Nontraditional Chinese Elm Forest

AZbonsai

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Instead of planting trees seperately and bringing them together in a forest setting I planted these chinese elms by scattering the seeds in a black tub and letting them grow together naturally. I used a butcher knife to cut them out of the black tub and shaved the bottom of them flat about three inches in depth. I have been clipping them a bit but like to let them grow mostly. I repotted these today and pleased how the trunks worked out. Plenty of wiring and cutting needed. But overall, pleased with the results.
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Velodog2

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I like it! It’s impossible to achieve randomness by artifice, any statistician will tell you, which is why they used to use phone books before computers (and computers are not as good as the phone books at it). This looks more natural than a contrived forest. I did the same thing with root suckers from an apple. Look forward to seeing what you develop from it.
 

AZbonsai

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They are random for sure!
 

Leo in N E Illinois

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There are a couple of pictures of Japanese plantings where they just buried a pine cone. The never separated the seedlings. After 50 years it was a very cool JPW clump style forest.

Similarly, a handful of seed in the center of a pot, much like what you have done.

I like it. Keep it going. Eventually you might thin out a few. But try not to create order.
 

AZbonsai

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Just an update. I had some feedback from my bonsai club mentors about the roots. They said the focus was on the roots not the tree if I kept them the way they were. I agree but not ready to cut them out ? so I covered them up with scoria (sp?). Trimmed and layered them a bit on the right hand side so you can see the trees in the back. Should I do the same on the left?

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Adair M

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Two things:

1). The roots. Those long exposed horizontal roots. If this were my planting, I’d remove them.

2). The trunks. The random pattern is fine, but a forest generally has a tallest tree. Which should also be the thickest. Let one grow to thicken up and prune back the others.

It’s fine to create a forest with a random throw of seeds, you don’t want it to look like “a random pot of seedlings”. Because if you don’t give it “some” degree of order, it won’t have any sense of scale.

The pine cone clump style is really not a forest. Sure, it’s multipke trunks, but, it’s really like one multiple trunked tree.

A forest implies a larger area, populated by many trees of varying ages. Thus, different calipers of trunk, and heights.
 

Michael P

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I tend to agree with your club. The roots are gnarly, and are incongruous with the slender, straight trunks. But don't do anything drastic yet, a year or two of growth may change things greatly. And if you do remove some of the roots, you can cut them at the surface of the soil and leave the subsurface part undisturbed. The cut end of the root will probably sprout new growth, which would let you add some smaller trunks to the composition.
 

AZbonsai

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Which should also be the thickest. Let one grow to thicken up and prune back the others.

I will be doing this thanks for the input! It is a great idea.

Because if you don’t give it “some” degree of order, it won’t have any sense of scale.

Duly noted!
 

AZbonsai

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Update:
I just defoliated and did some triming. I have begun to remove some of the roots @Adair M and I think it has been a positive overall. Few more to go. Starting to see some ramification which I am happy about. I think I need to adjust the height a bit and will continue to allow the predominant trunk to grow with longer leaders. Overall, have to say I am pretty pleased with development.
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AZbonsai

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Putting a path through the middle of the forest. Also put some seperation between some of the trees with popsicle sticks.

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Adair M

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Putting a path through the middle of the forest. Also put some seperation between some of the trees with popsicle sticks.

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Hmmm... not sure about the path... not a big deal, it’s easily removed.

Spreading the trunks out with the popsicle sticks is good.

But you need to shorten some of those trunks. You have 3 or 4 that are all the same height as the tallest tree.

Go back and look at @MACH5’s forest. There’s ONE tallest tree. All the others are shorter, and each has a different height.

Don’t prune the tallest. Let it grow. The tallest should also be the thickest. The second tallest, the second thickest. And so on, down to the shortest should be the thinnest. That makes it look “real”.

Don’t even THINK about ramification yet. Or even branches. You’re still developing trunks.

Next year, the roots should have fused together better, and you can repot it into a more suitable pot. Much wider, and much shallower.
 

AZbonsai

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Thanks @Adair M for the tips I appreciate it! Path was my daughters idea...like you said nothing permanent. I am trying to get more sun in the middle of the forest and working on tree spacing so I can see individual trees. Yep letting the big one grow out again as per your suggestion. I finally feel like it is turning into something. A bit hesitant to go with the shallow pot because of our heat. Definitely will go with an oval when the time comes.
 

AZbonsai

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New elm volunteers in the school courtyard.
4 or 5 others scattered around campus.

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AZbonsai

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Front and back of the forest. The elms just exploded. Put some popsicle sticks between trunks for spacing and a guy wire for support.
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I trimmed the 2nd largest tree back on the top and let the runners go on the largest to get some more contrast between the two.
 

AZbonsai

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2nd trim this season. Letting the biggest trunk keep its runners (about 2 feet) as per @Adair M suggestion. The path is disappearing and I have been slowlg taking out the roots.
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Thinking this may be the front?
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Adair M

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There is some size differentiation between the trunks beginning to occur. That’s good!

Next, you need to have some shorter trees. Plan on some cut backs thus fall.
 

Leprous Garden

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Very cool idea, with a thought towards the way the roots grow together rather than only on how the trunks look together. This captures an element of real forests that bonsai doesn't necessarily consider. To that end, I have a few thoughts:

- in a forest, there isn't really a tallest tree, especially not when you have groupings of the same species. Of course you have different ages, but the canopy tends to be rather uniform. This could be a fun way to consider styling your forest which is, again, not bonsai orthodoxy.

- I really like the path. I think it is an interesting way of dealing with those surface roots which are, well, different. In particular I like how you traced alone one with the path, which reminded me very much of things I see out in the woods hiking, where large exposed roots define areas of erosion and hiking trails. The temptation to remove all the roots is strong, but given how you started this idea I think trying to keep them is interesting. You can always remove them later.

- that said, the idea of cutting some back to promote sucker growth is a cool way of continuing the development of the forest

Break the rules!
 
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