Anyone who knows bonsai knows this: every stump is a treasure
Miniature bonsai and mini landscapesWeChat: heyayayiqiwanhuacao
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This is a multi-trunk tree growing in a friend's yard. When the yard needed to be rebuilt into a garden, I helped with the planning and construction. This messy 4.5 m tall tree was dug out as an obstacle to construction, and like an antique collector who has found a treasure, I took it into my "bowl"
That autumn, I helped them remove this clump of trees.
When I got home, I studied each trunk one by one, used a sharp saw to lower the height further, and cut off all the branches. I often wondered how old these trees were, so I decided to take the growth rings from the largest trunk. As I expected, the rings were very close together, because this tree is a slow-growing species.
I counted carefully again and again with a magnifying glass, more than 110 rings! I was startled! Because I had not expected this tree to be so old. A delightful and unexpected surprise, but would it now sprout and grow?
The tree was planted where I hoped it would grow well. That spring, vigorous green shoots emerged from many places on the trunk and soon became a leafy stem! It grew in the garden for two years, and then was planted in a very large pot.
I removed most of the remaining branches and connected the rest to form the future branches. A dense canopy was planned to be hidden away, growing like a young sapling, full of vigor. While growing in the pot, it was a little tender, and that winter it was well protected in a cold greenhouse and stayed in the pot for a year.
In spring, I found it a more suitable large rectangular pot. The well-developed root system was pruned, and I planted the tree in the pot. To maintain vigor, I added quite a lot of fertilizer. The branches continued to grow well, except that the branch at the lower right turned yellow and looked weak.
I worked hard to prune the other branches back so that energy would be redirected to this branch, and after more than a year, it began to sprout and grow happily again. At this stage the tree was completely fixed in shape. Although it was healthy, it grew slowly - it took 110 years to reach 4.1/2 m!
The tree stayed in the garden for two years, and this period was certainly beneficial to the tree, which had now grown a little long. I put the tree back into the pot, and was very happy to see a very compact, healthy, fibrous root system. All downward growth was pruned to determine leaf quality and branch connections. The bonsai was initially completed.
I estimate it may take at least five years to reach the height of the trunk I sawed, exposing the growth rings. So, according to my calculations, this is a 125-year-old tree!
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