Sticky Situation [Bonsai]
This post is part of my bonsai series on winter pruning and tree clean-up.
The type of tree I am focusing on today is a Hawthorne tree. Hawthorne is known for producing two things. #Berries and sharp #thorns. Birds love feeding on the berries, and also the added protection the thorns provide to ward off hasty predators. The needle-like thorns are rounded on the sides, and safe to brush up against; however, if you gently touch the skin directly onto the point of the thorns, it will draw blood almost instantly.
For the first few years, I did a lot of research on whether or not it is ideal to keep thorns on a bonsai tree. After attempting to work on the tree a few times with some very light pruning, and one unsuccessful wiring attempt, the tree was pruning my hands more than I was pruning it!
The decision to de-thorn this tree became obvious. In order to even safely handle the tree for any kind of work, I would need to remove the thorns first.
And these thorns grow back every time. Not always in the same place, but always in irregular areas between the buds, and aimed like swords ready to fend of any approaching appendages.
Pro Tip: Wear thick gardening gloves when handling any sharp objects. Cutting any branch with protruding ends can be just as dangerous as pruning a rosebush. Pruned branch ends can often fall at high speeds into your hands, arms, and even flick up into the face. Long sleeves, glasses, and/or protective eye-ware is also advised.
Besides dealing with thorns and some general clean-up on old pruned branch ends I need to clip off, let's take a look and see what sort of branch pruning decisions I made.
Looking at the photo above, I circled all of the nodes where three or more branches were joining into a single point. If I leave these areas alone, they will just continue to fatten and swell up into an ugly ball joint. To avoid that future, I will need to follow the Rule of Two, and select branches to remove, so that no more than two branches extend from a single node.
Removing unnecessary branches is going to help this tree to focus more vigorous growth into all of the remaining #buds. More buds producing leaves and branches will give more options for the future design of the tree. Plus, a tree full of many leaves tends to look healthy and appealing in general.
After selecting which branches will need to be removed, I painted black lines to show the part of the tree that will remain in-tact. I also painted green over the buds that will remain. This tree has tons of buds on it, and they grow in all directions around the branches.
In some cases, I chose to remove the branches that were extremely long and straight. Those branch ends are good choices to remove, because they don't produce as many buds except one or a few big buds at the far end. By removing the long straight extensions, I can keep the intervals between branches much closer together. The long straight branch ends are also a distraction to the softer curving lines of the nearby branches and trunk that I prefer.
As a Bonsai Hobbyist that tends to dislike wiring tree branches, I love Hawthornes because it buds everywhere, and tends to grow branches in outward directions. While my Willows and Chinese Elms have to have their branches trained and angled outward from their natural upward growth habits, Hawthornes enjoy fanning their branches out to the perimeters to find sunlight.
I think this is because Hawthorns are found in nature growing as #shrubs in the shade where the berries are dropped by birds. The branches have to search wide for sunlight pockets. Eventually the tree forms strong roots, and the #trunk can compete with the larger tree that was once shading it. A mighty Hawthorn becomes the new ruler of the forest ceiling, and guardian of a wide perimeter of territory for hundreds of animals seeking food and protection.
Here is the final result of the fully cleaned up tree. All the dangerous thorns are gone. I cut away most of the dead stubby cut-marks from last season, so now the branches have smoother bends. Notice how the thickness of the trunk has a more natural flow now as it tapers towards the narrowest branch tips.
The most challenging part was cutting the thickest dead #wood areas that were stumping up on top of the trunk. Dead wood is really hard to cut through even with my sharp concave branch pruners. In some cases, I only managed to cut the outer bark, but not the dead heartwood interior. If I had a knob pruner, I bet I could dig that out better. I could also try using a saw.
Without even forcing the branches to change their growth directions, the branch tips and buds now look like they are all focused on growing upward to the sun. Before, many of the branches were hooking down, clawing for the earth. The selective branch pruning has changed the entire attitude of the tree into a more positive presence that can be enjoyed.
Overall, this tree turned out very well, I think. It needed hardly any work at all. A beautiful tree that likes to maintain itself, and even defend itself against my pruners is fine with me.
Here's a photo I took recently of the night life colors and shapes I thought were fascinating. I liked how the street lights had different colors and sizes behind the cherry tree that was in bloom. The misty blooms were glittering from the reflecting street lights. There was a natural flow and balance in the lines, shapes, and colors. Sounds like poetry, eh?
Did you enjoy my photos and information about this Hawthorne tree? I'm really happy to have a community that likes to respond to my hobby activities, and that is why I share.
There is a strong interest, I have noticed, in people wanting to learn more about bonsai. Check out the #bonsai tag, and you'll find most of the photos people post are the same public photos commonly found on the internet. There are very few actual artists sharing their original works of their recent tree photos. My strategy is to share as many of my photos as I can here on steemit. By encouraging people to make a beginning attempt if they feel so inclined, like I have, we can grow a bonsai of fellow hobbyists and appreciators.
Coming up, I have a bunch of Willow trees I also worked on last week, so I'll be posting those results soon.
May you find a tree this week that teaches you wisdom.
In my country there is a tree called Quebrahacho Pithecellobium dumoson, it is ideal to make bonsai, here in my country they collect it a lot to work it and realize this beautiful art, just as you work it also has thorns, and it is not easy because you prick yourself when you least think , but they are ideal trees to practice this art, this week I went to a bonsai exhibition and exhibited a bonsai tree of this really amazing kind, I leave the link so you can appreciate it, it was one of the largest in the sample.
![1519740447388-1892380520.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmTqtGyzuBrcfB24fgLX3hMuwVTa5ujYpXeFxEQEnArr1d/1519740447388-1892380520.jpg)
https://steemit.com/art/@gensequini/bonsai-exhibition-trees-in-miniature-an-art-created-and-shaped-by-their-teachers
Holy mother! That is a big one alright. Look's like a cat's jungle gym paradise.
That one seems to have its own personality. Are those white flowers in the Hawthornes? They look amazing, at first I thought they were white leaves. It would be fun if I could find the ones you're growing and add them to my stock, but yours are definitely in your geographic zone, I will instead focus on the ones I can find here and hopefully I'll be able to keep learning and practicing what you had explained in your posts. I've got to give also credit to your writing, the article itself has a nice flow and vibe to it, all of your posts I've read have that from you. I'm learning a lot by your way of telling stories, I feel your writing has a smooth but precise form. Dealing with my lack of experience is always something to work onto, it's the best way to leave that behind and move on to the part where you finally know what you're doing! Thanks again for the briefing, I think I'm getting now more how pruning works and how branches can also have their sort of personality while they grow, I've had my fair share of that. Cheers and keep having fun in your work. btw I believe I already told you this, but your banner is super cool!
Thanks @steemdan for all of the compliments. You have a lot of great knowledge to share too, and I appreciate that you put things into simple words that are not overwhelming. Most experts tend to have a big ego, and like to use terminology that common people would never understand.
Let me know if you ever actually need some help with your steemit writing. I would be happy to help once in a while to develop a new strategy.
YEah, I believe so too! It isn't as easy to learn, imagine for someone barely starting... we've all had our fair share on learning how to "perform garden hacks" and actually wanting to grow plants, and that includes the good, regular, worst, bad and of course, the best results one can have in all the time we have spent between soil, mud, roots and many cuttings, many branches and infinite seeds, leaves and flowers! Terminology of course is something that we have to keep learning, and certainly isn't the same if yours is just a hobby or a great passion; or if you top that with a complete career as an agronomist, engineer, at least some gardening lessons, and you'll find yourself using the big words too lol.
I learnt as an artist that if you have something that you need to share to an audience or public, you need to make it appealing not for you , but for that public first. They need to understand, to feel related and also approve what you're dealing with, and that's why so many scientist aren't the best at speaches, social interaction or even politics. But now that's changing big time (Michio Kaku, Elon Musk, etc). I haven't had the opportunity to go to a single course about gardening, I would have loved that, even to study some agroengineering would have been, or could really be something new to include to my rèsumè. But in this case I haven't used my lack of "technical careers" to develop my studies and full reasearch, I did so with the little I had, and that's really why I want to share my point of view, not as an agronomist but instead as a normal person taking a huge shot at success and development. I've noticed that this movement isn't new at all, I think between you and me have 20+ yrs of practice, right? So we're not exactly amateurs anymore. We have to adress and give proper credit to that as well. Many homegrowers and gardeners are good enough to solve several problems within our societies, and that is my main goal and direction: to be able to shake things up and to introduce a new form of change, a better understanding not only of plants, but nature itself. How we interact with nature (climate, air, waters, etc) is something we've been kind of disconnected from for a while now, and if we make it appealing enough, I know and proved already that is more than a great start. It isn't just about plants, it can be also a way to make our towns look very different to what we're currently doing without real awareness of the environment, which is our true home.
The writing! As you may know english isn't my first language. I can understand and use many words, but I'd be lying if I told you that I don't have many problems doing so. Making a proper essay, article, paragraph, is something that I've never done in english. So more than a challenge to me, it's a rough start. I think I can write some stuff but I'm going to need a lot of editing if I aim to last in this platform, and sharing my points of view to a public. Any new strategy would certainly be cool for me, because I know I have great ideas, and I'm doing an important job, but what I don't know is how to put that into complete themes, scripts and any numbers/text form. I hope many can understand this, but I need to keep improving the way its written and developed as a project or strategy! You've gave me a lot of support and that really makes a difference already. I can't ask more of you, I'm very happy and it feels awesome to find help in times like these. We're always going to need help, but many times we prefer not to distract or take much time into being better thanks to others. I'm not like that, I'm 100% sure that we need to learn from others more than what we can learn just by ourselves; experience is priceless! Thank you for lending a hand and for your very empathic support on my start here. I'm very humbled and grateful for this.
Thank you so much for the beautiful pictures and useful information. How long does the tree gree since as far as I know this tree is not grown in our area.
Not sure I understand the question.
I am asking about the height of the tree, sir. It grows very tall?
Thanks. Now I understand.
Probably they are more likely to be small trees in nature. The hard wood makes them brittle, and prone to break if they get too tall in storm winds. They are slow growers.
According to this site, they can grow up to 30 or 35 feet in height.
Thank you so much. We grow berries but did not know about this plant.
Thanks for sharing
Niiiiiiiceeeeeee
I like your photos. Its really cool...Thanks for sharing.
This is such a thing of passion. The attention to detail and just the effort to get that results you are hoping for are impressive.
How many years have you been doing this?
I think I started doing bonsai almost ten years ago, and didn't know anyone in my area teaching how to grow them until about five years ago. It is amazing how much my trees thrived without having any knowledge of what to do in the beginning.
I have heard of Bonsai trees but never really knew the uses for them. Thanks for sharing this.
I am really looking forward to the next post about willow trees! We have many around my property line and in the general area where I live; and I have often wanted to see if I could use any of the softer/younger branches to attempt some basket weaving or making.
It's funny, most people think of plants as inanimate objects, but that's just not the case. The bonsai evolved to defend itself from predators by growing thorns. It has a very real DESIRE to survive and reproduce just like us.