April 28 - Mayhaw Progress You may remember this big Mayhaw from last year.  I decided it was time to pot the tree this year, so I commissioned a wonderful piece from Byron Myrick and did the potting back in January.  Today it was time to wire the tree again and continue work on the branch structure.  The apex is developing sub-branching, so after another growing season of allowing the apical shoot to run in order to complete the tapering transition, I'll be most of the way home. This is also the tree that I initiated a thread graft on two years ago.  The graft is still growing, albeit slowly, but there's a good chance I'll be able to separate it within a couple of years. You can probably see the slight twisting of the trunk on this specimen, which adds to the interest.  All in all, it's a powerful bonsai in the making.

September 22 - Big Water-elm progress Here's an update on the big water-elm from below.  It's been filling out all summer, and the tapering in the apex is producing a nice, smooth transition from the starting trunk chop. I'll be removing the heavy-gauge wire I used to position the major branches sometime in the next few weeks, along with the remainder of the wire.  That will be it until late winter, at which time I'll completely wire the tree again in anticipation of new spring growth. 2013 should complete the major design work on this tree.  Since the apex has the proper taper, all I'll need to do in the crown of the tree is work to fill it out.  I should get the majority of this work done next year as well.

Water-elm Raft - May 2011 You may remember seeing this unique raft-style water-elm last summer after I collected it.  This is how the tree appeared this spring before I took it to our local show in Baton Rouge to do the initial styling.  As you can see, the growth was rampant which is typical of water-elm. How do you style a tree like this?  Because nature (and someone's truck) did such a good job of creating the basic layout of this forest, all I had to do was decide what to get rid of. I should be loading up the result soon, so be sure to check back. Photo copyright 2011 by Leslie Smith.  All rights reserved.

November 21 2010 - The National Champion Bald Cypress I have the great good fortune to live a mere 17 miles from the national champion bald cypress.  This massive tree measures 17 feet in trunk diameter at the base and 94 feet tall.  It is reputed to be at least 1,000 years old.  I suspect it could be over 3,000. This tree is the largest east of the Sierra Nevada, and the sixth largest in terms of overall volume in the nation. It appears to be two trees at first glance, but is actually a twin-trunk. Now, for those of you big tree fans, Wikipedia mistakenly says that a tree called "The Senator" in Florida is the champ (note: The Senator was destroyed by a vandal who set it on fire; it's not possible to describe a tragedy of this proportion; RIP, great tree). To the left of this tree and back toward the viewer stands a cypress with a 13 foot trunk.  To the back and left of this tree, about thirty or forty feet, is a multi-trunk cypress unrecognized in any literature I know that's not too far behind the champ.  I stepped off a trunk circumference of almost 50 feet, meaning almost 16 feet in diameter. It's hard to describe the feeling you get when standing near this incredible natural phenomenon.  Enjoy!

November 28 2010 - Me and the Champ Here's how to judge the scale of this tree.  I'm standing at the right side of the left-most portion of the twin-trunk monster.  You can't even see all of the trunk base. For those of you whose thoughts go to the obvious, I have collected cones from this tree and plan to propagate it.  It's going to take a while to make bonsai worthy material from it, but so what?  How could I pass up an opportunity like this?

	November 6 2010 The Louisiana Bonsai Society of Baton Rouge held its fall show November 6-7.  I did a demonstration on a large triple-trunk water-elm collected back in July. Here I've begun the wiring process.
	Here's my sketch of where I see this tree in five or six years. You can see that I need to build the top of each trunk.  This is not going to be a problem, as these water-elms grow more or less like weeds given sufficient water, food and sunshine.  As I told the audience, while researching this species I ran across a paper by an LSU professor who noted that water-elms can sometimes become "noxious weeds" in certain areas requiring control.  I'm more than happy to provide a public service in helping control this "pest."
	A final survey of my work.  The basic branch set plus the new leaders are in place.  I'll allow the new leaders, especially on the larger trunks, to grow wild next year so the tapering transitions are believable in a few years.  This is a critical step in developing a bonsai from trunk-chopped material.
	Me and the tree, a basic design to work from.  The left-most trunk will need a tapering cut this coming spring, when I'll be able to count on rapid growth for healing.  Water-elms don't always roll over as well as you'd like, but I do want to be sure I make the cut during the first active growth period of the 2011 season. Show shots copyright 2010 by Leslie Smith.  All rights reserved.

I am here to help you acquire, style and maintain the finest collected and field-grown material available anywhere for bonsai.  Whether you’re a beginner or a more experienced artist, please think of me as a resource you can count on.  Each tree you see on this site has been personally collected/grown, pruned, potted, and in the case of “finished” trees, styled by me.  Now, this doesn’t mean that mine is the final word on any of these bonsai; it’s a given that in the wonderful world of bonsai, there are many tastes and many different views on what makes a great tree.  You may like what I’ve done and simply work to refine and maintain the design.  You may choose to re-style the tree based on your own vision.  Either way is perfectly fine!

My bonsai philosophy revolves around one simple fact: better material means better bonsai.  If you start with great material, then no matter what direction you take the tree in you’re hard-pressed to go wrong.  I like to think it’s not that easy to make something bad out of something really good (though it certainly can be done).

The bottom line is, we all work with whatever material we acquire, or collect, or happen across.  Treat yourself to a little of the finer material that's out there.  Your collection will be much better off for it.

And don't forget, I'm always available to answer any questions you might have.  Just email Zach.

Our website is geared toward presenting you with BONSAI and PRE-BONSAI that are of superior character, so you can focus on artistic design.  You’ll also find ARTICLES on various bonsai topics, as well as our fun PROJECTS page.  I don’t know about you, but along with the pure enjoyment of bonsai I really love all the doing that goes into this art/hobby: the collecting, the workshops, the exhibitions, laying out the display garden, pinching, pruning, potting, repotting, wiring, unwiring, rewiring; even the weeding and feeding.  All of these things are part of a greater whole, which I guess is another way of saying that bonsai is much more than the sum of its parts.

Please enjoy these pages, and please keep me in mind as you make your bonsai journey.  I would love to help you in any way I can.

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