Short story of my little Birch

[Maros]

Hi bonsai friends,
I'm new to this forum so let me introduce myself shortly - my name is Maros and I'm in bonsai since 2008. My main focus are deciduous trees, collected yamadori trees mostly. I'm trying to do naturalistic trees, and work of Walter Pall is my greatest inspiration.
Let me share with you my journey with this Birch (Betula pendula). I collected this tree in early spring 2010 from gravel field in quarry. Tree was potted in inorganic substrate composed mainly of zeolit. Tree was doing well, it has been pruned regularly, wired several times completely. I potted tree from plastic bowl to fantastic ceramic pot made by our local potter Juraj Homola in 2012. It responded well and prospering till present times. After winter there are always branches which die back, but that's part of the game with birch. It has been on exhibition in spring this year. Not because I consider it finished and show ready, but because with birch you never know how long it will stay with you. So, in my opinion it is better to hurry a little bit. Last image is from November 2014. Hope you will like it. Any comments or questions are appreciated.
Thanks.
#marosbonsai

 

[Maros]

more pictures ..

 

[Maros]

...and more pictures

 

[Maros]

...and few more pictures

 

[tom tynan]

Rotate the tree to show the lower curve - makes it look more powerful. One of your photos shows this. Have you started to wire and pull the branches down ? Nice job keeping the birch alive in a pot - not easy to do. The bark looks amazing; crackly and white......Nice tree with some wire and branches lowered.....Regards Tom

 

[Cmdrew6115]

I love the pot!

The bark looks great and I really like the last photo where your tree is almost leafless.

Nice work!

 

[wireme]

Really really nice! I looked at the last image first and was pretty surprised to see what you started with in 2010. Thanks.

 

[JudyB]

Nice and unusual tree. I'd agree that you would do well to wire it a bit, and rotate the front. I have heard that these are difficult to keep in pot culture, so kudos to you.

 

[M. Frary]

It always amazes me when I see birch trees used for bonsai. I've worked at a nursery and almost all trees we moved with a tree spade died. I always thought it was from cutting roots but you obviously can root prune one to get it into a pot. I trim trees for a living now and we always have to be careful to not cut off too much for fear of killing it but yet you must cut this back hard to make it look like a real tree. Maybe your using a different type of birch than we have growing here.
Good job.

 

[Giga]

Very nice I have a couple birch in the works but this one is very very nice. I love the pot too!

 

[Vin]

Nice progression and welcome to the forum.

 

[sorce]

Welcome Maros.

The pot is very interesting, I like the look of roots on the side. Excellent work.

Read some blog. I love that low branch on the Tilia. Wonder if you ever considered chopping off the top and using it (the low branch) alone. Seems like something Walter would recommend! Great taper, movement, very powerful image!

Look forward to seeing more of your trees!

Sorce

 

[fredtruck]

You've done a really fine job with this tree. Congratulations.

 

[Zach Smith]

...and more pictures

Very nice work. Good looking tree.

Zach

 

[Maros]

Hi,

first of all I would like to thank you all for warm welcome. I really appreciate it.
Thanks for all positive reaction on this tree.
Regarding specific issues which were mentioned:

Rotate the tree to show the lower curve - makes it look more powerful. One of your photos shows this. Have you started to wire and pull the branches down ? Nice job keeping the birch alive in a pot - not easy to do. The bark looks amazing; crackly and white......Nice tree with some wire and branches lowered.....Regards Tom

Tom, tree was planted in oval pot and honestly enough roots were removed so I did not wanted to go further. Obviously tree is not in best position, it is clear from multiple pictures. I plan to solve it with new pot. I will order same design of pot, very similar dimensions but round shape(already discussed it with potter this spring but failed to do it ). Then it will be much easier to play with its position. On the other hand I would like to achieve good looking tree from all sides. Of course there will be sides which will be preferred on shelve, exhibition etc. Regarding pulling branches down, not yet. All branches are wired and pulled up, I'm trying to achieve natural look of birch tree where all sub-trunks and main branches grow up. If I will be happy with ramification of the crown I will wire new growth down. Honestly I do not know how tree will react on that, I heard it can cause die back of those branches. I will see. I also love bark of this tree, I attracted me on collecting place back then.

M. Frary
It always amazes me when I see birch trees used for bonsai. I've worked at a nursery and almost all trees we moved with a tree spade died. I always thought it was from cutting roots but you obviously can root prune one to get it into a pot. I trim trees for a living now and we always have to be careful to not cut off too much for fear of killing it but yet you must cut this back hard to make it look like a real tree. Maybe your using a different type of birch than we have growing here.
Good job.

Mike, I do cut it back like hell several times a year. I grows new shoots 50cm long in few weeks. Tree tends to respond well. I did almost complete defoliation during the season and no problem. About handling roots, I do not know about any problem. Till present I collected 4 birches, all several inches thick, all survived. No dead birch yet. I think watering is important, I water it 2 times a day in summer. Lot of water. And surface of the soil is always covered with moss. So substrate is always damp. When I do watering mistake, I forget to water, or set up automatic wrongly results are yellow leaves, reduction of leaves and weak tree. Then it is easy target for aphids. My biggest enemy on birches. Ants bring them and eat my tree...
Cannot tell it about other species, unfortunately. I know they are difficult to keep, so I try no to get too emotional and I live with that. One day it may be gone, for me it is part of the game. I'm trying to enjoy it till it lives. I know there are better tree species to work with.

Welcome Maros.

The pot is very interesting, I like the look of roots on the side. Excellent work.

Read some blog. I love that low branch on the Tilia. Wonder if you ever considered chopping off the top and using it (the low branch) alone. Seems like something Walter would recommend! Great taper, movement, very powerful image!

Look forward to seeing more of your trees!

Sorce

Sorce, I like the root also. When seen it in quarry for the first time, root was exposed and white already. I think it is important element of its design. Speaking about tilia you have seen on my blog I never thought about chopping tree to this size. My approach with yamadori trees is that I try to keep as much as possible of original tree structure. I causes me a lot of problems, of course. Then I sometimes regret that I did not removed something sooner or so. But I'm learning along the way and now I more confident in using saw earlier. Walter must have seen Tilia, when was in my garden, but I do not remember him recommending this drastic lowering. Personally I thing I would be pity, I like bend of the trunk. Even if this is not typical natural looking tilia as we are used from our parks. But now I have feeling that this tree want to look like this.

JudyB

Nice and unusual tree. I'd agree that you would do well to wire it a bit, and rotate the front. I have heard that these are difficult to keep in pot culture, so kudos to you.

Judy, thanks for your kudos. Love that word. When I heard that for the first time I was realy surprised it is English, actually.
Thanks.
Maros

 

[Maros]

Fraxinus from collected material

Hi,
Just added few words on my blog on Fraxinus bonsai, from collected yamadori in 2011. Adding here few pictures of the tree.
Thanks
For full story look here: Story of My Fraxinus bonsai

 

[Maros]

Birch woke up from dormancy, it lost few branches during winter but that's how it goes with birches.

 

[drew33998]

Nice tree. I really like the pot too!

 

[Vin]

Looks like the bark is finally starting to flake! Dito on the pot.

 

[Maros]

Little update on my birch. New growth was reduced and tree was partially defoliated. I hope for some back budding to improve ramification.