Degroots spire candelabra study

[IckyGuyBonsai]

I've always been drawn to the candelabra growth of tall old cedars. So decided to give it a whirl an track my progress and thoughts along the way. I've definitely been inspired by some of Walter Pall's candelabra trees, though with this project I'm going to go for more of a taller, more narrow silhouette like the trees in this graphic I found in a thread during my digging on this forum.


I picked up a degroot's spire variety of arborvitae earlier this year and did a fairly heavy cutback and wired some branches out to make sure I got good light penetration into the interior foliage.


I'm know I left on far more foliage than I'll need, but I wanted to be conservative because I've seen these worked way to hard out the gate and not make it, but also I'm hoping to keep it fairly vigorous so I can get after the roots by spring. I jinned out the 3 main trunk tops along with a few strong leaders off them. It was helpful that the tree lent itself to the style with all of the strong co dominant leads that I more or less kept following up as the split with "alright" taper up through the tree. While I was wiring out the branches I tried to keep in mind where a new leader might start from a strong branch like out in nature and wired those straight up to let them grow on. My thought is grow them out awhile before coming in like a few hundred years worth of mother nature and jinn out some more tops while I develop out the branching in the meantime, rinse and repeat?

So I'd definitely appreciate some advice, thoughts, considerations, etc from the vast knowledge pool of this forum, both stylistically and species wise. This tree has had a vigorous healthy response to the work done, we'll see how well I can keep the foliage under control. This tree comes in at about 38in (~97cm) from soil to tip of the top jinn, so it's hard to get a full overall image of this one on camera. I am however looking forward to developing a tree on a larger scale than any of my other ones. I'll try to get some more pictures from various angles later, but here's a picture of the base (also back bud) which is about 3in at soil level.

Enjoy, more to come

 

[Wilson]

I love the ancient candelabra style cedars, and have a few degroots done this way. They are a super easy tree to deal with, handle root work like any of my regular thuja, easy maintenance, all round fun trees in the garden.

 

[Cruiser]

I've always been drawn to the candelabra growth of tall old cedars. So decided to give it a whirl an track my progress and thoughts along the way. I've definitely been inspired by some of Walter Pall's candelabra trees, though with this project I'm going to go for more of a taller, more narrow silhouette like the trees in this graphic I found in a thread during my digging on this forum.
View attachment 504844

I picked up a degroot's spire variety of arborvitae earlier this year and did a fairly heavy cutback and wired some branches out to make sure I got good light penetration into the interior foliage.
View attachment 504859

I'm know I left on far more foliage than I'll need, but I wanted to be conservative because I've seen these worked way to hard out the gate and not make it, but also I'm hoping to keep it fairly vigorous so I can get after the roots by spring. I jinned out the 3 main trunk tops along with a few strong leaders off them. It was helpful that the tree lent itself to the style with all of the strong co dominant leads that I more or less kept following up as the split with "alright" taper up through the tree. While I was wiring out the branches I tried to keep in mind where a new leader might start from a strong branch like out in nature and wired those straight up to let them grow on. My thought is grow them out awhile before coming in like a few hundred years worth of mother nature and jinn out some more tops while I develop out the branching in the meantime, rinse and repeat?

So I'd definitely appreciate some advice, thoughts, considerations, etc from the vast knowledge pool of this forum, both stylistically and species wise. This tree has had a vigorous healthy response to the work done, we'll see how well I can keep the foliage under control. This tree comes in at about 38in (~97cm) from soil to tip of the top jinn, so it's hard to get a full overall image of this one on camera. I am however looking forward to developing a tree on a larger scale than any of my other ones. I'll try to get some more pictures from various angles later, but here's a picture of the base (also back bud) which is about 3in at soil level.
View attachment 504864
Enjoy, more to come

Those are Robert Van Pelt illustrations from Identifying Mature and Old Forests In Western Washington.
You might find the section on western red cedar interesting. It explains how/why candelabra tops can form.

https://www.dnr.wa.gov/publications/lm_hcp_west_oldgrowth_guide_full_lowres.pdf

 

[pandacular]

Robert Van Pelt illustrations from Identifying Mature and Old Forests In Western Washington

What an incredible resource to share. I will do my best to put this to good use.

I really like that you are approaching this tree with such a strong vision. Cedars as bonsai have never appealed to me, largely because I tend to see them styled like pines. I look forward to watching this one be styled like a cedar! I wonder if you've considered wiring down those low jin?

Are you a timber cruiser by trade?

 

[Cruiser]

What an incredible resource to share. I will do my best to put this to good use.

I really like that you are approaching this tree with such a strong vision. Cedars as bonsai have never appealed to me, largely because I tend to see them styled like pines. I look forward to watching this one be styled like a cedar! I wonder if you've considered wiring down those low jin?

Are you a timber cruiser by trade?

I am. This particular tree isn’t mine though.

I do have a standard Thuja plicata but it’s heading in a different direction.

 

[IckyGuyBonsai]

Robert Van Pelt

Ah yes, I did find this link during my digging, definitely a good read, thanks!

low jin?

Those jins are fairly thick and rigid so I'll come back later and shorten them and add shari to give more of an impression of large limbs ripping out over time. Also figured that, like the graphics earlier, the lower trunk will be fairly bare. Old cedars will have a good amount of deadwood so I'll be going in to add more here and there as I go. I kind of like the idea of eventually having the lowest branches wired down and jinned as if shaded out by the foliage above while keeping the general "teardrop" shape of a cedar going.

Not sure if the timber cruiser question was directed towards me, but I'm an arborist by trade. So I've tried my best to pull inspiration from the growth patterns on some of the big cedars I've climbed.

 

[IckyGuyBonsai]

Went in to thin out some of the aggressive back budding on this one before I started having more taper issues. I went ahead and thinned out the top to clear up the structure some more as well.

I'm thinking around here for a "front," though this one is more of a 360 degree tree.

The top will be jinned down some more over time. The branch on the right going straight up is more or less left to thicken the lower trunk a bit and there's plenty of branches growing in to fill in the gap that will be made when it's removed.

More angles, and some detail shots

 

[IckyGuyBonsai]

Fall update:
This guy caught some high winds in my wind tunnel of a backyard while I was at work the other day and took a tumble. Looks like all is still well after some re tweaking of some branches, but we'll see going into spring if any branches got a little too smashed.


Can't wait to get at a repot on this one and see what the base is looking like. After it gets settled after repot I'll take out the tops and this guy should really start coming together