Korean hornbeam

We’re used to looking at photos of trees with the camera pointed squarely at the front of the tree. It’s a good way to get the basic idea of a tree’s shape. Korean hornbeam before pruning Half-way done Front view – after partial defoliation What this approach can hide is what a tree looks like […]

Not long after my deciduous bonsai leaf out, I start thinking about when the perfect time would be to prune and partially defoliate them. In general, the more dense the branches, the earlier in the season I do the work. Once deciduous trees reach a certain density, spring growth on the outside branches shades out […]

A year-and-a-half ago, I started working on a Korean hornbeam by removing a few branches and repotting the tree (see “Defining the branch structure” for details). After pruning and repotting, January, 2020 I let the tree grow freely last year to gain strength after an extensive repot. Here’s the tree last July. July, 2020 By […]

I usually start thinking about pruning and partially defoliating Korean hornbeam in May. It’s around this time of year that the spring growth hardens off and shades out the interior branches which makes it a good time to prune. Dense foliage on a Korean hornbeam – May 12, 2021 For the last few years, I […]

Last year, I pruned and partially defoliated the Korean hornbeam below in early June. The timing was just about right for the work as each shoot had a moderate amount of new growth (see “Spring maintenance” for details). This year the tree grew more vigorously – likely a result of being repotted – and was […]