European Hornbeam No 2 & 3 project

[Shogun610]

So here at the Bonsai Shogunate we really love our Hornbeam, American, European, Korean … you name it, it’s in the shop.

Korean Hornbeam no. 1

Final acquisition of the year (unless something else tasty comes my way) Anyway, there is a Korean Hornbeam, it’s going to be used for Shohin. Already consulted with a very helpful person on here regarding advice for further development. From the second bench top since it’s lacking some taper...

www.bonsainut.com

^ most recent Hornbeam post update, will be working on American Hornbeam’s this coming week.
So let’s get to it, went to a nursery today to look around and see how many European Hornbeams were left, since I got European Hornbeam , E. Beech and A Hornbeam last fall. Turns out they were selling these European Hornbeam for 5 dollars! each!! It’s a native nursery really so their customer base I guess wasn’t interested oh well .. better for me.
I snagged 2 , had to cut down to fit in car but cut at good parts of the tree to see where next steps would be in future. It’s ready to push so timing is now for work.
Step 1 was to remove the tree from grow bag, had to use a chopsticks first to make sure there were roots closer to top. Once I determine it would be safe to saw some root ball off I did ( and hack w a axe). Repotted in some kitchen sink and pumice kix since a lot of soil was still in roots after they were even rinsed. Cleaned up some of the roots and rootball , cut into closer to soil line with wetted sgangum to generate more surface roots … as the trees progress, I will reduce roots further maybe even grow box next year. But for now wait for it to bud out.. it’s almost ready to let it’s leaves out .. then make some cuts. Thoughts? I will post some possible fronts and pics of the work.

 

[Colorado]

Sweet hornbeams! I’ve never found such nice material for 5 bucks. Can’t blame you for picking up more than one

 

[Shogun610]

Sweet hornbeams! I’ve never found such nice material for 5 bucks. Can’t blame you for picking up more than one

Thanks I’m exhausted did these all afternoon, repotted K hornebam last night and Friday my crab apples.. everything else is still in queue , maples , beech and mixed forest in the coming week or so. Then pines followed by juniper

 

[Colorado]

Thanks I’m exhausted

Going after those nursery stock root balls will take it out of you! I would be exhausted too, ha.

 

[Shogun610]

this big one is started to open up its buds. The smaller one died oh well. Marked my leader unless I should bring it further up? Any feedback or consideration would like to be heard please.. I know you’re there

 

[Shogun610]

Trimmed back the longer shoots , deciding where to cut back further down on trunk, to build taper

 

[Shogun610]

Still don’t know where to cut it back to

 

[BobbyLane]

Very limited as to what you can do with many of these, because theyre so straight. maybe the best option is to find the best fronts and chop low. or do air layers. or discard and look for better material.
this one began as a tall, straight tree and was cut down to two opposing branches with a natural broom type image in mind. the other problem with your trees is they dont offer much in way of nebari. so consider that when selecting material in future, gives you a better start

 

[BobbyLane]

chopping low to one is the other option, again start with a good nebari and since hornbeam is notorious for naturally having good root spreads i wouldnt waste time picking one without

 

[BobbyLane]

Something i tried with 3 mediocre hornbeams. using the buttresses and characteristics of 3, hammering them together to make one. looks harsh at first but over time this would be decent and not so easy to tell what was done as it becomes denser

 

[BobbyLane]

same again, chopping low to a branch.
hope those help, you must have not came across my old threads

 

[Shogun610]

I don’t know why but I didn’t really explore too much roots I wanted radial I need to dig lower on this.

 

[BobbyLane]

I don’t know why but I didn’t really explore too much roots I wanted radial I need to dig lower on this.

beginner mistake eh.
a good nebari is one of the most prized assets on a bonsai tree. its time consuming to build one from scratch. but not impossible.

 

[Shogun610]

Not so beginner mistake I already took so much off the bottom of the nursery root ball that I didn’t go further down.. I’m not too far off and yeah I need to ground layer it but I’ll see what I can do to this .. or throw away didn’t really spend more than 5 dollars on it