Simple Way to Grow Bonsai Root Over Rock
We are going to do a Bonsai root over rock statue. Now I am very excited because it was my birthday just last week and for my birthday I wished a new statue and it seemed like my technique has worked because i have so so.
A really good place to buy statues is actually Etsy , and so what i do is i find a lot of statues and then i put them into my wish list and then i pretty much you know, give Mari the hint of what i wanted.
For my birthday – and this is what she chose, so this is a gargoyle statue um. It is made out of concrete and then hand-finished, so it has incredible detail and his name is actually paused. You know he already came with that name.
I didn’t, give it that so we’ll, see if we keep that name or if we’re going to change it. Now, when you do a root of a statue, it’s, really important that you choose a statue that does not crumble. That is hard like this a concrete statue.
It is weatherproof, and so this statue is going to last for many many years to come. It is also quite heavy. It is about 20 pounds or so um. Now the treat that i chose to go with it is a vitex tree. It is the vitex retundifolia.
So this is kind of a uh. This is a really cool species, because it’s, a very, very hearty tree. Um it does flower, it does not have any thorns. It grows extremely fast um. This is a cutting that i did actually in the wintertime, so i took it off my other tree in the winter time planted it and it came back to life and when i planted it, it was about a third of this size.
So we’re talking about within the time span of like six to eight months somewhere in there, so they grow extremely extremely fast, which is the perfect candidate to add this tree to your statue, because it will attach very fast since it grows extremely Fast as well so now, the first thing that we’re going to do is actually take the tree and remove all the leaves.
So we can see the structure and the movement of the tree so that we can then attach the tree to the statue at the best possible and most interesting way. So the way that we defoliate this tree is actually we cut right behind the leaf and just remove the leaf, and we kind of leave the patio behind for die back, and so the reason why i chose a vitex has a couple reasons: um i chose the Vitex because it is very fast growing, it is very forgiving, um it flowers, of course, which will add even more drama to the statue, because you have that dark statue with the trunk that’s kind of a similar color, but the trunk is actually Kind of darker, so there’s, a little bit of a contrast in there and then you have these lilac uh light purple flowers um! So that’s, just an added bonus and these guys actually flower all year round.
So that’s, going to be something really cool uh once it’s, finished the whole composition and that’s. Gon na be very special. I think um. Another reason why i chose the uh vitex actually is because the vitex, just as much as the gargoyle has a very rich history, it used to be a medicinal tree.
They used to get pepper from it. They still use vitex to this day for a lot of medicines, and so i thought, since the gargoyle has such an old and rich history, i should pair it with a tree that could potentially have grown in the same area.
So when i put them together that it kind of looks a little bit more realistic versus if i would have chosen like a like a japanese white pine or something like that, that we for sure know, does not grow where the gargoyle may have been displayed right.
So it’s, just something to keep in mind when you do create a rudolph statue, [, Music, ], all right. So now that the tree is defoliated, i get to see the entire structure of the tree and i can style the tree much better.
It is also much easier for the tree to recover once it has been attached to the statue. If the tree doesn’t have to worry about any leaves on top here so now. The next step is actually go to go through the tree and remove all of the depth branches, since this tree was just allowed to grow for one year, uncontrolled there’s, a few branches on the inside that have died off.
You can tell if they’re dead by. If you pull on them, they usually just snap right off right off or you can even scratch you with your fingernail and see if they’re still green below um. So after i go through and clean up the tree and remove all of the dead branches in here, i’m, actually going to go ahead and wire the entire tree.
So i still don’t know what kind of style this tree is going to end up being. All i know is that i have a lot of trunk movement here and then i have a lot of good branches in here, so i do know that this tree is most likely going to be like a a slanting.
It could be a weeping uh. Maybe i plan i i set it back upright and it could be a informal upright tree. So i don’t quite know, but therefore i’m going to wire the entire tree now, because once the tree is attached to a statue, i do not want to go ahead and disturb the roots anymore, so that’S why i’m gonna, do it now for as long this is as sturdy as the tree is going to be right now that it’s still in its original container.
So i’m gonna go ahead and do that now and then we’re gonna go ahead, take it out of the pot and attach it to the statue. Let’s, get to work, [, Music, ]! All right so now that the tree is wired um, we’re gonna go ahead and take it out of the out of its current container and see what we have and just so you guys know um all the cuttings that you take from A vitex you can just plant them and they will just grow, so you can even take really large cuttings.
I’ve, taken cuttings with the trunk size. Diameter of this size, cut it off, parted it and then continue to grow. So they’re, very, very cool tricks um. So let’s, go ahead and take it out of this pot, and so what i do is i kind of squeeze the pot a little bit first, just to loosen it up and then what i like to do at this point is turn your Head like this all right so, first of all, this is pretty incredible that in less than a year that i have this much room and this was the cutting, so it just goes to show you how fast they grow, which makes it absolutely fantastic for root of A statue what i want to do at this point is just take a chopstick and try to remove as much soil as possible because i want to make sure that i know i have all the soil out, because then i can see what the root structure looks.
Like and i can attach the tree to the statue accordingly, and so so, just with the help of a chopstick. This is a very easy job to do all right. So next step is probably my favorite part, but also the most critical part, because now we have to attach the tree to the statue – and this is kind of like what’s exactly like doing root over rock, because once you position the tree, you Can never change this position again, so the way that i put it together today that’s, the way it’s going to have to stay.
So what i look for here is, i look for trunk movement and i also look for the roots, so i, since i have a lot of roots – and once again this was not an air layer. This was a cutting. That was that’s, not even a year old, so very impressive species.
So now i just go ahead and see what is the most interesting part of the statue and so the way that i look at it. I think this could be one front right in here and between the toes right in here. This could be one front where you can see how the the statue kind of leans towards you and you get to appreciate all the features.
So it’d. Be probably something like that another front could be something like this, where you look at it from this side. But when you look at it from this side, you get this shoulder and the hind leg, but then the top of the head kind of disappears.
Whereas on this side, i think you can appreciate that a little more so, okay, so actually on this side, if you look at it on this side, you get both of the legs front, leg, hind leg, you also get the tail and then you get more of The head, so i do feel like this – is going to be my front in here.
So now let’s, see what we can do here so now, when you attach a statue right on top of the tree like on top of statue like this, it always looks kind of like a backpack or it looks too man-made. So i’m thinking of attaching it kind of on the side.
Let’s, see how that goes now. The good thing is when you have a tree that has this much root, you just let the roots attach and thicken up, and then you’re gonna come back uh once all these roots have touched the soil surface and have thickened up.
That’s when you’re, going to come back and then actually uh remove some of these roots that you don’t want. Unless, if i leave as many roots as i have now, they will most likely start to fuse together, so that could also look really cool all right.
So this part is very critical. You want to make sure that you tie the tree against the statue as as firmly as possible, so that if the tree is not pressed against the statue as firmly as possible, the two will not start to uh fuse together.
And so you want to make sure you take some wine, you really crank it, and you really tie this tree up against the statue and that way they will start to grow and fuse together. Now it does kind of look like this.
Guy is wearing like a fur coat at the moment. Um as these roots start to harden off, we’re, going to start to be a little more selective and i think right in there is going to be the front. So you can see statue, you can see everything here.
You can see the trunk movement and then you can see the tree as well, of course. So now, the last step that we’re going to have to do here is really uh put the wires into place. I mean the branches into place somehow and come up with a cool design: I thought that this would, I think it looks so incredibly powerful, now so much character. So much story going on in here i mean you.
Almost couldn’t make this design any more impressive, so to speak. Um i like the little purple flowers. I like the contrast, the trunk movement. It’s, just really really powerful. So next up, we’re, going to go ahead and pop this tree into this new container, and i’m going to cover all of these exposed roots here with moss, and so let’s get started [ Music ]! Do [ Music ] all right, so this is the finished design for today um.
This is the front just like you guys are looking at it now. A lot of things have happened here. I’m, going to try to walk you through it here. So after i position the tree, the composition in the pot – and i tied it down, i used a sheet moss which you can find at any big box store the sheet mouse.
As the name says, it comes in sheets versus it being shredded, which makes it a lot easier to to wrap the this entire section in moss. Now i i attached, i used mouse to cover up the roots, because the roots were still fairly young and they have not hardened off yet.
So i’m gonna i covered this section so that the roots can continue to grow down into the soil and then get established. I use clear wrap. This is just regular packaging. Clear wrap shrink, wrap that i used to um really compact.
This entire package here almost made it look like a it’s, almost like a little uh air layer. If you will, or a very large air layer actually – and i use a shrink – wrap to really squeeze the moss and really press it up against the roots and so that the roots are then being pressed up against the statue, which then will uh attach the tree.
Much faster to the actual statue, so i’m going to keep this package here in place for about a year. In a year from now, i’m, going to go ahead and just peek a little bit and see if some of the roots have thickened up and have attached themselves to the statue.
If, yes, i’m going to remove the package, if no, i’m, just going to leave it for another year, so there’s. No rush in removing this package. This tree has two really good fronts. One is the one that you guys are looking at, which gives me more statue and then another front could be the corner here, which gives me that more of the tree movement for today i went with the statue, but as time progresses, i might change to the Corner and have more of the tree, we’ll, see how that goes, but for now this is um the finished composition for today.
So this is really it for today. I hope that you guys enjoyed this video, please let me know what you think of this composition.
Starting Bonsai From Nursery Stock Part 2
