Betula pendula

rockm

You miss my point. I didn't say birches won't branch. I said those branches can be highly unstable. That means a nicely developed branch that took five years to get rammed out, may just up and die off for no apparent reason...

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salt

Thank you all for your comments!

Carl, thank you for your compliments, but really, how many literati birches have you seen?



Attila, I don’t think the tree suffers, it seems to be growing well. This tree has never put any bud along the stem. It has only been in a bonsai pot the last two years, before that it was growing in a large training pot. But even then all lower branches died one by one while the top was very vigorous. Part of the problem is that the lower left side of the trunk is dead, so I will never get any branches here!



And perhaps I should clarify my feelings about this tree. Yes, I have been frustrated from time to time. But now I have accepted that the tree “wants” to look like this. It took me nine years but finally it seems that the tree and I understand each other. I am now satisfied with the design, what I am wondering now is how I should proceed to refine the current style. Of course I should continue to work on the ramification, but can I improve the silhouette? Should I make the foliage wider, flatter or keep it as it is? And I would also like more pot suggestions, please feel free to repot it virtually!



Again thank you for taking the time to comment my tree!

/magnus

Larry

I cant see the original pic but i really like Blofeld's virtual, a perfect literati-lovely!

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Attila

Well, you've just said something that was probably overlooked by many: If you want to add vigour to young and weak branches, you have to agressively cut back on the vigorous ones.

By the way, there are ways to minimize die-back on birches and alders: it is much less likely for a branch to die back (if not impossible) if there is untouched and lignified new growth on that branch when the tree goes into winter dormancy.


An example to demonstrate what that means:

1. You have a brand new branch grown from the trunk in May.

2. When you get to 5 internodes (alternate leaves), you cut the branch back a little above the second internode in June.

3. You have two new branches emerging from the base of the two leaves. You cut them back the same as the original brach in July.

4. After the above pruning, you have more new growth coming out in July and August on that branch.

5. Here is the most important part: Don't touch that latest new growth. If you cut back the tip of those new branches in the fall, your whole branch might be dead next spring. Don't prune the tree in the fall or during winter. If you do that, you will have serious die-back If you leave them untouched until next May, the branch will live.

Branches don't die for no apparent reason. It's just that often we don't know the species well enough to accomodate for it's requirements.

Before I discovered the above, I used to have lots of die-back on my birches and alders. Now, I have almost none.

I work with 18 different species of birch and 7 different alders, they respond very well to the above technique.

Carl_Bergstrom

Magnus,

Here's the sort of thing that I had in mind for a pot.

Best regards,
Carl

Attached Images

Birch.jpg (23.2 KB, 71 views)

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Larry

That looks really nice Carl, I'm waiting so i can get a pic of my italian alder semi cascade, which is shaping up nicely!

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salt

Here is the tree in its new pot by Horst. What do you think?

Attached Images

bjork2006liten.jpg (34.2 KB, 79 views)

Joanie

It's beautiful!

Joanie

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Larry

Very nice!

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