Deciduous bonsai, early developmental projects

Aside from my more commonly shared trees, there are deciduous bonsai of every developmental stage, and quite a few different species, in my garden. From seedlings, to yamadori and field grown stock.

Autumn and winter is the time I plan the growth goals for the coming year and advance design of my trees, Spring and Summer will be mostly about the application of horticultural technique.

Acer palmatum 'katsura' from garden centre stock, first root work was this spring, followed it's first styling in autumn.

Carpinus betulus, collected as a seedling a decade ago from a fragment of ancient forest, this tree has different genetics to my other European hornbeam. Slowly working towards a graceful, scarless tree.

This is an as yet unidentified Ulmus sp. imported as cheep field grown stock from Japan, via the Netherlands. I'll do serious root surgery in spring and plant it in a larger container to encourage very strong growth, allowing all the branches to run out long for a season. Possibly I'll defoliate as well if it responds to the heavy feeding I have in mind.

Though it's too early to know how this will develop in terms of design, I'm excited to have a Cydonia oblongata in my garden. I've not worked with it before, and it doesn't seem to be common in bonsai, but it's morphological characteristics look excellent for bonsai cultivation; fine alternate buds on delicate twigs and rough, dark bark at even a young age. Collected by a friend of mine as a raft-rooted sucker from the base of an old Victorian planted tree and given to me as a gift at the inaugural meeting of our small study group, it already has a memory tied to it so it's here to stay!