Oregon Myrtle - Umbellularia californica

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This is the start of what I hope is a long term progression on an experimental species, Oregon Myrtle - Umbellularia californica.

The prompt for this is that my father is a luthier and build me a guitar from all Pacific Northwest woods and the back is a lovely Oregon Myrtle, the top is sitka spruce, with redwood edging. So I went on a quest to get one of each tree in my collection. I know this isn't a common tree, but it's a fun experiment.

References:
* https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/misc/ag_654/volume_2/umbellularia/californica.htm
* https://owic.oregonstate.edu/california-laurel-umbellularia-californica

Sourcing:
I bought mine from Jonsteen Tree Company:

California Bay Laurel | Medium Tree Seedling

Grow your own California Bay Laurel (Umbellularia californica), the most valued and best publicized hardwood species in the Western United States!

sequoiatrees.com

I started it in some Boon mix (1:1:1 akadama, lava, pummice), which is probably overkill. I put it into a pond basket.


30 January 2022

It's been growing happily all summer. I have found that leaf size gets a bit out of control when I over fertilized with 1 Tablespoon of miracle grow organic fertilizer.

Cutting back to ½ Tablespoon seems better.
10 July 2022

At the end of summer the main leader is ~10ish inches long and bent over with some wire. I see what might be a little flower cluster. The trees both fruit and flower naturally.



3 September 2022

Next steps:
* Maybe get more next winter and see if I get more growth out of a soil with some organic material.
* Let it grow
* Experiment more with fertilizer. I got big leaves this year and not nearly as much growth as some of my other saplings this summer.

 

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A quick look at the roots of this California Bay Laurel (Umbellularia Californica). I moved out of an inorganic akadama, pummice, lava mix into an organic mix to hopefully give it a bit more boost in growth.

Also looking back at the photos from last year this has grown quite nicely.

 

[Zelrod]

It's a great story and should make for a nice bonsai in a few years. It reminds me of a willow leaf ficus almost.

 

[HorseloverFat]

Cool species.

I LOVE saying the latin genus name!!!

It's a great story and should make for a nice bonsai in a few years. It reminds me of a willow leaf ficus almost.

I agree... Even looking MORE willow than ficus.

 

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Guitar for insperational reference, not that this tree will ever Be large enough to be a guitar.

 

[Zelrod]

Beautiful craftsmanship! I'd imagine it sounds as nice as it looks.

 

[HorseloverFat]

Beautiful grain and finishing!

Did you finish it "thicker", for improved resonation?.. i believe this wood to be about medium density, but could TOTALLY be wrong as I've NEVER worked with it.

I am very intrigued..

As a musician (guitar IS in there ) for the past 25 years... I'd really like to see the front.

Is the fretboard that same grain?

 

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Beautiful grain and finishing!

Did you finish it "thicker", for improved resonation?.. i believe this wood to be about medium density, but could TOTALLY be wrong as I've NEVER worked with it.

I am very intrigued..

As a musician (guitar IS in there ) for the past 25 years... I'd really like to see the front.

Is the fretboard that same grain?

Sitka spruce top, redwood edging, mapel neck, a mahogany neck (I think). The theme for the guitar was all PNW woods. Most of the tone comes from the top, so you can go for pretty less tonal woods on the back and sides.

Coppertreeguitar.com if you want to see more of his work.

 

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So thoughts on what I'm liking about this species.

• Leaves come off in an alternating pattern from their branches. Which I think means that I have less concern on pinching and branch selecting than I would with something like a JM that has forks if three that need to be down selected.
• I also think that will be a good natural avoidance of bar branches and whorls.
• Almost all of the leaves on the trunk have buds to extend into their own branches this spring.
• Most of the leaves on primary branches also have leaves and branches developing out of them. I think this will be good for ramification over time.

 

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So this summer I've seen this get taller, maybe doubling in height without putting on a lot of trunk girth and not a lot of growth on lower branches. Which I think indicates that the tree is apically dominant.


I'm torn between letting it continue to grow and extend to thicken the trunk and cutting the new growth on the leader to encourage more growth lower down.

Leaf size remains long. I've given it two rounds of biogold this season, but I feel like I'm not sure about the right amount of that to apply.

The trunk is also developing some early texture down low.

 

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I opted to give this a trim to encourage more branch division. I took the long runners off the top and pruned most of the branches down to 2-3 leaves. We'll see how the growth progresses. It would be nice if more low branching helped to reduce leaf size.

The experiment continues.

 

[B-Trees]

this species is in Lauraceae, which doesn't have many notable bonsai subjects afaik, I think because of the leaf size. I have one of these but I'm not trying to bonsai it, it's just growing in a deep terracotta pot in the garden. I did wire it to get the habit I wanted and it's taking a long time for those bends to set. hopefully I'll never have to buy bay leaves ever again. thanks for keeping us posted!

 

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I have heard it's pretty useless for bonsai, but it's a sentimental more than practical project. I have found that I need to keep an eye for wire bite and it has kept shape when wired.

Time will tell.

 

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End of season photos for this tree. I have noticed that after cutting the leaders in late August I've seen more growth on lower branches than I've seen through most of the summer. You can see that in the lighter green/yellow leaves in this photo.

I'll keep this in mind for next summer and as I try to develop ramification in the future.

 

[vesper818]

Try a crumpling a couple of the leaves into stew, soup or pasta sauce. Heavenly aroma. and far better than the desiccated Mediterranean bay leaves sold in the market. Fish them out of the pot before serving.

 

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Try a crumpling a couple of the leaves into stew, soup or pasta sauce. Heavenly aroma. and far better than the desiccated Mediterranean bay leaves sold in the market. Fish them out of the pot before serving.

We actually have a bay tree in the garden that covers all of our cooking needs. But I'll try this when I make stew next.

 

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This summer I attempted partial defoliation of this tree hoping that defoliated branches would throw off new smaller leaves. This did not work. Branches continued to grow as the ends and now I have long empty sections of branches with big floppy leaves on the end.

So, next year I'll try something different. I'm not sure if I could still trim this back to 2-3 leaves per branch.

 

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Defoliation did not pan out.