AusBonsai

During the summer months I am working heavily on the foliage of my deciduous trees and they generally look a bit of a mess. Lots of leaves have been cut in half there are petioles sticking out all over the place. I would rather put them out of site frankly then bring them out on display now when all the summer efforts pay off. This is an american hornbeam which I have been growing for nearly 20 years. It would be a much better tree if I have cut back the trunk and re-grown for taper in the early years and is a good example of the point which Ant has been trying to make. However I will put up with its faults maybe the next owner will bite the bullet and rectify them.
I have been experimenting with places to photograph my trees so had to clean the pork ribs off the stove top to take this pic.
Craig

G'day Craig, It looks so much better without it's clothes on doesnt it. I quite frankly, do not mind it's proportions at all without its leaves. A little tall with the leaves on.Nice job on the leaf size also. That has taken a bit of work.

You know Craig I am not sure the height and lack of taper is really the problem here. It comes up at about 1:10 and we know that can work well with an elegant tree.
I think the main problem is branch arrangement.
It has very low branches that are close together then in the middle they are further apart and close together at the top again. It exaggerates the tallness of the tree and doesn't make sense.
Solve that problem by removing lower branches and find a believable pattern of branches higher. Fill out the silhouette with a more natural domed shape and I think it will work! Never any harm in taking a little off the top on a tree like this though as well.

Or you could air layer off the top for a similar tree as described above and use the base for a chunkier tree.

Not for sale is it?

This tree is not so tall its 60cm. As to removing branches well I am usually pretty bold when it comes to chopping up my trees but a hornbeam ? You will find out how long it takes to build ramification on these trees, its a long slow job and to chop it off might hurt a bit. If it was a trident I wouldn't hesitate you just look at them with scissors and they make twigs. I know the branching is a bit all over the place, if I was starting it today I would have trained the branches with a more upwards flow.
Craig

Well since we are officially in winter now, should all deciduous bonsai/trees have dropped their leaves?

Only one of mine had dropped perhaps half its leaves. Two more have changed colour but hardly dropped any. The others haven't even changed colour. Is this normal or have I don't something wrong?

rhiannon, you will find every ones trees in all different locations will change colour and drop leaves at different times, it can even be as little as from one side of the back yard to the other! some trees wont compleltely drop there leaves through winter either. we are talking deciduous trees here

craig, i love deciduous trees in winter silhuoette! i dont get that up here, hardly have deciduous at all to be honest, only a few elms and they hang on through out normally.

i like to sometime think that when i defoliate my figs i am looking at a deciduous tree in winter, albeit can be hard sometimes to as it is usually 25-30 degrees

i noticed the branching a little to but can justly understand why you wouldnt want to cut some off and have to regrow with the slow growth of them, which i would presume even slower in a pot.

i like it mate

jamie

hi Rhiannon, Some of my tridents are still hanging on to a few leaves and the ones in the ground are still growing, I think because we had such a long warm autumn everything is a little topsy turvy this year. Its nothing to worry about they will drop when they are ready .
Thanks Jamie, I quite like it to.
Craig

Thanks guys. All the trees in the ground around my place have dropped their leaves. Yet my corner of trees in pots is lush and green, save two maples. I was wondering if it was how the climate has been this year, or if perhaps an improper feeding regime could do it. I kinda forgot to gradually slow down the number of feeds over autumn lol.

Good to know. Cheers.

I like your tree Craig, looks great to me. I can see that the branches through the middle section are further apart but a natural looking tree will not have a perfectly even distribution of branches anyway. Instead of cutting hard grown branches off how about wiring the 3rd branch on the right up a bit, or the fourth one down a bit to fill the gap in. Or grow a sub branch off one of these into the gap. Or how about grafting some more branches in where they may be needed.
I don't know if this would work but just an idea

As we suggested in the other thread nealweb just because nature may do it does not mean it is right.

This is the best I can come up with in a virt Craig. There is one major job of transplanting a mature branch from the bottom left up to the middle right. I guess you haven't done that before so it would take a few years of practice but I am sure you have the patience. The rest would just be trimming and bending such as nealweb suggested.

Your right is right to you, my right is right to me but nature is always right (to me anyway - haha)

I like your virt. Its a shame this tree isn't viewable in 360, i would love to spin it a bit and see if the branch distribution changes just by altering the front

Hi Craig,
I love the winter image of this tree compared to when it has a full head of foliage. It is a shame that most deciduous bonsai in Australia are not grown with the winter image as a priority. As we discussed last week, it's high time Australia had a major bonsai exhibition in winter, Sadly, we never get to see deciduous trees at their peak.

I think that you may be able to utilise the rear branch that I have pointed out to fill the space in the RHS midle section of the tree. Being a Hornbeam it probably isn't flexible enough to bend the branch, but perhaps if the rear branch was supressed where it is visible on the LHS of the trunk and allowed to extend into the void between branches on the RHS, you could fill the gap and improve the winter image of the tree without having to resort to technical proceedures that are high risk. Alternatives lika a thread graft are not ideal, it would take 10 years plus to build a new branch in there to the size of the ajacent branches.

If you read this before the meeting tonight, perhaps we could have a look and see if it is feasible.

Cheers,
Mojo

Hey Mojo.
No real risk involved in my plan. The transplant is obviously coming from the branch I removed and if by chance it failed to take in it's new position we are no worse of if we did not try. Apart from a small scar where it failed.
I know hornbeam is a stiff wood but I doubt very much that you would not get decent movement out of these branches!

Craig

Beautiful stuff i really do love your work, especially with trees that are used commenly in europe etc but are quite rare here for one reason for another. after mojo telling me again about your work i really will have to get around to ask you if you dont mind me tagging with him sometime.......
Again beautiful mate and i agree with mojo that a winter show for decidious would be fantastic.

Gday Craig,
I very much agree with you on what you wish you hadve done years back. I think there is a spectacular tree down low with the top of the crown being somewhere just below that scar on the trunk. Like a big open spreading Elm in a park. I believe you said recently that your greatest bonsai asset was your patience...Why not go for it! You could layer off the top section and still get a well proportioned tree out of that. That way all of that time spent will not have been such a waste.