Japanese maple thread
Posted: January 7th, 2011, 10:17 am
Hi all,
Here is a Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum) that has been a part of the national Bonsai and Penjing Collection since it opened in September 2008. It had been an established bonsai for many years before the current owner came into possession of it, and it had won the popular vote at a number of Canberra Bonsai Society shows in the 1990s and early 2000s.
The owner agreed to allow us, with his active participation, to gradually improve the structure of the tree while still keeping it on show at the NBPCA.
The tree had always been styled from a certain angle to be the front but over the years the root structure had expanded on a different plane to the front of the tree and it now looked a bit funny; so that was a long term problem that had to solved. In effect the tree needed to be turned about 20 degrees to one side to show off the roots to the best advantage. This however would of course turn the front towards the side so we needed to embark firstly on a campaign to encourage the tree to bud back and give us some new branches to work with.
The first thing you do to a Japanese maple to encourage it to back bud is to follow assiduously the correct trimming regime in early spring. As the leaves first come you let the first pair of leaves form then you pinch out the emerging new growth from between the first set of leaves. You should do this as soon as you can as it stops the elongation of the internode.
If you do this correctly you will instantly get a much fuller tree with more compact silhouette. The next thing you can do to encourage the tree to bud back (remember this is while the tree is still on display) is to defoliate the tree. This was done in December 2008 on a very wet day. We then also did a light trim back of some branches and removed a portion of the apex. The apex over the years had been allowed to elongate and move too much to the right. This clashed with the overall movement and feeling of the tree; so we resolved to progressively shorten the apex and change its feel and direction. In autumn 2009 we got a fabulous display of autumn colour. Grant Bowie,
Curator NBPCA
Here is a Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum) that has been a part of the national Bonsai and Penjing Collection since it opened in September 2008. It had been an established bonsai for many years before the current owner came into possession of it, and it had won the popular vote at a number of Canberra Bonsai Society shows in the 1990s and early 2000s.
The owner agreed to allow us, with his active participation, to gradually improve the structure of the tree while still keeping it on show at the NBPCA.
The tree had always been styled from a certain angle to be the front but over the years the root structure had expanded on a different plane to the front of the tree and it now looked a bit funny; so that was a long term problem that had to solved. In effect the tree needed to be turned about 20 degrees to one side to show off the roots to the best advantage. This however would of course turn the front towards the side so we needed to embark firstly on a campaign to encourage the tree to bud back and give us some new branches to work with.
The first thing you do to a Japanese maple to encourage it to back bud is to follow assiduously the correct trimming regime in early spring. As the leaves first come you let the first pair of leaves form then you pinch out the emerging new growth from between the first set of leaves. You should do this as soon as you can as it stops the elongation of the internode.
If you do this correctly you will instantly get a much fuller tree with more compact silhouette. The next thing you can do to encourage the tree to bud back (remember this is while the tree is still on display) is to defoliate the tree. This was done in December 2008 on a very wet day. We then also did a light trim back of some branches and removed a portion of the apex. The apex over the years had been allowed to elongate and move too much to the right. This clashed with the overall movement and feeling of the tree; so we resolved to progressively shorten the apex and change its feel and direction. In autumn 2009 we got a fabulous display of autumn colour. Grant Bowie,
Curator NBPCA