B&B Hinoki

[Hartinez]

Starting the progress on this Hinoki. Bought this tree from Home Depot and it may not have been the most wise purchase. It was B&B and under the burlap it was hiding the graft. I looked through all of the ones available and couldnt see a graft on any of them, so I thought these didn’t have any. If there was no graft this would have been a brilliant purchase. But it does…

i bought this guy the first week of may. I completely bare-rooted the tree and potted In 100% pumice. I trimmed out some crotch growth and quite a bit of exterior growth knowing good and well these do not back bud well if at all, so my goal was to leave weak interior foliage in favor of the exterior growth. I shortened the tree considerably as well.

it’s pretty clear at this point it has made it through the bare-root and clean up.

now the hard part. When do I address the graft if at all?

I may wire the tree in the fall as it is growing quite well. But I may leave it and try a ground layer next spring. I’ve also not seen any examples online, or heard any stories of the ground layering success of Hinoki.

not sure yet how I’ll move forward Thoughts anyone?

as it looked after bare-root. And a pic of the base. From this angle it’s not the worst graft in the world. But a graft none the less.




a shot from just today

 

[Hartinez]

Gave this hinoki a style last week. A little early in regards to the “taming the hinoki” article i used as a reference to this tree, but it was healthy and growing considerably so i dove in. It’s already begun pushing new growth at almost every tip. I shortened a number of branches and left as much interior foliage as possible.

Some things this tree needs addressing over time.

-The graft. Maybe it looks just fine long term but the jury is still out. I may do some type of shari along the length of the lower trunk in to the grafted section to blend the parts a bit more, obscuring that line. I may also in a few years attempt a ground layer, though i have seen nothing online that says that that can be successful with hinoki.

-as is there is too much foliage. the plan is to let some branches mature and thicken a bit more then Jin them. This way I can free up sun pathways to other foliage pads and create a more aged look over time. The foliage also needs major cleaning up. Very untidy at the moment.

-Lack of taper from 2/3 up to the top. The movement on the trunk is nice but the tree stops tapering at the second bend. It may not be an issue once the foliage fills in more as i like the height of three as styled. something that may improve that is Jining a large amount of branches at the top of the tree and using a Shari to reduce thickness at the top to give the appearance of taper, and age of course. Here is a quick drawing to highlight the idea.

Front as i see it.

and the back as i see it.

The idea...as I see it...

 

[Colorado]

Looking good, Danny. How much sun are you giving this hinoki?

 

[Hartinez]

Looking good, Danny. How much sun are you giving this hinoki?

Dappled. I may move it to a more sunny spot in the next week or so.

 

[Hartinez]

So far so good. Growth at all of the tips. Other than a few very small tertiary branching everything is looking great. Game plan still on for the drawing above. Next year should be a great year of growth. Maybe by the end of next season I can be jinning a few branches.

 

[Hartinez]

more time needed before I can Jin more branches and add more Shari. Plus the foliage needs refinement and detail wiring. That also needs more time.

 

[WNC Bonsai]

That is a pretty dry mix for hinoki. I keep mine in a pumice hadite mix with about 30% pine bark to keep the soil moist. It will be interestong to see how yours does in NM. I also keep them in morning sun afternoon shade.

 

[Hartinez]

That is a pretty dry mix for hinoki. I keep mine in a pumice hadite mix with about 30% pine bark to keep the soil moist. It will be interestong to see how yours does in NM. I also keep them in morning sun afternoon shade.

I had always thought I needed to add more to my pumice. But with larger trees in development I have found pumice to be incredibly useful. Drying out hasn’t been an issue and if anything the growth is excellent. Again, I’ve had this experience with larger trees in particular not shohin size, and the growth is more coarse than I’d like. When I’m ready to slow the tree down a bit I will add more akadama or pine bark and the growth should be finer as well.

 

[Hartinez]

About 3-4weeks ago the tree began legit active growth so I decided to remove old wire and re wire. I also removed several of the bottom left branches and fine wired quite a bit of the softer foliage I couldn’t wire last year.

The apex got a slight retune and the tree a nice cleaning.

I also extended calousing and a Shari that was present at purchase up past the graft point connecting a few of the branches I jinned. I think it helped hide the graft line pretty well.

Already the tree is throwing shoots and new growth almost everywhere.

I still need to reduce more branches down the road for future jins, but some more thickening in the chosen branches needs to take place.

I will leave it in this flat and soil for another year or two.

2-5 more years and this baby will start looking far more refined.

 

[Hartinez]

So thrilled this Hinoki continues to do so well. It’s always so pleasing when I find trees that don’t hate my dry ass alkaline environment here in the high desert southwest.

this tree may be fit for my Dave Lowman egg shell pot. Next spring.

 

[Ruddigger]

That tree is looking great! Pretty cool pot too, I think it’s a match.

 

[Colorado]

Tree is looking fantastic. I think the way you’ve handled the Shari to mask the graft union is the way to go with grafted conifers. I had totally forgot this one way even grafted until I read back through the earlier posts!

 

[DanaWhicker]

That trunk turned out beautifully. It's gotta be rewarding considering when you first purchased it you thought you made a mistake.

 

[Hartinez]

That trunk turned out beautifully. It's gotta be rewarding considering when you first purchased it you thought you made a mistake.

Yeah so far so good. I just wasn’t sure I’d be able to hide that union and air layering didn’t seem promising enough. Glad I’ve chosen not to attempt that.

 

[Hartinez]

That tree is looking great! Pretty cool pot too, I think it’s a match.

Tree is looking fantastic. I think the way you’ve handled the Shari to mask the graft union is the way to go with grafted conifers. I had totally forgot this one way even grafted until I read back through the earlier posts!

Thanks boys. I’ve always loved Hinoki and am so pumped they do well here. Cause it seems so many dont! Either that or I suck at caring for trees.

 

[misfit11]

Really nice, Danny. You don't see that many nice Hinoki Cypress. This is off to a great start. Like the jins and shari that youve added.

I have one growing out in my front yard that might be something someday.... I know they don't backbud so I need to make sure I don't lose those interior branches.

 

[Hartinez]

Really nice, Danny. You don't see that many nice Hinoki Cypress. This is off to a great start. Like the jins and shari that youve added.

I have one growing out in my front yard that might be something someday.... I know they don't backbud so I need to make sure I don't lose those interior branches.

Thanks Cory! Once the pads start forming up a bit more and things get a little more tidy, it should only get better. Some of the branches also, I’m just letting grow in order to jin eventually. Considering I was thinking this purchase was a bust, I’m quite pleased where it’s heading!

 

[Hartinez]

 

[Hartinez]

Thinking about a few shari extensions and Jin’s next spring. With filling out the tree more like this. Something closer between the tightly padded hinoki and a tree with more dead wood features.

 

[Hack Yeah!]

Nice, did you intentionally draw the face? Menacing Hinoki, lol