Planning for the Spring - Show Us Your Ideas and Comment

[Marsman]

OK, I'll start. I have an azalea and I'm thinking on how I want to shape it.

Before:

[img]https://i956.photobucket.com/albums/ae50/marsman61/Bonsai/Azalea/DSC_0045.jpg[/img]


After:

[img]https://i956.photobucket.com/albums/ae50/marsman61/Bonsai/Azalea/Idea_1_12-31-09.jpg[/img]

(I wish I had been paying better attention and removed that darn leaf before I took the pictures.)

[Gnome]

Perhaps some of you know about the failed threadgrafts on my [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3544]Chinese Elm.[/url] This last year was spent hoping for a bud from one or both of the desired locations but none ever arose. Other than that I simply allowed the new leader to grow in order to thicken up. Now it is time to shorten that leader. Here is a recent picture of the tree.
[url=https://img707.imageshack.us/I/chineseelm.jpg/][img]https://img707.imageshack.us/img707/5183/chineseelm.th.jpg[/img][/url]
I had intended to air layer the leader but after some though I believe I will just cut it away at the location indicated. My hope is that the pruning will stimulate new buds to form at the proper spots.

Norm

[handpotter]

This is my spring project. It is a 30 year old red maple that was cut and moved from a field about 5 years ago. It spent this past couple of years in an 18â€

[JTred]

Handpotter, it looks like you have some great material to work with, honestly you all do. My spring project is a yamadori (couldn't tell the species as it had no leaves) that I found over Thanksgiving, and also an air layer on a boxwood.

photo taken 8-15-09
[img]https://img141.imageshack.us/img141/3785/boxwood81509001.jpg[/img]

Virtual of Left branch after air layer
[img]https://img142.imageshack.us/img142/7336/boxwood81509virtual.jpg[/img]

Virtual of Main trunk after air layer and (hopfully) growth on the opposite side
[img]https://img135.imageshack.us/img135/7336/boxwood81509virtual.jpg[/img]

Virtual of another route I may go with this, it all depends how the new growth comes in this summer (I guess that would be next spring's project, but the title of the thread never said which one ) .

[img]https://img205.imageshack.us/img205/5958/boxwood81509001virtual4.jpg[/img]

[img]https://img149.imageshack.us/img149/7637/boxwood81509001virtual3.jpg[/img]

[manIK]

Jtred, I like the last pic - how would you get the trunk to tilt so dramatically from the roots like that? Wire it?

[tarian]

youd wire it into a pot at this angle on the rock and use wire to keep it stable simple enought

[JTred]

I think wire would put more of a bend than a straight diagonal slant like I want. I was planning on keeping it upright and planting it over a large, flat rock, then once it is firmly attached, simply tilt everything about 45-60 degrees. I'll probably also mound the soil up on the rock and the roots and slowly remove the soil, so the roots on the bottom of the rock have a chance to grow downward. The look I'm going for is a tree that has been blown over by a storm, yet continues to grow. This will probably be the direction I will go because I just don't think the growth on the bare side will be vigorous enough to even out the growth already on the right side.


P.S. for a good example of the technique tarian is talking about, check out the second part of [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10952&highlight=schefflera]arboricola's project scheff[/url]. It's the one almost at the bottom of the page that is wired almost horizontal with a pencil underneath it