grouper52
Masterpiece
I'm hoping this post can spur some discussion. I'm including my own trees pertaining to the topic, but not looking for direct feedback necessarily, looking more for others to post their experiences and insights - perhaps backed up by their own trees, so feel free to post yours on this thread.
One of our new members seems interested in Hokkaido and Seiju Chinese elms, neither of which are my favorites. I much prefer the species, although I have a few tantilizing Yatsubusa and Corticosa guys in the ground heading, I hope, towards a bonsai pot at some point (great pre-bonsai trees - and their air layers - I got during a visit to Brent a few years back).
Both Hokkaido and Seiju seem like they ought to make much better bonsai than they do, and seem very tempting unless someone has messed with them before. I consider them more a novelty than anything else, although I am a huge fan of Chinese elm in general.
I'm posting my two "finished" examples that I think take advantage of their positive attributes, while working around their problematic tendencies.
First is a Seiju triple trunk. I bought it largely designed as you see it several years ago, but it was potted and presented horribly, so that was the first and main thing I did. Since then I have made relatively minor styling changes as well. These trees tend to grow, IMO, in a rather ugly habit, with awkward branching angles and an enormous propensity towards unsightly reverse taper. Their "cork" bark is also fairly unattractive to me, being merely two rows of broadening scars that develop at nodes. In this tree, I think those flaws are fairly well masked by the overall design, but a single trunk tree would fare far worse, typically.
The Hokkaido has even smaller foliage, and can occasionally be found at a decent height, but they are brittle, and the growth habit also leaves me unimpressed in stand-alone trees. And yet, this scene, for those who like such things, seems to work fairly well. The tray is a bit small, but the composition works fairly well otherwise, but only because the Chinese consider the rock to be the dominant element in such a scene, with the trees playing a secondary role, or even a tertiary one behind the human element. As with many group plantings, the quality of each individual tree is not so important, which allows a few modestly attractive trees to combine with the other elements to create a scene that becomes more than the sum of the parts. That these are not really great trees couldn't matter less, so a Hokkaido elm can shine in such a setting.
The floor is now open to the discussion of these two cultivars, and the use of unusual cultivars in general perhaps. I find myself increasingly attracted to the simple beauty of the species in many cases these days.
One of our new members seems interested in Hokkaido and Seiju Chinese elms, neither of which are my favorites. I much prefer the species, although I have a few tantilizing Yatsubusa and Corticosa guys in the ground heading, I hope, towards a bonsai pot at some point (great pre-bonsai trees - and their air layers - I got during a visit to Brent a few years back).
Both Hokkaido and Seiju seem like they ought to make much better bonsai than they do, and seem very tempting unless someone has messed with them before. I consider them more a novelty than anything else, although I am a huge fan of Chinese elm in general.
I'm posting my two "finished" examples that I think take advantage of their positive attributes, while working around their problematic tendencies.
First is a Seiju triple trunk. I bought it largely designed as you see it several years ago, but it was potted and presented horribly, so that was the first and main thing I did. Since then I have made relatively minor styling changes as well. These trees tend to grow, IMO, in a rather ugly habit, with awkward branching angles and an enormous propensity towards unsightly reverse taper. Their "cork" bark is also fairly unattractive to me, being merely two rows of broadening scars that develop at nodes. In this tree, I think those flaws are fairly well masked by the overall design, but a single trunk tree would fare far worse, typically.
The Hokkaido has even smaller foliage, and can occasionally be found at a decent height, but they are brittle, and the growth habit also leaves me unimpressed in stand-alone trees. And yet, this scene, for those who like such things, seems to work fairly well. The tray is a bit small, but the composition works fairly well otherwise, but only because the Chinese consider the rock to be the dominant element in such a scene, with the trees playing a secondary role, or even a tertiary one behind the human element. As with many group plantings, the quality of each individual tree is not so important, which allows a few modestly attractive trees to combine with the other elements to create a scene that becomes more than the sum of the parts. That these are not really great trees couldn't matter less, so a Hokkaido elm can shine in such a setting.
The floor is now open to the discussion of these two cultivars, and the use of unusual cultivars in general perhaps. I find myself increasingly attracted to the simple beauty of the species in many cases these days.