So I dug up a privet from my yard last year and put it in a wooden box to recover. It did great, and now I’d like to put a little movement into the young branches before they are too thick to bend.
Young branches on thick trunk
I will only want to keep one of the branches emerging from this spot on the trunk. It’s very early in the design and growing process so I can’t necessarily choose which one is better, AND to anchor one of these to another branch with wire would require wrapping all the way around that thick trunk, which could risk scaring on the trunk.
Same branches, from above, after wiring
So, don’t make that choice now. Wire these two branches with one wire and put movement into both. No need to wrap all the way around the trunk, and I can decide which branch to keep later on.
Just a little hack.
Ready for spring growth.
WARNING: This works here because of the stiffness of these privet branches. In another situation or with another species, extreme care may be needed to wire both branches without causing damage to one or both.
This privet was a landscape plant on my property until I removed it from the garden in 2015. Since then I have gradually selected from and reduced nine trunks to three, and reduced the root system to fit in an appropriately sized pot — if not a refined looking one.
Vicary privet, March 2021
Allowed to grow freely for most of last season, this (above) is how it looked in early March, still holing last year’s leaves. The dark green and sometimes purple cast of the leaves is it’s winter color. In spring the leaves are a bright yellow-green which is why I suspect this is a Vicary golden privet, Ligustrum x vicaryi.
Purple color of winter leaves.
The first step of many this spring was to remove the old leaves.
Leave removed.
With leaves removed, I could see what I was working with and apply wire without interference. I wired out most of the branches and set them into a rough placement before repotting.
After building strength last season, dense roots had slowed percolation, so a bit of root pruning and some fresh soil — two parts akadama to one part lava rock and one part pumice — set it up for continued growth and vigor. For now, it is back into the same unrefined pot until I can find or make a better one.
Roughly wired and roots pruned, ready to go back in a pot with fresh soil.
Once secured in the pot, I refined the branch placement a bit and used a couple of guy wires to set the design.
Repotted and wired, March 2021
Spring growth pushed shortly after, and below is what it looked like by the beginning of May. (Don’t mind the pink ribbon. This is just something I use to mark those trees that should be protected from frost if cold temperatures are forecast. I mark all trees that have been repotted this way until the chance of freezing temperatures has passed.)
Spring growth by early May
Many shoots had extended to 8 or 10 leaves marking a good time for spring pruning. Some were even developing flower buds, but flowers are not important for the tree at this developmental stage, so they were removed with pruning.
Flower buds developing at the tips of spring growth
I reduced strong shoots to just 2 or three leaves, and left weak shoots or branches that need to grow out or thicken (like the bottom branch on the left) with more.
I plan to stay on top of the growth, moving forward, to promote ramification and continue to fill in parts of the silhouette that need it.
That was a lot of work on one tree in just a couple of months, but it is on track to continue developing into a nice bonsai.
Let us begin with this Vicary privet — Ligustrum vicaryi. It was collected in 2015 from my own yard, recovered in a large wooden box, and has had some initial styling decisions made including reducing from seven to three trunks, and some structural wiring.
This Vicary Privet is happy and healthy, and while you may not be able to tell just how many, it has way too many trunks.
Not sure about the front yet, so here’s another angle.
It’s time to make some decisions, but HOW?! I took a good long look and tried not to move too fast — a common mistake for me. There were a couple that I knew I wanted to keep, and a couple that really obviously needed to come out because they didn’t have much growth or were interfering with the keepers.
This got things moving in the right direction, and after removing a couple I could get a better look. Now I could see that one was far too straight. Another was angled counter to the flow that was beginning to develop, and eventually it was clear that I needed to take it down to three.
I am no pro at carving, but I decided to get a start on shaping all of these large cuts.
In addition to hand tools, I put this Nibbler bit to work.
I wired just a couple of branches to get them angled in the right general direction, but I refrained from pruning anything more than the trunks that were removed.
Here’s how it looks now.
And to give you an idea of my vision for the future, I will leave you with a sketch.
Spent some time today removing trees from their winter storage places, and found this Vicary Privet with swelling buds (along with evergreen leaves).
I collected this privet in 2015 and made the sloppy cuts you see. It was placed too deep in a large nursery pot that didn’t allow me to get a good look at the trunk structure. Today, I moved it to this training box and trimmed it down (12-16 inches) to what you see here. This should allow me access to make some decisions, some cleaner cuts, and perhaps even do some carving this year.
It will be a long term project, but the large base offers some great potential.
Bonsai Iterate 