I'm trying to replicate this image:



I have several honey locust seedlings that I want to turn into bonsai, and want to fuse some of them together like this, I believe it's called inosculation. How is it done? Do you just bind the two stems together, and they fuse as they grow? Is it better to wait to do it? My seedlings are just a month or two old, so do they need to be older before they can begin to be shaped? If it has a specific bonsai term, I couldn't find one.

Thanks!

You can't find a bonsai term because inosculation is not a bonsai thing. Bonsai is the art of making trees miniature while keeping their natural appearance. There are some bonsai enthsiasts who specialize in the grotesque and bizare and I guess a conjoined tree would fit into this group.

Inosculation is literally when the cambiums of two tree entertwine and become one. Natural grafting. Thin barked trees work best.

A common way of accomplishing it is by braiding trunks or binding them together. Thin barked trees will conjoin easily. Thicker barker trees will grow into the right shape giving the illusion of being conjoined. The only way you would know the difference is to cut the tree down and look at the inside. The trees have to have pliable enough trunks to bend into the shape you want without breaking.

Do you want them for bonsai or landscaping? That would determine when to start. The bigger you want them to be eventually, the longer you have to wait to start the process.

If you haven't read about this fellow and his artistic exploits, you should - to find additional inspiration and techniques.

https://www.gilroygardens.org/...

I can report that maple trees can inosculate. Not all trees are known to be able to do it. I wanted to do something interesting with my baby tree and braided it as it grew the first couple years. To get started all of the branches were pliable enough to quickly form a single unit but one branch bent away from the center before joining the others. It looked like a big enough gap to be permanent but now I am not so sure. If I'm remembering right, this tree is 5 years old, maybe 6. It grows where it sprouted. I used pieces of steel wire from a roll (like for hanging pics) to hold the branches together at different spots, changing over time, so they would stay in position until inosculation occurred.

You can see the gap and the "braid lines" on the trunk.




Be ready to guide and shape often the first few years. I left our roof ladder propped next to this tree so I could mess with it constantly. After that, you're going to have something too big and tall to play with. I'm trying to do as much as I can with the puny little branches that are still trying to grow below the canopy. I have no idea if that will yield any more long-term interest, if any will be yielded at all. If nothing else, the tree does go straight up and does not start branching until it is well above the roof, which is what I wanted for deciduous shade on the roof.

For more information, investigate the terms arborsculpture, pleaching, pollarding, and espalier. These folks can lead you toward trees capable of inosculation if your first-idea subject is unlikely.

In regard to bonsai, inosculation is a very useful tool to relatively immediately morph three (or more) smaller branches into what looks like a much bigger "lobed" trunk, either braided or straight. This can help avoid the drastic transition and pruned appearance from trunk to branch that can occur as a result of pruning. It's usually easy to spot where a cut was made a one or more new branches grew. The transition of inosculated trunk into branches could maintain the correct proportions and look more like a shrunken tree. A branch can also be added to a bonsai using inosculation.

Is anyone else arbor-sculpturing, tree-shaping, espaliering, pleaching?

Ficus benjamina is easy to braid, but doesn't seem to be inosculating. It's had about 3 -4 years to do it if it wanted to. I don't guide this as much as I would if it didn't have latex sap. Pic sideways to see more closely.

Give it another 6 or 8 and it will. After about 15 years you end up with bumps and wiggly lines.

Cool! That sounds really interesting! Thank you very much. 'tis the season to cut off all of the leaves again so I can see what is going on & tangle up more stems.

Another F. benjamina individual "braided" a few years ago has accomplished inosculation. (Sideways so it will be bigger on computer screen).

Is anyone else playing with inosculation?

Here are some new pics of the maple tree I've been manipulating since it sprouted right where I wanted a tree.

Any limb not pointing up has been removed until it got taller than the roof. The lowest limb to the left needs to be removed.



I think this "jug handle" will eventually close.


A big ladder lives next to the tree so I can trim errant branches when they appear. By last year, it was pretty well shaped how I wanted. A big poof of leaves above the roof line in this SW corner, too high to bump into the roof. You wouldn't think an anole would use a ladder, but they do!

Ummm....
You might want to learn about the structural integrity of narrow versus wide angle branching.

Yes, I understand that, but I did not manipulate the shape except to braid it when it was a sapling, then remove branches pointed toward the house. This is what is left. This corner desperately needed some shade.

Watching the inosculation occur has been fascinating.

Is anyone doing anything?

We have several pecan trees that have joined by themselves when they sprouted right next to one another - doubtless thanks to the nut burying squirrel. Does that count?

For faster inosculation on most trees including ficus benjamina, I thinnk scrapping both bark on opposing face of each stem will work. The same way we do approach grafting technique. This will allow both part fuse within month or even weeks, depending on trees and season or growth rate

Porkpal, sure. Does it inspire you to want to try to cause something to happen?

Tofi, agreed. That would speed things. F. benjamina seems to take years to do it just from touching. The maple, on the other hand, inosculates very fast.

@RookiePresent did your interest lead you to any actions yet?

Over the weekend I checked a spot where I had used a hair clip to hold 2 Dracaena trunks together. It's been several months and there was no sign of inosculation, and I wasn't expecting any since I've been braiding and twisting and tying Dracaenas in knots for may years. So I used a knife to slice part of the bark off of both trunks and clipped them back together.

And I couldn't stop myself from braiding a fragrant olive (Osmanthus) at the top where 3 pliable stems popped up quickly this spring from the regular rains.

The "jug handle" will be gone within a year.

Ficus benjamina from multiple cuttings



Closer look at inosculation below

Al