How to Transform a Yamadori Hawthorn into an Elegant Bonsai
Creating bonsai from wild trees needs good strategy. The first repot demands heavy root reduction, change of planting angle, container selection, and tree stabilisation all need careful consideration.
I’m finally going to be repotting my yamadori literati hawthorne bonsai i’m super excited to see what’s going to happen because i’m going to try and impart this kind of angle it might be awkward because there’s a tricky route let’s see how it goes how’s it all going i hope you’re doing well as you can probably tell by the state of my work surface yeah i am elbow deep in the potting season as if that wasn’t enough i thought i’m also further cold so excuse me if i’m coughing and sounding a bit nasal a bit wheezy i’m suffering all right super excited about this right i’m going to start by carefully pulling back the top of the soil let’s see what we’ve got to work with then oh yeah i’ve got some nice adventitious roots there lovely careful around those lovely lovely i really like what i’m seeing here’s that thick root look this root actually might come in handy got something in mind something in mind for it all right let’s see about getting this tree out the pot then shall we okay there we go all right that’s pretty much spot on more or less so yeah to achieve this angle i’m going to have to come i’ll have to take a fair amount off the bottom here and i’m also going to need to reduce this soil down and then hopefully we’ll be end up with a fairly compact root system to make it easier for me to get this angle i’m going to try to orient the tree perpendicular to the angle that i want i just need a level base and i’m going to start at the base because that’s going to make it much easier for me to to prop the tree up i should really start at the top because that’s where i need to do the most work but if i start at the base it’s just going to make life a little bit easier moving forward so ordinarily i’d get my scraper and i’d rip through this but with it being an older tree yamadori and a hawthorn i want to go a little bit easier on these roots so some of these thicker crossing roots i don’t know how much fine roots attached to them so i’m not going to cut them just yet but where i’ve got finer ones that i can tell i will clip those try and move them out the way a little bit so the root system on this whole thorn is way better than the other hawthorns i’ve repotted so far i don’t need to be too precious so we got loads of beautiful roots to work with got some of these longer sections back to feeder roots gonna make it a bit easier for me to see what’s going on yeah so we’re starting to hit some thicker structural pieces now so that’s telling me to stop here and we’ll come down from the top just means that everything’s just a little bit more stable now it’s not freestanding obviously but it’s just a little bit less wobbly although i’m trying to reduce how much root i cut off this i do know that a root that’s just pointing straight up in the air is no use whatsoever that’s a tie down wire there i do need to work the sides a bit so that i can continue down from the top i do have quite a lot of the roots coming from the top and tangled around the sides so i’m going to have to do something around here this root that’s coming all the way backwards back into the root ball it’s going underneath and it’s also tangling with some of the other bits and bobs i’m going to cut this piece back i’ve identified some secondary pieces we’ve got one here there’s one just down there if i cut it back to that that piece there and i’ll just cut i just cut it out as well i have actually reached a pretty big decision and i’m going to cut back an awkward route that’s coming out here and looping all the way back around the root ball we’ve got if i just part some of these roots this root comes from down here it’s looping all the way around comes all the way out to here and then it just divides into loads of other secondaries and that’s it’s just going to be really awkward the tree’s never going to have as much energy as it’s got now so i might as well be bold and cut back to this nice piece here carefully pull these out there we go yep there it is transition to this one and hopefully we’ll get more developed from that cut end as well now that has in fact revealed another one that’s kind of doing a similar thing and this one’s actually being girdled by a root coming across it there we go so i’ve freed it it’s no longer being girdled and because it doesn’t really have much in the way of secondary roots to cut back to i am actually going to leave that one and keep that ring mass intact yeah i don’t want to cut that one back so this this fine piece can actually come off there’s some really nice structural bits underneath same with these don’t need those although i don’t feel the need to create a stunning maple esque nabari i am going to sort out these roots that are crossing over that nice structural piece there we go that’s a bit better now i know what’s happening at the top here and how much root we’ve got to work with i’m going to come back under here take a little bit more height out of here but first i am going to remove this root because it’s just ridiculous all right so the level plane that i want to establish is something like this we’ve got some structural pieces here look they’re really making it hard for me to reduce it any further it’s interesting where i’ve used organic fertilizer that’s sat on top of the soil the roots have gone sort of started low in the root ball and they’ve actually migrated upwards it’s really interesting that these pity little bits off actually that can come off in the end ah there we go free that bit out take some more off that bit now it’s just going to investigate what i can do with this chunk of wood here because that is going to be my limit [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] so i’ve dealt with the awkward route at the bottom of the trunk there and i’ve done all the route work that i’m going to do at this point so now it’s pot choice this is the fun bit so we’ve got a gavin holden round lovely glaze on that one and ian bailey pot from scotland okay let’s try ian bailey first there is a preferred front on this part i can’t remember where it is but let’s just tie it up for size to begin with just about there that’s that one for size and color i have to say that’s looking pretty strong okay whoops and then again there is a front on this part as well but just for the sake of seeing how it looks okay let me know what you think about that one so that glaze is going to work well with the fall color as well as the fruit i’m super interested to know what you would do let me know down in the comments but i’ve made a decision and my decision is i’m going with this one folks i really like the way the color color i really like the way the color pops i think it’s going to work really well but mostly i find this even though we’re we’ve got a large lean going on and a bit of visual stability would help the design i feel that this drum is too too chunky basically i think it’s too visually heavy for the tree we need something with stability because of the lean but it’s you know it’s very elegant the lines it’s a slender trunk and then we’ve got this big shoe on that looks really clunky i think this one just works a bit better would you have gone the other way let me know just need to find the front of the pot i like having this foot forward and then you get some of these around the side visible i think that’s going to work quite well and we’ve got some nice nice value in the glaze there as well for security because i’ve got nothing structurally on this side i’m going to put a screw into the trunk well below the soil line that i can tie off to then i’ll also put a wire over this structural piece here i’ll push some holes in and then another wire over this structural piece here and with the screw that’s going to keep everything nice and secure [Music] so tying this one in is going to be a little bit awkward simply because of how i’m going to tie off to this this root here so i’ve made some holes either side of the structural root now i’m going to attempt to get my tie down wire up through the hole use my chopstick as a guide okay there’s that one and then i’ve got just a piece of bamboo to guide a second bit of wire okay and i’m just gonna very loosely being careful not to trap any of these nice roots of course very carefully oops rudimentary twist on there just just to reduce the uh chance of it coming off and then i’m going to repeat the same on this side but it’s a bit easier because the holes are larger [Music] okay the tree is now supporting itself right let’s start sorting some of these roots now spray some of these fine roots and i just stopped them from drying i’m just going to post as much root down here as i can i’m not too worried about the thicker secondary roots well the primaries it’s more the the feeder rigs the tertiary roots [Music] just with a nice fine chopstick i’m posting substrate down the sides there and then with a lot of these flying roots i’m going to pin them down with some wire hooks keep them in contact with the soil that way i’m going to use like staples almost on mirai they’re called bopi hooks [Music] and some of these flyaway roots i’m not going to pin all of them down just cut cutting the upward facing ones back so because i’ve got not got any long stranding at the moment i’ll go and get some tomorrow what i’m going to do is i’m going to pack my top dressing right in nice and tight keep everything keep it in the poly tunnel where it’s a bit more humid and tomorrow when i’ve got my long strand smacking them in i will come in and i’ll protect these roots much better than what i’ve done here the long strands will just stay in place much better especially when i start watering all right give it a spray it doesn’t wash off quite so readily when i water it in [Music] youtube i hope you enjoyed this video let me know what you think of the format i’d be really interested to know your thoughts it really helps the channel out if you could drop a like and check if you’re subscribed sometimes you might think you’re subscribed when actually you’re not and it really helps support the channel so i’d really appreciate it thanks for watching
