Foreign Nigel Saunders here today I'm going to Be working on these new Willows that I Got in fall I was coming out of the Toronto fall Show and sale last year and Josh was Bringing out these Willows and he Couldn't fit them in his car They were really tall like twice as tall As they are now and I couldn't fit them in my car either Unless I shorten them and I we asked Around if anyone had a saw and no one Had a saw on them so we decided Well Let's just break them In the parking lot so we just broke the Tops off It fit in the car fine then and I took them home so thanks very much Josh for these willow trees so today I'm Going to be doing the first work on them I'm also going to be working on my Royal Oaks or my English Oaks these were grown From a seed and I just recently watched An oak documentary from New England the New England area native Oaks and it was Just fantastic uh I'll put a link to That in the description below I've got two pots of Willows here I'm Just going to develop this one as a Bonsai and I'll give the other two Rooted cuttings away so these will just Go back in the poly house for the winter And I'll just work on this one today
Let's go in and have a look at the Willow now so it has a nice You know a nice base down here I don't Know how far the cutting goes into the Soil it could go you know quite deep It's something I won't find out until I Repot it But you can see there's not much taper From the base here all the way up So I want to cut it off shorter and I'm Looking for healthy branches here And if you notice all these lower Branches are kind of a yellow color and If I go up top I think all these are dead they've kind Of gone a dark kind of Brown color There was one a couple living up top Here but they look like they're Withering away too They're kind of a In between yellow and brown so I I think You know after breaking the top of this Tree it's kind of died back So if I come down and look at the Branches I can even see see the color of This one it's kind of like again a Darker brown Whereas these ones are bright yellow so I think If I were to prune back and keep this is The leader I think that would be risky So I'm going to prune back even further Maybe you know down just below this one
Keeping all these lower branches here They'll grow and develop and heal this Wound eventually And yeah that'll be my the start of my Tree anyway So the first thing I want to do is I Want to do a saw cut on the top of the Tree here Cutting this you know these parts off That I don't want to use My folding saw that Tom from the YouTube Channel grow and clip Bonsai for seniors Sent to me it's a good sharp saw so here I go I'm going to come in on an angle Right here Cutting the top off so here I go Get It Started Now Willow isn't a hardwood so they're Fairly easy to cut Thank you So I'm just taking it easy as I cut Through The Far Side here I go so there's the cut Now I didn't have to cut it on an angle I did hoping You know these branches grow it kind of Thickens up here on this This big cut heals over a little better So I am going to seal that cut I don't Want it drying back further down the Trunk I think that's what happened with This After I split this top off I think it just you know dried out down
The trunk line And you know it might have even gone Further So I'm going to seal that up with the Rubber cement I will clean the edges of this saw cut Up just a bit So I'll just come in with my Cutters and just kind of clean that cut Up so it's not This Jagged from the saw So it's a little cleaner You could use a knife or anything to do This work with Scalpel I think that's going to do it So now I'll get out the rubber cement All right here I go this is just Titan Transparent multi-purpose glue and it's A rubber cement you can tell It kind of it's stringy and sticky and Then it rubs off your fingers when it Dries So any rubber cement can work just fine So I'm going to seal this all up So if you didn't use a sealant here You'd probably have to cut higher up on The tree Letting it naturally die back Drying out dying back to living part of The tissue so I think this That makes it a little safer this Cutting operation that it won't Won't continue drying out down the trunk
Line So that is all sealed there I like this rubber cement because it Stays flexible and you can see what's Going on with the callus you can see the Tissue forming underneath the rubber Cement if you use like a uh a sealant That has color you can't really tell What's going on underneath you can't see If it's you know rotting out in the Center of the trunk or anything it's Just covered over with an opaque color So that's why I really like the rubber Cement it allows you to see what's going On and it's very flexible so as it Starts growing it doesn't crack or Anything it just sort of Stay sealed while the edges are healing Plus it only cost me a dollar nineteen Just 4J from Blue Jay Bonsai here is the Carnage cam so there it is there's the Big Top of the tree that was cut off Going to prune Prune or prune them back I'm just going To let the tree grow and recover One thing I will do in Spring I want to Repot the tree because I want to know How far that trunk goes down in the pot And get the root base underway to get a Nice radial root base on the willow I'll put the willow back underneath the Bench here get out the Royal Oaks and Begin working on those
The last time that I worked on these Royal Oaks I pruned them to get rid of All the lower branches because I want to Grow them as a medium to large size Bonsai so I don't want you know branches Down this low so I pruned away all the Lower branches this is my first branch On this tree And then you know I'll grow a canopy so I want a nice scarf-free trunk on the Oaks So today I'm just going to do some Branch selection and get some of the Branches pruned back You can see how the branches have grown Here they're very straight So I need to prune these terminal buds Off The big thick ones at the end and Develop the smaller buds that are back Further on the branch that way I'll get A bit of movement in the branch and a Little bit of taper Here's a look at the top of the Oak and You can see I've got a good strong Leader up here And a lot of these branches are growing In Whirl so there's one two three four Branches kind of growing Not in the exact same spot but all from One area here on the trunk so I've got To reduce that back I don't want these Opposite branches So I've got to pick my best branches and
Develop those and I I also want you know A bit of an upright structure to this Tree I don't want one single trunk line And then all the branches coming off Horizontally I want You know a bit of an interesting upright Structure and then off those upright Trunks will come more of the horizontal Branches so more like a Not a broom style but in between a broom Style and kind of a formal upright Which I guess you would call a natural Style especially for an oak I'm going to begin the pruning now I'm going to prune off some of the Obvious ones at first so if you see this Branch here it's kind of going almost From the From an inside curve it's a little Higher but it doesn't look good so that One's coming off Like that The branch here It's okay but if you see the radial Direction would come out straight Towards the camera and it comes out and It kind of Curves around to the side I do have a bud right on the front there So I'm going to prune it back to that Bud and try and get that Branch growing In a more radial Direction off of the Trunk here So here I go I'm going to prune this one Back to here like that so I've got a
Good bud there Now if I go up the trunk I've got a branch out the back here Which is quite nice I'll just prune the Tip off it you can see I've got buds Here here here here here and here and Then I've got a cluster of three at the Tip so I'm actually going to take off I'm going to come right back to here There's a bud here on the top And again I want a more upright Structure to this uh I want to develop my primary branches Which will be upright Okay Um And now I'm getting These branches are all very close to Each other you can imagine if they all Thickened up it would look like they all Come from the same spot on the tree so I Kind of got to select my branches that Was a good Branch out the back I have Another couple here out the same Direction Uh I don't want those so I'm going to Take those ones off I think there's better branches Elsewhere on that on the tree So it kind of eliminates you know Some of these thin branches were Opposite some better branches So now I've got
I've got that one which will develop Into a trunk Don't know if I do need any others until I get up to this whirl here so I think I'm going to take all the rest Off Because they're just too close together That comes off This one comes off And even these are too close together You imagine this Branch thickening and This one thickening they're going to be Touching so I'm going to take this one off Like that so I'm developing this one and I'm not even sure about this one if I Want to develop it I probably don't actually I think it would look awkward kind of Coming in this direction when I have the Trunk kind of curling around here so I'm Going to take this one right off Just developing that one And then as I go up Um I've got one kind of coming out Tough to decide like I've got four Branches here and I've got to pick my Best branches and Let me see I have that lower branch Which will be a trunk down here coming Up I have this one And I think what I want to do is develop
This as the leader on my tree Cutting off the top And maybe keeping this as a branch so I'll prune this Branch back To here I'm going to prune these ones off This one like that and then I need to Prune the top off the tree so I'll get The Cutters for that the branch cutters Okay so here I go I'm going to take that Whole top off the tree Just like that So that is what I'm left with so here's My trunk line This will become a branch Trunk line And another trunk so I I've got to prune This lower Branch now So my lowest Branch here is Going to be another trunk that comes up I have a butt here that's upright I have Another one here so I can trim this Branch off here And then I don't want These lower branches they'll get too Thick and I don't want them so they're Coming right off So now I'm going to develop more upright A more upright kind of trunk off of These So that takes care of the pruning on my Tallest tree The second tree here isn't as tall as The first one it's a smaller tree
So let's have a look I have I've got a good upright kind of trunk Line here I have a branch opposite so I should Take that opposite Branch off Otherwise I'll get a big swelling here You can see it's already getting a Little thick there There's a little Branch here I can take Off And then I've got to pick I guess I can have it divide into two Here I'll take off that third one Now Kind of um growing over top of this Branch is this one so I think this one Needs to come off I'll keep maybe this One So let me take this one off it's just Growing right over top of the other Branch Like that This one I've got an upright Chute here I'll just trim it back To here I'm going up into the Apex here trim a Dead Branch off there another couple Here I've got a butt here I think you know the height is quite Good I don't need this Bud here I'm Going to take that off
And then I'm coming up to the Apex I Don't want a trident here or three Branches I want to reduce it to two So I think if I take You know the middle one out I think the Spacing this y-shaped spacing is just Too spread apart it doesn't look you Know like an upright tree so I think I've got to keep two of them the Center one and one of the others So I'm also going to prune this Branch There's an outward facing Bud here I'm Going to print back to there This one I'll leave on top it's you can Use a bit of straightening up So I think For this one I'm going to take this back One off I think I would rather something coming Out this side because I have this branch On this side of the tree so I think the Apex might have to come more forward so I'm going to take the back one off Like that And that has got that pruned up I don't Think I could take the butt off the Apex there But I don't really need to This branch is pretty slim so I'll let That grow and thicken I could take I could take the terminal
Buds off I guess If I'm very careful here There So I've left two buds each side there And I think that's it I think That's got my Royal Oaks pruned up let's Have a look at them now There's what came off the Royal Oaks Today some fairly big branches and a lot Of small ones Here is a look at the Royal Oaks now or The English Oaks and I think these are Going into their fifth year from seed They're starting to get you know fairly Thick at the base If we look at the base here it's You know I'm not quite the size of my Finger maybe it's the size of my pinky Which is getting there and uh I've got The structure kind of simplified so you Can imagine them growing and thickening Up and Yeah and then all the fine branching Will come far into the future so you Know the first thing I'm developing is That basic core primary structure to the Tree Then you work on your secondary branches And your tertiary branches and so on so Yeah I think they're off to a good start And they're ready to grow for spring Down here under the bench I have lots More Royal Oaks growing they're all from Seed from the parent tree that Royal Oak
From 1934 that came from England so Yeah I've got lots of seedlings here I've given Lots away to So I can see someday Making either group planting out of the Royal Oaks or a forest or maybe just Giving more away and growing you know a Few as specimen trees Expect the look of some of these ain't Old Oaks that you see growing in the Woods and City trees and around town They're just magnificent trees and they Get beautiful bark and leaves and some Nice fall colors in some of them so I've Started a lot of old Bonsai over the Last few years so I'm really looking Forward to developing them Ah into the future and hopefully I'll Get a nice looking oh bonsai If you are a fan of oak trees check out That documentary it's really fascinating And the link is in the description below It's time now for today's updates On today's update is two trees that I Bought at the Toronto fall show and sale The one is a Korean maple And the other is a crimson Hawthorne so Both really really cool trees So they need a little bit of pruning They've grown kind of tall and Whippy so Today I'll give them a prune I'm going To start the work on this Korean Maple They're very similar to a Japanese maple But just a little different and this
Tree got some really nice fall colors so I'm excited to develop this into a Bonsai So I've got two branches coming to the Bottom and you can see they're opposite Each other This one is kind of growing from the Inside of a curve whereas this one's More on the outside so I'm going to take This one off Like that Ah come up the trunk I've got Kind of a horizontal Branch here which I Guess is all right I come up here it's been pruned here Once Stubbed there and then I'm looking for buds there's a set of Buds here so I'll prune it off just in Front of those Shortening that branch and then I've got A really tall leader here and I'm going to want to prune that back It's just getting really tall and Whippy So I'm looking for buds Uh there's some big ones here Some dormant ones here and here So The question is how low do I want to go And you can see you know there's a Little bit of taper from here coming up Here and then it's kind of Straight here so I might want to prune It back right to here I think I do
So off comes that Branch so I'll print It here Like that I'll seal the cup with the Rubber cement After I do the Crimson Hawthorne So let's do that one next it's just a Kind of a twisty trunk Um Again it's getting quite tall Whippy looking so I need to prune it Back I think I think I'm going to go Back to here there's a butt on the Outside there so here I go Just like that so they're kind of sticks In pots now which is fine Um There's just another stick there So I'll get them sealed up with the Rubber cement Some of my nicer trees started off as Sticks and pots Okay so that's sealed So hopefully in Spring it won't bleed Bleed it's life-giving energy of sap out There we go So these two I'll also be repotting this Spring getting the root base underway as A bullseye they're just growing in kind Of garden soil at the moment So that's it the Korean Maple and the Crimson Crimson Hawthorne I'm not sure if I have a playlist for These trees yet if I don't I'll start
One so you can follow their progress Into the far future I think it'll be Exciting to see how they turn out That is all for today I'm Nigel Saunders Thanks for joining me in the Bonsai Zone
