Projects from Leo's Backyard

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Another mixed flat, probably from 2017, Rhus aromatica, Fragrant Sumac, and Ilex verticillata, winterberry deciduous holly. This was a flat that weeding was a problem. I could not tell the seedlings from the weeds the first year or two. Also, I did not "cage" the flat, so squirrels and bird probably got the majority of seed.

Rhus aromatica is a small tree, it has male and female flowers on separate plants. The landscape industry almost exclusively sells one or two low growing, prostrate male selections, that won't seed into the landscape. But in the wild, it can become a 20 foot tall tree (exceptional) or a 5 to 10 foot tall shrub, more common. I saw the wild form when giving a talk in Kansas, and thought it had some bonsai potential. Small 3 leaflet compound leaves. A pleasant fragrance when you brush the foliage, red berries in autumn and beautiful autumn leaf color, as good as the less "bonsai friendly" sumacs. So I thought why not? and planted some seed. I only have 3 surviving seedlings, hopefully one will be female. Males are common as the prostrate landscape plant, so if I don't get a male it won't be a problem.

In the flat I also planted some Ilex verticillata seed. The Ilex took 2 years to germinate, as expected, because Ilex need a warm summer stratification followed by the usual winter stratification. I got 4 Ilex seedlings, hopefully I'll have at least one male and one female.






He, he, he, the sumac definitely looks a bit like poison ivy, now that I'm looking at a photo rather than the real thing. Poison ivy, and poison sumac are in a different, but closely related genus. I can have some fun with this, tell people I made a bonsai from poison ivy.

It is a slightly "blue-ish" leaf color on the sumac, as opposed to the normal green of poison ivy. Also leaves are lobed, rather than serrated, so the are blunt points, rather than sharp points.

 

[HorseloverFat]

. Poison ivy, and poison sumac are in a different, but closely related genus. I can have some fun with this, tell people I made a bonsai from poison ivy.

You rascal!

 

[Forsoothe!]

So my friend Cathy came over to the farm today, and helped me measure the circumference of the red oak tree. We got 220 inches, roughly 5 feet, 10 inches diameter. That is one big oak. I'll try to estimate height later. I need to find a protractor. Diameter at Breast Height, dbh, is 70 inches. This is significantly more than the 52 for the Kane County IL champion. So we do have a champion on the farm. I'll have to check more records and get a good height estimate.

According to one website, their formula for red oak suggested the tree might be 470 years old. A different website suggested a different formula, and that it was "only" 290 years old. Of course the only accurate measure would be to cut the tree down and counting the rings. The midpoint between the 2 formulas is 380 years. I'll go with that guess until I find a better way to estimate the age of the tree.

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I think you should err to the high side on age because of where the tree is, and everybody knows getting to any size in Illinois is difficult because living in Illinois is very....













taxing.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

@Forsoothe! - the tree is on the farm, near South Haven, Michigan. Well, 10 miles east of South Haven, 22 miles west of Kalamazoo. Given the "barren sandy soil" erring to the high side on age is probably right. But we won't know until the tree is cut down and rings counted. That is NOT going to happen while I'm part owner of the farm. I'm happy with the 380 years old guess.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Sumac in my IL backyard. 2 different clones. I had hoped male and female, but no fruit this year.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Sometime around 2010 or so, the Milwaukee Bonsai Society did a "group dig" removing wild seedling ginkgo trees from a property with a huge old female ginkgo. Now when I say "seedlings" this was a yard where the seedlings had grown wild for nearly 40 years. Some of the "seedlings" were 25 or 30 feet tall. At the time, I was invited but could not attend, I was in a brace, recovering from cervical surgery, and could not do any physical exertion beyond picking up a coffee cup. My friends, Jorge and Rocio were kind enough to collect this tree, stabilize it in a pond basket and then gift it to me a couple summers later when I was recovered enough to be out and about. I counted rings when I first got it, I think this tree was over 30 years old. It probably was 20 feet tall when it was collected. As I mentioned elsewhere, Ginkgo can be chopped to just a few inches tall and have roots cut to the point of being just about a cutting, and they will survive just fine. They are great for bonsai that way.

I made a rudimentary effort to grind off the cut stump to allow it to heal over. Ginkgo wood is VERY HARD. I'm going to bring it over to either Brian S or Steve C when I get a chance, and go at it with serious power tools. Ginkgo will take a very long time to roll over a wound. The fact that I have neglected this cut chop mark for 12 years is not a problem. Going to go for a natural looking hollow - broken trunk look, rather than trying to hide the chop entirely.

I did move it to an Anderson flat, 16x16x5 a few years ago. A number of suckers have developed over the last couple years, so todays work was; weeding & sucker removal. That's all. Not pruning back until spring.

with suckers


After sucker removal.









I'm debating whether chopping all the branches short, to just one or two internodes before it leafs out in spring is a good idea or not. The branches are too straight and uninteresting. Getting a little back budding might be helpful. We will se what happens.

 

[River's Edge]

Sometime around 2010 or so, the Milwaukee Bonsai Society did a "group dig" removing wild seedling ginkgo trees from a property with a huge old female ginkgo. Now when I say "seedlings" this was a yard where the seedlings had grown wild for nearly 40 years. Some of the "seedlings" were 25 or 30 feet tall. At the time, I was invited but could not attend, I was in a brace, recovering from cervical surgery, and could not do any physical exertion beyond picking up a coffee cup. My friends, Jorge and Rocio were kind enough to collect this tree, stabilize it in a pond basket and then gift it to me a couple summers later when I was recovered enough to be out and about. I counted rings when I first got it, I think this tree was over 30 years old. It probably was 20 feet tall when it was collected. As I mentioned elsewhere, Ginkgo can be chopped to just a few inches tall and have roots cut to the point of being just about a cutting, and they will survive just fine. They are great for bonsai that way.

I made a rudimentary effort to grind off the cut stump to allow it to heal over. Ginkgo wood is VERY HARD. I'm going to bring it over to either Brian S or Steve C when I get a chance, and go at it with serious power tools. Ginkgo will take a very long time to roll over a wound. The fact that I have neglected this cut chop mark for 12 years is not a problem. Going to go for a natural looking hollow - broken trunk look, rather than trying to hide the chop entirely.

I did move it to an Anderson flat, 16x16x5 a few years ago. A number of suckers have developed over the last couple years, so todays work was; weeding & sucker removal. That's all. Not pruning back until spring.

with suckers
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After sucker removal.

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I'm debating whether chopping all the branches short, to just one or two internodes before it leafs out in spring is a good idea or not. The branches are too straight and uninteresting. Getting a little back budding might be helpful. We will se what happens.

I would go for the cut back and early wiring of green shoots. Only way I have been able to shape the growth of my ginkgo.