ABCarve
Masterpiece
I have put this tree in another hemlock thread but thought it might be helpful for hemlock people to see my design process all in one post. Many time you see the pros at symposiums take material and in seemly hours turn them into masterpieces or head scratchers which will take many years to develop if they survive the initial styling.
Sometimes you just have to wait it out.....the vision of what the tree will become, especially newbies that want to use those new scissors.
This tree was collected in 2016 bare rooted and put directly into APL. The only reason I chose this tree was for the nebari and caliper of the trunk. It had multiple large branches fanning out from the base but not what you could call a clump. I'll get it healthy and the rest will make itself evident
This photo is from 2018 after two year of getting healthy and keeping it pinched back. Since they don't bud back on old wood it's easy for the growth to get away from you and have foliage closer to the trunk die back. I've made some wedge cuts under lower branches to bring them down, (guy wires holding them in place) just fooling with some ideas that might make the tree usable. There is no firm design yet.
Since most eastern hemlocks grow as formal uprights, you don't see many that have movement. So after some prodding by another Bnutter I decided in 2019 to remove the main trunk and use the lower left branch to create the tree. I left the main trunk as a jin to hedge my bet and see if there was a path forward to use in the design. There is still no vision of a bonsai just a little closer.
2021 - After looking at it for 2 years I decided the jin was adding anything to the design and only distracting from the trunk line. Removing enough of the jin would give much better taper to the trunk and consolidate some other wounds. The two lowest branches of the new main trunk would form the tree.
2022 -2023- Now that the structure is starting to look like a bonsai I wanted to work on branch placement. Hemlock is extraordinarily apically dominant with branching stretching to the sky even after they've been wired down and set. I've found undercutting branches close to the trunk and wiring in place to heal is a more permanent solution. The turnbuckled guy wires will show where that's occurred.
2025 - Leaving the lower left branch extend was initially allowed as a sacrifice branch for it to gain caliper. As it grew longer I grew quite attached to its appearance as it balanced the right movement of the trunk. It has now become a major component in the design. These two photos are from late winter pruning until now. They show how vigorous EH can be once established. The third photo shows how those two little branches from the 4th photo evolved in a matter of 5 years.
Sometimes you just have to wait it out.....the vision of what the tree will become, especially newbies that want to use those new scissors.
This tree was collected in 2016 bare rooted and put directly into APL. The only reason I chose this tree was for the nebari and caliper of the trunk. It had multiple large branches fanning out from the base but not what you could call a clump. I'll get it healthy and the rest will make itself evident
This photo is from 2018 after two year of getting healthy and keeping it pinched back. Since they don't bud back on old wood it's easy for the growth to get away from you and have foliage closer to the trunk die back. I've made some wedge cuts under lower branches to bring them down, (guy wires holding them in place) just fooling with some ideas that might make the tree usable. There is no firm design yet.
Since most eastern hemlocks grow as formal uprights, you don't see many that have movement. So after some prodding by another Bnutter I decided in 2019 to remove the main trunk and use the lower left branch to create the tree. I left the main trunk as a jin to hedge my bet and see if there was a path forward to use in the design. There is still no vision of a bonsai just a little closer.
2021 - After looking at it for 2 years I decided the jin was adding anything to the design and only distracting from the trunk line. Removing enough of the jin would give much better taper to the trunk and consolidate some other wounds. The two lowest branches of the new main trunk would form the tree.
2022 -2023- Now that the structure is starting to look like a bonsai I wanted to work on branch placement. Hemlock is extraordinarily apically dominant with branching stretching to the sky even after they've been wired down and set. I've found undercutting branches close to the trunk and wiring in place to heal is a more permanent solution. The turnbuckled guy wires will show where that's occurred.
2025 - Leaving the lower left branch extend was initially allowed as a sacrifice branch for it to gain caliper. As it grew longer I grew quite attached to its appearance as it balanced the right movement of the trunk. It has now become a major component in the design. These two photos are from late winter pruning until now. They show how vigorous EH can be once established. The third photo shows how those two little branches from the 4th photo evolved in a matter of 5 years.
