Colorado Bonsai – Rhus trilobata ‘Autumn Amber’ Three Leaf Sumac – Revisited – Colorado Rocky Mountain Bonsai

Its in the middle of winter here in Colorado and its cold outside and I am tired of cleaning the house. I winter watered all the trees yesterday in the garage, 60 degrees outside then. I pulled out 4 trees to work on: 1 Boxwood, 1 Washington/Russian Hawthorn and 2 Rhus trilobata’s. The trees are still in the garage, but sitting close to the door going into to the house. The Boxwood was first to go in and then back out to the garage. It lost numerous large branches and was brought back into scale. It will need more work for the next 3-4 years. Next up is a Rhus trilobata which is one of my favorite species for Bonsai. They are generally not expensive to buy, they are easy to wire, they have beautiful soft lemon flowers that smell good and they have great fall color. What is not to like about them? I know they stink! They do have a certain smell to them when you crush the leaves or get some sap on you, but it washes right off and its not that bad. I have in past created two Cascade Bonsai trees in my first two attempts at using them. The last one was donated to the Denver Botanic Gardens under the care of International Bonsai Master and Curator Larry Jackel. My next tree designs will be a clump style Bonsai on both of them. There going to look great. Spring is the best time to find one of these tree when they have no leaves, so go looking in the spring before they leaf out at a local nursery.

Here are some photos of them in fall color.