Forsythia sequence

The following sequence has occurred over the last three years...The tree was planted in the landscape as nursery stock in 1993. Plans are to repot it into a more suitable container in the spring of 2013, i.e. one that I can lift without the help of my neighbor... This image was taken a few weeks after cutting back from a height of about 7 feet.

Tom

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This image is the tree after initial potting up (second year).

Early spring of the third year.....The second year winter took a toll on the tree and a good bit of dieback occurred, necessitating restyling.

Beginning of summer of the third year....strong growth...

Has this ever flowered for you?

Yes, Joe, it flowered pretty fully early this past spring before the onset of new growth which I have left to grow mostly unchecked during this growing season. I plan on repotting in early spring of 2013. Hope this helps.

Regards,
Tom

I posted this MOJO not too long ago. Hasn't flowered for me in 2 years but, I have been working on ramification and frequently trimmed it back prior to flowering which I know will hinder the flowering. I think I'll let it grow unchecked until I see flowers.

Thanks for the reply it did help!

You are most welcome, Joe...I think I would let it grow out as well...very nice piece of material by the way...please keep us posted on its progress.

Regards,
Tom

Y think that this stone is too big for the sizes off this tree , and forsithya don't grow on volcanics , a limestone or granite would be more appropriate.[urlurl=https://servimg.com/view/16840438/124][/url][/url]

Thank you for your input....I do like the stone, however, since this photo. I have re-oriented it to a horizontal position, thus reducing the height by about 1/3 or so....looks better I think. I will post in the future.

Regards,
Tom

After reconsideration, and some more wiring, and family input, I have decided to remove the stone....imo the composition looks less cluttered...not to mention it will be a lot easier to find a pot next spring, as the width of the trunk at the base is now 9 inches.

Regards,
Tom

Tom Simonyi wrote:After reconsideration, and some more wiring, and family input, I have decided to remove the stone....

I'm really glad you came to that decision. To me it just never looked "right". Is there anything you can do with that hump of wood? How much of that does the one small live branch really need?

R

Thanks for your input, Russell...regarding the "hump" I really don't know the answer to that...as there has already been a fair amount of dieback over the last three years, and now I am left with a fairly healthy redesigned tree, I am reluctant to do much more....admittingly I don't know what I would do.....always open to suggestion though.

Regards,
Tom

You may not know until you take it out of the pot and wash some of the soil from the root system. It doesn't make sense that the trunks would die back to the base and stop there. Seems like that die back would continue into the corresponding roots. If you keep it you're going to have to do some carving to create a convincing story. The other option would be to get rid of it altogther keeping only the roots that are feeding the living trunk. Either way maybe you could give it a little tip to the left and make a nice semi-cascade.

Thanks for your thoughts, Russell...any way you could provide virtuals to illustrate? I would really appreciate it.
Tom

Russell....I am thinking this is what you may have in mind....I can visualize it now.

After some rethinking, I have decided to proceed with this projection in mind....my goal is to repot the tree in the spring of 2013.

Tom

A bit of a better image, I believe, after some tweaking, albeit somewhat fuzzy.
Tom

It's coming along nicely, I think you were right to get rid of the stone.

If you like Forsythia, I think Reiner Vollmari's blog is the place to visit. It's in German, but the photos are self-explanatory.

After some carving....

I like where you're going with this tree. Forsythia are unique easy to grow trees. The huge "chunk" or "turtle's back" is very unique. Since it breaks the rules anyway, consider training the left branch with a more acute angle and then grow it towards the front of the pot. Another thought is to grow the top as a flat top; penjing style.
Todd

Thank you for your input, Todd....I appreciate it. For now I am thinking I will concentrate on trying to continue to style the tree into a believable semi-cascade design....I appreciate your suggestions and I thank you for them.

Regards,
Tom

Todd Ellis wrote:
(...)
The huge "chunk" or "turtle's back" is very unique.
(...)

After reviewing the thread:

The "turtle's back" is very unique, right, but after all, I'm not sure "anything different" is pleasant -forgive my speaking out what I feel.

I feel even more uncomfortable when it comes to "brushing someone along their hairs' direction", as an old Frank saying goes (brosser qqn dans le sens du poil)

And anyway, the wood for this species is very porous, very light, I'm pretty sure that the part in pink will rot very quickly. And since apparently the part in yellow has no buds on it, I think it will die too.

So I would try to imagine a future without these dead parts for this tree...

Alain...I appreciate your candor....I have enjoyed the journey with this tree up to this point, and am still doing so...the purpose of the carving was to add a naturalness to the composition which I thought was absent when the hump was more prominent.....

Again I appreciate your thoughts.

Tom

Current picture following leaf drop....