The great Hornbeam as bonsai.

 Hi everybody sorry there have been no posts but its really been hard for me this spring.  I have been so busy in the garden tending the bonsai and repotting  and trimming and wiring, and then being  out and about to some nurseries and all that I simply have not done my job and posted any new content.

 However I have lots of new stuff coming into its own this year and yet more to come so there will of course be many more articles, pictures and new content and things to look at and ponder.

 One new addition to my garden this year was this  Hornbeam. A simply awesome bonsai really well trained.

 I purchased this bonsai early on in the spring from another persons collection even before it had begun to bud up and so all I could see was the limb structure but that was enough for me to no that I truly wanted this tree for my collection. Normally I do not purchase bonsai I create and grown them my own that is that idea of the hobby in the first place but I simply could not resist this tree.


 Well now it has come into its full leaf and it is absolutely awesome at least to me any way.. This tree is about 35 years old and is doing fine and of course I will need to repot it next year as I did not do any thing with it this year but bring it home and watch it leaf out. As you can see I hope at least from the picture it is a nice sized tree with a really wonderful full nice limb structure also a awesome root system and its rooted in a very shallow pot less than one inch in depth. This tree would also have been a real good subject for a root over the rock style of bonsai, just take a good close look at the root system above the soil level and I think you would agree.

There are three varieties of Hornbeam a Korean Hornbeam Japanese Hornbeam and Common Hornbeam. I'm not sure what variety I have yet but will certainly find out after some more research.

 Hornbeam used out side of bonsai materiel are of course very popular in parks and in major cities around the globe as they do make wonderful trees for city parks and the like and they are short and squat at best and hardly ever mature to be over 30' feet and they make great additions as bonsai also to almost any one's collection. Perhaps if you visit a park or campus of some collage in your area you will find a Hornbeam growing and you could easily take a cutting from a branch with some very new fresh growth and then try and root it to make your self a bonsai.

 They will require a lot of close attention to watering in the hotter summer mounts and try not to let it dry out ever in that time of the year.  Keep it well watered and fed and you should have a nice rewarding tree for many years to come. Common Hornbeam can take the cold but the Japanese and Korean variety will do much better put into a protected area during the winter or housed over in a green house.

 This tree is deciduous and it will loose its leaves in the winter and look a little bare but oh what a show in the spring and right on through till fall. I use a well balanced all around fertilizer granular released on this and many other of my trees it works best for me however there are may varieties on the market and its only a matter of preference as to what you use but do feed all your trees through the regular growing season.

 I personally would find it best if any wiring is to be done on this kind of tree then do it in the winter on these trees as then all the foliage is gone and you can simply see what your doing a whole lot easier and take much less chance of damaging any of the nice finer foliage or limbs also be careful if you can too try and wire around bud nodes as not to damage them for any new growth coming in the next season.

 I would also make real sure you remove any wiring on the limbs before the tree starts to bud up in early spring as that is the most critical time for limbs to be growing and swelling and the wire could sink in and do damage to your limbs and not only that but leave you with unsightly wire marks and scars that would indeed take years to heal over if at all.

 Pests are unknown to me at this time for the hornbeam but if any they would be few and treated just like any other bonsai in mine or your collection. I personally use systemic on all of my bonsai as it seems to drive any bugs and or other pests away completely. Systemic may be found in most garden and nursery stores. Make sure to read the direction on package but if you do not wish to waste a lot of time reading all that tiny print just be sure to dilute it well down with lots of water added to a very small amount of the solution and add to a spray bottle and mist your tree and or plant with it and stand down wind as it really smells bad but does the job.

 I used less than a cap full of the solution and the rest water in my one quart spray bottle and it works just fine driving nearly any bug in the garden totally away and that is the intended job at least for me.  

 Pruning of this tree is done usually in mid summer for me anyway because at that time it has leafed up enough for me to see where I need to trim back and that is done on the ends of the branches making a cut of one or more leaves back too a couple of leaves and then new nodes will appear out from the two remaining leaves to make new leaves appear.

By the way the red looking flowers you see in the picture are not part of the hornbeam it is a climbing rose that is next to my fenced in garden in the front. At some point down the road if I ever get time I need to build a giant light box for taking pictures of the plants. But then I do have some bonsai that are so big that it would take more than just my self even to move them around as they are very heavy indeed, but that's another story. LOL.

 Anyway I hope you find the picture to your liking and I hope you will try a hornbeam if you have not already.

Thanks, for reading,
By: Harold Yearout ©Copyright 2024 All Rights Reserved for more information feel free to contact me: h.yearout@gmail.com