wasn't really right for collecting. Anyway, when I got there, I took a couple cuttings, but then saw a sumac growing out from under a concrete slab with a picnic table. The sumac had been obviously cut back by maintenance several times, but kept growing, like a weed. I decided to yank this out from under the concrete, and with some wiggling and pulling, it was mine. I don't know if I'm actually "allowed" to do that, but I figured I was doing them a favor as it seemed they didn't want it there anyway. I put it in my bike basket and took it home. This is it when I got home that day:
I quickly put it into a fairly big pot that could support that long taproot, with regular potting soil and some wood chips on top for mulch:
I didn't take pictures at that time, but maybe a couple months later on another bike ride, I took a picture of the concrete slab with the picnic table that it had been growing out from underneath, and the mama sumac behind it:
(also check out the size of that artemisia tridentata sagebrush next to it - it's a good 7 or 8 feet tall)
The next spring in late March, after a winter of immersing myself in bonsai through youtube and excessive internet searches of any questions I had, I put it into this smaller short wide pot I had lying around (still didn't really own any good bonsai soil so it's still basically regular potting soil), with a little shortening of the long roots but not much root pruning otherwise (it didn't really have much to prune yet anyway):
A month later, it's actually looking pretty cool in my opinion:
And here on a bench I had hastily built, with other random crap I've mostly dug up as volunteers on my property or got for cheap from local nurseries to play around with:
In June I cut off the central branch, to make it look even more like a hand:
October 2024 colors:
Now a few days ago (March 2025), I decided to see what the roots looked like, and maybe put it into bonsai soil finally. It did grow a decent amount of roots, although most of the roots are coming from one small central spot; I'm hoping it will grow more roots in more places but I'll deal with whatever it gives me. Here are before and after root pruning photos (except I did separate that root sprout after the after photo):
I still don't have it in a proper bonsai pot, but it's got a long way to go so that doesn't really matter yet. Here it is back in that short bowl pot, but finally some decent bonsai soil (douglas fir tall pots in the background I got for free from a local native plant supplier who had too many, full of clover weeds). I was in a hurry to pot this since I got it started cleaning the roots but then got summoned for other obligations, so it's obviously not great potting. I might move it to a better pot soon, before it's too late this year, but I have a lot of other plants that are more in need of (re)potting, so we'll see...
Anyway I know it's nothing spectacular, or even good, but it's one of my more interesting trees (to me) that I have so far in my early days of being a bonsai nut. This is as much for my own documentation as it is for sharing. I will try to keep updating this thread as the years go by, as long as this tree and I are still alive.
The story: In August 2023, I went on a bike ride with more intent than normal - I wanted to get some cuttings of a smooth sumac that I have ridden past many times before. I thought looked cool and could be nice to have on my property. This was before I really got into bonsai or really knew much of what it was about; I just wanted more trees. I was a bit naive and impatient, so I didn't notice or care that the season wasn't really right for collecting. Anyway, when I got there, I took a couple cuttings, but then saw a sumac growing out from under a concrete slab with a picnic table. The sumac had been obviously cut back by maintenance several times, but kept growing, like a weed. I decided to yank this out from under the concrete, and with some wiggling and pulling, it was mine. I don't know if I'm actually "allowed" to do that, but I figured I was doing them a favor as it seemed they didn't want it there anyway. I put it in my bike basket and took it home. This is it when I got home that day:
I quickly put it into a fairly big pot that could support that long taproot, with regular potting soil and some wood chips on top for mulch:
I didn't take pictures at that time, but maybe a couple months later on another bike ride, I took a picture of the concrete slab with the picnic table that it had been growing out from underneath, and the mama sumac behind it:
(also check out the size of that artemisia tridentata sagebrush next to it - it's a good 7 or 8 feet tall)
The next spring in late March, after a winter of immersing myself in bonsai through youtube and excessive internet searches of any questions I had, I put it into this smaller short wide pot I had lying around (still didn't really own any good bonsai soil so it's still basically regular potting soil), with a little shortening of the long roots but not much root pruning otherwise (it didn't really have much to prune yet anyway):
A month later, it's actually looking pretty cool in my opinion:
And here on a bench I had hastily built, with other random crap I've mostly dug up as volunteers on my property or got for cheap from local nurseries to play around with:
In June I cut off the central branch, to make it look even more like a hand:
October 2024 colors:
Now a few days ago (March 2025), I decided to see what the roots looked like, and maybe put it into bonsai soil finally. It did grow a decent amount of roots, although most of the roots are coming from one small central spot; I'm hoping it will grow more roots in more places but I'll deal with whatever it gives me. Here are before and after root pruning photos (except I did separate that root sprout after the after photo):
I still don't have it in a proper bonsai pot, but it's got a long way to go so that doesn't really matter yet. Here it is back in that short bowl pot, but finally some decent bonsai soil (douglas fir tall pots in the background I got for free from a local native plant supplier who had too many, full of clover weeds). I was in a hurry to pot this since I got it started cleaning the roots but then got summoned for other obligations, so it's obviously not great potting. I might move it to a better pot soon, before it's too late this year, but I have a lot of other plants that are more in need of (re)potting, so we'll see...
Anyway I know it's nothing spectacular, or even good, but it's one of my more interesting trees (to me) that I have so far in my early days of being a bonsai nut. This is as much for my own documentation as it is for sharing. I will try to keep updating this thread as the years go by, as long as this tree and I are still alive.
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