AusBonsai

Hey everyone!
My yard is rampant with two huge celtis trees that give the gift of shade in summer, and the curse of leaves to rake in winter. I noticed a few years ago that there were some two metre tall lanky celtis in a spot that must have grown from seed from one of the biggers trees 8 years or so before. I spied one with a thick base and gave it a low cut back with a saw one day while mowing my yard, hoping it would shoot nice and low. I thought it could become a possible fun bonsai later on. One year later in spring 2010 I checked it out and saw low branches all over it, so a dig was on the cards!



Spring 2010 - The celtis in the ground, the dotted line is my shovel circle showing my over compensation due to fear of valuable root severing.





score! - You can tell it's scale by my hand holding it. It's about 27cm high.





The celtis ended up having not that many fine roots saveable, so with a doubtful heart I planted it in some fresh mix in a styro box. (I swear styro boxes exist for us bonsaiers purely to make our hobby look even stranger to non-bonsaier civvies. "I do bonsai! Yes, that's a stump in a styrofoam box".)





Summer 2012 (february) - 1 1/2 years after dig up and she's doing well.






All growth has just been let to grow freely with prune back to encourage wild looking branch splitting close to the trunk. These are photos after a defoliate on the weekend.










As for the future, I know there's the reverse taper at the lower bulge from a low branch death years before, and I think this tree will lend itself to a big carving out of the trunk. Possibly lowering it's height to two thirds it's current height. Here's a sketch of a very hopeful distopian ideal of a future:



This has been a super fun tree to dig up, it just never stops.

As always, i love hearing feedback, so post any tips or ideas any of you might have, thanks!
Jozaeh

Thats one nice stump you have to work with, especially for free. The branching options look great, nice and fine with plenty of movement. It has a lovely basal flair too. May need to work on some other roots to create a briiliant nebari. The celtis seems to be a rampant grower, should make working on this one a heap of fun. I look forward to seeing this one develop. Love the drawing. I am doing something similar to a acmena smithii at the moment.

Good luck

Steve W

nice stock to work with there Jozaeh
Looks like its far to big for your stands, so you better give it to me

Ken

Steve W wrote:Thats one nice stump you have to work with, especially for free. The branching options look great, nice and fine with plenty of movement. It has a lovely basal flair too. May need to work on some other roots to create a briiliant nebari. The celtis seems to be a rampant grower, should make working on this one a heap of fun. I look forward to seeing this one develop. Love the drawing. I am doing something similar to a acmena smithii at the moment.

Good luck

Steve W

Ah glad you liked it! I really am happy with the luck of the free dig up hey. And You make a great point with the other roots being encouraged into some brilliant nebari. I'd love to see any photos or posts on your acmena smithii if you have them,

thanks for the comment Steve,
See ya
Jozaeh

kcpoole wrote:nice stock to work with there Jozaeh
Looks like its far to big for your stands, so you better give it to me

Ken

Oh Ken, they said there was a good samaritan in the folds of this forum, one who looks to take the burdens of others, and until now I took it as a legend, something to keep us bonsai mortals calm. But now I see it's true.

You're a saint.
Jozaeh

I like the vision Jozaeh. That is also a nice looking new leader in the ninth photo, top left hand.Could also be your new front.

jozaeh wrote:

Steve W wrote:Thats one nice stump you have to work with, especially for free. The branching options look great, nice and fine with plenty of movement. It has a lovely basal flair too. May need to work on some other roots to create a briiliant nebari. The celtis seems to be a rampant grower, should make working on this one a heap of fun. I look forward to seeing this one develop. Love the drawing. I am doing something similar to a acmena smithii at the moment.

Good luck

Steve W

Ah glad you liked it! I really am happy with the luck of the free dig up hey. And You make a great point with the other roots being encouraged into some brilliant nebari. I'd love to see any photos or posts on your acmena smithii if you have them,

thanks for the comment Steve,
See ya
Jozaeh

I only have one pic of my Acmena with me on my thumb drive and this is before I started carving in. I got a bit carried away with the carving and totally hollowed out the middle. I will post some new pics on this post for you soon.

Steve W

I only have one pic of my Acmena with me on my thumb drive and this is before I started carving in. I got a bit carried away with the carving and totally hollowed out the middle. I will post some new pics on this post for you soon.

Steve W

IMG_7181.jpg

IMG_7181.jpg

ahh look at that health! and I just recognised the leaves as being a type of lilly pilly? Oh man, I can SO see myself getting carried away with the carving, and secretly i would love to have a hollow trunk bonsai some time, gnarly and old, ghostly and haunted. it'd be such a great part of a collection.Thanks for posting the photos, and whenever you get to share the carved photos, a thank you in advance!

Jozaeh

Jozaeh,

Is the celtis a deciduous tree. It looks like a great tree to work with. I will have to try and get my hands on one. Dont know if my south coast climate is suitable for it. As for my Acmena, yes it is the larger lilly pilly, not one of the dwarf cultivars. I have removed 80% of that healthy growth in the carving process. I have found another image of it as I collected it.
will post again soon

Steve W

Steve W wrote:Jozaeh,

Is the celtis a deciduous tree. It looks like a great tree to work with. I will have to try and get my hands on one. Dont know if my south coast climate is suitable for it. As for my Acmena, yes it is the larger lilly pilly, not one of the dwarf cultivars. I have removed 80% of that healthy growth in the carving process. I have found another image of it as I collected it.

IMG_5653.jpg

IMG_5655.jpg

will post again soon

Steve W

hey Steve,
Oh you BET Celtis are deciduous. That's why at the very top of my post I wrote how beautiful the two HUGE celtis are in my yard because they give shade, but then punish me with leaves in winter!! I must admit, they're fun to make a pile and throw my nephews into, ha! I don't know know how the south coast climate would go with them, but i've found them to be really hardy. They sprout new buds in what seems like a week after a prune or defoliation, and they backbud on old wood fantastically.

And you gotta love a deciduous, because you get the gift of the winter branch silhouette, something that I'm sad I don't get with a couple of my lilly pillys.

Ah thanks for the photo post! I'll look forward to seeing your carving..

Jozaeh

bodhidharma wrote:I like the vision Jozaeh. That is also a nice looking new leader in the ninth photo, top left hand.Could also be your new front.

Ah bodhi! Good eye on the leader, that's exactly where I was thinking the eventual base height could be for the tree too, and I always try to think i can ignore the 'front' idea, but you do have a good angle on it.

and we'll see how the vision pans out, ha!
Jozaeh

Steve W, I'd be surprised if you don't already have celtis around your area. Celtis is grown as street trees in Victoria and, while they do not appear in plague numbers they seem to in Qld, I do see occasional seedlings on the side of the road in some spots. Probably means they would grow well over your way too.

Nice tree i have never been interested in celtis as bonsai, to me they have always been a weed but now i'm considering grabbing a couple when i get the car running, they are everywhere here

Hornet wrote:Nice tree i have never been interested in celtis as bonsai, to me they have always been a weed but now i'm considering grabbing a couple when i get the car running, they are everywhere here

I was the same hey, my brother visited my place one weekend and nearly fell over with excitement "dude your yard has celtis ALL OVER!" and he proceeded to run around like a mad chook grabbing little ones to grow into his own bonsai back at his place. And Now I randomly see celtis while driving and i'll pull over and do the 'get outa my way leaves!' low trunk and nebari check when i see a possibly good one. I just discovered the edge of a golf course near my work has Celtis running rampant, so i'm planning an after work scouting trip. I reckon there's gold.

have fun treasure hunting!
Jozaeh

Love ya work Joz, your virt is couta, your vision a great composition, the best outcome for this stock in the immediate future !!! Well done.