Waldo
Yamadori
Has anyone used Concolor White Fir for Bonsai. Can you recommend any good references for the same ? Thanks
Concolor White Fir for Bonsai ?
- Thread starter Waldo
- Start date
0soyoung
Imperial Masterpiece
I played with a couple of them. Cut back to a bud or to a node point, just like spruce and fir, as any twig without a bud becomes a dead twig. Needle size doesn't seem to reduce, so it pretty much needs to be a big bonsai. Branches remain flexible for a very long time. One is now in my landscape, the other is compost.
If you see one for a reasonable price, have a go at it. Branches are largely autonomous, so what you do to one has very little effect on others, IOW you can test pruning strategies/techniques on individual branches. wiring effects, and etc., to figure it out for yourself. With spruce, some people suggest pinching the newly emergent foliage as soon as the bud cap pops off. My trying this with Concolor gave the same response = just basically shortening the shoot. I didn't notice any second flushing per se. With spruce the strongest back budding response comes with pruning the new shoot back to a bud after the new foliage is hardened. In August seemed best. Earlier weakens the tree. Later seemed to produce less back budding.
All in all, it seems to me that management of Concolor is much the same as for spruce, IMHO. There is a number of other fir and spruce, though, that have much shorter needles and are, therefore, more conducive to making moderate size bonsai - subalpine fir, bird's nest spruce, oriental spruce for examples. If you are particularly rapt of the blue color, picea pungens. Blue spruce seems to make nice gnarly bark at the earliest age.
If you see one for a reasonable price, have a go at it. Branches are largely autonomous, so what you do to one has very little effect on others, IOW you can test pruning strategies/techniques on individual branches. wiring effects, and etc., to figure it out for yourself. With spruce, some people suggest pinching the newly emergent foliage as soon as the bud cap pops off. My trying this with Concolor gave the same response = just basically shortening the shoot. I didn't notice any second flushing per se. With spruce the strongest back budding response comes with pruning the new shoot back to a bud after the new foliage is hardened. In August seemed best. Earlier weakens the tree. Later seemed to produce less back budding.
All in all, it seems to me that management of Concolor is much the same as for spruce, IMHO. There is a number of other fir and spruce, though, that have much shorter needles and are, therefore, more conducive to making moderate size bonsai - subalpine fir, bird's nest spruce, oriental spruce for examples. If you are particularly rapt of the blue color, picea pungens. Blue spruce seems to make nice gnarly bark at the earliest age.
M. Frary
Bonsai Godzilla
They smell citrusy when you bruise the needles.
Waldo
Yamadori
Thanks for the info. I have ordered a few. I will try a few perhaps they will wind up as landscape trees as well. They are nice looking trees.
RKatzin
Omono
I have these in abundance in the forest around me. Very beautiful tree! Although for bonsai I prefer the Doug fir. The needles on the white extend flat out from the stems forming flat angular planes. Very neat and tidy. In spring the new growth forms light green lines at the edges of the planes. Pretty spectacular in the morning sun.
The Doug fir grows more like a bottle brush with needles extending in whorls from around the twig. This makes for a rougher more puffy appearance. They will also drop extentions from the bottoms of twigs adding to the disheveled look.
The whites are beautiful to look at across the meadow, but I think the Dougie is a better bonsai prospect.
The Doug fir grows more like a bottle brush with needles extending in whorls from around the twig. This makes for a rougher more puffy appearance. They will also drop extentions from the bottoms of twigs adding to the disheveled look.
The whites are beautiful to look at across the meadow, but I think the Dougie is a better bonsai prospect.
Waldo
Yamadori
Thanks, some interesting observations. I have never seen one as a bonsai, that might explain why.
