Slanting Copper Beech

This place seems pretty dead, so just sharing some of my recent work to add a little life

Fagus sylvatica purpurea, this is a first styling of a cheap, field grown, nursery plant. I had initially wanted to try a raft with this material but after some thought, ive gone with a slanting style tree, it has some ideal characteristics with a long anchoring root which ive left exposed...

The tree arrived as a balled root ball




I decided to remove the hessian and just lump the root ball on a China mist slab, pretty much a slip n wire in job with minimal disturbance, so kept a lot of the field soil and packed and mixed in some good free draining soil..





When the tree becomes established i can remove this obtrusive wire


Some roots to work with, in time these should gain some character








A Hawthorn i photographed recently is a dead ringer


However, i think my planting more represents a tree leaning over a river bank

Great idea and perfect execution.   Looks very natural.   The slab makes perfect match.   At the first sight I was thinking about the straight anchoring roots - cover them in a substrate to get more "branching".  But then I have realised that the tree in the nature will do the same as you did.  

What kind of substrate mix do you use?   It looks quite compact on the pics...


I do love the Hawthorn - one of the best I have ever seen. Could you share with us the GPS coordinates?

Vlad wrote:Great idea and perfect execution.   Looks very natural.   The slab makes perfect match.   At the first sight I was thinking about the straight anchoring roots - cover them in a substrate to get more "branching".  But then I have realised that the tree in the nature will do the same as you did.  

What kind of substrate mix do you use?   It looks quite compact on the pics...


I do love the Hawthorn - one of the best I have ever seen. Could you share with us the GPS coordinates?

Hi Vlad, the anchoring roots are a feature of the slanting style, the visible root gives a feeling of strength and security while the tree is leaning in the opposite direction, ive seen this done on windswept as well, but yes it also occurs in nature... its in mostly Kaizen 1 soil, but i used a little of the old field soil in the mix to help keep the soil together on the slab....slabs tend to dry out quite quickly also,
The Hawthorn is in Richmond park, London....its a great place to visit, lots of old and ancient trees along with wild deer.

The fresh spring leaves are out on my Copper Beech..

IMG_9755 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
IMG_9746 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
IMG_9740 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
IMG_9739 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

Just had to say that I much admire your work.This one is a beauty!

Cheers Geo, will update again later in the season

Lovely tree and I like the shell to which you planted it very much as well.

Bobby,

Very nice work. question please - are these copper leafed beeches "weaker" or less hardy that regular green leaf beech?

Thanks,

Augustine

Thanks for the comments everyone..

Hi Agustine, I couldnt really say...i have heard that before though that they are slower than the green leaved.
Its only my first summer keeping Beech, the Copper one leafed out far quicker than the other two
what i can say is, in the English landscape we see far older specimens of the green variety than the red, they may be longer lived n more hardy, but i dont know for certain. they are worth having for the colour alone and look great in the landscape

An update on this one, a few weeks ago all the wire was removed and the structure tidied up, rewired and slightly compacted....
yest it was nice n sunny in London, with some fog covering, a couple photos with a foggy back drop

IMG_3520 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
IMG_3519 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr


and below, a green Beech i picked up from a garden centre recently for £3.....early days, after some root work i want to get it in the ground. the trunk shows the sinuous movement thats common in some Beech trees in nature. has a lot of potential just needs time.
2016-10-25_09-12-11 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
IMG_2728 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
IMG_2730 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
IMG_2731 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

i very much dig where that copper beech is heading !

BobbyLane wrote:An update on this one, a few weeks ago all the wire was removed and the structure tidied up, rewired and slightly compacted....
yest it was nice n sunny in London, with some fog covering, a couple photos with a foggy back drop

IMG_3520 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
IMG_3519 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

Wonderful silhouete

Both nice trees!

Your building up quite a collection there!

The second Beech shows real promise as well and thanks for updating your posts.

Regards

Richard