I’m starting the process of exposing the roots on my “Little Cedar Spirit Tree”, root over rock planting.
hi everyone nigel saunders here it has been just over a year since i planted my little cedar spirit tree over top of this limestone rock i placed all kinds of rocks around the roots to hold the roots tight against the limestone rock so today we’re going to be removing all these rocks because this planting weighs a lot my little cedar spirit tree is a fuja tree and they’re known for growing a good root system so i hope the roots have grown enough to grip the rock and i can kind of permanently remove all these supporting rocks around it the reason that i want to remove some of the rocks in the soil today is to see what’s going on with the root system down here what i don’t want to have happen is one root kind of takes off and grows really thick and the rest of the roots around the radial root base kind of die off so i want to grow kind of an equal balanced root system that kind of grows out around the rock so this is a very exciting moment for me it’s been a year since i planted it and i want to see what’s going on because i totally forget what is underneath all these rocks and soil so it’ll be kind of exciting to see it again so here we go i’m going to start by removing the rocks that surround the tree and then i’ll just be left with the soil and all the weeds that i’ll have to clean up now i think i think that is part of the original rock that i planted it on i think there’s kind of a high point and then a little plateau that the tree roots grip so let’s get out the root rake now all right here i go with the raking so a lot of these surface roots that are sticking up too high they’ll just kind of air dry and die off the only roots i want to keep are the ones that kind of are gripping the rock tightly so i would say you know out of all these fine roots only maybe 25 will remain in the final planting i’m going to get the misting bottle because roots like this i’m not sure if i’ll need them or not and i don’t want them drying out in the sun i may have to tuck them down into the soil there all right time for a little misting [Music] that’s good so i’ll continue going around the tree combing away the soil exposing the rock more getting rid of weeds i’ve got a lot of the roots exposed on the tree now so now i want to test the tree and see how stable it is on the rock if it looks like it’s really loose then i know i have to put the soil back on and cover it up for another year if the tree is fairly tight on the rock then i can leave some of the roots exposed so here i go it’s on there pretty good it wiggles a little bit but it’s definitely kind of anchored in place so that’s a good thing so i can definitely expose some of these surface roots and then i’ll cover up the rest with just moss and that should hold the tree in place just fine the top part of a root like up here around here they don’t take in any nutrients at all it’s only the root tips the fine kind of white root tips that absorb water and nutrients and feed it up to the tree so i can expose all these roots at the base of the tree and it won’t hurt the health of the tree at all i’ll start to comb out the soil kind of bare rooting the upper portion of the root base so i’ll use my mister i’ll put it on jet there we go and i’ll kind of get rid of the soil in the upper section here of the roots i can start exposing these parts of the roots to sunlight so they build up and they’ll get bark on them and start to look kind of old and match the age of the tree eventually so i’ll get some of this soil out of this pocket here you can see on the root base here there’s a few roots that are a little high so i may have to push those down with a rock just to keep them in place i don’t want to lose some of these nice radial roots there’s one dead root here i can remove that didn’t make it move some of these root hairs that didn’t make it here there’s some roots up here that look like they’ve dried up yeah they’re dead so get rid of those [Music] i probably didn’t want them going over the edge of the rock here anyway i kind of want the tree kind of contained in this pocket here so i’ll do a little root pruning here getting rid of some of the high roots you can tell the roots that are alive are a nice reddish color and when they die they kind of turn black so this root has to be relocated this one here so i’ll dig out this pocket here and i can put fresh soil in here so it’s no problem digging out the soil and then it’s got to get pulled out like that so there’s enough length to kind of push it against here against the rock so that’s looking better hopefully there’s enough roots kind of going against the rock that i can maybe prune away some of these ones sticking out into space you can see at the moment it’s like a cascade of roots coming off here so in the final planting i only want like maybe three or four roots here not you know a hundred so you know the ones that are growing close to the rock will live the ones that are sticking out in the air will kind of air prune and die so ones like this we don’t need just give it a trim there’s one here sticking out i don’t need i’m back to the front of the tree and this is kind of the most critical area because this is where you’ll see all these roots so i got to make sure they’re looking good from the front here so i’ve got a few that are trying to grow across the rock here and this rock will get raised up in the future i’m keeping it low in the pot at the moment until all those roots get more established i’ve got the tree to the point where i’ve kind of got the roots exposed you can see the original rockets planted on so i think now i’ve got to apply moss around the roots just kind of maybe about that high leaving the top of the roots exposed and then they’ll sort themselves out out of these hundreds of roots on here they’ll only be a few that’ll survive and the rest will kind of dry up and that’s what i want i only want you know maybe i don’t know 10 to 20 surface roots around this tree kind of gripping the rock and the rest will eventually dry up or get pruned away so i’ll find some moss now to place around the tree i found a good selection of moss on the front sidewalk there it grows in full sun so i’ll give it some water it’s very dry we’ve had a very kind of dry spring so i’ll get it soaking and then i can apply it to the planting that’s the spray i’m looking for all right let’s start putting it around the base of the roots before i start applying the moss i’m just having a look at the root system i notice there’s one root that kind of i don’t know it does something funny so i’m going to remove that so it starts way up here so that’s gone let’s just peel it out of there there now i don’t want any kind of major crossing routes that one’s got to go you know anything that’s going to look funny in the future i don’t mind like a minor roots crossing that but you want a basic major root structure that’s in place first you know a radial root structure and then you know as the tree gets older and older maybe you’ll develop some finer roots crossing your thicker ones so you want your thicker roots to be sorted out and then the minor ones can be the imperfections in the root base that give it that natural look okay am i happy with that i think i am let’s start applying the moss so i want the moss kind of maybe up here i don’t want it going all the way up to the base of the tree but i want to expose a bit of the roots so i’m going to push it in right here and i find that the cracks in the sidewalk they fill up with this fine silt i guess it blows across the sidewalk and you know the dust settles in the cracks so the moss grows in really fine soil which is excellent for growing moss and it’s good for this kind of work it almost makes kind of a natural mud i’ll put moss underneath and it’ll support it that layer that i have up top so this moss doesn’t look very good at the moment and that’s because it’s dry out i planted my ficus micro carpa and i put the same kind of moss around it and it looked dry and crusty i’ll show you that moss now here’s my ficus micro carpet my very first bonsai that i grew from a seed and here’s a look at that moss that was dry and crusty and now it’s just like velvet it’s so beautiful yeah it looks really nice at the base of the tree so that’ll slowly creep up towards the root base and i will eventually have to you know keep it trimmed back from the tree so yeah it’s looking good the tree it’s uh starting to grow with vigor from being outside here i don’t have it in the greenhouse because i find the trees grow better on the bench where they get a cool breeze full sun and i keep them watered and fertilized well if i want to grow aerial roots the best thing is once they’re growing really really vigorously then you put it in the greenhouse and keep them a little darker and that seems to really stimulate roots and so i’m going to try that later on this year once it starts growing like out of control i’ll put it in the greenhouse keep it really hot and humid in there and see if i can grow roots and i also keep the soil dry when it’s in the greenhouse so that also stimulates the formation of aerial roots all right i’ll continue the application of moss around here there’s that root sticking up that i want to keep pressed into the against the rock here so keep keep that secured in place with the moss like that so this is year two for the root over rock planting so i’m already partially exposing the roots and the next year i’ll reveal even more of them until eventually it’s just a root over the rock planting now i might have to go around the back here right here and start applying moss again making sure it’s into the roots nicely i’ll uh keep it moist i keep kind of applying the moss to get it into those roots kind of working it into the roots almost this tree is just going to keep getting better and better into the future so i’m really excited about it it’s starting to get older it has a lot of character in it already it doesn’t conform to any rules it’s just a cool tree i’m going to put a bit of moss up top here on the plateau just to kind of give it a little pocket of soil to grow roots in and they’ll probably grow in here and down eventually as they say in jurassic park life always finds a way as long as i expose some roots today i’ll be happy and get rid of all those really heavy rocks this thing was really hard to lift it’s like one of my smaller trees but it was one of my most heavy it’s even heavier than some of those great big landscape plantings this is looking really good the moss is really forming to the roots now holding that moisture in yeah this is going to be good okay so i just got a plant around here i just gonna put moss here just so the weeds don’t grow up i got some more dried up moss so i’ll give it some water and hydrate it [Music] fill the whole thick tray up here there let that soak for a bit and then i’ll apply it all right i’ll continue applying the moss now completely covering the soil surface so hopefully i don’t get all these weeds growing in it i’ll probably get such beautiful moss growing on this planting that i won’t want to peel it away in the future it’ll be so beautiful looking but i think the roots will be better though someday okay we just double check make sure all this moss is nice pressed against the roots that’s all looking good here’s a look at the tree now it maybe doesn’t look like a root over rock planting yet but big steps today getting all those rocks removed around the root base kind of holding those roots against the main rock so that was a big step getting rid of those getting the moss planted around there which will help those roots stay hydrated kind of transitioning it from you know dry roots up at the top down to the moist roots in the container so i think you’re going to see it grow really well this year i uh i’m looking forward to the next year where where i can remove even more of this soil and moss from around the roots that’ll be exciting and gradually you know exposing the entire rock eventually and raising that rock up so you can see it so it looks like a tree that’s growing off the edge of a cliff just like the real little cedar spirit tree so i need to go up top now uh it’s starting to get its new growth in for this year and these trees just kind of continually grow throughout the whole summer so i need to do some pinching up top just to kind of balance the vigor on the tree i’m starting to get a few of these rocket type branches they’ll just take off and grow really vigorously so i’m just going to pinch the tips off of those kind of balancing the vigor on the tree so these shoots don’t just take off and shoot up maybe i’ll take even more off that one and uh kind of grow the tree out a little more evenly and that may cause back budding in here and you know eventually i can do further styling to the tree i think that’s pretty good for the pinching i think i’ve kind of balanced the vigor a bit i’ll keep at it over the summer trying to get more branch structure so it gives me further choices for pruning in the future because i want to keep this tree fairly compact and i want it to look really old so i’ll get a lot of branches with character i hope i didn’t do any pinching on the tree last year because it was repotted over the rock and my first priority after repotting a tree is to regrow the roots so i just left it grow wild last year and then in spring i pruned it back and now i’ve pruned it again so this year i’ll be able to do more you know branch pinching on it to kind of keep it shaped and more compact it’s time for today’s updates my cascade lemon tree here is getting all kinds of new growth on it all over so there’s my apex and then my sort of semi cascading branch here so all kinds of new shoots so that’s good to see looks like it’s growing well this summer i think it’ll be a cool tree someday here’s the counterpart to the little cedar spirit tree and i call this one the witch’s tree both look kind of contorted and twisted and spooky looking this one is also a very heavy planting you can see all the rocks i have around it to hold the roots against the rock that’s buried in here and you can also see all the liverwart i gotta get i gotta get to this one next i think or soon yeah this tree is getting a lot of character on the trunk it’s uh pretty cool i think this will also be a nice tree in the future so i’m dying to you know eventually get this exposed with just root over rock and this is a sort of a landscape planting so you have the water over here and the main rock over here which i don’t think that’s not it there so it’s hidden underneath here so yeah that’ll be exciting to get this one exposed in the future too my flat top scots pine is sort of a more advanced root over rock planting so you can see the roots growing over top of the rock here it’s not 100 stable on the rock but it’s pretty good these are thickening up these roots and this was done exactly the same way rocks holding the roots against the main rock here and then slowly exposing it my ficus microcarpa fancy is still doing well it’s in full sun now i’ve taken it out of the greenhouse i just keep it well watered and misted it’s doing well my ponytail palm is growing really well and i’ve debated about you know cutting it back this year and then i thought well see all these hanging leaves they kind of hang lower than the pot here so and i would like to raise the tree up you know grow it a little higher so when all these leaves are cascading down the sides it’s kind of at the level of the pot here or even higher so i think i’ll do that i think i’m going to grow all these tops taller so i can get these leaves raised up so you can see get a view of the trunk right now it’s kind of hidden by all this foliage so that’s my plans for the ponytail palm i’ll just let it kind of grow and mature for the summer on the other side of the coin my yucca forest here is growing too tall you can see all these shoots are extending up quite high um so this year in the middle of the summer when it’s really hot i’m going to do a a chop on all the trees cutting them back to size and then i’ll see what uh see what new shoots come out yeah sometimes you get new shoots sometimes you don’t you can see all the previous stubs where i’ve cut cut it back and nothing grew in that direction so here’s some really old stubs down here that have healed over completely i don’t know if you can see those yeah so that’s due for the big chopping back in the middle of summer this year so i’m letting it grow now to get it really vigorous to prepare for this operation the japanese black pine that i repotted this spring is growing really well once these needles kind of mature a bit i’ll start removing these lower needles there’s a few that have dried up already so you can see the base of the tree right now you can’t see anything there you can’t see any of the trunk so it’ll be kind of nice to raise that up a bit i’ve got my little cedar spirit tree back on the bench here in full sun so i’ll keep it misted and well watered so it doesn’t dry out much around the roots here over the next few weeks maybe even month the weather is just fantastic today there’s a cool breeze it’s sunny warm i love it that’s all for today i’m nigel saunders thanks for joining me in the bonsai zone
