Tamarisk bonsai

Has anyone worked with Tamarisk sp.? I have one. Its branches seem to break before they bend. Is it 100% clip-and-grow?

I'd love to see some pics.

[quote=\"JimLewis\"]Has anyone worked with Tamarisk sp.? I have one. Its branches seem to break before they bend. Is it 100% clip-and-grow?

I\'d love to see some pics.[/quote]

Hi Jim,
I had several Tamarisk Bonsai in the nighties, but I have to surge for those old non digital pictures. I will post them later on!
This next picture is from the Famous Tamarisk that Hotsumi Terakawa created in the early nineties. This extra ordinary Bonsai, that is completely hollow, was and still is one of the most impressive bonsai I have ever seen. It was one of my great inspirations every time I saw it in those early day\'s!
As you look at the branch structure in this, early season, picture, you can clearly see how to creat that weeping willow effect, that looks so natural on a Tamarix to! Imagien this amazing bonsai with longer weeping branhes and full of those delicate purple flowers. Believe me it will take your breath away!


I made a quick drawing of how this effect is created. It is all a bid exaggerated, bud I hope you will know what I mean?!
Before the new growing season, the slightly thicker branches from last season are carefully wired down in a weeping curve and shortened. Every new shoot that grows from that branch is wired down in the shame weeping shape. do this as soon as possible with very thin wire and very loosely and very carefully. You can even, with your thumb and index finger, very carfully, rub the slightly thicker new foliage into that weeping shape! Try it, it realy works!
Next year, before the begining of the new crowing season, you cut back the branches, leaving only the thicker once that you need for your basic frame (see picture above). Always leave the branch that you need to cut back a little longer, because they have a tendency to dry/die back. So seal with cut paste.
All new growth from that branch base, must be wired down as soon as possible. From that new growth, only the once that you want to use and keep for your future secondary branches, are allowed to grow a bid longer and thicker, before you bend them down! Than, even when they are bended down into the weeping possition, these branches are allowed to grow much longer and there for thicker, before the are shortened or cut. This way they have grown thick enough at the base to be used as secondary branches in the next year!
Remove the new growth, that grows from the wrong places, on your trunk and branches.
If you repeat this procedure every year, you can creat a weeping effect, like in the picture above.


.

Above: If you look at this drawing of a weeping willow and you look at the Tamarisk Bonsai in the picture below, you can recognise the similarity in the way the branches tell there story!




Above: A much younger, but beautiful Tamarisk, with lovely well designed weeping branches. I am sorry that I dont know who owns or designed it to you! If any one knows, let use know!

Hope this helps a little? I will look for those picture tonight, but first diner!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

Thanks a lot. Mine is a LONG, Long, long way from that tree! I'll get at the wiring.

Hi Jim... There is an example in Classic Bonsai of Japan (Illustration #83). I thought Richard Ota's tamarisk in the Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection would be on the web but cannot find it. John Naka addresses the technique of weeping style in Bonsai Techniques II (p.162, figs. 343-347).

I've had a weeping quince bonsai that extended in the loopy branching extensions without wiring, but Naka recommends wiring even for naturally weeping species. He also recommends a deep pot with soft curving lines to match the soft weeping curves of the branches.

Good luck.

Hi everybody,
I added some more info in my first post that I forgot!
I am still looking for my own pictures! Might take a wile...I have a few hundred to go trough!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

Hi Hans... The illustration that you added is from the Classic Bonsai of Japan text. The bonsai was 70 years old (in
1989), and the bonsai artist was not noted.

Here is a pic I took in 2003 at the Pacific Rim collection...acquired in 1994,at the time 8 years in training from Richard Ota. Grown from a cutting taken in 1986..

Thanks all. I should live so long to grow one of those, but it's time for a challenge.

Thanks for the info Hans, this will be of great help to me now that I can start to work on my Tamarisk.
I picked it up a couple of years ago of my personal yamadori supply Mr Stone Money

Regards,
Simon

I'm probably going to have to cut all branches off and start over. Anything larger than a toothpick in thickness would rather snap than bend. As a result, as is, branches poke out every which way.

I think if I snip away all branches, I'll bend them with split shot sinkers, rather than wires.

Hi, here a Spanish link,
I hope to help you

Excellent! Thank you. I wonder how those branches were wired with such sharp bends. Even if I wait two weeks between bending, my branches simply snap when they bend 1/3 as much -- even after I've withheld water for 2-3 days.

It will take me a while to fumble through the Spanish. It has been 60 years since I spoke any (except to order a Cervesa), and probably longer than that since I read anything other than a menu. (I know, there are on-line translators but they're often less han satisfactory.

Tamarix juniperina and Tamarix pentandra are most commonly used. Both of these species display attractive, feathery foliage typical of the genus. Their foliage consists of small scale- or needle-like leaves and plume-like, often leafy racemes of small flowers.

Hi Jim,

Are you still working on this? I started work on a smallish Tamarix earlier this year and would love to see how yours is coming along!

Nope. I gave up on it. I think I still have some small cuttings, but no "bonsai."

Ohw..
Hope Y fare better!

JimLewis wrote:Nope.  I gave up on it.  I think I still have some small cuttings, but no "bonsai."

jim - if you wanna sell one of the cuttings, i may be interested when i come down in october...
no need to answer now, just keep it in mind if you wanna part with one of them

thanks

You can HAVE them -- if I have them. But I was under the impression that Tamerisk was an invasive weed up in the far northland and that people pay other people good money to eradicate them.

huh... i didnt know that... in my limited time in this thing of ours, i hadnt heard of that species until this post, but i will now do some poking around, but still might take you up on a cutting if my search is unfruitful... looks like a fun one to work with.