I found a really great Rhamnus frangula ‘Columnaris’ tree at the Longmont Tree Farm sitting out in a huge field along with a bunch of its brothers/sisters. A lot of these trees had some interesting nabari on them. The trunk size was not bad either. After walking around for what seemed like hours, I went back and selected one of the trees to take home. I kept it in the yard all summer and then I had to do something with it for the winter. I put in my first gravel bunker and shoveled two tons of gravel during a snow storm. Duh! Should have done it sooner. I put this tree in my new gravel bunker for the winter. I learned latter I should have been using squeegee not gravel for the bunker. The tree stayed in that bunker from 2009 to about 2015 growing straight up for the most part. A blizard came along when it was in full leaf and snapped the trunk right off where it is today. Now that is what I call a natural chop job by mother nature. I took the tree out of the bunker and discovered that it sent roots out of the holes in the bottom of the pot right down into the gravel. It took me a while to get the tree out of the gravel. So not only did the top get chopped but so did most of the roots. I chopped the roots off right at the holes in the bottom of the pot. The trunk now was much bigger then when I bought it. So I waited to see how or if the tree would live. The tree finally started budding out on the trunk. I left these new buds alone for a couple of years and then cut them back. The tree had recovered and was growing well. I styled this tree in the spring of 2019. One of the older branches had died and I added some shari to the trunk directly below the dead branch. The shari and the top of the tree from the original mother nature chop job was carved around 2016. I cut back the branches when styling the tree to keep it a small tree or so I hope. The tree budded out again and was allowed to grow unchecked for rest of the year. I will cut the new growth back to a pair of buds after the leaves drop for the year. The tree has flowered in the past and I get blue berries on it until the birds find them. This tree should look great in about 3-5 years.
The nebari on the tree is the best feature of the tree now and the roots are big and gnarly looking. The front will be where the shari is on the main trunk. This tree had been in the gravel bunker for so long the pressure of the gravel squeezed the pot into an oval shape. The pot/tree is still an oval.
New Gallery 02-29-2020:
The tree was brought indoors to evaluate all the new growth on the tree from 2019. Some branches were cut off and others were used in the design. All wire was removed as some of the wire was cutting into the bark in various spots. The tree was rewired and the height of the tree was reduced. I think the tree is looking pretty good right now. In the spring the tree will be re-potted with the goal of reducing the root ball in preparation of putting the tree in a Bonsai pot. Ramification of the tree will also begin in the spring and that will be interesting to see if it can be done on Buckthorns. This tree will be a short and powerful tree with a substantial trunk on it.
Gallery 08-08-2019:
