European Hornbeam

[dlayton]

My only experience with defoliating a hornbeam was with an old imported Korean Hornbeam, which responded very poorly, and never woke up the next spring. I vowed never to defoliate a KH again; the leaves are already small, and the twigginess comes pretty easily with a healthy tree.

Dang. I have heard bad stories. Thanks!

 

[dlayton]

I only do partial, outer canopy defoliation on these. Never fully, as I believe that weakens trees. These get very dense and twiggy, partial leaf cutting (of overly large leaves) or leaf removal from the outer canopy helps to allow light into the interior, where the smaller twigs can get weaker from lack of light. Without significantly weakening the tree.

New angle looks good! Looks like a 'tree'

Do you have a particular date that you do it by? London, right?

 

[BobbyLane]

Do you have a particular date that you do it by? London, right?

I have done it mid June, or May https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/the-big-belly-hornbeam.34816/post-742794

here I didnt remove much leaves. Just cut the leaves. You also see where I did it in mid June on that thread.

Check out some of Maros's European Hornbeams on here.

 

[MrBonsai19]

This tree is incredible!!! Thanks for sharing

 

[dlayton]

Showing out. Tight nodes, small leaves. Looking good!

 

[dlayton]

Minimal trimming to be done this year. Going to grow out to thicken up branching to help with transition tapering. Going to cut back hard this winter. Probably 6-8 inches all the way around. Going to try and move the apex to the left, just a bit also.