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.

Mayhaw - Crataegus aestivalus - First Potting I collected this Mayhaw in Winter 2011, and it grew very nicely all season long.  What I found interesting about the tree was the fact that it almost qualifies as a formal upright.  This is perhaps the most difficult style to create.  You don't want both the trunk and branches perfectly straight, but you can't have a lot of movement in the branches though some is essential.  When all is said and done, if you can make a good formal upright then you've accomplished something. This tree needs to develop secondary and tertiary branching this year.  Right now it's relatively "static" looking, though I think you can see that we're talking about an awesome piece of material. I don't know if you can see the nebari in this photo, but it's superb.  I think that within about two or three years, this is going to be a killer specimen.  It'll appear in my new Gallery page, coming soon.  The pot is a beautiful piece by Byron Myrick. I've collected additional Mayhaw this winter, and you should see specimens appearing for sale by April or so, following the first flush of growth for the season.

Chinese Privet - Ligustrum sinense - January 7 I collected this tree in 2010, and first potted it last year.  We're having unseasonably warm weather so I've been out getting a head start on spring, which I think is going to come early.  I bought a bunch of Byron Myrick pots last fall, and this one seemed perfect for what I think is a terrific informal upright privet.  Basic development is nearing completion.  I defoliated today so I could achieve leaf-size reduction and do some strategic work inside the tree.  This one is for sale in our Bonsai section (1/10 update - SOLD).  Ships in March or April, depending on where you are. The tree is 15" tall and has a 1.75" trunk diameter at the base.  Great nebari.  I'd estimate its age at around 30-35 years.

July 30 - Chinese Privet - Ligustrum Sinense I collected this tree last year, and cut it back to just the two trunks you see here.  All of the branching has been developed last summer and during this growing season.  The crown of the main trunk needs to fill out more, which should give it a little more height.  I think the composition will be just about perfect when that happens. The main trunk has a diameter of 2.5 inches, and the apex is currently about 16 inches to the tip.  The pot is a vintage Tokoname tray. I have a nice large pre-bonsai specimen available, with more coming soon.  Check back over the next few weeks.

June 18 - Cedar Elm - Ulmus Crassifolia  I collected this nice little cedar elm this past February, in an area that lies near the southern edge of the range for the species.  What caught my eye was the nice hollow trunk base.  This specimen measures 2.5" across the base at the front, and is 20" to the tip of the new apex.  The fact that there's bark on this tree, despite the size, tells me it's at least 20 years old. I've set most of the branches, and by next year the tree should be developing nicely.  Today I potted it in a cheap glazed Japanese pot.  Eventually I'll move it to a nice handmade pot. Cedar elm is one of those more or less indestructible species for bonsai.  They have naturally small leaves which reduce quite well, and the young branches will actually put on corky wings just like winged elm.

June 12 - Big Hornbeam This hornbeam first appeared on our Pre-bonsai page last year.  The growth has been great both last year and this year; in fact, with roots emerging from the pot, I decided it was time to do something with this tree.  I had gotten  two really nice Chuck Iker pots last year, and the second one looked like it would go really well with this tree.  I think it turned out great. The trunk base on this tree is 4", and the spread across the rootage is 7". The original chop was made at 17", and I expect the tree will finish up at around 30" when all is said and done.  Completing the thickening of the apex will take another few years. And how about the muscling on that trunk!  I think what caught my eye in the beginning was the twisting appearance it had.  All in all, this is a cool tree.

Water-elm Raft - Styling begins The trick with any forest planting is to produce perspective and an impression of an actual forest in the distance.  With a raft-style bonsai this is still true, except for the fact that all of the trees are "joined at the hip."  This does produce some limitations, but it can also produce some unique effects.  This composition is one of those latter cases.  Once it's placed onto a slab I'll post additional photos to show what I mean.  In the meantime, by trimming the low-ranging foliage I've established that this is a forest, not just a tangled mass of growth on an unfortunate tree that got run over. There's much more to do, of course.  Nature gave me quite a pallette to work with, but it's going to take me three years or more to bring out the real beauty of this piece.

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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.

Water-elm - Planera Aquatica - A Nice Composition - May 1 I collected this water-elm last summer.  Originally it was a several-trunk "challenge," but I let it grow out figuring there was a bonsai in there somewhere.  As water-elm mostly does, it grew like a weed last summer and into fall.  This spring I decided it was time to get tough with the group, and by the time I got done I only had three trunks left.  Last week I put the tree into a unique tray made by Richard Robertson about 20 years ago.  There's a lot to like about this composition.  We have a dominant tree with two much smaller companions.  As your eye travels along the trunk lines and out into the emerging branches, you get an impression of a nice landscape scene.  I think it looks restful. The main trunk is 2 inches in diameter at the base, and is 24 inches tall to the tip of the new leader.  I expect the finished height to be around 20 inches. Since water-elm leaves turn yellow in fall down here in the South, I expect the pot color will be perfectly complemented.  This tree should appear for sale in our Bonsai section, in another month or so.  Stay tuned.

April 10 - Big Hawthorn Here's a big Mayhaw, Crataegus aestivalus, that I collected this winter.  It budded out profusely, and today it got an initial styling. You can see how attractive the Mayhaw bark is, exfoliating to reveal a creamy, smooth underbark.  The powerful trunk on this tree measures 4 inches at the base.  I chopped the trunk at 24 inches, and anticipate the finished height will be about 30 inches. My plan is to allow the new apex to continue growing, in order to make the transition smoother and more believable.  This will take a couple of growing seasons.  While the apex is being allowed to grow more or less wild, I'll pinch, wire and shape the branches in order to make this a realistic bonsai.  I predict that within a few years it'll become an awesome specimen. One more note about this tree and all of the hawthorns I collect: they always come with nice surface roots.  I bury the surface roots when I collect trees, in order to ensure they don't dry out.  As I move this specimen from pre-bonsai to bonsai, I'll reveal the surface roots. I'm really looking forward to the future of this tree.

November 21 - 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.  Don't be misled.  The Senator's trunk diameter is a mere 11 feet.  While it's taller than this magnificent tree to the right, it's not the tallest bald cypress and it's simply not the biggest.  In fact, 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 - 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 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.

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.