discusmike
Omono
Very nice!
American Hornbeam forest
- Thread starter ABCarve
- Start date
ABCarve
Masterpiece
Thanks for your research! I have seen those threads. I guess I was looking for something a little farther along with ramification. I may go through some of the Nationals photo albums for examples.a thread where you can see ramification possible in just a couple years
Zach Smith American Hornbeam
With the recent resurfacing of the thread about the Hornbeams in Chicago, I thought I would post an example of what Zach has available. There seemed to be an idea being put forth in that thread that there were not a lot of commercially available broadleaf trees in the USA. All it took was one...www.bonsainut.com
american hornbeam started in 2017
Hidden Gardens American Hornbeam Progression
I picked up this American Hornbeam from Hidden Gardens in Willowbrook, IL in winter 2017. A holiday present to myself. It was worked on by the guy who collected it out east. His name escapes me, but there is reference to group of American Hornbeams (including this specific tree and other...
another
American Hornbeam
Starting a thread to track progress of the american hornbeam I got a few years ago. It's the first tree I've put into an actual (albeit cheap) bonsai pot. Current goals: - Thicken middle portion of the trunk to improve taper - Continue developing branching, particularly in the empty space on...
OKay, I went through one page of search results where only 'hornbeam' was the search term, these were the only relevant threads. I'll let you peruse more, as there were at least 10 pages of results. I'm sure some of the older results have some very nice hornbeams from the "old regulars" that don't post here anymore.
ABCarve
Masterpiece
Here is the current "fall color" photo. When compared to last year you can see definite leaf reduction from partial defoliation. Not sure if that's what aiding the color, but the center, right tree does have a propensity for red. Not sure if this is the peak because it's much earlier than last year. I'll keep my eye on it for another photo opportunity.
Also a left-over from creating the forest.......a nice mix of color. Hoping to get enough leaf reduction to make a believable shohin.
Also a left-over from creating the forest.......a nice mix of color. Hoping to get enough leaf reduction to make a believable shohin.
thatguy
Mame
Ive been eying up some small hornbeam in the forests near me for a potential forest planting. Love the colors here and the overall arrangement is awesome. Thanks for sharing and for talking about some of the techniques you've used on it over the years!
leatherback
The Treedeemer
lovely forest!
Caleb Campbell
Yamadori
I would love to do an American hornbeam forest but I rarely find small ones like these. Most in my area are at least 1.5" thick, more commonly around 4-7".
leatherback
The Treedeemer
get seeds or tery your hands at cuttings / layering from a larger plant?
MACH5
Imperial Masterpiece
Glad I just saw this. Beautiful creation!!
Aeast
Shohin
Nice David, this is progressing very fast. Beautiful
Caleb Campbell
Yamadori
That's my best bet. I've killed every cutting thats graced my fingers though. The smaller branches are usually pretty high up, so air layering them is a bit tough but doable.
ABCarve
Masterpiece
Before and after. Keeping branching from getting too chubby while still keeping ramification is quite the challenge. I think defoliation, partial or full is the key.
Jcmmaple
Chumono
When you do partial defoliation do you cut the leaves in half of cut them off completely. Have some in training so I thought I would ask. That’s is a lovely forest, American Hornbeam are my favorite natives.
ABCarve
Masterpiece
Thanks. They are cut completely off leaving only the petioles.
hinmo24t
Masterpiece
one of the best forests ive seen on here in a while, or my favorite at least
Malix
Mame
Awesome progression and Great development over time! I really love the composition.. tho if I’m picking nits.. it feels to me that the branches on the far left and right of the forest could extend a bit making it wider a bit. Great job and thanks for posting your beautiful forest..
Dogestoevsky
Mame
I was just taking to folks at Johnson Nursery about picking up some American Hornbeam this spring. Great looking stock from there.
Mayank
Chumono
Isn't that complete defoliation then? or are you doing that to only a part of the tree? How do you decide which part? Thanks in advance.
Just want to say that this is one of the most appealing forest style plantings I've seen! Not a fan of 90% of these type of bonsai/penjings but this one just feels so convincing and wonderful especially without leaves. Love the fall color pix also. Just wonderful.
ABCarve
Masterpiece
A full defoliation is removing all the leaves at once. A partial is just that, this can be done by cutting in half or only some of the full leaves. Which ones? I tend to remove the ones blocking light to the inner growth which tend to be the biggest. There is a compositional aspect to it but that comes with experience. Experience starts when you begin.
ABCarve
Masterpiece
This forest has not been repotted since it was planted in 2016. If it ain't broke don't fix it. Last year it seemed a little tight for getting water through it so I decided to repot it this year. As you can see I use a sawzall to trim an 1-1/2" of the bottom roots off. This has been watered once a week through winter and the core of the root ball is quite dry. I tried watering this from the top to see if water would penetrate through the newly pruned root ball. As you can see from the 2nd photo not much is getting through even after a minute or two of freely hosing it down. Instead of trying to pick through a very dense root mass with a chopstick, I chose to carefully drill through a number of holes while feeling for large roots so I could change direction. I've seen this done on dense wisteria roots with success.
ABCarve
Masterpiece
Now for the slab/pot. The pot was made by draping it over a kidney shaped piece of 2" foam. The clay for this was probably 40% grog with a good helping of coarse stuff. This created a pocket for soil that a flat slab doesn't have. Feet have been added for better drainage. Wire holes have been put beside drainage hole to aid tying in screen more securely. Ron Lang first started doing this and stopped. I found that most people didn't know what they were for and only confused them, so I stopped doing it as well.
