Styrax Japonica

Yandrosxx

I picked this Japanese Snowbell up at an abandoned nursery last year. It had grown into the ground where they had healed it in. As is typical with balled nursery trees, it's root ball was solid clay. After cutting off all of the thick limbs, I left it to grow unchecked last season.

I just washed off all of the old soil and potted it in a pot that is a bit larger than the root ball. The initial photos show the condition of the root ball and a potential problem. I hope you can see that there are essentially two layers of thick roots. The top consists of generally smaller roots ( with the exception of one massive one) and better potental nebari and the lower layer is full of thick fused roots.

My intention is to allow it to grow denser feeder roots over a couple of seasons filling in the top layer and then cut off the lower layer. At that time, I intend to plant it in a slightly shallower pot.

I also wonder if the tree really has enough taper. It is 22 inches high to the point where the smaller leader starts and it is 32 inches to the tip of the leader. I intend to grow it to 36 inches in height. I would like for this tree to have a tall, slender and delicate appearance versus a squat powerful appearance, such as what you typically see in specimen trident maples.

That said, I still wonder if it needs better taper and whether it is worth trunk chopping it at a lower point on the trunk and growing a new leader from that point on.

Thoughts?

Attached Images

	Styrax1.jpg (69.8 KB, 35 views)
	Styrax2.jpg (68.3 KB, 19 views)
	Styrax3.jpg (69.7 KB, 17 views)

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Yandrosxx

More photos.

Attached Images

	Styrax4.jpg (68.5 KB, 36 views)
	Styrax5.jpg (68.3 KB, 10 views)
	Styrax6.jpg (63.9 KB, 11 views)

kcpoole

22 inces isw very tall for the girth and lack of taper in the trunk

I am not familiar with the tree myself, but the 3rd branchlet on the right ( just below the bend) might be a further chop candidate.

Ken

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Yandrosxx

See that's my problem, I think the same thing but . . .

When I look to examples of other infromal upright deciduous trees (even large Styrax like this one) I consistently see them with tall slender trunks with very gradual tapers.

And they look stunning. I'd love to post an example of what I'm talking about, but I suspect the copyright police would object. Nevertheless you can google "images" and see plenty of examples. Nearly every Bonsai Today gallery has pictures of the same thing. In fact, I"ll hazard to guess that the vast majority of specimen 36 inch informal upright deciduous trees have trunks that taper about the same as this one.

What to do? What to do? Always the same problem.

newt1

The reason is that the short squatty look is NEW. People used to work with what the trees gave them more a few years ago rather than everything needing to be short and fat. It takes many years to make decidous trees look convincing thus the short fat ones are still developing ramification. In addition many people think in femanine terms when thinking of decidous trees thus thinner, less tapered trunks are more acceptable. My two cents.


Newt

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onlyrey

I actually like the feminine (echoing on newt1's description) kind of trunk. I wouldn't shop it for anything.

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Yandrosxx

That's exactly why I haven't chopped it. I am looking for a feminine tree because the snowbell blooms of this species are very feminine. I want it to have an light and airy feel.

Granted, developing the branch structure is going to take several years, but in the end I think the tree will have the potential to be a really fine example of this species.

jeremy_norbury

I have nothing against the feminine form but...

Be a devil and chop it at the first branch on the right (the lowest).

Did you remove the big dead-looking root in the first picture?

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