Creating a Forest Bonsai Part III

Finally! This was the project as assembled at the end of the last blog post.  The last step was to complete some pruning and adjust some crossing trunk lines.

Before

inverse taper and an unattractive kink in the main trunk to be removed

Various wires used to loosely secure trunks

From the side

From the opposite side

After.  A new beginning.

Some things to improve in the short term future:

1. Shift the planting to the left at the next repot so that more negative space is to the viewers’ right.
2. Encourage back budding on the thinner trunks so that they can be reduced in height.
3. Perhaps add an extra minor trunk at each end in future.
4. Encourage thickening of the two major trunks.

Any other suggestions would be welcome.

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Creating Beech Group Part 1

You may be wondering why I’m posting the above picture of my son but if you look closely you may notice tell tale signs of bonsai related activity…

Work out what it is yet?

Yes, you’re right, he was sieving pink cat litter on a windy day and unfortunately for him, he was standing downwind. Darned dust!! I had to open a new bag for more repotting work and he was keen to help out.  Some great memories formed today as Jonah and I set about creating a European Beech forest. Unfortunately we didn’t finish the project but will do asap.

Garden centre saplings

Plus bulked up garden material

Tray prepped

Garden material dug up and Jonah removed the old leaves.

All material washed and graded according to trunk girth.

We ran out of daylight hours so I wrapped them in wet newspaper and placed them in a bag in my garage (More late frost expected tonight!). Twelve saplings to choose from, I know an odd number is traditionally used so I may drop the least suitable.  We’ll see once I start placing them together tomorrow.  I’m off to read what Peter Adams has to say about it.  Part 2 coming soon…

Three for the future?

These three European Beech saplings have been growing freely in the garden for a few years now. Time to start training for a future group planting. The one on the right has been closely pruned at the apex, the middle tree less so and the left hand tree left alone. Next year I’ll hopefully have noticeable difference in height and girth between them and I might pot them into a plastic tray.