A little Candi for your daily inspiration

Oh yes, another tree. Trust me I got more.

Let me welcome to you ladies and gentlemen, all the way from the heartlands of the Pacific Northwest, I present to you, the one and only, from my garden to yours, bonsai tree number twelve. Please give a big round of applause!

ID: 0012
Nickname: Candi
Type: Hawthorn
Age: 5 years
Grown: yamadori (collected from my own yard)
Last repotting: 2016?
Wired: never

Yes, ladies and gentleman, this one was natural since birth. She moves with rhythm and soul without a care in the world. Her only desire is to express all that she is, and makes no excuses for any past mistakes.

Please take a moment to adjust your headphones before you play this video, and I promise you'll be singing along and moving in no time without any need for expensive lessons to learn how.

Video credits to TheVideoJukebox channel

Before we chat about this tree pictured above, I'd like to share a bit more about myself in case you haven't read my introduction post yet. Some of you may not know that work a night job as a part time dance instructor, and one of the most popular dance styles I have been tasked to teach this year is Hustle. No, not the line dance that people got tired of in the 70's. I'm talking about partner dancing that actually takes skill, rhythm, and showmanship.

If you want, save this post for later, and check out some of these videos later on. These are some excellent examples of what good improvised Hustle looks like. Smooth as silk!

Video credits to the Hustledance channel

When you really study dance, as I have, you learn to look past the shallow outer appearances. I see through the skin and look at balance of the bone structure design, the direction of lines, the quality of movement, and the presence of character in their stance. The center couple in the above video features Hazel and Tybalt Ulrich. They are a professional partnership I have been a secret admirer of for years because of their fearless style, without the brash egos. She's a bigger girl, and he is a bit of twig like I am, but they look like a million bucks because they have perfect posture, and they don't hold anything back when they move. Also, love Erica Smith in the gold. She is beautiful in every single possible way. Feet, arms, and smile, she's got it all going on. All of these dancers are rock solid!

Although this is what good dancing looks like, we all have seen nightmarish flashes of images we can never un-see once we have seen them. That is the sort of embarrassing stigma I often have to help people to overcome to get them interested in learning how to dance better.

Thanks a lot mershals

Hopefully you didn't actually watch that too closely. If you did, then you got the dance equivalent of being rickrolled!

Now back to the tree.

Last night we had a major rainstorm, and all of my trees are on cloud nine today, bursting with renewed vigor to celebrate a refreshing change from the hot, dry summer.

This tree truly does remind me of a dancer though. It never needed any wiring, because it has a natural habit of stretching its limbs out in diagonal lateral directions exactly where I would wire them towards. They even bend on their own even after an inch of growth, so no extra force on my part is required. Just like a good dancer's frame, it expands outwards with tone and energy. The trunk makes me think of the boney curves in a person's hip and ribs when they do "the bump" exuberantly.

Hawthorn is near the top of my list for the best possible tree for a beginner who wants to get started with bonsai. If you're lucky like I was, a bird might plant one in your yard, and you can get started for free without having to search for one at the store. They have a long taproot, so trim that off, or yank really hard! It will survive. It is not classic Japanese style like we see in books, but it does produce small leaves and horizontal branches which are ideal in traditional bonsai designs. Hawthorn trees will grow in the mud, so you don't have to have a perfect soil mixture, but you do have to learn to keep the soil moist, as all potted trees need. They will often produce branches evenly along all buds, so it makes it fun to prune and choose the shape you want. If you make a pruning mistake, it will regrow and give new options to choose from. You don't have to wire a tree like this, and that is good. Wiring often intimidates beginners. The only thing about Hawthorne you have to watch out for is the spines. They are needle sharp, so I recommend clipping off any thorns you find. It is easy to get jabbed by a thorn hiding under a leaf, so be careful when handling them. After getting pricked a few dozen times, I made the decision that they are not worth the pain to me for the small gain of maintaining the thorns for artistic aims. It will continue to produce new thorns anyway, and the old ones wear out slowly, so I see no harm in removing them when I have to handle the tree. Often small birds like to hide in Hawthorn trees because of the protection these thorns provide against large predators. A mature tree also produces red berries that attracts wildlife. Perhaps it is because of the wildlife protecting it, this tree never has problems with insects. Another great trait for beginner growers. Just watch for discolored leafs to pinch off, as it may cause fungus to spread to other leaves.

The only work I've really done on my tree is to prune off any green shoots that spread too far. I rarely need to prune the hardwood. It is lacking branching in the front and back of the tree, but other than that, I am very happy with the results. People tend to ask me about this tree the most out of all the trees in my collection.

For beginner growers, this tree will quickly teach you your first lesson in how to prune and maintain a bonsai tree properly. Yes, the tree will teach you. It's true! The branches on Hawthorn tend to grow in crisscross patterns frequently, and it is important to selectively prune off any branches rubbing against each other. Any open wounds along the branches can cause the tree to become infected and diseased, or invite insects to bore into the wood. Crisscrossing branches also might head back in towards the trunk of the tree, and those should also be pruned off. Other than that, you can do whatever you want with it. Grow it tall and skinny, wide and reaching, arching over, big and bushy, or if you are really patient, try to develop groups of leaf and branch clusters at the ends of each dominant branch to mimic Japanese cloud pruning.

Finally, I will share with you some photos in my yard I found of nature's most underrated heroes. I think most gardeners give them a bad rap.