Acer Campestre, yamadori

Yvonne, stunning Bonsai material! i especially like to fat one, will be fun to see how it looks like in a few years from now

Hi Dreamcast

Many thanks...but the fat hawthorn has a little ballanceproblem that need to be solved as the tree is being made...when looking at the two last Photos am I not sure the last is the best...maybe I should stick to the previus, as the better option...or something inbetween.
Anyone any suggestions ?

Kind regards Yvonne

I think the angle in the later photo clearly gives you a better traditional line from base to top of the tree, but personally i like the angle it is planted in now is better, but both works great if you ask me, but don't ask me cause i am no expert or even close

Went back to study the tree....I can find a way during next growingseason, but it may not just be a walk in the park.

Kind regards Yvonne

You may wonder how the acers are doing...


The best of them died back a lot last year, of no reason I can say, even after repotting this winter....
The red roots and branches died back...the thick branch to the left, became too strong for what was left in the right side, and I ended up cutting it back, and turn the tree a little


This is the humble remains....campestre can be a tricky tree...I gave it a big pot, the trunk can become interesting in the future, but for now I just hope.....

The other tree is doing much better...it just had its leafes cut partly off to give some light to the buds.

This one is in a big pot too   

Kind regards Yvonne

Yvonne Graubaek wrote:Today, I and my husband went for the yamadori  again....This time for the big craetegus. Big, but not as big as the huge acer from monday ...I found a stunning craeteguschokkan, as my husband was digging. We hope to take it home next week...This will be the last tree this year.

This is todays tree

From this in 2011 to this in 2014  
 

Almost 3.5 growingseasons has brought the hawthorn to this stage.  7 major summer growth cutbacks, and 3 winter adjustment of the crown.
I think the next growth will begin to natural cower up the front of the trunk, witch is nice...I have been waiting for this....The scars have become much smaller, and when I look at the photo do I think I can see the trunk has fatened up nicely, witch make sense ( the scars are smaller).

Back in the garden...I constant work on the surfaceroots. The stones give a nice inviroment for rootbuilding....soon will the weather become too warm for the roots right under the stones, and cardboard will have to be placed under the stones, and the "work" continues hereafter.

Kind regards Yvonne

A second cutback this year...was not really expecting to do it, but just last the previus years, was the first springgrowth too strong, and gave unwanted long internodes


It is still early in the year, and hopefully will it grow nice, and only fairly strong for the rest of the summer.
I kept the new growth hanging dawn on the lowest branches, as it still is a must for me, to make the  lovest branches stronger than the brances growing further up the trunk, later will I let some of the topbranches grow stronger, but not now.....
The green line show the frame i am aiming for...it will give a tree about 65cm. or bigger, nice.....I want some bigger trees.
The red dot show were the first branch in the front grow from...the crown will eventuly fill out nice...hopefullly   

Kind regards Yvonne

Impressive beast you have there.
Has the field now been transformed into a lake? (Or are you going to host an IBC sleep-over-yamadori-weekend this winter..   )

Hi Leatherback

As you can see is it not stunning material I am working on...this hawthorn is only a big tree that devided the trunk into 3 branches at a early stage, this gave the taper, when I cut away the branches, and started it all ower....
Not a big deal, it should be possible to find a tree like that in your country   .

Kind regards Yvonne

During the long hot dry summer, did I have a spidermite attack an more of my trees, inc. the two big hawthorns from this page...they both suffered a hard setback, but is safe now....3 other smaller trees have I sadly  had to say godbye to...
This one did best, and I have just pruned the tree, only left a sacrificebranch on the backside.



As you know did I have some ballance issues with the tree, when I repottet it last winter.....having looked at tree and problem all summer, do I now think the solution of the problem is letting the entire branch ( green arrow) grow with sacrificebranches all ower next year, or more, just like the lower branches does, to make it strong, and better for the design. The branch is placed perfect for ballance, when the tree is seen from the side.

Any comments?... please share
Kind regards Yvonne

wonderful progressions, thank you for posting them. I have learned a lot from you. I'm a little surprised that there are not 2 meter long sacrifice branches coming off your first and or second branches, but then you mentioned needing to get short internodes into the structure of the branches, and that explained it to me. Am I guessing correctly that once you have the basic structure of the first branch set - you will allow a sacrifice or two develop to thicken the first branch?

Hi Leo

Thank you for your interest  

I send a photo of the tree after it was cut back ... should have sent a before photo .... it had shown the tree with several long branches growing upwards from the lower branches.

Next year I hope again to get one or two long branches that grow strong through all branch levels .. first, second, third, etc. to give the needed structure. Could be next year it is the right time to boost the structure by keeping nicely placed sacrificebranches running upwards through all the levels a year or as long as it takes.

The entire branch with the green arrow will not be cut in a year or more, in order to create balance.

You can already see that the volume of the branch part at the bottom left of the picture grows more compared to branch parts higher up, there will always be proportionately more branches, as they relatively will increase more mass of the entire branch (thickness) than the branch above.
I think that It take some time before the structure clearly shows..de first year must each branch mass necessarily be pretty dense, until a picture of the branch theorem proves.

I tried googletranslate....

Kind regards Yvonne

I think I know what you meant, your english is good enough, thanks, your explaination makes sense.

Yes Leo, I think we pretty much are talking about the same thing lets see how the branches developes with time... like you, do I not want pads of spiderweb fine branches going on for ever, but some solid branches too

Hawthorns have 2 kinds of branches....in the beginning are there a lot of stronggrowing branches, very usefull for sacrificebranches, but they dont shoot back from the first 2 or 3 leaves, this give a long internode, not realy usefull for bonsai, but they do send out 2 new shots from the base of a branch like this, if it is cut back to 2 leaves.
The other type of branch is strong thorns, that actuly hold a lot of buds for branches with very short internodes, not all thorns developes into these thornbranches, but those that do, most of the time only reach a short lengd, like 5-6 cm, with just as many buds... some grow, and become more  longshotlike ... both give many nice short angels, when they are cut back to 2-3 leaves, and shoot back...but sadly are they not realy giving any thicknes to the branch, if this is what you want, like I do at the moment.
It is the use of the difrent kind of branches that make hawthors so interesting to work with....but you never realy know what you get next.

Kind regards Yvonne

My favourite hawthorn have had a terrible season...due to all the deadwood... the carved in the front, and the natural on the backside, had the tree been weakened to much, as I had left it in a windy place for too long in the spring, before I....,and spidermites moved in...I have had my "fun" with them almost all summer, but the tree is hanging in, and I hope the next year will make it strong again.


From this to this in one growingseason is not bad

The clip and grow canopy does look dense on the photo for now...I have prepared the lowest strong branches to create old bark close to the trunk, to even out the trunk/branch age.

Kind regards Yvonne

Nice bark, Powerful trunk with nice movement, im following its progress, im a big fan of Hawthorn. I currently have a powerful trunk Hawthorn im developing myself and will start a thread soon.  The fine twigging is adding to its character, you say you are going to get some growth down the front of the trunk, that will enhance the natural look i think

You plan on using any wire, or are you just going to use clip and grow for this tree? Most folks would have wired this at some point, but it looks great as is...

Hi Bobbylane

The black lines show new branches in the front, also are there a little more dawn the trunk...the problem with leaving branches in the front right from the beginning, was because they grew in a horizontal line with branches next to them, and in the same hight...It did not look nice...now is it time to keep more in the front, as they now will have a difrent thicknes to them, and the line will not be exact the same.
For now am I not planning to vire the branches...I like the angels in the branches of hawthorns, and as they grow will they even out in a natural manner, and not with the soft bends vire give...but I do vire branches in the right direction all the time during summer, and also have I vired the tree now....there may be a more work before spring, and also a little thinning out, but not much.

I look forward to follow your hawthorn

Kind regards Yvonne

Hi Yvonne, I know what you mean about the angles and sharp directional changes, its how they grow naturally and gives a gnarled appearance. My tree is more of a straight trunk so im looking to have branches up and down and radiating all around like a lone Oak in a field on its own, ive wired all the primary branches on mine and when all the secondary branches grow ill clip and grow from there on, i had some horizontal branches on the same level on mine, i wired them for better movement, ill cut them back later

I had my issues with the ballance of the tree...have altered the front....it is still orientated towards the viewer.



Cut back the top a little, making it ready to grow strong and free during the next summer...there are still branches that need to be solved in the right side, will have to study the tree for a while first....but the first low branch has ben removed now.
The tree has ben repottet, and the roots is nicely placed in the surface, only on in spot would I still like a surfaceroot to grow.

Feel free to give comment

Kind regards Yvonne

I have thoroughly enjoyed the progress of this tree; thank you so much!

Thank you Todd

i have already taken the tree a little further...hope you like it so far



Kind regards Yvonne

It looks imposing and will only get better

Ravi Kiran wrote:Hi Will,

I fully agree with what you have said. Which is why I start off by saying "Incase you want to reduce the height even further". Actually Yvonne had also said something like "I may want to reduce the height a little more.." inher second post on this thread. Hence I suggested what I did

Ravi

That's true but if you need or want to reduce the top of the tree your recomendation would eliminate the possibility of producing movement in a trunk too thick to wire effectively. I would cut the stub or stumpy thing off the right side and keep the portion you have red lined. JMHO

Yvonne Graubaek wrote:Thank you Todd

i have already taken the tree a little further...hope you like it so far



Kind regards Yvonne

Ahhhh-Yes this is the direction I was thinking.

Appears I am on the right track, when reading your comments

Does anyone of you want to draw the future crown and direction, would like to see many ideas...

Kind regards Yvonne