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Trident Over Rock
I started this little trident from seed. It’s been an interesting journey. When I first started a batch of tridents, a year or two after I started my 2006 batch of black pines, I also started a bunch of Zelkova, Amur Maples, Monterey Cypresses and some Coast Live Oaks. I no longer have any of the Amur’s or those oaks, only one of the Zelkova’s, six of the cypresses and four of the tridents.
I was determined to hate trident maples when I was a beginner. I had no interest in growing stereotypical species and couldn’t understand why people always stuck with the classics in their collections. Was it just a matter of tradition? Well, many years later my interest in Japanese species has increased while my interest in native species has waned. There are numerous reasons, but let’s just say that I am definitely a trident maple fan at this point.
I initially placed this tree over the stone and then ground grew it for a year to get the roots to really grab onto the stone.
The first image I have of this tree, from 2010, when it was a little less than three years old. I had ground grown the tree for one season to get the roots to cling to the rock.
The tree certainly grew while I was in Thousand Oaks, but it didn’t grow very well. None of my deciduous material did. So, three growing seasons largely wasted were followed by another of the tree recovering some health. Then in spring of 2014 I started to think about moving the tree along a little.
Here in November of 2013. The best fall foliage I’ve ever seen in San Francisco was in 2013.
May 2014 after removing the sacrifice branch and defoliating most of the tree.
July 2014, the tree has reacted well to removal of the sacrifice branch and it’s time to wire the new shoots.
The new shoots all wired and moved into new positions. I left the tips to continue to grow to keep the tree strong and set what are a bunch of new primary branches.
A closeup of the stone. Since using this stone I’ve started putting a bit more thought into where I get my stones. This one was just sitting around my yard so I used it. I don’t really have any choice about changing it at this point so I just have to live with it. On the whole, I think lava is a bit boring for a bonsai composition. The texture and coloration is usually homogeneous and there isn’t really any visual depth to the surface.
The tree has come along nicely during the 2014 growing season, and in my next post I’ll show it being repotted and some pot choices.
3 Comments
Jeremiah Lee
January 21, 2015Very nice Eric, I really enjoy seeing all your progressions and learning from your experience of growing trees from seed and cutting.
Eric Schrader
January 23, 2015Thanks Jeremiah. It only took ten years worth of growing for me to have enough to blog about!
PHUTU » Trident Repotting
January 28, 2015[…] Trident Over Rock […]