Hi,
First, let me introduce myself. My name is Andrei, I have 23 years old and i started my passion about bonsai 1 year ago. I am writing you from Romania (no, I am not a vampire ). I have this European Hornbeam that i am a little bit stressed out about him:
I would like to give me an opinion about itās potential and how do you see this tree. From my point of view i am seeing it as naturalistic style.
I have those ugly scars that i donāt know how i should help him to seal them. Are quite ugly.
Due the heat wave i lost almost 60% of the leafs and some branches lost all of them. My question is will I lose the branch? The tree looks healty because i have some moss as top dress and iāve seen new roots coming to the surface and coming from the trunk.
Any advice will help me a lot for now i cannot add too many photos
Carpinus betulus is slow to heal wounds so I think you should incorporate them in you design or hide them as much as possible. Leaf burn is common I keep mine out of full mid day sun for that reason. You wonāt necessarily loose the branch, the only thing to do know is adjust watering to align with the reduced leaf volume. I would not remove burned leaf or anything else.
Hi Andrei and welcome to the group of bonsai addicts
I nearly lost very large beech two years ago due to heat wave and me being on holiday it wasnāt even watered. It lost all leaves,basically dried out. I moved it to shaded spot of the garden, mist it daily as often as time has allowed me to and watered ONLY when soil completely dried out as it didnāt have the leaf mass to transpire. It came back next spring and letting it be to recover whole year it was extremely vigorous the year after - this year. Waiting for this I could proceed with air layering I planned long time ago.
Yours got just sun burn so not as brutal as in my case. By doing what I did you will most likely see some new growth still this year. As @Robert mentioned special care on that watering. Let it be to recover and regain its energy, avoid any work in it this year. Patience is the key
This is photo from the year it came back to life. The bottom branch never recovered. Year after it had abundance of buds and first time no issue with wooly aphids Iāve been previously fighting every year. It came back basically stronger than ever
Thatās great. I did not touched it this year because he didnāt had enough branches. I have seen new growing roots from the trunk (i have some moss as top dress and they came up to the surface).
I believe in your case you will see some growth this year. I would suggest you not even fertilise it until it has some new leaves and hardened off. If thatās the case, do some fall application of fertiliser, it will result in strong growth next spring.
Okey, thatās great. And i have another question please. I have one side that is empty and i couldnāt convince the tree that i need a branch there haha. Do you have some suggestions? Iāve heard that european hornbeams produce buds very well, but i donāt know. I donāt like thread graftings to be honest
Well, even if it produces loads of buds you canāt dictate where the buds appear much on the trunk. It is different on branches. Hence the thread grafting is an existing option in bonsai world like it or not
Iām fro Ro also.
I had this hornbeam for about 12 years.
I had the same issue every summer, so from the end of may 'till mid to end august I keep it under 50% shade cloth.
Let it grow for the rest of the season, donāt do anything to it. Prune it back after leaf drop if needed.
Those big wounds will never heal over, I suggest letting it weather for a few years then carve it.
As for that bare part on the trunk I suggest grafting. There are really low chances of you getting backbudding that low on the trunk.
Mine only grew about 2-3 branches at the top after the chop, the rest is approachgrafted. It still needs a few more years for the lower branches to thicken and fill out but it only takes time soā¦ nothing to do but wait.
Approach grafts take really well on this species. I didnāt have any failures.
Thatās looking so good. If you are from Romania too can i contact you on instagram or whatever to talk more about them? Thanks a lot buddy for all the help
). I have this European Hornbeam that i am a little bit stressed out about him:
for now i cannot add too many photos 
