I often begin the styling process by considering how well the branches complement the trunk. On the Korean hornbeam below, a slender trunk supports a relatively full silhouette. Korean hornbeam Full silhouettes make sense to me on trees with more substantial trunks. This got me thinking about opportunities to improve the branch structure by reducing […]
Korean hornbeam
Spring maintenance for a refined Korean hornbeam
After fifteen years of branch development, my Korean hornbeam has slowed down considerably. When I started working on the branches, I’d often see new shoots with ten-to-twenty new leaves all over the tree. Now I can expect between two-to-five new leaves on all but the strongest branches. Korean hornbeam This slowed growth rate simplifies spring […]
Defoliation follow-up: refining a Korean hornbeam
Two months ago I partially defoliated a mature Korean hornbeam (see “Focus on defoliation” for details). After defoliation – May 2018 I’d been curious about the effect of removing more leaves than normal so I cut about 60-70% of the foliage to see what would happen. Since then, the tree has grown well. New leaves […]
Focus on defoliation – determining how many leaves to remove
After an experiment with full defoliation on a Korean hornbeam – see the process (here) and the results (here) for details – I’ve made it an annual practice to partially defoliate refined specimens. The question I’ve been asking in recent years is, how many leaves should I remove? Last year I took a fairly conservative approach. Here’s […]
A quick tip for maintaining Korean hornbeam bonsai
Korean hornbeams typically produce lots of back buds. For the most part, this is a good thing as the prevalence of buds helps hornbeam bonsai develop quickly. Korean hornbeam Not all buds, however, are useful for the design of the tree. Buds emerging from the trunk Hornbeams often produce buds along the trunk, at the […]