Japanese Larch – Expressions of Grace Bonsai

Japanese Larch Bonsai

Xavier Martinez — Sun, 21 Jan 2024 08:54:03 +0000

Find out my KEY dates and Bonsai Care Tips for Japanese Larch.

A short and simple guide that is ideal for beginners. Pruning dates, Wiring, Potting, Disease, Fertilising and a bit of cricket too…

God Bless & Happy Bonsaiing
Xavier

My Top 5 Trees for Bonsai

Xavier Martinez — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 14:10:05 +0000

If I were starting bonsai today what tree would I buy and why?

In this episode I am going to explain my Top 5 ‘beginner-tree’ choices in relation to several critieria. This will take into account: relative experience, indoor or outdoor, flowering, cheapest and quickest results. Then, I will follow my own advice and start a brand new tree – next episode; as part of my Bonsai Basics series.

I also explain why I chose to ignore one of the world’s most popular starter bonsai. Let me know if you agree in the comments…

Don’t I look great!

Topics Covered:

01:25 My best Flowering Option – Dwarf Azalea.
03:58 My first starter-tree Option – Japanese Larch.
05:54 My easiest to source Option – English Oak
07:52 My best indoor Option – Tigerbark Ficus.
09:23 My favourite Option – Italian Alder.

Which species do you think I should have chosen???

God Bless & Happy Bonsaiing
Xavier

Bonsai in Bloom – Spring Catwalk Display

Xavier Martinez — Fri, 11 Mar 2022 11:43:49 +0000

"Baby Ficus Bonsai is banned from all future competitions after admitting the use of performance enhancing wire."

Despite this shocking revelation there are still some exceptional bonsai gracing today’s catwalk displays. Allow yourself 9 minutes to relax and enjoy the spring show. The fashion is dazzling and opens with three Dwarf Azalea sisters at the peak of their abilities. They are followed by twin Fuji Cherry models – each survivors of near catastrophic separations at birth!

A couple of aging elite bonsai models then take the applause by showing off their curves – well done Lucinda Larch. With the crowds in raptures, sudden and unexpected complaints are received from the Forsythia camp, when she notices that the youngest entrant – a baby Ficus – is clearly using performance enhancing 1mm wire. An instant lifetime ban follows with further threats that fertiliser will be tested…

Thankfully, the bonsai display is saved by the late entry of Zita the Chinese Elm and her cousin, Twin-Trunk Maple – surely stars of the future?

Several other complaints have been lodged after enquiries suggest some ‘insider trading’ has unfairly advantaged many of the bonsai dress choices. The designer of the costumes – Dawn Isaac ( of deiCeramics), has been unavailable for comment. More information on this uncertain situation may be found on her website: deiceramics.co.uk

It is also worth noting that this is the first competition allowing both disability and LGBTQ+ bonsai to compete on an equal rooting. Definitely a step forward for diversity :()

I hope you enjoyed this light hearted approach to showing my bonsai in bloom. Regular informative videos are being uploaded to YouTube so please subscribe and keep on watching…

Happy Bonsaiing

Xav

Hinoki Cypress Bargain Basement Project

Xavier Martinez — Sat, 28 Aug 2021 09:58:39 +0000

So, as the end of summer rapidly approaches, I find my thoughts wandering eagerly to a time of rest. The past 5 months have been hectic and despite the enjoyment, I am definitely ready to take a break. However, we are not quite at that time yet…

Now is often a great time to start scouring the nurseries for unwanted ‘summer-damaged’ stock. Normally I will find dwarf azalea or potentilla but this week I was lucky enough to discover a Hinoki Cypress. Although I have never worked on this genus before, the price reduction to just £5.99 was too good to resist

The rules for purchasing ‘bargain-basement’ nursery stock remain the same:

Check beneath the soil for signs of inverse taper on the base of the trunk
Is there a good number of usable branches (not just 2 dimensions)
Is it relatively healthy (I am sure there will be some obvious dieback)
Is there a unique feature to seperate it from ‘the rest’?
Is it cheap enough that it dying will not be a big drama

You must get you fingers dirty before you make that final decision! I have pulled this out of the plastic container and immediately noticed healthy white roots. It is also not root bound so I could get away with leaving it ‘as is’ during styling.

It has a unique twin trunk feature which means it is very likely to have a strong base for the future nebari to develop. I had a little dig under the surface and could see that inverse taper would not be a problem.

Definitely worth paying the price

When I got it home I drenched it and then left it in a shady part of the garden until I had a chance to do some research. I always take the time to learn about my tree before I jump in with the chainsaw! I was satisfied that basic structural work could be done safely and because the root ball was nice and healthy I chose to do a very simple ‘slip pot’ into a bigger container to protect it through the winter.

I ‘m still not entirely certain which will be the front for this design. I have decided to wait until next year and just let the tree recover and push out new growth in 2022. I may yet remove some more lower branches and apply wire sometime next year. The main priority for me is allowing the tree time to develop a strong root base. Patience…patience…patience

And of course…now is a good time for taking cuttings. I obtained 8 usable shoots making sure to make clean cuts just below the point where the colour has changed from green to brownish. They are potted up in vermiculite and peat based mix and have plastic humidity ‘domes’. I will check them in about 6 weeks and hopefully see fresh growth. They will stay in the greenhouse through the winter.

And now for some bonsai 'home truths'.

Every year, no matter how careful I am, some bonsai just die. Sometimes it is due to mistakes I have made and sometimes it is just down to the environment. Whatever the cause – it happens and you must be prepared for this. When you take a tree out of its natural environment and make it grow in a small pot things will sometimes go wrong. The best we can do is to try and observe and understand how our bonsai grows and responds to different environmental factors.

Learn about the tree before you start to do any type of work on it. Remember, the tree is already unhappy that you are not letting it grow in the open so anytime you do anything else it will have some form of adverse affect. Hence, most of the pruning and shaping work is done in the spring when the tree is full of stored energy.

This year I had to say farewell to: a mature Japanese Maple, two ten-year-old Satsuki Azalea and several younger assorted varieties. I also had a near-miss with my prized Japanese White Pine and several Chinese Elms.

I think the Azalea died as a result of poor soil which allowed the roots to dry out during the hot sun. I have no idea why the large maple died – shame, it had a great nebari

So, the advice is to never totally give up on your tree. I always wait at least one year before consigning anything to the bonsai funeral pyre. At this moment two more of my ‘deaduns’ are sending out baby shoots from their root base. Granted, the tree will not be the same as before but at least it will have a chance to start again.

Now is also the time for the 3rd round of pruning on your Japanese Larch. Check those new shoots for tight buds close together and prune back to this point. If the internodal distance between buds is still large then cut back to the first whorl where you should hopefully activate two opposing buds. If you are unsure or your tree is still in development then leave things until next spring.

You should also be seeing a lot of leaves yellowing on your Satsuki Azalea. Don’t worry – it is perfectly normal. All I do is gently pluck them off the branch.

This is also the time to do light pruning on your Chinese Elm. All I do is cut back to the design silhouette and remove those pesky mealy bugs feeding off the trunk and branches!!!!

Happy bonsaiing

2nd Larch Pruning & Snakebark Maple Tidy Up

Xavier Martinez — Sat, 07 Aug 2021 16:15:16 +0000

Around this time of summer, many of our Japanese Larch will have produced a long enough second flush to allow for a follow-up prune. As with the first pruning, we are seeking sets of buds that have a small internodal gap. If the buds are still too far apart then we prune right back to ‘just above’ the needle swirl at the base and wait for a final smaller push in Mid-Autumn.

If your tree is in early development and you are still looking to thicken branches then I would recommend you only remove unwanted new growth that will not be of use in the design or may lead to unwanted branch thickening and inverse taper. If you are unsure, then it is much safer to leave the growth and review it when we carry out the Spring prune and bud selection in March 2022.

Please read the June blog post which provides detailed images of this pruning technique.

Japanese Larch ready for 2nd pruning

Lots of new growth

Most of this is too small to prune

My Yamadori Japanese Larch

The images I have selected show one Larch that needs over 3/4 of the new shoots to be pruned. The lower branches will be kept longer with at least 4 viable buds as I intend to wire some movement into them when they start to swell next Spring.

The second Larch pushed out lots of new growth but it is very juvenile so I will leave it till Autumn before pruning.

Most of our decidious bonsai will now have a good covering of leaves and be in need of a tidy up to ensure we are able to maintain decent airflow and light into the core of the tree. We will want to remove any unwanted juvenile growth that sprouted from junctions or crotches and we will look to prune shoots back to the desired shape.

This pruning is not intended to encourage another flush, though it does happen. This is the time when I am looking to remove surface weeds and inspect for bugs. I also use this time to wire in ‘minor’ movement on branches for my younger nursery stock. I often carry a notebook and write down any thoughts I may have for the future of the bonsai.

It is important to remember that your bonsai needs a good amount of leaves to enable it to produce strong vascular growth in the autumn. This will be the period when the tree expands trunk and branch girth. If you remove too much of the growth now, you can severely impair this aspect and put the tree back a year…or two!

The current tree front

The potential new front

Japanese Maple - Post prune

Post prune - Front option 2

Post prune - Front option 3

This Snakebark Maple has been in the wars and has lost several key primary branches over the past 7 years. I have slowly brought it back to full health and am now looking at maximising the ‘charm’ of the chaotic root growth whilst hiding the obvious ugly trunk flare resulting from extensive dieback.

Once I had pruned and tidied up the tree I decided on using front option No 2. It still allows the central trunk dieback to be a part of the design but reduces the amount of visible inverse taper. This angle also improves the view of the nebari and the branch structure. It still has a long way to go yet…

So what else have I been doing?

Italian Alder Spinney

First wiring of my Hornbeam

Ongoing Hornbeam work

Wiring and branch development

I purchased a variety of 2-year-old starter plants in 2016 that included: Hornbeam. Italian Alder, Japanese Larch, Silver Birch and Crab Apple. I try to work on them but find the demands of the more developed bonsai sap my energy and time.

This week I have managed to do some more wiring work to establish a primary structure for these potensai. The key is to avoid trying to prune to the ‘final shape. You need all of this leaf mass to help the tree grow but you can definitely apply some wire and get your branches moving in the right direction.

I appreciate this is only a snapshot of some of the ongoing tasks in the nursery so if you have any specific questions you want me to answer then just ask by leaving a comment. If you take the time to look back over the previous blog posts and also my facebook posts I am certain you will probably find the information you need.

HOT TIP:
If you have applied any wire during the last 3 months then be sure to have a reminder set on your phone for early autumn because this is when you may see some pinching. Early autumn is also the time to apply some more biogold fertiliser so make sure you have some ready

And now for a final few images showing one of my imported Dawn Redwood. This has been put through quite a radical branch removal and it’s potting angle changed. This year I finally applied the ‘once only’ pruning technique and all of the new fronds look fantastic.

Another long blog but hopefully someone is getting something from them?

Happy bonsaiing

Cuttings and general bonsai upkeep

Xavier Martinez — Fri, 06 Aug 2021 13:25:56 +0000

If you are anything like me then you will really struggle to throw anything away. Every year, since I started in bonsai, I have spent as much time taking cuttings as I have in developing the trees. This was not a deliberate choice on my part – just a natural desire to use all of that discarded material. When I first began, I had no idea that there were techniques used for successful propagation. I just took an offcut and planted it into some garden soil. Any size and any time of the year that I was pruning…

Surprisingly, I had a reasonable amount of success during the early years so it never occurred to me that I was just lucky. I still have an eight-year-old Corkbark Elm that started off as a broken branch discarded into a compost pile.

I later learnt that Chinese Elm are particularly easy to propagate from cuttings – which did explain the success.

I take my cuttings twice a year. First, is sometime in late May / early June when the spring flush of growth has extended and hardened off. This also coincides with my pruning cycles and the increased temperatures / daylight hours. Ideally, we would want nightime temperatures to be above 15 °C to aid root development.

The second occasion occurs late July when I carry out my general pruning to maintain bonsai shape. I have most success placing the cuttings into damp perlite or vermiculite. They are then kept in a propagator or covered with an upended plastic bottle. I keep them misted but do not water. They are normally kept in a shaded part of the garden to reduce transpiration.

The best results come with: Fuji Cherry, Trident Maple, Chinese Elm and Boxwood. With indoor varieties I find that Ficus and Jade root very easily and all I need to be careful of is not to overwater them as they succumb to root rot quickly.

Cuttings taken June 12

4-6 weeks under cover

3 years later...

With Fuji Cherry I take a cutting from the point where the stem has changed colour and hardened enough to be self supporting. I remove the growing tip and around 3/4 of the leaves. I use a general purpose rooting hormone and then place the cutting into the soil medium.

I have used a range of potting mediums with success. The real issue is to ensure you establish a humidity bubble to stop the stem drying out. Don’t worry if the leaves fall off – shoots may still appear 4 -6 weeks later.

Cutting taken on 18 Jun

Year 1 Dawn Redwood Cutting

Year 2 Dawn Redwood Cutting

Year 3 Dawn redwood Cutting (Progression)

Dawn Redwood was a surprise success for me and though I only take 3 or 4 a year it is great seeing them develop. I tend to concentrate on last years unwanted growth as it gives me a thick stem. I use either perlite or sphagnum moss and then cover them to preserve humidity.

It is worth remembering that after a couple of years you should consider loosely wiring the main trunk to produce the movement you desire. Once the trunk thickens too much you have no hope of bending them!

4-6 weeks under cover

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Trident Maple are treated exactly the same and you can take up to a pencil thickness cutting. With the thicker cuttings I use sphagnum moss as the potting medium as I find this helps the hardened wood stay hydrated whilst the roots form. I normally leave two or three leaves on the shoots and remove the growing tip. I always cut at the base of an internode section.

I will take up to two dozen cuttings for each washing up bowl I use – success is up to 80% for me normally. In Year 1 I will thin out any obvious weaklings and then split them in year 2 to individual pots.

Larch Cutting about 6" long

Year 2

Azalea Heel Cutting

About 9 taken for this pot

A variety of this years cuttings

Japanese Larch are the hardest cuttings from my experience. I have tried a variety of times and methods and can boast the grand total of 3 successes in as many years! But at least that is three more than I had before – at no cost

Satsuki Azalea are best taken as heel cuttings. This is when you gently peel the shoot away from the trunk or branch. My success with these is also mixed and I have found the cuttings that have taken are extremely slow to develop. But again, they are free…

Mother Tree

Straight branch removed

Ground layer propagation

Three years of Chinese Elm cuttings

Like the Trident Maple, you can take very thick cuttings off of a Chinese Elm. They often propagate successfully without need of humidity covers and this time of the year I am planting all of my prunings into washing up bowls.

This spring I removed a large straight branch from one of my bigger Elms. I removed all of the bark on the lower side and wired it into some soil to attempt a variation of the ground layer technique. I definitely have new growth so time will tell…

I have found that so long as you apply the general principles to your propagation success will follow. It may be discouraging in the first year because they are still not bonsai but watching them send out new shoots is definitely rewarding. It doesn’t matter how many failures you have because the ones that do take will be your future bonsai masterpieces.

I definitely recommend you scouring You Tube for content on ‘how to take’ cuttings – there are loads of videos available. The only cautionary thing to remember is that we each live in different areas and it can be surprising just how varied results can be within our own ‘micro’ climates.

If you are ever confused at whether your cutting is viable it is worth taking a closer look at the rare but popular ‘dead tip’ variety. This is a sure give away that your propagation failed! Oh…and don’t be confused by the little green weed – that will never make a bonsai.

It is now the time to carry out 2nd pruning on your Japanese Larch but more on that in the next post.

Happy bonsaiing

Pruning my Japanese Larch & Satsuki Azalea Bonsai

Xavier Martinez — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 11:46:23 +0000

Today I am going to discuss how I prune Japanese Larch and Satsuki Azalea. As with the Dawn Redwood, timing of pruning is an essential aspect of successful development. The golden rule I try to follow with all of my pruning is:

“If you miss the timing then it is better just to wait a year than risk unwanted consequences. The worse that can happen is the bonsai gets bigger and healthier.”

The Japanese Larch is an extremely vigorous tree and with the right conditions can produce up to three usable ‘new flushes’ of growth. This means that if you monitor your bonsai correctly you could get three chances to create additional new branch structure. That is why Larch are so popular and can so quickly take on the characteristics of an older tree.

With the Satsuki the key issue is to understand that pruning too late into the season will greatly increase the risk of removing the new growth that produces the flowering buds for the next year. Hence most pruning work is done post flowering and certainly before the end of June. If I am planning on major branch reductions or foliage reduction then it is carried out in the Spring with the knowledge that I am going to severely compromise the flowering opportunities.

Japanese larch

This starter tree was purchased as a 2 year old sapling in 2015. It has been left to grow with minimal interference and was potted up this year for training. The root structure is a little odd but I like how the trunk splits – certainly it is worth spending more time on it

I have decided that I want this tree to be a ‘Mame’ which means I am not interested in branch thickening as a priority. Instead I am seeking every chance to increase the amount of ‘twigginess’. This means all shoots will be cut back to usable bud pairs – hopefully three times this year.

This will still allow branch thickening but not as much as if you left it alone for the year.

Each new shoot produces brownish buds along the length. The location of these buds is haphazard and often not where you need them and it is this which dictates your pruning decision.

Using this case I would hope for up to 4 new shoots to push out from the buds. At worst, I should get two new shoots either side and staggered. This achieves my aim of getting ‘2’ from ‘1’ (shoots).

Often, the first pair of buds are so far apart that they are not preferable for usable ramification. What we wish to achieve is lots of well spaced alternate branching.

In cases where the buds are unusable I prune right above the first whorl of needles – the base of the new growth. This will encourage 2 dormant buds to hopefully activate.

Japanese Larch often have ‘lozenge’ shaped branch pads in the wild. So I will select the leader and then prune a rough triangular shape back from that point. It is important that you plan ahead based on the directions the buds should push out from.

Looking from above you should be able to see a pyramid like structure with the longest growth at the base. Clearly, each tree will have different characteristics based on your own approach – but consider this as a basis to start.

Some growth may be kept longer to allow for directional wiring in the Spring. Just because it isn’t pointing in the right place yet – doesn’t mean you should erase it

If the growth is too small to see the buds then just leave it for the second round of seasonal pruning. This year has been a little later because of the frosts so I would expect my next Larch pruning to take place in 5 – 6 weeks. You will be able to tell if it is the right time because you will have numerous shoots with observable buds.

Satsuki Azalea

This tree is relatively new to my collection and was purchased in 2020. It is not yet ready for sale and still needs the packing soil to be changed next Spring. However, it does provide the perfect example for different pruning requirements.

This bonsai has crossing branches, busy junctions, unwanted growth and examples of profuse back budding.

I think it worth showing a picture of the ranges of leaf discolourations you can get. It can be quite scary and cause you to think the worst of your bonsai. Although some of these may be due to pests or fungal problems other causes can be frosts, too much rain or even too much heat. I find it easiest to just remove the affected growth before running to pesticides!

This is a classic example of too many shoots. Ideally I would like the two shoots coming from the branch stub but I noticed that one of them crosses the trunk. It is also unlikley I would be able to eradicate the difference in taper. So the best option is to remove everything above the lower shoot

The stub will be cleaned up in Spring.

Sometimes you may find that one of the branches is perfectly developed but just in the wrong position or badly crossing other branches or the trunk.

Wiring is sometimes a solution but often removal is the better long term option – especially if there is younger growth that can be allowed to develop near it.

In this case, to the right, you can see a perfect secondary branch growing from the primary structure.

This is the usual situation we find in which a third shoot has been allowed to develop into another branch. This causes additional thickening at the junction leading to unwanted inverse taper.

So we have to choose which two are being removed. This becomes more difficult the longer the branches are allowed to develop – so make early decisions if you can.

In many cases you may wish to shorten a branch. I normally just cut back to the next series of leaves at the length I desire. This action will often trigger some back budding lower on the branch. The top part of the image shows a number of growing tips that I chose to remove to shorten branches

Azalea will often back bud even on bare wood – no leaves at all. I have carried out really hard prunes removing nearly all of the vegetation and triggered massive back budding.

It is this back budding that often provides you with the ideal next generation of branches. So keep an eye on these buds and only rub away those you do not need.

I do find Satsuki to be a temperamental subject to work with and it is not my preferred bonsai genus. It needs acidic soil and if you look back to earlier blogs you can read about a repot in kanuma soil. It is also basally dominant and prefers to be a bush. It is important that you prune lower branches hardest to allow energy to be distributed to the apex. Always remove any of the lower suckers and shoots – they just waste more of the trees energy.

However, this is definitely worth all of the frustration and work when you see it flower in May.

I have taken some ‘heel’ cuttings from this pruning session which are now potted up and enclosed in a clear plastic bag to maintain humidity. This will be the subject of my next blog article – never waste a cutting