Graceful Triple Trunk Ostrya virginiana, Hop-Hornbeam

[TN_Jim]

It seems it is probably a slower growing species than others, but bonsai is a slow endeavor anyways so what the heck!

I am pretty satisfied with the growth it gave me this year. I wish I had taken a picture of how hard I pruned the roots before I potted it up, but I went very hard on the roots. So with that in mind, it’s understandable if it wasn’t super vigorous this year. I think next season will give me a better idea of how fast of a grower it is now that it has reestablished its root system pretty well.

Always good to see others working with this under used species, looking forward to learning more about hophornbeam as I go!

woohoo! likewise!.. an endeavor well met. interesting we both have them in pure de... optisorb, mine 8822..

some of my 8822 tree mix can turn to mush now!!!! why?...bad day at the plant? your not fired!!!? it’s not fired de..

if I can hang on to my tree, I’m going to put it though the paces, re-chop, repot, and thread graft...same season...also collected last year

i know, right...?

perhaps your tree will juxtapose my hopefully not dead one. if so we’ll know 2020.

sounds awful in a way but it’s not...yea that sounds better

 

[Potawatomi13]

It makes me think of sort of a ‘mother, father, child’ style tree.

Child needs to move/lean out of parents shadow.

 

[TN_Jim]

@Mike Hennigan, any word on this one?

This late winter/early spring right when buds were getting fat I chopped mine back to the ideal leader. It bled sap profusely throughout the night despite cut paste. The trunk was drenched as well as surrounding soil -this tree was gone by mid summer. I also have a 1cm sapling with interest collected/treatment same that has been fine. Blood in blood out -beware. Makes me think these should maybe also be collected when a heavier coat is needed (not just about to leaf) -I haven’t seen any sap at collection.

I collected a few more around this same time, seem okay. The best among is great. However, even this one and very much others seem to be prone to fungal leaf issues. Mike, @Leo in N E Illinois, have you also experienced this as well? If so or not, how would you approach it? Leo, your earlier post here #25 is gold, thanks greatly.

 

[Mike Hennigan]

It’s doing well! I did a bit of pruning early spring before it leafed out, reduced the height of a couple trunks. Nothing major, I still want to cut lower in parts but I figured I would work this one down slow since I’m not really familiar with how they behave yet. I can’t say that I noticed excessive bleeding.

The fall color is crap though. Just kind of gets brown edges and yellows and curls up into more brown. I have seen specimens in the woods with decent yellow leaves and not the type of browning on the edges that I get toward the end of the season. So I wonder what I can do differently to get better fall leaves. More shade through the growing season? Water them more? I usually get the browning on the leaf edges before I even get to fall colors.

But other than that it has seemed pretty healthy this season. No recent pics, I’ll try to take some pics soon.

On the one you chopped back to the ideal leader, did you notice any die back on the trunk before it croaked? Also, did you have another branch existing on the opposite side of the trunk that might help prevent dieback?

Definitely good to get a discussion going on the intricacies of Ostrya... I’ve scouted a couple this fall that have super interesting bases, bigger trees than this one. Plan to collect in the spring, hope I can get them to thrive.

 

[TN_Jim]

It’s doing well! I did a bit of pruning early spring before it leafed out, reduced the height of a couple trunks. Nothing major, I still want to cut lower in parts but I figured I would work this one down slow since I’m not really familiar with how they behave yet. I can’t say that I noticed excessive bleeding.

The fall color is crap though. Just kind of gets brown edges and yellows and curls up into more brown. I have seen specimens in the woods with decent yellow leaves and not the type of browning on the edges that I get toward the end of the season. So I wonder what I can do differently to get better fall leaves. More shade through the growing season? Water them more? I usually get the browning on the leaf edges before I even get to fall colors.

But other than that it has seemed pretty healthy this season. No recent pics, I’ll try to take some pics soon.

On the one you chopped back to the ideal leader, did you notice any die back on the trunk before it croaked? Also, did you have another branch existing on the opposite side of the trunk that might help prevent dieback?

Definitely good to get a discussion going on the intricacies of Ostrya... I’ve scouted a couple this fall that have super interesting bases, bigger trees than this one. Plan to collect in the spring, hope I can get them to thrive.

Good things! Yea, I’ve seen a nice yellow in the wild...lower pH..more organic/drainage component..?..same boat. There just really isn’t a lot out there on this species, I dug some again tonight and found much of things seen.

This is the last photo of the one I cut the night I chopped it back from 2’ —Feb. 23 2019 when was just like profuse water from the cut. The pencil is pointing to the bud I put all my chips on.

Buds. I have tried to chop apical branches (2-4”) back to get back budding with limited success throughout the year, may have weakened (?).

Last fall this tree went wild with all these low buds (photo). This is in part what convinced me it was ready to be cut back and that specific bud would emerge as the new leader. Too, it made me think, is autumn when I should be looking for the lower leaf buds, stop harassing them with scissors in spring+..?

Ostrya seems the most mysterious (definitely not dialed in) deciduous species I have. Carpinus is much easier (keep it wet, ease into full sun) -so much so, I question why Ostrya should be treated like a ‘hornbeam’ exactly. I have half a mind to try to even try to contact Arthur Joura.

HopHornbeam Landscape Planting

Recently Ken and I were invited to help Arthur Joura (AJ) of the North Carolina Arboretum repot a large American Hophornbeam (Ostrya virginiana) group planting

ibonsaiclub.forumotion.com

 

[TN_Jim]

It’s doing well! I did a bit of pruning early spring before it leafed out, reduced the height of a couple trunks. Nothing major, I still want to cut lower in parts but I figured I would work this one down slow since I’m not really familiar with how they behave yet. I can’t say that I noticed excessive bleeding.

The fall color is crap though. Just kind of gets brown edges and yellows and curls up into more brown. I have seen specimens in the woods with decent yellow leaves and not the type of browning on the edges that I get toward the end of the season. So I wonder what I can do differently to get better fall leaves. More shade through the growing season? Water them more? I usually get the browning on the leaf edges before I even get to fall colors.

But other than that it has seemed pretty healthy this season. No recent pics, I’ll try to take some pics soon.

On the one you chopped back to the ideal leader, did you notice any die back on the trunk before it croaked? Also, did you have another branch existing on the opposite side of the trunk that might help prevent dieback?

Definitely good to get a discussion going on the intricacies of Ostrya... I’ve scouted a couple this fall that have super interesting bases, bigger trees than this one. Plan to collect in the spring, hope I can get them to thrive.

Never seen die back from initial cut, only leaves.

 

[Mike Hennigan]

Good things! Yea, I’ve seen a nice yellow in the wild...lower pH..more organic/drainage component..?..same boat. There just really isn’t a lot out there on this species, I dug some again tonight and found much of things seen.

This is the last photo of the one I cut the night I chopped it back from 2’ —Feb. 23 2019 when was just like profuse water from the cut. The pencil is pointing to the bud I put all my chips on.

Buds. I have tried to chop apical branches (2-4”) back to get back budding with limited success throughout the year, may have weakened (?).

Last fall this tree went wild with all these low buds (photo). This is in part what convinced me it was ready to be cut back and that specific bud would emerge as the new leader. Too, it made me think, is autumn when I should be looking for the lower leaf buds, stop harassing them with scissors in spring+..?

Ostrya seems the most mysterious (definitely not dialed in) deciduous species I have. Carpinus is much easier (keep it wet, ease into full sun) -so much so, I question why Ostrya should be treated like a ‘hornbeam’ exactly. I have half a mind to try to even try to contact Arthur Joura.

View attachment 267771
View attachment 267773

HopHornbeam Landscape Planting

Recently Ken and I were invited to help Arthur Joura (AJ) of the North Carolina Arboretum repot a large American Hophornbeam (Ostrya virginiana) group planting

ibonsaiclub.forumotion.com

My suggestion going forward would be to wait one more year, where you cultivate all those low buds into branches, and then chop. That way you’ll have the vigor of more fully formed branches in place. I would do this by pruning the top branches that will eventually be gone with the chop heavily the spring before. Back to one bud. And then once it leafs out, pinch the apical growing tip out of all of those top branches early, before a branch can extend. To really force the tree to want to extend those low bids into branches. And then come back next year and do the chop.

I honestly would have done what you did though. You had a leader branch formed. Maybe just getting all those other buds to branch first is the insurance policy.