Cornus Mas? What to do?

[BarkLeafTrees]

Hi Everyone,

Got myself a Cornus recently I believe it’s a ‘Mas’ but it’s in need of a reshape, too many straight branches, just something needs to change and I’m unsure what…

What does everyone think?

Ben

 

[just.wing.it]

Nice tree!
I dont see too many dogwoods as bonsai....very nice.
Need more pics.

I would basically wait till leaves fall and then do some branch selection and wiring.

 

[BarkLeafTrees]

Nice tree!
I dont see too many dogwoods as bonsai....very nice.
Need more pics.

I would basically wait till leaves fall and then do some branch selection and wiring.

Had to snap it up when I had the chance. Meant to be roughly 35 years old. Will be interesting to see it in the winter image!

 

[Forsoothe!]

Hi Everyone,

Got myself a Cornus recently I believe it’s a ‘Mas’ but it’s in need of a reshape, too many straight branches, just something needs to change and I’m unsure what…

What does everyone think?

Ben

Why do people who want a dog buy a cat? The tree is just fine, but can and will evolve over the years as they all do whether we want them to or not. Tweak it with C&G along the way without getting carried away.

 

[Cmd5235]

I like the look of it now. All of the large dogwood around me have straight trunks growing from a clump style base, with a low, rounded crown. I think you have that here, it just needs to mature.

I don’t like when someone tries to take a very distinctive style tree (like a dogwood) and make it something it’s not. I’m not saying that you are, please don’t take it that way. But I really feel this tree captures the visual image of a true dogwood in nature. Given the scarcity of good dogwood bonsai, I think this one just needs more time to develop as a really nice example.

 

[Maros]

You can cut it back to first pair of leaves, tree will easily sprout from the buds. Wiring young braches is easy, hard to do on 2years or older wood. It could handle serious root work and reduction in the spring. Tree would do well in more shallow pot but in any case needs a lot of water in summer. If you are lucky you have flower buds already prepared for the spring and tree will flower as one of the first plants in moderate climate. Good luck.

 

[BarkLeafTrees]

I just can’t look past that one branch, it’s very strong on the right side compared to the left so maybe if I try and balance the energy a bud might pop from the straight branch to fill in the gap

 

[Maros]

Looks straight. Possibly in 2 months without leaves you can decide what you need to do with the structure. Tree usually responds well on pruning and big cuts with back budding. Personally I would do big structural cuts in early spring, seems to late for me in my area. Buds needs some time to form and it's better done early in the season than later.

 

[BarkLeafTrees]

You can cut it back to first pair of leaves, tree will easily sprout from the buds. Wiring young braches is easy, hard to do on 2years or older wood. It could handle serious root work and reduction in the spring. Tree would do well in more shallow pot but in any case needs a lot of water in summer. If you are lucky you have flower buds already prepared for the spring and tree will flower as one of the first plants in moderate climate. Good luck.

Yeah the wood doesn’t look like the most bendable! It was repotted by the previous owner this spring so probably won’t move it into a shallower pot just yet but definitely needs it eventually.

I haven’t checked for any flower buds yet but will be. I’m not planning on doing any pruning yet but if you say early spring is the best time and it responds well I will take your advice!

 

[TomB]

Wait until after leaf drop to evaluate the tree. Listen to Maros, who has good Cornus mas.
Be wary of big cuts - the species has thin bark and does not callus well - chops will never heal. You already seem to have a cut area in there that you will need to work into your design. However, on smaller cuts it reacts very well to Kiyonal cut paste (that specific brand).
Keep it fairly moist, and in semi shade. Mine seems to react badly to sprays (pesticide etc) on the foliage.

 

[Maros]

Flower buds for reference.
Regarding healing cuts, tree can heal 1-2 cm cut with a lot of growth above the cut. Not so good like maples but better then hornbeam for example.

 

[james]

You have a very nice tree here. The hard and time consumptive work is done. Nice trunk, taper, root spread. Now to finish the tree!

If it were mine, I would be inclined to take a couple big steps back. For the moment, forget about the species. Just consider you are considering finishing off a broadleaf deciduous tree. Now, back to the tree. Where does the trunk movement and taper take you? The bottom half of tree moves to left, the top half moves to the right. Ask yourself how you wish to fix this?

 

[BarkLeafTrees]

Here’s the tree with no leaves, it’s covered in loads of flowers buds so can’t wait to see them all open in spring. I think I’m going to cut back the right hand side of the tree as it looks very one sided and hopefully that will balance out some of the strength as the left side looks much weaker.

Does anyone have any recommendations for fertiliser for me to use to promote more flowers for the coming years?

Thanks, Ben

 

[BarkLeafTrees]

We have flowers!

 

[Potawatomi13]

There COULD be some thinning of Rt side branches. However a certain assymetry keeps a tree interesting/unboring. Do not ruin it.

 

[BarkLeafTrees]

There COULD be some thinning of Rt side branches. However a certain assymetry keeps a tree interesting/unboring. Do not ruin it.

Yeah I’ll thin out that right side definitely, something like this I’m hoping for by filling out the upper left to bridge the gap in the crown.

I’ll try not too!

 

[BarkLeafTrees]

Here’s how this ones looking today was repotted this spring and has leafed out nicely.

Still need to thin the right side to balance with the left.

 

[dbonsaiw]

Take a look at the tree in my bio pic - yours has a similar trunk line.

 

[LeatherTree23]

Hi Ben, I’m new to the forum and new to bonsai (9 months). Can I ask a question or 2? It’s mostly just about the pictures and trying to understand what the tree looks like in 3D. If not, no harm, no foul!

 

[BarkLeafTrees]

Tree is flowering currently, going to try and trim it back a little this year to get it all a bit more dense.