Flowering Dogwood - cornus florida

VAFisher

VAFisher

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Dogwood has always been my absolute favorite tree and since I started this hobby I've wanted a dogwood bonsai. And yes I already know that they don't make the best of subjects for bonsai due to coarse growth, long internodes etc. But, I've decided to try anyway and this is the beginning of my project.

I had my eye on this tree for several years because of the bark and the base. It has a great set of lateral roots that are currently buried. Since it formerly lived in the woods on my property about 50 yards from my back door, I could check it out fairly often. I decided to go ahead and collect it early this year and now that I'm sure it survived the collection, I want to start the thread that will hopefully detail the progress.

Here's the tree as it stands now. I haven't measured but I would guess the base is at least 3 inches, and it has really nice craggy bark.



My vision for the tree is something like these 2 images I quickly pulled from google - tall, lanky, kinda sparse, almost literati-ish. In other words, I want to make it look like a dogwood that grows in the woods around here. I have no idea if I can make this happen, but I'll have fun trying.



devils-den-state-park-ar-flowering-dogwood-cornus-florida-in-spring-h3p60t.jpg
 
If it were mine I'd have chopped lower, to about one third of the final height you envision. You have a long straight run after your interesting curvy nebari an first section of trunk. But that is my opinion, if it is already budded out and growing, I'd leave it alone the rest of this year.

I think dogwood are nice as Bonsai, especially styled exactly as you describe.
 
Leo in N E Illinois said:
If it were mine I'd have chopped lower, to about one third of the final height you envision. You have a long straight run after your interesting curvy nebari an first section of trunk. But that is my opinion, if it is already budded out and growing, I'd leave it alone the rest of this year.

I think dogwood are nice as Bonsai, especially styled exactly as you describe.
Click to expand...

It is growing now and the good news is there are a bunch of options to chop back to if that turns out to be a better option.

I've never seen a cornus florida bonsai actually. I would love to see some examples of what is possible though. Sounds like you have seen some huh?
 
I spent some time drawing a possible direction for this tree. An artist I ain't - but it's kinda fun to imagine the future direction and put it down on paper.

 
Are there buds on old wood already?
 
Maros said:
Are there buds on old wood already?
Click to expand...

Yes. You can barely make them out in the first pic above. It actually budded all of the way up and down the trunk.

By the way, I like your dogwood very much. That particular species is probably better suited for bonsai, but this one is native to my area.
 
They were not visible on phone display, but I can see them now on PC. Great news for you and for the tree. You should have enough new branches to build base for your desired design soon. I curious to see its development mate.
Fingers crossed.
 
Maros, do you have a photo of your dogwood that you can share with us?
 
You can spray the shoots as they open with GA-3 (gibberelic acid) to shorten internodes on dogwoods. Not really sure how much yet. Caught a guy in Japan doing it to some medium size dogwoods once, but he would not tell me the active ingredient %age. Worth trying. I'll do some experiments once I quit traveling full-time....
 
Owen Reich said:
You can spray the shoots as they open with GA-3 (gibberelic acid) to shorten internodes on dogwoods.
Click to expand...

For those of you interested, gibberelins are one of the 7 plant growth hormones. We talked about auxins and cytokinins in the air-layer thread.

Over 100 different gibberelins have been identified, but the bio-active ones are GA1, GA3, GA4, and GA7. I am surprised to read what Owen has to say because gibberelins normally stimulate cell elongation and create long internodes. Perhaps too much has an opposite effect?

See also Paclobutrazol, which is a gibberelins inhibitor (and growth inhibitor). Use it on your bonsai... but not on food crops where its use is illegal.

 
Last edited:
Owen Reich said:
You can spray the shoots as they open with GA-3 (gibberelic acid) to shorten internodes on dogwoods. Not really sure how much yet. Caught a guy in Japan doing it to some medium size dogwoods once, but he would not tell me the active ingredient %age. Worth trying. I'll do some experiments once I quit traveling full-time....
Click to expand...
I think he's trying to make it flower - GA substitutes for the vernalization (winter chill) requirement to bloom.
 
I've never done anything with sprays to dogwoods. I have used plant growth regulators on perennials and annuals a great deal; Bonzi oddly enough.

So, a better statement than "you can" should be: there are ways to adjust internode length with plant growth regulators. Didn't know about vernalization tricks; will look into that.
 
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