Summer trim for some developing maples

[Shibui]

Found a little time today to trim a couple of up and coming Shibui maples.

Trident maple.
This was field grown for a few years. I selected it for the enlarged nebari and short stature.

You rarely get everything you want in a tree. Great, spreading nebari on one side but very few roots on the other side so roots were grafted on a couple of years ago. Looks like I got 4 out of 5 to take which has filled out the rear reasonably well.

Now just need the scars to heal over.

Japanese maple.
Pretty sure this is a seedling from Sango Kaku. It has similar red winter stems but has been quite difficult to work with. Still a long way to go. I only keep it for the winter stem colour.


Another small trident maple.

This one was also field grown for a couple of years. After the initial chop part of the trunk died but I think the hollow looks good with the twin trunks so I kept it to develop further.


Another trident.
This just makes it into Shohin size range. It does have the dreaded S shaped trunk but probably better than most.
It hasn't grown much since the last trim so only a couple of shoots to cut today.

 

[leatherback]

how many of these are for your own collection?

 

[Shibui]

At this stage they are all for me. That may change. As the continue to develop I'm regularly reassessing them all based on quality of trees I already have and what I don't have as well as space available. Some may not develop as expected. Some may become better than existing trees and replace those in the permanent collection. I've always started with way more than I want on the basis that not all trees develop as hoped. I figure that the more I start the better chance of developing a few good ones.

Some more I looked at today:
Small root over rock trident. i was aiming at Shohin size but It's just a bit taller than required. Now developing the branching. Need to wait for winter to assess what's developed this year.


One of a series of shohin attempts using trunk fusion. Not sure it will make the grade.


More potential shohin
Birch:
Definitely needs the straight trunk section reduced but I've left that bit to thicken the lower trunk. Maybe chop next summer?


Another little trident ROR


Crab apple:
Again, much of the straighter bits are sacrifice branches. Intention is to concentrate on the left side.


Pyracantha:


Hawthorn:

 

[Shibui]

These trees from a series of attempts to produce shohin with extreme twisted trunks. Very thin seedlings wired and bent then allowed to grow.



Some of these grew too quick and swallowed the wires. Not recommended for deciduous trees but, because they were very thin to start with, the scars have healed quite well and may even be a feature on some.
Not only died this one swallow the wire, it also self layered on the lowest bend. The roots were too advanced when I noticed them so I've left it to see what happens. I decided to leave the low sacrifice shoot on this one hoping it will develop the lower trunk even more.

 

[Shibui]

Another small birch:


Cotoneaster horizontalis;



Privet:



Japanese maples:

 

[Shibui]

And some more for today

Another trident with wire embedded in the trunk. The wire scarring has caused the trunk to swell but wires did not go all the way to the roots so there's inverse taper down low. The trunk shape is good so I've persisted with this one for now. Inverse taper seems to be gradually reversing. If it's still a problem there's several other techniques I can try.


Twin trunk trident:


Cotoneaster damerii:

I suspect this one will become another cotoneaster cascade


Melaleuca species:
An attempt at Aussie native shohin. Hard to pick a good viewing angle

I finally picked this for the front:



Another Cotoneaster damerii:

 

[Orion_metalhead]

Great stuff Shibui!

 

[Michael P]

Wonderful!

 

[Shibui]

Quite hot this afternoon so some more nice easy trimming seemed like a good plan.
Started with a small azalea. Small azaleas are not hard to find but one with a thicker trunk and some surface roots is worth developing.


Then some small root over rock tridents.
These were started with some of the wired and twisted seedlings mentioned earlier. Most of these still have the wires embedded in the trunks - see blue arrow below.



No clear picture of which side will be the best yet. Ill have a better look when they drop leaves.

 

[fredman]

Beautiful mate

 

[birchman]

All the leaves look really healthy Shibui. Do you use fungicide on the tridents?

 

[Shibui]

All the leaves look really healthy Shibui. Do you use fungicide on the tridents?

I have very few issues with maples so don't find the need to use any fungicide or pesticides (touching wood right now) They don't even get the traditional winter spray.
Occasionally I get distorted leaves in Spring but I found that they return to normal growth as it warms up in Summer so I have not treated that either.

 

[namnhi]

I have very few issues with maples so don't find the need to use any fungicide or pesticides (touching wood right now) They don't even get the traditional winter spray.
Occasionally I get distorted leaves in Spring but I found that they return to normal growth as it warms up in Summer so I have not treated that either.

Wish I could say this. All of my maples look so bad in the mid and later part of the Summer... even with 90% shade cloth.
That's a lot of trees to trim there.