Pruning & Styling My Cork Bark Chinese Elm Bonsai
Now i’m gonna do it this video i’m pruning my cork bark chinese elm bonsai the first step which we call the cleaning phase involves going through the tree and looking for any really obvious bits of growth or unwanted branches that we can cut off with very little thought anything that’s growing down or shaded out is going to be very weak this branch is growing back in towards the trunk and doesn’t give me a very nice line one two there are four pieces coming from this junction it’s going to cause an ugly knuckle to form there as it’s also the lower down piece i’m going to remove this one this branch is also coming from the same knuckle it’s very straight and doesn’t have much going for it so i’ve left one on this side and these two i don’t know for sure if i’ll need them so i’m going to leave them be for now i’m going to prune out these small pieces they’re definitely not needed there’s some more here inside this crutch and outside as well as i’m going through this process i’m constantly asking myself am i sure i don’t need this if i cut it off is there something nearby that i can use if i change my mind is it near something else which is more valuable that looks nicer or is better positioned how i choose to proceed with this branch is going to depend on the choices that i make in the other areas and how that impacts the design and because i don’t know what i’m doing in the other areas yet i can’t make the decision here a little bit of discipline is required in this phase not to go too mad and cut everything off and strip yourself of all the choices in the next step when we come to actually make the hard decisions now we’ve got the cleaning out the way it’s time to actually impart a little bit of style into the choices that we’re making now one of my observations about this trunk is that it’s slow to taper and it’s got some nice movement to it so i really want to carry that theme through to the branches and i want longer flowing branches if the tree was tapering to a point and was much stronger and firmly planted in the pot then i’d probably look to create shorter stubbier branches but because we’ve got this nice line i want to try and emphasize that with the branches so i do want to keep this branch if this branch wasn’t here we’d we’d have quite a lot of empty space in this area but i do think it’s far too congested and stubby as it currently stands we’ve got a very strong branch up here so it does make me wonder if i need this thin piece here but i’ll leave that there for the time being we’ve got a little branch around the back here that’s going to be dead useful we’ve got this one off we’ve got a couple here off to the side to choose from i’m choosing to remove this upper piece because it’s on roughly the same level as this piece and that one round the back so that’s a good choice to make i think i do like the way that this piece is coming forward a bit and i like its upward orientation so i think i might keep that one as a result i’m going to prune this piece away because we don’t need two so close together i’m going to remove this thin piece on the inside because now i know that i’m going for longer branches i definitely don’t need that now i like the length of this but we have got an ugly knuckle forming just there so i am in fact going to remove this branch as well so now we’ve got a nice depth piece here so i’ll remove this lower piece and that gives us plenty to work with on this section for the length i do like it quite long and i cut back the length to two separate pieces like so this bit down the back here it’s quite it’s quite straight and long so it’d be nice to get a bit of uh movement and taper into that section so i’m going to cut back to this one small piece here and this piece here and i like the way it divides here and then comes here so it’s creating a nice alternating pattern there’s just a small guy on here that i don’t want and then out on the tip here i am going to cut back to one two there like so i am going to drop that back to there just to take some of the length out so it’s not all the same length i’ll cut back to there the last decision that i’ve got left to make on this particular branch is what length to cut this back to now i notice i’ve got quite an ugly bulge here that doesn’t look very attractive so it’s quite easy for me to just come in and cut back we don’t want to end up with a tree that’s completely flat and has no depth and that’s why i want to keep this branch on the tree because i can use it to create depth as it comes out to the background and so just to make a couple of decisions on this particular branch we’ve got a dead stub on the tip there i’ve got a really tiny wispy piece on the inside i’ll probably use some wire to move it in this direction so i am going to just knock this piece off as well this small wheat branch and this small reed branch i’m not sure if i’m going to use them in the design but they’re too small and weak to prune if i’m going to use them they need to get stronger and to do that they just need to be left to grow so i won’t cut anything off these two now let’s look at this branch so i’ve already decided they’ll emphasize the flowing nature of the branches and i want them a little bit longer i’ll take that one off a couple of small dead bits on the inside of this particular branch and i’m also going to remove this piece to really emphasize the length that we’ve got here although i want the length this is too long as it stands at the moment so i’m going to cut back to some to a nice viable length that’s got some buds uh this guy’s all right but this one’s a bit on the long side so let’s see now so we’ve got very tiny one then we’ve got one two so we’ve got back to there and then we’ve got tiny one one two next as we work up the tree is this thicker branch i’ve just noticed that this branch here is completely dead didn’t see that in the cleaning phase this is the next branch that we’re going to look at now and this is the big one we’ve got a multitude of branches coming from this point if i leave all of those in place it’s going to get thick cause a knuckle and it’s just going to look really ugly it’s just going to break the flow in the line so the first move i want to make is to remove this vertical piece i really don’t like the way it’s creating a a y shape that looks like a slingshot here i also think it looks looks too symmetrical here we come in with my branch pruners here we go that’s really improved this area greatly in my opinion but we’ve still got too many branches coming from this point so the next thing i’m looking at is this this thicker piece that’s coming straight out it’s forming a continued line with with the original primary branch that it’s coming from it’s pretty straight and taperless so i i think i’m actually going to take this this entire thicker piece out as well and then i’ll be able to decide which of these pieces i keep and which i remove yeah i think that’s the right decision okay i’m just going to come in just a little bit awkward engage those jaws and here we go so this one’s coming coming out kind of straight and it’s not particularly interesting it’s also in an area where i’ve got other options in that same direction so i’m going to remove that one first i’m going to keep this piece because it’s got a nice change of direction and i’m going to keep this stronger piece and cut the weaker one off so this branch is way longer than i need it i think it was if it was somewhere around this length that would be perfect and on the end we’ve got quite a lot a strong chute got a weaker shoot here if i pop this strong shoot off and then trim back that stub that’s going to give us two nice tertiary pieces to work with on the inside here you can see there’s some very tiny buds now they’re not reliable on arms so when i prune back these finer pieces i’m going to go i’m going to ignore those even that tiny one there i’m going to ignore i’m going to say one two and i cut back to that second but and then later on in the year we’ll come back and look what has developed and what hasn’t and if necessary prune back to two here with this branch coming back towards the trunk i’d quite like to move it out in that direction and we’ve got this piece that’s continuing towards the trunk and this small piece is in much better position to start moving away from the trunk so i’m going to use a technique called directional pruning to correct that so i’m directional pruning is simply cutting back to a bud or a branch that’s heading in the most favorable direction which is this piece in this example this piece here in the upper region is getting quite thick it’s actually disturbing the flow of the trunk line your eye wants to follow this piece rather than this beautiful curve and transition of taper that we’ve got and i’m going to put a bit of wound sealer on there oh just look at the way the trunk flows now look at that line oh my goodness love that i’ve been dying to cut that thing off when you need to strengthen the lower branches it’s important to cut back the upper branches harder so that they’re shorter than the lower branches are now i’m definitely developing these lower branches they’re nowhere near what i’d like them to be so that’s what i’m going to be doing today where we’ve removed that heavy branch i’m going to use this one to fill the space that’s been left behind but because it’s higher up on the tree i am i am going to prune it back so it’s pretty straight all the way out here and i’ve got something to cut back to there so i’ll just take that end off i’ll also look for some buds on this to cut back to there we go so we’ve got some little ones on there they may not develop so i’ll cut back to there this branch is a little bit longer than i’d like it to be and it’s not very well tapered so i’m going to look for two pieces to cut back to i’ve got a small nice fine piece here and i’ve got this piece here so i’ll cut back to leave those two in place just out here we’ve got a couple of really beautiful fine pieces that i’m going to cut back to stunning little branch you might not want to be pruning your tree quite as hard as i am and that’s fine but i’m really making some sound logical structural decisions here so i’ve got no worries at all that i’m benefiting the tree in the long run deciduous bonsai is a case of one step back two steps forward and that’s exactly what i’m doing here today it might look drastic but it’s it’s pretty routine and this next piece is a good example of that here we’ve got somewhere i pruned in the last year or two and this vertical piece has really started to build up some momentum and because it’s a little bit congested in this area i’m going to bring that back to a really nice fine piece i’m going to cut back to see where we’ve got some birds so we’ve got some right on the inside there just in here there we go boom just real quick on this branch i’m going to pop that off cut back to two birds i’ll leave that piece a bit longer with three buds and with this upper piece gaining a bit of strength i’m gonna cut back reasonably hard to there that piece to there with a bit of wire that can be our apex let’s just cut back to a couple of buds on these pieces as well up here it’s like i said up here it’s important to prune even the finer pieces otherwise they’ll just absolutely rock it off in the spring leaving the branches down below behind with your trees as a beginner you might choose not to go quite as drastic as i’ve gone here but hopefully you can see that all of the decisions that i’ve made have good well maybe not good have at least some justification behind them i’m not just hacking at this tree i’m making informed decisions my question for you is what do you think i should do about this branch do you think i should cut it off it’s getting a bit thick it’s pretty straight and there is this one here behind it what do you reckon let me know right it’s a couple of weeks later now and i’m going to put some wire on this tree allow these branches a bit more beautiful beautiful a bit more attractively [Music] i’m actually going to cut this piece back after all and also i’ve just decided that this is coming off i’m just going to take this one back to some buds there we go that’s looking a bit better now i don’t know about you but i think the apricor region needs looking at now i think this is coming i don’t know too far forwards it’s kind of too thick for the apex yeah and also this piece off to the side here where’s that going it’s just disappearing off into the distance now i reckon this is our new apex what do you think now i’m gonna do it here we go yes sir i wasn’t planning on wiring this piece or this piece but if i don’t they’ll look weird and then someone will say it looks ugly right where’s the front somewhere in there cork bar calm done
