Ideas for Liquidambar styraciflua

WildChild

I recently aquired this Liquidambar styraciflua from my local nursery - being a tree with enormous potential to be a really great tree. I was wondering if anyone had any styling idea's for it. It stands 51cm from soil surface to the highest branch, with an trunk width of about 4cm. (20.1 inches high, and 1.6 inches wide)

It was in the ground for 3 years, and has been potted into basic soil mix. (an even amount of grit, soil, and bark). The leaves have just finished falling as we move into Winter. I really want to have something to show come Spring.

See photo's below.

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columbo

Very nice trunk. The trunk in very straight and lacks lower branches so I would say broom. If you can make it develop lower branches then try the tree's natural shape in the wild.

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rockm

The problem with North American liquidamber (They're native here in Va. where we call them Sweet Gum) is the leaves and internode length. That is, you get big leaves spaced very far apart. That makes bonsaiing one a little problematic. Removing apical buds--the buds furthest out on the branch in late winter. This can help stimluate buds further back on the trunk. Leaf size is what it is. They don't reduce that much.

Also be careful in repotting the plant once the buds have opened. They don't like that at all...

Nice start on this one. Good luck with it.

WildChild

Thank's very much. I think I should keep this one in full sunlight to help reduce leaf size, and with cutting the main bud of in winter - thank you for that. Also, where the tree's branches have been cut, there has been some die-back. I have cut all dead area's off, but realized that I had no cut paste... I hope that wont cause some branches with now-slightly exposed cambium to die...

Btw, I am thinking broom for now, but I need waaaaaay more branches to make it convincing. In the pictures, I have made lines where I think I should cut at the end of winter.... Waddayzthink?

Attached Images

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__________________
"Creating bonsai is not a mechanistic process; we prune with the hand but are guided by the heart..."

WildChild

All wired up!

I have picked a front and a back view, and the top buds will all come off just before the end of winter.

Took me a good 2 hours to wire everything, and I could only find one instance where two wires crossed. Any advice/comments on my wiring? Any changes suggested will be done, I want this to be perfect. I've also put in two more showing the front and back a week after wiring.

Also one of the photo's shows a huge accidental cut into one of the branches that has since dried out. I have no way of getting any cut paste for at least a week. Idea's?

Photo's 1-3 were taken minutes after wiring was finished. Pictures 4-7 were taken one week after, after the front and back had been decided.

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__________________
"Creating bonsai is not a mechanistic process; we prune with the hand but are guided by the heart..."

WildChild

And then that evil cut that's majorly stressing me out.

Attached Images

PIC_0017.JPG (67.1 KB, 55 views)

__________________
"Creating bonsai is not a mechanistic process; we prune with the hand but are guided by the heart..."

bwaynef

With that last picture, I have no idea what you're showing.

In the first series of pictures, the thing that stuck out to me was the crossing branch coming off the first branch to the right. Cut that thing off yesterday. I'd be tempted to let the rest of the branches grow long like they are so that primary branching can begin. Decide which ones of those you want and remove the rest. You have a formal upright-ish looking start already. Its a little tall for that, but I think it'd be a little more cooperative in that style than in a broom which would be difficult with a species like sweet gum.

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WildChild

Hmmmm, the photo is very blurred isn't it, sorry about that. You can just see an area of brown in between the last two bits of wire on the right, and it is a very big cut...

I see what you mean now that I look at it... Any idea's of branches to go and where the rest should be placed? It's a simple matter of chopping and moving... I thought I'd go for a broom as the apex is really messed up with some very harsh cutting - I think the top may have been broken at some point due to die-back. Ummmm, I'll see what it says to me, but does anyone wanna hazard a guess as to how it should look?

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"Creating bonsai is not a mechanistic process; we prune with the hand but are guided by the heart..."

rockm

While the wiring is good practice, it's not doing much. Pruning will accomplish more than wiring on this species. The shoots/limbs are much too long...