Bonsai Secrets

In this video I discuss the humble English field maple (Acer Campestre). The field maple is a tree that grows wild throughout Europe and I always refer to it as the ‘poor man’s version’ of the more flamboyant Japanese maple. The Acer genus includes a huge variety of trees: the acer platanus, the sycamore, the Canadian maple. I like the European field maple very much as it is Very similar to the trident maple. Just look at the beautiful movement in its trunk.
acer bonsai
This is a tree that I created from scratch in our field at Herons. We grow them in our field to get their thick trunks. You can see on this tree where cuts were made at various stages of its growing process. We do this to thicken the trunk and create these beautiful twists and tapers.

Those of you who follow my videos will know by now that I love big Bonsai. This is typical of a large bonsai that I make, it was collected from a Nursery which had to move site. I dug it up around 32 years ago and it was about a quarter of the thickness it is today. I planted it in my field and grew it until it became nice and thick. I then chopped of the top and grew all these new branches.
large trunk bonsai
You can see this bonsai has an enormous trunk for a bonsai and quite an interesting root spread. It also has a beautiful golden-yellow colour. The field maple doesn’t often turn red. Sometimes their leaves will gain a slightly pink shade but it’s generally a yellow-coloured tree.
yellow leaves
Here I have another bonsai with an interesting history. I grew this bonsai from a nursery plant which I purchased from a garden centre in 1980. It had a stange forked root so I tore it into two pieces. I planted one part of the root here, and sold the other. Over the years it has become a beautiful bonsai. Unfortunately, however, the apex of this side has died. This is not too much of a problem as I can reshape it.
natural carved effect bonsai
The trunk is completely natural and not a result of carving, but rather a result of allowing the wood to rot naturally. This tree has a very interesting history. When I bought it in 1980 it was only about 1 inch thick.
bonsai roots
If we look inside the shade tunnel, you will also see that the benches for our satsuki azaleas are at least 60cm to 90cm off the ground. The purpose of having these benches is twofold: they provide a very useful display and added winter protection for trees which we place underneath them.

I have nine field maples to show you here.

What I want to point out is that they were all grown in these little black flower pots. Believe it or not, they are all the same age and they were grown from seed about ten years ago. Like most trees, they have grown at different rates. Although these two trees are the same age, you can see one trunk is much thicker than the other.
young potted bonsai
The field maples are very interesting trees, very similar to the trident maple. If you grow them in the ground to thicken, they thicken very fast. When I get raw material like this, the first thing I always do is tease the surface of the soil and get it down to the base level where the roots start to show.

Usually below the surface you fill find beautiful surface roots. The Japanese call this Nebari. The base of the tree is what makes it look powerful an anchored to the ground.
teasing surface roots
I will always grow the trees to a certain height, then chop off the top of the trunk and let a new leader branch take over.

I continue to trim back branches until we are left with this nice structure.
trimming bonsai
Next year we will see lots of new branches growing from the trunk.

Now, let’s move onto the second bonsai.

I want to point out that field maples are extremely vigorous trees, as you can see from this trees roots!
bonsai roots growing out of pot
The field maple is quite unlike the other maples. The field maple can propagate from root cuttings, whereas the Japanese maple cannot. I’m not quite sure why this is as I’m not a plant geneticist, but this is something I’ve learnt through years of trial and error.

The roots I have where would produce shoots if you were to plant them in a pot.
bonsai root cuttings
When I’m working with bonsai, I don’t like to waste anything, so I will keep all these roots and the staff here at herons will plant them into little pots.

As for the bonsai… again, the first thing I do when I take the tree out of the pot is tease the soil.
teasing bonsai maple roots
After teasing the soil I have spotted a really ugly root. When you find roots going back on themselves like this one, they aren’t pretty. I’ll get rid of this root and use it to produce a new plant.
Now I’m just trimming off some excess branches and twigs. You may or may not wish to do a bit of wiring at this stage. If I were to wire this tree I would take these two left branches here, to create a very nice looking, slender tree.
shaping bonsai tree
That’s tree two finished, now lets move onto our third specimen!

Again, it starts with more root cuttings (the boring part).
teasing and cutting roots
The reason the roots grow so vigorously out the pot is because the pots are placed on the ground. The roots grow out from the pot to seek spoil and moisture. If you leave the tree too long, it can be quite a task to remove the roots.
cutting bonsai roots
Time to tease the soil again! I always get quite excited when it comes to teasing the base of the tree because you never know what you will find below the surface. This tree seems to be quite interesting. However, the only problem with planting trees in flower pots is that the roots are tightly packed in a round shape, which can be quite annoying. If I was to plant the trees in the ground the roots would spread more radially. I am removing the circular roots from the tree and use them for cuttings. I’m also removing a lot of ugly roots that we don’t need.
removing roots
The more I tease this tree I can see it does have a beautiful thick base as I expected.

Now I have teased the roots I just take a look at the tree and try to make a few design decisions. I can see by looking at the tree which branches I could use as potential leaders, and which side of the tree would make a good front. During this process I always have to remind myself not to be too greedy!
bonsai design decisions
I trim some of the excess branches back. I can see there are too many branches at the back so those will need to go.
trimming bonsai branches
This part between the two branches is really unattractive, so I’ll remove this too using a branch cutter.
ugly branch on bonsai tree
removing branch
This is how we create a taper. I’ve got to be patient now and let this grow. Next year I will get more branches growing.

Although this tree won’t be an instant bonsai, I can see that this tree has tremendous potential.
img
The tree has a beautiful base and I can see lots of congested roots below the surface which will make lovely root cuttings to use for small plants. I just tease the soil a little bit and use my cutters to remove them from the base. As I said, nothing is ever wasted. I will use all the roots and all the shoots I am cutting off this tree to make new bonsais. This one plant will produce about ten to twelve separate new bonsai trees.
snipping roots for cuttings
The more I delve into this root base, the more interesting roots I find. From some of these mature root cuttings I will get plants with nice, pencil-thick trunks almost straight away.
thick root cutting
Now Let’s move onto bonsai number three.

Some bonsais are easy and some are difficult, and in this video I want to show you that bonsais are not created just by trimming a few branches with some secateurs. There’s a lot of preparation involved, and although it can sometimes be tedious, it’s still all part of the fun!

Again, I start by taking the tree out of the pot and teasing its roots.
peter teasing roots
Not all bonsai trees need to have thick trunks. Many of us get obsessed with our bonsais having thick trunks, but trees with slender trunks can also be graceful. In fact, one should always remember that the Japanese maple is supposed to be a very feminine, graceful tree. I don’t think I need to do any further work to this tree at this stage.

This next tree has a much thicker trunk, even though it is the same age as all the other trees we have looked at. It has masses of roots growing out of the pot – a really vigorous tree! Sometimes with very vigorous trees like this one, the roots penetrate deep into the ground and the tree has to be dug up with a spade.
young potted bonsai with thick trunk
The tool that I’m using is called a root cutter. It’s very useful for removing roots that have grown out of their pots.
peter using root cutter
Again, another beautiful base.
bonsai removed from pot
Certain species like the field maple are so vigorous, that you can cut them with impunity and they will just grow back. You don’t have to worry about it. Its one of those trees that I would say are virtually impossible to kill. If you manage to kill a field maple, you’re doing something drastically wrong!

This tree has lovely movement. The first cut was made just below what is now halfway up the trunk, where it starts to curve. The second cut was made where the trunk curves inwards again. You can still see the little stub that I left behind when I made the cut. Without any effort I’ve already got a beautiful bonsai.
complete bonsai
These next couple of trees, I took out of the pot yesterday. This one has a lovely base. I chopped it to this small size last year to produce a short tree.
short bonsai tree
Now this one I wanted to show you because it has a very interesting, ugly root. I sometimes use exposed roots in my bonsai but I think this one is a little over the top. I’m going to remove it using these large cutters.
removing ugly roots
This root will make such a beautiful bonsai with a twist. As I mentioned earlier, nothing is ever wasted here.

I continue to cut away the roots which have spiralled around the pot. I will stop cutting them when I find that there is insufficient root left. All the cuttings can be utilised to create new bonsai.

I’m sure that I will get comments on my video from people saying that they thought the root I removed was in fact beautiful and not ugly at all as I described it. I certainly respect those views. After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I’ve always maintained that different cultures view beauty in a different way and you have to respect that. For example, some of the exposed root styles used on bonsai in china are not to everyone’s taste. Whilst some people rave about it, others respectfully disagree.

This cutting will make a lovely bonsai!
root cuttings for bonsai
You will see I have still left a sufficient amount of root behind and we’ve got a nice stump here that we can work with. It could be left at this height, or if I didn’t want it that tall I could cut it about half way as you will see below.
bonsai stump
People can sometimes be a bit greedy with their bonsai and try to keep as much stem as possible. There’s no need to do this, in order to get a nice, proportionate design I will need to cut this tree. Next year I will get a full head of little twigs and branches.
peter cutting down bonsai
small bonsai after cut
I have a couple more trees left to show you…

This one is very interesting because it gives me many options. Whenever a tree has many design options it makes things a little bit more difficult, but at the same time it becomes very intriguing. There are so many things I could do with this tree to get a good outcome. You can see it has twin trunks. Most bonsai purists would regard this as a very ugly solution because the split is quite high up the trunk. However I try not to be too obsessed with conventional thinking and I actually think if we were to keep both trunks, it would still make quite an interesting tree. It would make a very natural looking bonsai. It doesn’t possess the triangular shape of conventional twin trunk bonsai however it is more in keeping with the way you would find a tree growing naturally.

Before moving onto the final tree I would like to remind you that those of you who live in Europe should be able to get your hands on a field maple for a fairly cheap price. Field maples are sold as hedging plants but training them into bonsai does take quite a bit of time. Of course if you were to choose a Japanese maple instead, you would get the lovely vivid red coloured leaves.

Our final tree also has two trunks. The classic twin trunk always starts joined at the base, rather than higher up so this is more in keeping with the conventional twin trunk bonsai style.
conventional twin trunk bonsai
Bonsai Secrets