Rhus copallina ‘Lanham’s Purple’

This is a great species of Sumac. It has great purplish colored leaves when it is direct sunlight. It does turn green when it is shade. The compound leaves are somewhat of a problem, but if the tree is designed correctly it should be ok. The leaves do not reduce. I am currently developing a sime-formal-Literati style. I found my Lanham’s Purple at the Longmont Tree Farm in Longmont, Colorado.

My tree was quite tall when I bought it and I first thought I would keep it as a very tall Literati style tree. I reduced the root ball last summer and placed it in a Chuck Iker pot. The pot has purplish tones and has a nail head design to it. The tree has great nebari and a powerful trunk with a semi-formal shape. The main trunk does have a good deal of movement to it. I decided in the fall to chop the tree back and make into a much smaller tree. I left around 3 inches of trunk above the one remaining branch. The tree is budding out now in the spring of 2017 and the 3 inch stubs is popping buds right now. I was going to create a jin out of the stub, but have decided to let the buds develop and see what I get. The tree does have one jin on it, a nice sized jin in comparison to the main trunk of the tree. I may shorten it in the future?

This is going to be a great tree. Right now it needs some root pruning on the surface roots.

Update 01-16-2021: The tree died back in the winter of 2019. It has sent up new shoots from the roots. I am growing at least 3 new trunks now. So maybe in a few years there will be size to the new trunks.

The tree was in the last stage of it blooming when it was entered in the local Bonsai show. You can see the blooms in the photos below. The color of the blooms was a nice maroon color and the tree is just now starting to turn on its fall colors. New 09-10-2017