Bonsai Design Choices: Styling an Olive Bonsai

Styling a bonsai can be a lengthy process and for some.. Anxious times. Learn more about design choices when styling an Olive bonsai, and I show you in a one year timelapse how this olive was put on track towards a bonsai.

[@jasonhall169]

Your videos are always very educational. I especially like this format where you show the progress of a tree through time, how it responds to pruning, and the additional work you do.

[@GrowingBonsai]

So nice of you! I realized that most YT channels just show an action and IF you are lucky, a year later there MIGHT be an update. So I deicded to merge action & updates!

[@LoveBonsai902]

Thankyou for a fascinating video. I loved your explanation of every step & for the special olive tip. It taught me how to study a tree & plan it’s styling carefully branch by branch, instead of pruning just for a triangular shape only. 😎👍

[@bejkee]

Lovely format with the video spanning multiple seasons again! Also appreciate you sharing the wire type and diameter when working. I think it is important to start to develop the feeling of what to use when.

[@suer666]

It amazes me how simple you make styling look. I think we have all lost trees during the process of learning the craft of bonsai. Last year I lost an elm that i was very proud of. My fault as I didn't protect it from the heat and sun after repotting. Lesson learned. Your approach to sharing is great. Love the way you are doing your videos showing the development of your trees

[@GrowingBonsai]

Thank you so much! I do think a little about a tree before I start recording to be honest! BUt I try to repeat my thought process so it might be ore easy for others to do this on their trees!

[@Bonsaicrazy]

It’s looking brilliant Jelle 👊👊

[@GrowingBonsai]

Thanks! I am hoping for even better looks in a few years!

[@clintnett9202]

Awesome!

[@GrowingBonsai]

Thanks!

[@XaviersBonsaiRetreat]

This was an excellent video and I was interested about the tip you gave regarding removing alternate leaves and the growing tip. Did that work well? I am developing three smaller olives so it is interesting to see how you approach this. Good stuff and you should definitely let 'your' growing tips continue to push out and give you a nice canopy for your head :)

[@BonsaikelapaBambuApusTangsel]

Thanks

[@GrowingBonsai]

Welcome!

[@gratalau]

To me it looks like a boxwood.

[@GrowingBonsai]

That might be. But it is an olive.

[@pansepot1490]

Great start of a tree you have there! Seems to me you are going for the conifer look, with triangular shape(s) and sparse flat pads. I have watched many videos on olive bonsai and the ones I like best are those styled to resemble actual olive trees (more rounded shape, rounded pads) rather than pine trees. No judgment, just personal preference.

[@GrowingBonsai]

I have been looking for other routes to styling. But I could not find good examples. Would you have one?

[@BonsaiForRoman]

Hi Jelle, good video. 👍 In my experience the deep cuts on Olives do not heal, if I prune brunches to the base I prune it flat and I do not prune bumps of suckers I just breaking them with a fingers. Do you have successful experience with deep wound healing ?

[@GrowingBonsai]

Agreed. Olive is a poor healer of wounds! Which makes the suckers all the more annoying!

[@johnholloway691]

You should be justifiably proud of this tree because it's destined to be one of your best. Nice job illustrating the sequence of actions you took over time to get to this point.

[@GrowingBonsai]

Thank you for the vote of confidence. I am not sure this will land in the top segment though.

[@DikaBonsai23]

Styling an olive bonsai. Good material bonsai sir👍

[@rudolferdei3685]

Love your videos and I have a quick question: the cutting/snipping of leaves to trigger branching works on any type of tree, or just olives?

[@danielkosta3134]

Here in the midwest USA olives for bonsai are not easy to find and also expensive. I have only one. It is a rounded stump about 3 inches across. I have used 3 sprouts to form 3 trunks in a sort of clump style. Not the greatest but it is what i could find. I want to increase the fullness of the branches. Your tip of removing the growing tip and alternate leaves is very interesting. I will do that tomorrow. Thank you for such an excellent video.

[@peterfransen5561]

Hi Jelle. Great tree and great video. What kind of Olive is this? It has lovely small leaves. Mine seems to have much bigger leaves.

[@pesoverwatch9324]

When you where at the end of hammering the big stump, you used a torch, was that just to check if it would look nice, or was it an other reason (or just for show :D) ?

[@RICKDIED]

Tip: if you make a big cut on a field grown let the cuts heal when its stil in the ground healing and growth wil be faster then healing big chops in a pot you just have to maintain unwanted growth only remove tree when cuts are closed or almost close leave it for a few seasons to heal and work on wounds

[@jesters1gamble201]

I was bending a young Japanese dwarf white pine and the trunk broke below the branch line but not all the way through. I was able to bend it back together and used wire and a wooden rode to hold together tightly will it die or will it recover

[@ChillGuyBonsai]

Great video, so far!! This is going to help me a lot later on. I have a massive olive cutting that has rooted no foliage yet, but hopefully, buds start showing up so I can apply your tips. Once again, great video 🌳

[@GrowingBonsai]

Sounds great! Do alow it to grow for 2 years so the tree can build a good rootball!

[@ChillGuyBonsai]

@@GrowingBonsai sure thing

[@josemoreira-]

Loved this one. Please more like this

[@buhaybukid-mixvlog7066]

Thanks for sharing sir

[@Dannysbirdshed]

Stunning, love it how you do the videos over a few month so you can see the trees response

[@GrowingBonsai]

Glad you like them! I found myself annoyed with videos that showed something and then never any updates. So decided to do this format!.

[@1marcelo]

Beautiful tree and great video. I really appreciate the effort you put in following up the evolution of the tree over time. I had a couple of thoughts while watching the video. It looks to me that the problem with the original branch going towards the back was that it was too straight and didn't have any taper. I might have cut the branch half way through to generate taper. In that way, you would have a tapered branch that goes towards the back and generates perspective and depth. My other thought is that I wouldn't bend all the branches downward. This way, olive trees end up looking like junipers. Still beautiful but different from the normal growth habit. I would spread the branches like a fan, with different angles depending on their position along the trunk.

[@GrowingBonsai]

Do you know where I could see some examples of the natural growth habit? In bonsai we have drifted into certain shapes and forms (like with trident maples) and it is sometimes dificult to find out how these really grow if they are not local

[@1marcelo]

@@GrowingBonsai If you google old olive tree, you will some pictures that look relatively natural. However, many old olive trees are heavily trimmed unfortunately. Anyway, we can assume that higher branches grow upwards and out, middle and lower branches closer to horizontal. I'm not sure if old branches bend downwards. I think they micht brak under their weight.

[@theoschmitt3037]

Klasse Entwicklung

[@JodyGrogu]

Hoi Jelle, ik heb een olijf in een tuincentrum gekocht is het nu de juiste tijd om te verpotten. Het wordt komende week warm (28°). De boom is gezond en groeit goed.

[@GrowingBonsai]

Of het de juiste tijd is weet ik niet. Ik weet wel dat het bij mij verpot tijd voor olijven is. Ik heb gisteren een hele goede Yamadori olijf verpot.

[@rtregear]

Love the time sequence videos. Must be a lot more work for you. Many thanks.

[@GrowingBonsai]

Glad you like them! Mainly keeping track of the different projects is dificult!

[@brucedeacon28]

👍👌🙂

[@maxwellsmart7928]

I really like the time progression

[@GrowingBonsai]

Thank you so much!

[@rollmop99]

great looking tree- does it survive the winter outside in NL? Or you need to greenhouse it?

[@GrowingBonsai]

I would suspect it would easily survive in the Netherlands. Here in Germany it lives outside most of the time. Only with continued frost does it get some shelter.

[@cordinolongiotti]

Tree looks great, nice video

[@GrowingBonsai]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@piotrdziadczyk8598]

Piękne drzewo. Ciekawe video. Peter

[@GrowingBonsai]

danke dir.

[@jaiprakashpathak8974]

Wonderful to watch the seasonal progress of the plant. You satisfy the viewers' craving to be a witness to plant's seasonal transformation . 👌

[@Heather-kz7tn]

Just remembering how I always got bonsai kits as a kid and never got anywhere either due to moving or my little dirt pots getting thrown out before it had time to grow... Definitely getting a tree to start ❤ love your videos.

[@sueb1317]

Very interesting progression. Enjoyed your instructions on hand carving. Would love to see this tree in another year's time to check branch thickening and further selection. Great vid!

[@GrowingBonsai]

Me too. Can't wait!

[@thenaturecreater8906]

I wish my olive had that trunk😅 great work Dr. Jelle

[@GrowingBonsai]

:) Sorry :)

[@phillipwaterman5721]

Nice looking tree love this one thanks jelle keep up the good work mate thanks

[@GrowingBonsai]

Thanks, will do! Good to see you here as always Philip

[@harrietb2141]

Such a beatiful olivtree! Love it❤

[@GrowingBonsai]

Thx!