Hollow trunk Brush Cherry progression.

[lennard]

Before going into bonsai I grew a lot of lollipop Brush Cherries to be used in the school's gardens. This is how the trunk looked in early 2009:

Pole in a pot..jpg

The top was chopped, trunk hollowed out, branch from the back removed and hollowed out hole visible from front. The tree survived and grew strongly- wounds healed nicely. Trunk 5cm wide and 15 cm high. This is the tree in April 2009:

Tree April 2009.jpg

This was my vision for this tree after a lot of search on hollowtrunks and the like in May 2009:

Virt May 2009.jpg

It would have been a very nice tree if I could achieve that but the tree is too small for the leave size depicted in the virt.

I have worked quite a lot on this tree. I cut of the big root at the back leaving a small stub on the top so roots could grow using them for the building of the nebari. I also removed the highest branch on the left hind side because it hides a lot of the tree. The lowest branch on the left is now the first lowest left hand branch. I have hollowed it out further- up to 60% of the inside is carved out know, but I did it in stages not knowing how the tree would react. But these trees are almost unkillable! I only work on the hollow after a lot of growth as you can see to help with the recovery.

This was my new vision for the tree in December 2009:

verklein virt.jpg

I removed some growth- see the branches marked with red and rewire the branches to look more bended. The frame is shown in yellow. The hollow have to be burned in future when its ready for its pot to make it look dark and the uro still needs some work. I have drilled a hole in the bottom of the hollowed out area right through the area where the big root were cut of to help drain the carved area. A big part of the trunk is hidden where I need some roots for the nebari.

This is the tree October 2010:

voor defoliation.jpg

This is the tree end December 2010:

Front January 2011.jpg

Any comment or advice welcome.

Lennard

[alpineart]

Hi Lennard , very nice progression .I have a few flowering /fruiting cherry trainers and the leaf size was a concern .I guess if i let the trunks grow on it should improve the overall outlook for future development .Thanks for posting .Cheers Alpineart

[lennard]

Hi Lennard , very nice progression .I have a few flowering /fruiting cherry trainers and the leaf size was a concern .I guess if i let the trunks grow on it should improve the overall outlook for future development .Thanks for posting .Cheers Alpineart

To get the leaves as small as possible on this species you have to achieve maximum ramification, full sunlight and regular pinching. You will have to pinch after every set of new leaves - sometimes the first set of leaves don't show but the buds will be there - pinch just behind the buds.

Thanks for the reply.

Lennard

[Jerry Meislik]

Lennard,
Remarkable job. Keep on going.
Jerry

[Andrew Legg]

Lennard,

May I just say kudos to you for being adventurous in you bonsai. Some I like, and some I don't, but that is a reflection of my personal tastes. I just think too many of us never get adventurous and we should all push the limits a bit more often. Well done again!

Cheers,

Andrew

[lennard]

Thanks, Jerry, I do like working on this tree.

Andrew, I do like to stress the limits of the trees when it comes to bonsai and being here in Rustenburg RSA, the climate and the availability of stock make it easy to experiment a little.

I always admired bonsai my whole life but I always thought of it as a too passive/slow? hobby and never thought I would ever do bonsai. I did almost everything what plants could offer: orchids, succulents and cacti, bulbs, vegetable and so on.



I started in the hobby of bonsai just over two years ago and now there is no stopping me! Being a very active person in my work as a teacher, bonsai as a hobby forces me to slow down - especially when I need to defoliate or carve some trees.

Thank you for the encouraging words.

Lennard

[lennard]

I ground layered the tree because there was only one fat root on the tree and I did not want to take the risk of losing the tree.

layer.jpg

The pic shows the dead taproot, the foil I used to prevent the roots from growing down and the wire I used to keep the foil in place.

In a training pot at last!

Side A:

training pot.jpg

Side B:

training pot b.jpg

The hollow showing cambium rolling over nicely:

cambium.jpg

I really need to graft on a nebari because it will take forever to grow one!

Any comments or advice will be welcomed.

Lennard

[kcpoole]

Lovely little tree Lennard and I like pic B as the front. Much better movement in the top of the tree.
Much nicer than vert you did earlier

Ken

[lennard]

Lovely little tree Lennard and I like pic B as the front. Much better movement in the top of the tree.
Much nicer than vert you did earlier

Ken

Thanks for the reply and nice words.

I have learned a lot with this one because it is one of my oldest trees. I posted this tree on Bonsaisite and Will Hiltz, author of "Gnarly Branches, Ancient Trees: The Life and Works of Dan Robinson - Bonsai Pioneer", inspired me with his baby bending and trees with multiple crowns. These words I will always remember:

"Well, when trees are getting to the sort of advanced age where they have a hollowed out trunk like that, they are not sitting around, nature is not sitting around, asking that sort of question. Things are just happening. Since almost anything COULD happen within the general parameters of how a tree ages, it then becomes less of a question of what could be done, and more of a question of what you want. Within the general styles you notice in old trees in nature, what would look good to you on your own tree. You can see certain old trees putting out new branches all over the place down low - they are not following some bonsai rule. .....Be creative, but within a framework of reasonableness that understands how nature really operates."

(The dots are in the place of not so nice words.)

I call this hollow trunk "Grouper52's tree" now.

Interesting enough I discovered this tree along the roadside this Saturday:

tree.jpg

Lennard

Lennard