Hinoki Cypress - Gemstone

[RJG2]

Got bored during a Zoom meeting, so I grabbed this Hinoki to play with. I picked it up for $10 at a local nursery. No experience with these, so I probably murdered it - but it was fun for $10.

Before


After

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Nice,
Just a little advice for the next hinoki you tackle. You probably removed many little green shoots off the trunk, in favor of emphasizing the 6 or so branches you kept. I would have kept a few more of those short green shoots. The reason is, once a stem develops brown bark, in a Hinoki they seldom back bud. Your first two branches will never develop any green closer to the trunk than they currently have. In the future keep a short green shoot next to or in the vicinity of every major branch, this will be the spare that will eventually replace the older branch when it gets too leggy. As is your tree will have to get larger as foliage moves further away from the trunk with age. This is part of the reason most old hinoki bonsai are large bonsai. They must keep increasing in size. If you learn to graft you can keep them dwarf long term, but Hinoki look nice with very little work for quite a long time.

 

[RJG2]

Nice,
Just a little advice for the next hinoki you tackle. You probably removed many little green shoots off the trunk, in favor of emphasizing the 6 or so branches you kept. I would have kept a few more of those short green shoots. The reason is, once a stem develops brown bark, in a Hinoki they seldom back bud. Your first two branches will never develop any green closer to the trunk than they currently have. In the future keep a short green shoot next to or in the vicinity of every major branch, this will be the spare that will eventually replace the older branch when it gets too leggy. As is your tree will have to get larger as foliage moves further away from the trunk with age. This is part of the reason most old hinoki bonsai are large bonsai. They must keep increasing in size. If you learn to graft you can keep them dwarf long term, but Hinoki look nice with very little work for quite a long time.

Yeah, there wasn't much on the interior down low, but that's a good method I hadn't heard before (leaving a small shoot next to another).

It was very congested, definitely tough digging in and trying to figure out what the keepers were. Maybe I'll go grab another if they still have any.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Hinoki are a "cult" unto themselves, almost nothing else is like them. Hinoki and Thuja have the same growth pattern, but they are somewhat unique among conifers.

 

[Frozentreehugger]

Hinoki are a "cult" unto themselves, almost nothing else is like them. Hinoki and Thuja have the same growth pattern, but they are somewhat unique among conifers.

Leo do you have any specific grafting advice . Or technique. I don’t have Hinoki yet . And will admit my interest is in Thuja . Thinking if your going to graft to a wild collected tree . In the nursery trade there all multiple small foliage cultivars . Available . After all the coarse natural growth of the species being the largest negative for bonsai .

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Leo do you have any specific grafting advice . Or technique. I don’t have Hinoki yet . And will admit my interest is in Thuja . Thinking if your going to graft to a wild collected tree . In the nursery trade there all multiple small foliage cultivars . Available . After all the coarse natural growth of the species being the largest negative for bonsai .

I have not done it myself. It is mentioned in Nick Lens's book, Bonsai from the WIld. Nick suggests single point graft, scions with chisel or wedge cut inserted into cleft cut into the understock. He grafted Hinoki onto Thuja trunks.

I have grafted all the branches that are on my crab apple, but I have not grafted Hinoki.

I suggest going through back issues of Bonsai Tonight blog, Jonas Dupuich, and the the blogs of Michael Hagedorn, Bjorn Bjornholm, and others for grafting techniques. Even the BNut "Resources" section I believe has an article on grafting. With Hinoki onto Thuja trunks, thread grafts are not possible, Most people do single point grafts, though sometimes approach grafts can be used. There are many articles, in many places on grafting. Midwest Fruit Explorers and other groups dedicated to preserving heirloom cultivars of apples and other fruit trees all have classes and on line tutorials on grafting if you can locate bonsai specific grafting directions.

There is no significant difference between grafting for bonsai and grafting for fruit tree production, except neatness counts in bonsai.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

On my apple I used a "T" shaped cut in the understock (trunk) and inserted a short heal of a branch. It was essentially bud grafting. On hinoki you would have to have foliage on the scion, as opposed to apple where you can insert a dormant bud into the ''T" cut in the trunk.

Because you have to use a branch with foliage for Hinoki, you probably better off with a wedge cut into the trunk. Match the outer edge of of the cambium of both the scion and understock. Wrap and seal. Should work.

I did all my grafting in August, most books recommend later in autumn, or winter or early spring. Timing is an issue I have not explored fully yet. I suggest you read or talk to others for timing advice. It worked for my flowering crab onto apple stock. But apples are easy to graft.

 

[MMJNICE]

Got bored during a Zoom meeting, so I grabbed this Hinoki to play with. I picked it up for $10 at a local nursery. No experience with these, so I probably murdered it - but it was fun for $10.

Before
View attachment 450863

After
View attachment 450864

So I had a long post reply that got deleted so to make a long story short I love gemstone hinoki and I love dorf thuja primo cultivafor and here a couple of pics

 

[RJG2]

I killed this one. Cut 1/3 off the bottom of the root ball this spring to repot - problem was the trunk was that deep. Despite the pot being full of roots, they were mostly coming from the bottom and filling upwards.

After untangling everything there wasn't much left that was actually attached. Tried to baby it, but it slowly declined.

/End thread

 

[Shogun610]

Get another one, you were onto something

 

[19Mateo83]

I have one I have yet to mess with. The combination of an early spring and my lack of hands on experience with hinoki spared it this year. At least some knowledge was gained from yours. Now we know not to chop the root balls in half on iseli nursery cypresses. As consistent aa their trees are above the ground I would expect them to be the same under the soil also.

 

[RJG2]

Now we know not to chop the root balls in half on iseli nursery cypresses. As consistent aa their trees are above the ground I would expect them to be the same under the soil also.

Yeah, I'm sure their larger plants are safer.

I'm surprised I can't find any pictures. If I took any, I didn't add them to my cloud album (probably out of embarrassment). If I find any on my network storage, I'll post them.

 

[MMJNICE]

I killed this one. Cut 1/3 off the bottom of the root ball this spring to repot - problem was the trunk was that deep. Despite the pot being full of roots, they were mostly coming from the bottom and filling upwards.

After untangling everything there wasn't much left that was actually attached. Tried to baby it, but it slowly declined.

/End thread

Yup I did the same thing to one that is on the outs....i took maybe 1/3 -2/5 of the roots and its pretty much a gonner.. most of the trees I have I pretty much just Loosened this root ball and shoved them into a clay training pots I make myself. Just bought a two new ones, one of which looks very similar to the one you styled. I left most of the Foliage on because I plan on making a mixed forest planting the gemstones and the primo Thuja I'll include a picture.. they are getting somewhat harder to find now. I bought the last two on Etsy and my local nursery hasn't had any since last year. They tend to like the soil wet. I never let them dry out at all.

 

[pandacular]

@MMJNICE you should totally post a thread about your hinokis, I'd love to see more!

 

[MMJNICE]

@MMJNICE you should totally post a thread about your hinokis, I'd love to see more!

Thanks for the idea, I may just do that. I'll be sure to take some pictures of the process of making the mixed forest planting when I make or buy a pot for it. That's pretty much all I'm waiting for. I may put I little village in the background because the primo Thuja occidentalis look so much like little trees from 50 yards away it uncanny.

 

[MMJNICE]

Just an update on my gemstones i don't think they are very good with most basic bonsai techniques. Most of my trees have died but amazingly the two i posted are still hanging on for the time being. They really hate the roots cut more then others hinoki cypress and once they start to decline their is very little you can do to reverse the decline. After years of happiness living in my pots they all one by one declined and either died or almost about to die. Anyone curious why I came to this conclusion ill give more details if asked but right now im pulled over in my car at 5am in the morning posting..

 

[Jrmcmich]

Just an update on my gemstones i don't think they are very good with most basic bonsai techniques. Most of my trees have died but amazingly the two i posted are still hanging on for the time being. They really hate the roots cut more then others hinoki cypress and once they start to decline their is very little you can do to reverse the decline. After years of happiness living in my pots they all one by one declined and either died or almost about to die. Anyone curious why I came to this conclusion ill give more details if asked but right now im pulled over in my car at 5am in the morning posting..

Always good to hear the reason. Not familiar with the exact species you have but do have a couple hinoki i picked up so always nice to learn

 

[minkes]

I succesfully grafted some sort of hinoki to thuja this spring.