How to Start Bonsai From Nursery Stock Part 1
I have started a lot of bonsai from plant material that i bought in a big box store, and i was visiting Canadian tire the other day and my wife and i went through the garden section and of course i Bought a couple of trees before i show you the trees i bought, i’ll, show you an update to all the little seeds and seedlings. I want to start Bonsai from nursery stock.
So here’s, my giant sequoias, which aren’t very giant. Yet they’re, just little tiny little tiny trees. So i have one two three, four, five, six, six that are pushing out of the soil, so that’s, pretty good.
I’m glad over here. Remember those pine nuts. I planted well just yesterday evening one started pushing out of the soil, so there it is there so that’s, really awesome. It looks huge too there’s, the size of my finger compared to it so that’s.
Pushing up really nicely so i’m happy to get one of those that’s. Awesome over here i’ve got my jerusalem thorns coming up, so they’re, getting taller. They’re. Doing really well the mystery seeds, you can see them coming up out of the ground here.
Still no sign of the true leaves on them. So i don’t know what they are yet, but hopefully something cool. Someone in the comments said they thought they were a some kind of a gum tree that would be cool, nothing happening in the hornbeam section and nothing happening in the dogwood section.
Yet so i’m still hoping something comes up there, all right. Let’s, go see those trees. I bought here’s, a look at the two trees that i bought. I got a ketone aster and a french lilac you’ll, never guess how much i paid for this cotoneaster.
You’ll, just never guess i’ll turn it around. So you can see it any guesses on how much i paid for it. Oh there. It is right there, so that was 16.99 and i hummed and hot about it, and i thought well, it has a really nice trunk.
There was also some very strange writing on the label. It says happy 28th birthday, jan jansen, from aubry and the bonsai zone wow that’s, a strange thing to have on the label. I really doubt that you’ll, be able to see the trunk in here, but i’ll, try and show it to you there.
It is. Does that show up maybe a little bit there yeah, so it’s. A good sized trunk for a cotoneaster, usually they’re. Very you know you get a pot this size and there’s a whole bunch of whips in it very small uh plants, and so this one had a nice trunk.
Lots of branch choices, so i thought yeah, you know if i’m going to buy a cotoneaster. This is the one – and i did my french lilac here. Also has a nice nice basic structure to it? It’s, a fila remembrance, french, hybrid lilac, and there’s.
The scientific name. I’m, not even going to try and read it because i’ll mess it up. So here’s. What it looks like so it has, you know, a fairly good-looking root structure from what i see it comes up.
It divides just cleaning out some stuff there. It divides divides again, so it’s got a very you know, pleasing basic structure to it, and you know the leaves the leaves in the lilac they can get large.
You know you can see them starting to get large. The more the chute grows. The larger the leaves get, but if you come back to some of the earlier growth of the season back here, you can get some fairly small leaves on it.
So i think you know with some bonsai techniques. I think you can make a really attractive tree and the fact it gets these beautiful white flowers on it will be just spectacular, yeah, so two new bone size for the bonsai zone exciting.
I’m, going to do some initial work to these trees. Today, getting them ready for their journey as a bonsai, i won’t, be repotting them. Today they’re in good draining soil. They’re in nice sized pots, so i’m, going to wait until spring.
So this year i’m just going to start working on the top of the trees. Let’s head to france now and we’ll start working on the french lilac. I’ll, put the tree on my spinning tree boneside turntable and i can have a good look at it now.
So i’ll rotate it around look at it from all sides and decide. What do i like about the tree and what don’t i like about it? I can’t, really see the tree much with this label in the way, so i’ll cut that off like that and get it.
This elastic out of here there i’ll, rotate the tree around now. So i’ve got the basic trunk coming up and then i ‘ Ve got a huge branch off to this side, so i ‘ Ve got to decide: do i keep that branch, or do i get rid of it? From this view you can see it has a little bit of movement to it, not much taper.
There was a branch coming off here there’s, a bit of a green leaf there. There’s, some nice kind of horizontal branches coming off at this level, so it could be shortened. I guess it’s been shortened higher up uh coming around the tree.
There’s, a few branches here that have died off. So i just kind of picked those away at the back here. If you can see that there’s, a kind of a split up the trunk hard to see, but right there, that’s healed over quite nicely so interesting feature.
I’ll, start the work by cleaning up the root base, so i’m just going to dip my toothbrush in water, rain, water and clean away some of the moss and debris at the base of the tree. I checked the base of the tree and it doesn’t look like there’s any grafting. It looks like the trees. Rootstock is in the soil here. So that’s. Good, i won’t, get any kind of unsightly bulges in the future of this tree, because the lilac is a fairly large leaf tree.
It doesn’t have really fine tight growth, so i think it’s suitable for a medium to a larger size bonsai. So i’m going to keep that in mind. When i’m styling, the tree i don’t want to style the tree for you know to be this high.
I want it to be a fairly large bonsai in the future. When you’re growing, a medium to a large size, bonsai you don’t want your lowest branches this low on the tree. You want them starting. You know you want to see a bit of the trunk on the tree, so this branch, i feel, is too low for a medium to large size bonsai.
Otherwise it would look like a more like a clump style as it matures right now. That is contributing to thickening up the trunk, so i could leave it on as a sacrifice branch but the longer i leave it on the longer it takes to heal the wound there.
So i do want fairly. You know a nice smooth flowing trunk in the future. So i’m, going to take that branch off all right here i go. I’ll, just put it off roughly at first right here it’s, a tough one like that.
Do you remember the little duck that i showed you in the bonsai pot long ago? Well, here it is with his mommy here my wife hi. Look, how big you are now hello, wow, he sure sticks with you, doesn’t. He laura okay, bye, bye, you’re.
Looking good! Oh you want to come see me. You can come see me, hello, hi, hello! Oh you’re, a darling hi! You just want to be on youtube. I think yeah! You want to be a youtuber, i think yeah well enjoy the outdoors.
Yeah hey you’re, getting to be more heavy too just wants to cuddle up. Oh what a cute guy just wants to cuddle. Okay off to see your mama! Now, no, you go see your mama go, see your mama bye bye! I’m, going to clean up that stub.
Now, so let’s. Do that i’ll, come in here with the knob cutters and just take it off: [ Music, ], [, Music ]. So there we go okay. I think that’ll, heal over quite nicely in the future. Now i’m looking at the tree and i’ve got some other low branches. Here i’ve got one here and one down here and again. If this was going to be a small bonsai, you know this high. You definitely want to keep those branches, because that would form your branch structure and the crown of the tree, but because i want this to be a medium to large size bone size.
I still think these branches are too low. So i’m, going to remove them again. I’ll, come in and just roughly cut them off here’s, the first one and then around here for the second one. This looks like a really vigorous branch too there and a newer branch, because it was quite easy to cut all right.
I’ll clean those up now that’s good for that one, and this one i’ll, come in and be a little more of a there that’s good okay! Now there’s, a few little branches here i want to clean those off also clean the tree up, so we’re just going to try and grow a nice smooth trunk.
Okay, so i can go up the tree now. Most lilacs will root from cuttings, so i’m, going to remove the lower leaves on the cutting and i’ll plant it and see. If i can get a new lilac tree, i’ll place the lilacs in my seed tray here.
So there’s, that’s. Probably my best cutting i’ll. Put that right in here, [ Music ], a small cutting. I’ll place that in the other corner here and then i ‘ Ve got the really skinny one. I can place that down here in this corner and then i got the really really tall one.
I’ll place that right here right there and then i’ll, give it a water just to make sure there’s. You know water all around the cuttings if they don’t take his cuttings. Well, there’s. No harm done. I’m, making my way up the trunk there’s a stub here i can prune off a dead stub from a previous branch.
Another one here. So i’m coming up the tree and i ‘ Ve got a division here of two two branches sort of sort of a fork, and i’ve got to decide. Well. Is that high enough? Is that where i want my first division on the tree, it’s, not a bad height.
I’ll prune there’s. Another dead piece take that off with my y-shaped division. Here i have one branch that’s thicker than the other one and the other one is thinner. So i’ll. Keep the thicker one as my trunk line, which extends upwards and the thinner one is more of a side branch there’s a look at that division, the thinner one will become a branch, the thicker one, a trunk line. I’m, going to pick a front for the tree now and that may determine which branches i keep and which ones i remove.
So i’m, going to rotate it around. So i like somewhere about here, coming forward towards you, the smaller branch off to the side, this one off to this side. So i’m going to prune this really tall one back.
I’m going to there’s, a leaf facing outwards, so i’ll prune just above that. So here i go. I’ll leave a bit for die back like that. I ‘ Ve got a branch here. I’ve got branch back here one here as i get up here, i’ve got bar branches.
I ‘ Ve, got a branch right across from the other one. So i’m. Going to keep the one that flows to the outside of the tree, so i’ll, get rid of the inner one here like that. I think that’s got the branch structure pruned up quite nicely.
The next thing i want to do is just shorten everything i don’t want big stiff branches growing without any taper or movement. So i’m, going to prune the whole tree back. Let it grow out again then prune it back again.
So all my branches have a bit of movement and character to them, so they’re, not just smooth – and you know large sweeping branches like this one, just with no tape or no movement. So i’ll, just start the pruning back now, um i’ll, go back to my front view here and there i go.
I have the start of a bonsai. I’ll plant. All these new cuttings in a separate pot that way. If someone wants this species as a bonsai or even as a a garden plant or tree, they can take the pot with them.
I’ll rotate the lilac around, so you can see it from 360 degrees. So here i go so well. I think it’s. A good start. I think it’ll, be a a nice tree. Someday now comes the harder part, so i’ve got to get a tree out of this cotoneaster.
