Rudd’s Silverberry #1

[Ruddigger]

This is a Silverberry I bought at the Fresno Bonsai Society Fall Sale in November 2024.

As purchased:


With the help of a few guy wires:


Repotted in January into a Nao Tokutake pot that I purchased at the 2024 PBE:


Defoliated, wired and cut back March 2025:


The silhouette looked pretty good before, but once you looked inside the canopy you could see that the branches were a disaster. All tangled together with knobs everywhere, and much of the apex was made up of runners from the lower branches. I can tell it had just been hedge pruned lately.

I tried my best to untangle everything and over the next few years the goal is to increase ramification and refine the branching to be sustainable.

 

[ForrestW]

Nice work! That is going to be a great tree.

 

[treeline]

Love the tree -- its bark especially -- and the work you've done to it. I'm on the hunt for one of these and seeing yours gives me hope that there are some nice ones floating around.

 

[pandacular]

Is that a drip irrigation line in the pot?

 

[Colorado]

Awesome! Do you know the history of the tree? Seems like it must be decently old, at least.

 

[NaoTK]

The tangly-ness is a feature of the tree

 

[Scriv]

This is a Silverberry I bought at the Fresno Bonsai Society Fall Sale in November 2024.

As purchased:
View attachment 588786

With the help of a few guy wires:
View attachment 588787

Repotted in January into a Nao Tokutake pot that I purchased at the 2024 PBE:
View attachment 588788

Defoliated, wired and cut back March 2025:
View attachment 588789

The silhouette looked pretty good before, but once you looked inside the canopy you could see that the branches were a disaster. All tangled together with knobs everywhere, and much of the apex was made up of runners from the lower branches. I can tell it had just been hedge pruned lately.

I tried my best to untangle everything and over the next few years the goal is to increase ramification and refine the branching to be sustainable.

Damn... really nice dude.

 

[BrianBay9]

Awesome! Do you know the history of the tree? Seems like it must be decently old, at least.

It was a donation to the Clark Bonsai collection that didn't make it into the permanent collection. I don't have info on the source or the original artist but I'll ask around. Nice work on that Ryan.

 

[Ruddigger]

Is that a drip irrigation line in the pot?

Yes, it’s security during the hot summers.

 

[Ruddigger]

Awesome! Do you know the history of the tree? Seems like it must be decently old, at least.

I tried to find out more, but all I could get was it was part of a collection donated by Richard Brustlin of Santa Barbara in 2016.

 

[Ruddigger]

Love the tree -- its bark especially -- and the work you've done to it. I'm on the hunt for one of these and seeing yours gives me hope that there are some nice ones floating around.

I got super lucky with this one.

 

[Ruddigger]

It was a donation to the Clark Bonsai collection that didn't make it into the permanent collection. I don't have info on the source or the original artist but I'll ask around. Nice work on that Ryan.

Thanks brother, appreciate that.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

I just got fruit on mine this year for the first time! Perhaps it is self-evident, but I never thought about silverberries having large speckled berries!

Great looking tree, and I really like the pot!