Prunus Mahaleb - first step and future vision

Prunus Mahaleb have very nice characteristics for bonsai trees. The trunks usually have lots of movement and interesting dead wood so they offer a lot of different design possibilities. The bark is rough, the leaves are small and next to all this they have beautiful white flowers in spring. The white flowers are like a gentle contrast to the overall rough image of the tree. 

I collected this tree last spring with a great root ball. After one year in the training pot the tree showed enormous health and was very strong, so I decided to make the first styling this spring. The goal was to make the basic branch selection and position the primary branches.

Prunus Mahaleb 02-2012 - before styling

Prunus Mahaleb 06-2012 - before defoliation

A couple months after the first styling I defoliated the whole tree, removed the old wire and wired the whole tree one more time. The nice thing about defoliation is that you get the possibility to develop two development phases in one season. So next to the primary branch structure the secondary branch structure was developed, rewired and put in position. 

Unfortunately, I was pretty clumsy and completely broke off the first right branch. The branch has broken off because I just wired the secondary branches, the primary branch that broke of was not wired, bcs. I intended to position it closer to the trunk with wire tensioning. Since the primary branch had no support with extra wire in the area where it grows out of the trunk, it broke off right at the connection point with the trunk. Lesson learned. I'll never ever tension branches without the support of extra wire to the trunk. 

Prunus Mahaleb 07-2012 - After styling and defoliation

The tree responded nice after the defoliation and in a couple of weeks new leaves and the secondary branches had grown. I'm quite happy with the result at this stage, of course it would be much nicer if the branch would not be broken off. Lesson is learned in the hard way and the branch is gone, so the only possibility that's left is to develop a new one.


Now it is time to leave the tree to rest and make future development plans for the next season. My vision of the future development is going in this direction.

Current stage and future vision