PierreR
Shohin
Really nice tree, I love the pot! Well done! Where I grew up, there are white paper birch everywhere. I miss them out here in the prairies.
Short story of my little Birch
- Thread starter Maros
- Start date
Thanks, Pierre. I love them too. They are very common everywhere in our country. I like their bark. I would be nice to have birch forest, groups of trees in grass like in our forests...But I lack space for such projects now, maybe in future.
whfarro
Chumono
Very nice tree. The pot really works well with it. Birch (white, silver, paper) are common in my area . I have always wanted to give one a try as Bonsai, but I have heard they are not well suited. You are encouraging me to consider it. In the meantime time I have to think of other ways to represent them. LHere is one of my stained glass pieces of birch I did last year.
Attachments
Well, I heard they are short lived. But I tried and I like to work with birches. If you are able to water them enough in summer and protect them from aphids, you have good chance, I think.
Thanks.
Smoke
Ignore-Amus
It is good to see some of your trees here. Thanks for following my blog and its nice to see a picture of you.
Cheers from America.
Cheers from America.
jeanluc83
Omono
Fantastic tree! I have a black birch that I collected this spring. I collected it to get some experience with the species. I don't think it will ever be a masterpiece but it should be fun to work on.
I've often heard this said of birch. The average life expectancy in the wild is around 80 years. That sounds pretty good to me. Unless I live to be 120 years old the tree will out live me.
I've often heard this said of birch. The average life expectancy in the wild is around 80 years. That sounds pretty good to me. Unless I live to be 120 years old the tree will out live me.
Thanks Smoke
Jeanluc83, I do think major problems with birches as bonsai is that they tend to shed branches time to time, after winter mostly. This could be challenging when you are trying to develop and design the tree. I lost few branches on this particular tree, but not enough to trigger frustration.
DJtommy, as of today I would answer on your question yes. I'm waiting for structure to be dense enough and then I think I can try to do it. Question is, if I will be able to get dense structure of the crown as I would like to achieve. Honestly, Im struggling to keep branches inside the crown alive during growth season. They need light and it could be provided with strong defoliation, which is weakening the tree. But I must try to defoliate it more drastically, and more often next year and hope for some positive results.
Paradox
Imperial Masterpiece
Thank you for posting this tree Maros. I have one that I cut down from a nursery tree that I would like to work on developing further. It is good to see that they respond to leaf reduction techniques.
Next year Ill have to start working towards developing mind further.
Next year Ill have to start working towards developing mind further.
I think, birches tend to reduce leaf size naturally a bit when contained in small pot. Anyway I use to make defoliation on this one.
MattE
Shohin
Man this is great, i love birch tree's , thanks to Source for showing me this thread. could we possibly have an update on the tree Maros ?
ill definitely be looking for some yamadori birch this year
ill definitely be looking for some yamadori birch this year
sorce
Nonsense Rascal
I been eyeballin some at one of my fishing holes ever since looking at this again.
Sorce
Sorce
MattE
Shohin
Thats funny because first thing i thought was , there is some nice birch trees at Hasse Lake where i go for my rainbow trout lolI been eyeballin some at one of my fishing holes ever since looking at this again.
Sorce
Hi guys, thanks for your interest. Birch is still alive. I'm adding few recent pictures below. It lost couple of branches this winter. Quite a lot frankly speaking. Fact is I could made few mistakes last season which could have led to this. I should defoliate it more often last season, more light into crown could have positive influence. Secondly, I haven't done repotting for few seasons and tree is most probably root bound. Unfortunately, I had no time to repot it this spring either. So tree is living but I'm not satisfied with ramification anymore. Seems like only way to go is start over and cut branches back hard this season and wait for good backbudding. I will report on progress.
MattE
Shohin
Nice little tree , i really really love that pot!!!!!
sorce
Nonsense Rascal
I appreciate the chance to learn off the experience.
I hope you get it figured out..
Sounds a good plan.
Thanks!
Sorce
I hope you get it figured out..
Sounds a good plan.
Thanks!
Sorce
M. Frary
Bonsai Godzilla
Ahhhh. So it begins.
I worked with birches in the landscape nursery business. We only had a survival rate of about half on just transplanting. Pines survived better. Also the ones that did survive dropped branches like crazy afterwards. They don't seem to like too much roots cut off at once and don't like to have them restricted too much. We never put them in buckets when we got them. We had to put them in the ground in order to get a good survival rate. But when dug up after being in the ground a couple years and transplanted they would just die.
After too much of that we didn't mess with any birch trees. The ones that I put in the ground are still there when I drive by. Some of them anyway.
Some trees,no matter how much we wish to be bonsai just don't make the cut for some reason or another. I see it here all the time. Eastern White pine. Red maple. Willow. Poplars or cottonwood. Wild cherry. Birches. None are good bonsai candidates. People know this but yet they still try because they think they have what it takes to make them work.
The trees are the problem though. Not the people. No matter what you do or tell yourself none of the trees listed above and more do not make for good bonsai. Yeah maybe there is a red maple that Art Joura has been working on. It's giant. How many others. EWP? Forget about it. Popel trees? Willows? Come on.
I know I'm coming off as harsh. It's the truth. Maros is coming to realize he has spent a lot of time on a tree that is probably going to be dead in a year or two. It sucks but it's the truth. He can see the time coming when it will just die no matter what he does. I'm sorry Maros but deep down you know. It's a shame but it is a great learning lesson for everyone else trying to use these trees.
And this was a very nice birch bonsai. Sorry Maros.
Mike, when reading your post I had a feeling I'm hearing funeral march on background and church bell ringing.
But, tree is far from dead yet, mate. It lost branches so what. Many trees lose some branches sometimes. That's part of the game we play, isn't it?
Look, we all know birch is not easy species. By far not ideal for bonsai. But if we stick to ideal species, what will be left? Pines, Japanese maples and few others? I must say that level of frustration over birches is far from giving up. Point is, I collected it from wild and took responsibility for its life, so I will do my best to keep it alive. I'll be sad if it dies one day, does not matter if it is sooner or later.
I was sad to loose good trees many times in my short bonsai life, and I learned to live with that. It is integral part of our hobby, I think. I read it on different place somewhere here, there are much more short lived results of hobbies all around, ikebana, garden flowers, sand castles just to name a few. You know we are not producing marble sculptures surviving ages. Deep inside we want our plants to live as long as possible, that's natural. We wish there will be one of our kids with same passion for bonsai when we will pass away. But, we don't know what will happen anyway. I think we can enjoy from those moments when our beloved trees are with us, whether it is birch or pine. And then accept when it is once gone.
True is, I like to work with this tree, I enjoy looking at it when sitting in my garden. I will work with it further, and I'll see what could be done to make it good bonsai. Once it is gone, I'll post here picture of it in my grill, and then it will be time for Chopin.
