Dawn Redwood material - opine at will!

[GreatLakesBrad]

So I went to my first show at Meijer Gardens today. I spent three hours looking at everything and biding my time. But this dawn... it’s massive, healthy, gnarly and I like the carving as an option... and the root base is quite nice imo. So I gave in. I don’t regret it for a minute.

With that said, I know I won’t be touching it this year - there is plenty of time for decision making.

But this is now the most mature (or largest mass at least) piece of material I own. I see multiple options... and I’m nervous! It’s such a lovely piece and Dawn Redwood is my favorite tree (3 in my yard already):

1. Using the carved wood as primary part of the movement, aligns well with the root base down and to the right (top left apex, bottom right roots angle)

2. Backside where no carving is visible, don’t love nebari potential as much though

3. Partial deadwood rotated / variants of this

I lost Internet for the week due to some landscaping work, otherwise I’d touch up the photos with my ideas.

Would love to hear some opinions and ideas. Cheers.

 

[Punky]

That’s really cool. I don’t really have any ideas for you, but I wanted to let you know that I can’t wait to see where you go with this.

 

[Ali Raza]

You are lucky to have this nice tree. I would suggest to let it grow some leaves so as to strengthen the tree before taking any action.

 

[jason biggs]

WOW! The new foliage is beautiful on this species...
looks like a solid trunk and more than ample nebari ...
Great score.

 

[Tieball]

Very nice! Excellent choice.....the tree has a lot of terrific character to work with. I would also let the tree adjust for this season to your care and climate and limit the fiddling and chopping. I particularly like this photo view you attached....it shows a gentle upward movement and showcases the environmental struggle with the curving lower carved area that pushes upward in the opposite direction of the leader at the top. In my mind this stacked and staggered carving nicely balances the tree providing a solid anchor to the ground. During the upcoming season the carving should lose its new-feeling and take on a nice darker aged tone. The tree has an interesting deciduous quality that is somewhat concealing it’s majestic Dawn Redwood background. I happen to like that creative quality you’ve brought about.

Possibly this spring...or the next...I’d remove that smaller root that overlaps, crosses over, that large root at the lower front....before it creates a defined indentation in the large root below.

Ha! You have a lot of nifty lawn flowers. A nice contrast color that compliments the tree.

 

[GreatLakesBrad]

Very nice! Excellent choice.....the tree has a lot of terrific character to work with. I would also let the tree adjust for this season to your care and climate and limit the fiddling and chopping. I particularly like this photo view you attached....it shows a gentle upward movement and showcases the environmental struggle with the curving lower carved area that pushes upward in the opposite direction of the leader at the top. In my mind this stacked and staggered carving nicely balances the tree providing a solid anchor to the ground. During the upcoming season the carving should lose its new-feeling and take on a nice darker aged tone. The tree has an interesting deciduous quality that is somewhat concealing it’s majestic Dawn Redwood background. I happen to like that creative quality you’ve brought about.

Possibly this spring...or the next...I’d remove that smaller root that overlaps, crosses over, that large root at the lower front....before it creates a defined indentation in the large root below.

Ha! You have a lot of nifty lawn flowers. A nice contrast color that compliments the tree.
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Many thanks for the guidance! No experience with carving (done by the nursery, I'd be too nervous on this large a piece of material yet) so thank you for the words on maturation of that wood. I do like the lines you've pointed out.

My yard-grown dawns (one 15 years and 20 feet tall) tend to have those curving-back-towards-the-trunk / overlap roots often. While it can aesthetically be interesting, I think you're saying that will ensure expansion of that larger root below?

Certainly will not be touching it this year. The tree has been in the pot for 2 years, so I may debate a simple anti-trauma re-pot to a larger option next spring for slightly more room to expand the roots.

It's already pushing a ton of foliage in only 1 week, even compared to this photo... easily the jewel of my young collection.

 

[GreatLakesBrad]

You are lucky to have this nice tree. I would suggest to let it grow some leaves so as to strengthen the tree before taking any action.

I feel lucky, nervous and excited

 

[GreatLakesBrad]

Explosive growth for my dawn last season; left it alone entirely to grow. Wow.

Buds are now swelling and it’s time to work what is my furthest along tree. Nervous.
Rough virt attached; I want The Apex to finish in the direction of the push to the right from the lower trunk.

Many options as far as branches go. I like the tall stately nature of the tree and would like to style in an alpine theme. The virt attached should probably be adjusted to have branches more dramatically downward and closer to the trunk.

I noticed that some of the bark over top of the large roots/nebari is loose and somewhat rotted. I hadn’t planned on repotting as I’ve only owned the tree for now one year. Is this just a matter of watching my watering practices? I still have excellent percolation which is why I chose not to repot this spring. Any suggestions on whether I should remove it?

as always, open to styling suggestions. I plan to work this tree by Wednesday at the latest. Thank you in advance, great minds out there.

 

[GreatLakesBrad]

also: debating smoothing out carving and or treating with life sulphur this year.

 

[Forsoothe!]

Loose bark usually means dead underneath. I'd remove now and make design decisions about the deadwood.

 

[GreatLakesBrad]

Update on my dawn. Still cannot make styling decisions. Though no ancient dawn redwoods are available, I have seen the oldest with lower branching (barely off the ground) with branches pointing up or just above parallel and forming a lovely flame shape. I will style one in this naturalistic style some day.
For this tree, the naturalistic dawn would not make sense due to limited branching low and flowing changes of direction instead of a straight trunk flame view. For this reason I also think the naturalistic coastal redwood style is not appropriate.
Leaning towards more of an alpine look still with branches slanting downwards and context of the tree being a lightning strike/high wind environment.
Looking really beautiful and the Anderson flat should produce an expanded nebari over time with root options.

 

[GreatLakesBrad]

 

[GreatLakesBrad]

New video with an update on pruning/repot from this spring on the Dawn. Great Lakes (pre) Bonsai

 

[Grovic]

New video with an update on pruning/repot from this spring on the Dawn. Great Lakes (pre) Bonsai

It's looking great, what's is the soil mix you used?

 

[GreatLakesBrad]

It's looking great, what's is the soil mix you used?

I use Bonsai Jack conifer soil - mostly from Amazon. Look up bonsai jack - I buy the large bags to save $$. They have a ‘regular’ mix that I use for deciduous and the conifer mix.

 

[Hartinez]

Looks fantastic Brad. I recently picked up a dawn from a local nursery that had a ton of them. Not near as much character as yours, but its got some serious size. 2.5" plus at the base. Do you keep yours in part shade? full shade? full sun? Also, I like your marble brewery Beer coozy. one of our better local breweries.

 

[GreatLakesBrad]

Looks fantastic Brad. I recently picked up a dawn from a local nursery that had a ton of them. Not near as much character as yours, but its got some serious size. 2.5" plus at the base. Do you keep yours in part shade? full shade? full sun? Also, I like your marble brewery Beer coozy. one of our better local breweries.

My brother and I really enjoyed a trip to Albuquerque, Taos, and Santa Fe last spring. Everyone we met was friendly, reminds me of the Midwest. Green Chile burgers! Wow.

My dawns love sun, but during the hottest part of summer (over 85f and humid), I find they can get fried in full sun all day. So my big Dawn gets about 5 hours of sun (8am-1pm) sitting on the east side of my house and shade for the afternoon. I find this is when it is happiest/most lush.
Have a few others (including my forest) near the same spot, and a few others out in the raised bed where they are shaded for at least part of the day.
My landscape dawns have no issues in sun all day, but that is of course a different animal.

I just love the foliage on these, hope you are enjoying it as well.

 

[Hartinez]

My brother and I really enjoyed a trip to Albuquerque, Taos, and Santa Fe last spring. Everyone we met was friendly, reminds me of the Midwest. Green Chile burgers! Wow.

My dawns love sun, but during the hottest part of summer (over 85f and humid), I find they can get fried in full sun all day. So my big Dawn gets about 5 hours of sun (8am-1pm) sitting on the east side of my house and shade for the afternoon. I find this is when it is happiest/most lush.
Have a few others (including my forest) near the same spot, and a few others out in the raised bed where they are shaded for at least part of the day.
My landscape dawns have no issues in sun all day, but that is of course a different animal.

I just love the foliage on these, hope you are enjoying it as well.


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Great thank you for the info. Mine is not terribly happy at the moment but I’m pretty sure I just fried the leaves out a bit. Better plans going into next year for sure. The nursery here I got it from grows them from seed and all of there’s stay quite happy. They’ve got a pretty great selection.

 

[Forsoothe!]

Full sun tree can't take full sun, -just one more benefit of supposed bonsai media. In a reasonably deep pot with a media that holds one day's water they need all tmhe sun they can get.


If your pot won't hold one day's water, you're doing something wrong. 2+2 always =4

 

[GreatLakesBrad]

Full sun tree can't take full sun, -just one more benefit of supposed bonsai media. In a reasonably deep pot with a media that holds one day's water they need all tmhe sun they can get.
View attachment 325486
View attachment 325487
If your pot won't hold one day's water, you're doing something wrong. 2+2 always =4

What media mix do you use? I’ve found adding coco to my mix allows for hotter weather on a few smaller prebonsai.