Gifted another Hornbeam!

[Cattwooduk]

So my uncle has been growing his collection for a number of years and was having a clear out a couple of months ago, so he kindly offered me this one. I think it's had about 5 years development since collection and is much further progressed than anything I have since I've only really been interested for a year or so.

I've been incredibly busy with so many things the last few months I've only had enough time to keep my trees watered and not much else, I've even thrown away some I realised were crappy picks from my first collecting season. Since I don't have anything else at this stage already I've been looking at it a bit today in a free moment trying to decide where to go with it.



Not just as a long term plan but in terms of 'what should I be doing during the summer?'.
I've realised most of my bonsai interest and very limited experience has been around the autumn/spring rush to collect things, understanding initial cuts and root pruning etc. I don't really know what I should be doing with material that's started taking it's shape and when to do these tasks.

I'm thinking I just leave it until spring and then do cut backs and wiring? Should I be working on thickening up the secondary branches by leaving them for now or should I be cutting some back in summer? It feels a bit heavy in some places and very open in others
I've fallen so out sync with the part of me that was obsessed with bonsai that I feel totally lost for direction!

 

[Victorim]

So my uncle has been growing his collection for a number of years and was having a clear out a couple of months ago, so he kindly offered me this one. I think it's had about 5 years development since collection and is much further progressed than anything I have since I've only really been interested for a year or so.

I've been incredibly busy with so many things the last few months I've only had enough time to keep my trees watered and not much else, I've even thrown away some I realised were crappy picks from my first collecting season. Since I don't have anything else at this stage already I've been looking at it a bit today in a free moment trying to decide where to go with it.

View attachment 157280 View attachment 157281 View attachment 157282 View attachment 157283

Not just as a long term plan but in terms of 'what should I be doing during the summer?'.
I've realised most of my bonsai interest and very limited experience has been around the autumn/spring rush to collect things, understanding initial cuts and root pruning etc. I don't really know what I should be doing with material that's started taking it's shape and when to do these tasks.

I'm thinking I just leave it until spring and then do cut backs and wiring? Should I be working on thickening up the secondary branches by leaving them for now or should I be cutting some back in summer? It feels a bit heavy in some places and very open in others
I've fallen so out sync with the part of me that was obsessed with bonsai that I feel totally lost for direction!

Hi bud. Thought you'd been quiet go back for a quick recap on deciduous development on b4me.. first thing is is the base and lower trunk where you want it to be? Maby autumn prune away what you don't like and go from there..

 

[Cattwooduk]

I had a fair few ups and big downs the last few months, and then had a baby almost 3 weeks ago, so last couple of months were pretty busy preparing and cramming as much work as I could so I can have some time off now!
Now he's a few weeks old things have started to settle down and I've been looking at my trees more and thinking I'm probably missing tasks I should be doing. At least none of it is likely to be stuff that can't be rectified later.

I'll have another read on some of the basics. It's trying to work out which bits I don't need/want that I need to figure out I suppose. I've not actually had any trees to work with through an autumn season yet so I need to learn when exactly to do the tasks that would otherwise be done in spring.

 

[Victorim]

Oh! Congrats bud... And that's the calm before the storm

 

[sorce]

Adair might have at you for them upside down branches!

But this ain't gonna get away from you!

Looks good for a three Fer!

Layer layer!

Sorce

 

[Cattwooduk]

Do you mean the branches pointing down? I did wonder what the plan was for it because I thought bending branches down was typically a design for conifers?

What's a three fer

I don't know where I should layer it!

 

[BobbyLane]

what i do with these trees in nursery tubs, first dig around for a nebari and from there i determine what will be the best front with all plus points considered, root spread, branch structure, movement of trunk however subtle....then i look at and take a pic at base level with a plain background like this, from here i could do a virt or imagine how i want the tree to look..i also cut out a piece of the pot so i can view the tree properly, otherwise its all jut a little confusing

2017-08-19_01-38-34 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr


thats it today, im considering having the trunk break into two leaders
this hornbeam was cut down from a much taller tree, once i did all the things mentioned above, i then took the tree back to the bare bones, this will allow me to build branches with taper and movement, i have full control and i can see what im doing

this one had all the branches cut short also, this is basic structure building for taper and movement, the lowest shoot on the right was built from scratch over the season and the terminal bud left to go, now its almost the thickest branch on the tree, its all about balance, depth, movement, taper, best view of the trunk line, best view of the root spread, note how all pics are taken at base level...
2017-08-19_01-36-57 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

i would also suggest studying the growth habits of deciduous trees in nature and studying how naturalistic bonsai trees are developed