How to make a Windswept Hawthorn Bonsai
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- Опубліковано 21 жов 2024
- In this video, I create a windswept-style bonsai from a young hawthorn tree using bending techniques including vet tape and wiring.
The tree design is inspired by a windswept Chinese elm that I saw on Candice's channel, Bonsai Science
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Can we call this one the prawn? Will be interesting to see the progress!
No, I'm afraid prawn bonsai trees are like highlanders. There can be only one!
@@TonysBonsai I am Prawn McLoud of the Clan McLoud… it could be ‘Prawn ll the revenge’
🤣🤣🤣Now that had me laughing mate. Brilliant!
I love that you watch Candice who is a real star of Bonsai presenters on UA-cam
Hi Vectis. Yeah, she seems like a genuinely lovely person too.
@@TonysBonsai agreed
I'm always on the edge of my seat when you do your bending Tony 🤣🤣🤣
🤣🤣I like to add a bit of tension into my videos when I can Rob. One day one of the trunks is going to completely fail I know it!
Looks good, Tony. I guess I have to look a little bit closer on my hawthorn hedge.
Thanks Dorrit. Try an air layer. Hawthorn are easy to do and if you select a good spot you'll get a lovely tree out of it.
You could hear that hawthorn screaming from here 😂 it’s going to look great Tony.
rees screaming at me is like the cop in reservoir dogs screaming at mr Blonde! 🤣🤣
Still refer to the king of bend specialist. Miss you Tony ❤
Never styled a windswept before. Thank you for the great demonstration.
My pleasure Raymond. You should have a go. They're great fun to work on.
Reminds of a prawn or crayfish on a diet. ..
Not dissing you.
Nice technique.
Yes I agree. I already have a prawn bonsai, so I'm going to call this one the shrimp! 🤣
Bonsai phill very good video nice shape tree make branches with a twist to make it look like wind is blowing it thanks Tony
Thanks Phil. Hopefully it will achieve exactly that look in the future
Great stuff Tony.
Cheers John. Glad you enjoyed it
Tony a lovely windswept tree in the making, as always it’s a pleasure to watch your videos. 👍
Thanks Bob. With a tree like this I just try to look 5 or 10 years into the future and imagine the bonsai that it could become! Glad you're enjoying them mate
Great styling to this one - love it. Bend it like Tony !! 👍👍
Cheers Guy. Good to hear from you mate. I've just seen you posted a couple of weeks ago. I'm off to watch it!
Great video, good to see you were inspired by Candice. Her videos are also excellent.
Cheers mate. Yeah I like her approach to bonsai and she seems lovely.
Hi tony,I’ve lost count of the branches I’ve snapped,at least you got bent the main one.well done.
Hi Brian. There are always casualties in war, but as you say, at least the main fighting force is still in tact.
Tony I must say that Candice's Elm has to be 1 of my favorite trees. You did a fantastic job with this Hawthorne though! Yes, that planting angle you showed will flow perfectly back into the wind. Nice little quick fix on the branch. That normally works for me as well, just a little bit of scaring.
Cheers Matt. Yes, I really love the shape of Candice's windswept elm. I really need to get myself one so that I can create something similar as I just love it.
Great work tony. Love it!!
Cheers mate
The close up work here is great. 👌
Cheers mate. I feel like my video is slowly getting a bit better at time goes on. I just have to keep reminding myself to change angles and focal length etc to keep it interesting.
@@TonysBonsai doing a great job. 👏
I really like your design. Well done Tony!
Thanks Rory. I love getting creative like this. Much more fun that leaving it as a normal tree.
The design looks brilliant Tony. Well done 👍
Cheers mate. It will need a good few years to develop some thickness now, but I can imagine this in ten years' time!
Great. I hope that you do a follow up in the summer. As usual I was waiting for the crack but not on that part. You never disappoint mate, never!
Cheers Mick. I'll definitely be following up on this tree. I'll be keeping a close eye on it for biting in, and I'll probably remove it in the early summer and then re-apply the guy wire to hold the shape until next year.
Hurray! A tree I have 3 of, one is almost the same style but much younger. One is in a curly Bush style and one is a true little tree. The similar one l bent in a loop and wired to be downwards. I noticed yours have pink buds does it have pink flowers as I think mine will be white. I haven't used vet tape yet do you think it helps get a better bend? Or just to prevent scaring? I took most of my wire off for the cold spells will be be giving evergreens a quarter strength feed this coming week, and maybe do a little shaping. Hope we've done with the long cold spells. Keep growing.xx
Sounds like your hawthorns are on a good path Mandy! I use the vet tape not so much to avoid wire marks, but more to stop the tree from breaking. If you apply it taught, it adds amazing strength and I've yet to break a branch when I've used it.
With a bit of luck we're done with that freezing weather for the winter I agree
I love this style! I usually have a plan going for something else but in and then all my trees end up looking like this! Crazy tight bends, twists and lots of interest from every angle. Not to mention all the extra ropes and wires holding shapes. I have 2 Silver maples that look like this hawthorns shape, but are larger because I intent to have them be large size with 3"-4" trunks.
I'm a bit jealous of your silver birch. I love them and I think a windswept one would look so good, in fact you have inspired me to get one in my collection this spring. Cheers Robert!
@@TonysBonsai sorry, I meant Silver Maple I have a full grown, beautiful, Paperbark Birch in my yard- . But, this got me thinking of a dream list (want but don't yet have/ difficult or expensive to find) of Bonsai Species, for fun. So my dream list is: Paperbark Maple, Paperbark Birch, Japanese Stewartia, Carpinus caroliniana (American Hornbeam/ Musclewood); maybe a Video idea :)
Sounds like a good idea. After thinking about my previous comment, I have just done a huge trunk chop on a silver birch 🤣
Really nice work Tony. Pushing the envelope with those bends. (I love it) Thankfully that branch that did snap didn’t snap at the base. Even if the tip dies off you still have the basic structure to work with. Hopefully those hawthorn seeds you sent me offer up some future material to experiment with.
@Bonsai Science is an awesome channel. Candice is a great source of technical information without sitting through Miria’s word salads. Thanks, keep growing
Hi Matt. So far my experience with hawthorns is that they repair better than any other tree (I suppose that's why they use them for hedge laying), so I am pretty confident that the branch will be fine. Like you say though even if it died off it wouldn't be the end of the world. there will be plenty of new branches. I really hope your hawthorn seeds germinate mate, and if they don't, I'm going to send you a couple of bare-root seedlings in the post!
@@TonysBonsai ,, awesome, I’ll keep you posted. Thanks
@@TonysBonsai , I’ve read where it could take 18 months for germination. We’ll see. Cheers
I like it. You might want to invest in some parafilm tape. It is brilliant for those breaks and tears and very easy to apply. Cheers Xav
Cheers Xav. I think I've heard that stuff mentioned before. I'll definitely have to get some as I doubt this will be the last break of the year! Also, I just read your email late last night, sounds fantastic! I'll reply after my breakfast mate.
Another great demonstration of extreme wiring, Tony. I never knew you could rearrange a tree so dramatically without snapping it. The tip on how to re-fuse minor snaps was interesting. Would it be beneficial or harmful in your opinion to help the reconnection with a dab or two of superglue? Thanks again. I am looking forward to seeing the unwitting in the summer. Best wishes Nikki
I'm not sure on the super glue as I've never tried it, but with hawthorn, it's just not necessary. You can crack them in half and just leave them and they heal over and grow on. as for other more delicate trees perhaps it could be a useful trick.
Hi Tony How Did You Manage To Bend it Without Causing Any Damages Or Snaping ?
Cheers Mate Thks For Sharing
Hi Bobby. It was a combination of the use of the vet tape, and two coils of wire which spread the forces along the trunk. I also added a bit of a twist which also helps.
As Oscar Wilde said... "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"
I prefer my windswepts a little more subtle, showing a tree that has grown to a certain height before the wind has been able to catch the foliage and impact on the growth. Such a severe bend that low down looks more like an attempt at a semicascade to me.
I do like the look of the tree, just wouldn't call it "windswept"
Thanks Tony
Hi Andrew. I think you make a great point. I overbent the trunk knowing that they do have a considerable spring back when the wire is removed. My cascading hawthorn had to be wired three times before I managed to get it fixed in position, so I have no doubt that this tree won't end up hunched over to this extent when it is in its final position, and I will definitely bear in mind what you say when it comes to finalising the position of the trunk. Cheers for the input!
And there was me thinking only I snapped branches.🤣🤣
I've snapped more hawthorn branches than a hedge layer! 🤣🤣
Hi,do the thorns and flowers still grow?
It was quite weird, there were no thorns on this particular tree, but I'm sure they will appear as will the flowers when the tree matures.
Looks great tony. I raffia all of my deciduous trees nowadays. After one of my best maples wound up with wire scars plus i broke a really important branch on it i said to myself thats it never again😂. Its such a pain to raffia but i figure it will build my skills and hopefully never have to worry about scars or possibly breaking very important branches again. My branch wound up dying but im sure on small branches it will heal. With all of ur trees just have to remember where it broke😂. Put some red string on it or something.
You make a very good point, as my memory is shocking 🤣
Like you I am using the vet tape a lot more than I thought I would. Since using it, I have yet to break a trunk or major branch, and it only takes seconds to apply so I have no excuse really.
I'm planning a video this year where I test raffia and vet tape to see which performs better in terms of wire marks and snapping etc.
@@TonysBonsai sounds great. For me when i see tape i cringe. Only because im not sure if it leaves sticky stuff behind like i see some people using electrical tape i would never . It prob leaves a mess on the tree. Not sure about the vet tape ur using though. I know ryan neil basically said raffia is also good because of its breathability so im just sticking with that.
I think one of the reasons people have started using vet tape is because it is breathable as it's designed for animals, but if raffia is working for you great. It's good to keep up the bonsai traditional skills.
Is this the tree you are working on today?
What material did you use underneath the wire? And wont it stay too damp and then rot the bark on certain trees? Awesome videos btw.
Hi Johan. the material I used is called vet tape. I read about its use online, and since I have used it, I have had a 100% success rate in not snapping trunks/branches. It is amazing stuff. Regarding the rotting, I don't think it appears to be a problem because it is a breathable material designed for applying to animals. I'll be revealing at least ten trees wrapped in it in the spring/summer, so I will no for sure how it has performed then.
Glad you enjoyed it!
@@TonysBonsai Ah thanks man. Will see if we get it here. Appreciate the quick response. Have a good one.
No worries. I buy it on Amazon. It was pretty cheap.
The Shrimp
I like it! That's a great name for this one to sit along side the prawn.
Isn't that strange how the main trunk bent without incident but the thinner branch snapped. Hawthorns. 🙄
I've given up trying to work out hawthorns. they seem to have a mind of their own when it comes to snapping. the good thing though is that they heal together really well.
Phenomenal start Tony! Can’t wait to see this tree develop❤
Thanks Candice. I loved seeing your tree, so I just had to try and create one myself.
Been trying the bend and twist technique it takes lot of feel and not every bend or twist is successful but you never know till you give it a go cheers Tony another good vid keep it up mate .
Cheers John. Great to hear that you've been experimenting with the technique. As you say, there is a lot of feel involved, and I suppose we only acquire it by doing it. I'm confident I will snap plenty more branches as I learn what I can get away with.