2015 Box Store Challenge Beginner Entries

Vin

Imperial Masterpiece
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This thread is for judging the beginner entries in the 2015 Spring Box Store Challenge. Please refrain from commenting until judging is complete. Thanks everyone!
 

Walter Pall

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Beginners


I clearly make a difference in judging beginners, intermediate and advanced. While some may think that I am quite candid with intermediate and advanced I do know that it is important to make folks somehow happy who tried hard. What I am not so fond of is when intermediate of even advanced folks produce results that qualify for beginners in my cook book. Anyway, thank you all for participating.


1) pyracantha


material: good choice. Difficult material for beginners.


Result: for this kind of material very nice. A high very elegant tree. I like the movement of the trunk which was not apparent on the starting picture. I understand that you have protected the trunk because of heavy bending. Good work


critique: not much wrong her. This tree is well on it's way. Styling when the tree already has foliage and flower buds is a bit critical. But I think it will cope with it.


Ranking: number two of beginners


2) buxus,


material: very good choice of material for this kind of challenge. Very appropriate for informal broom form


result: very good! I really like this. This will be a great broom very soon. The nebari seems to be very good, the placement of sub-trunks is very fine.


Critique: The guy wires are not beautiful, but very effective. This kind of tree can well be styled with many guy wires alone. No minus points for that. Proportions of the whole tree are very good. You have made the best of the material that you have started with. This is better than most entries for intermediate and advanced.


Ranking: number one of beginners



3) ilex


material, good choice, good material


result: rather formal broom form, which is appropriate for a broadleaved tree.


Critique: I assume you left the center shoot for health and good growth of the tree. Fine! So I just regard this as sacrifice branch for the future and not part of the design. You have wired most branches, could have wired also he smallest ones. There are not so many. Then you have bent the branches down . Too straight for my taste. This makes the whole thing looking quite stiff. I think you should have take much thicker wire and made some gentle curves into all branches., whit the tips going upward.


Ranking: number three of beginners together with a few others.



4) rhododenron


material: good choice, this is excellent and cheap material for bonsai.


Result: good start of an informal broom form.


Critique:I like the fact that you make a rhododenron (which really is an azalea) into a broom because this is absolutely not standard. Practically all azaleas are styled to look like artificial pine trees with flowers. It is much more appropriate to make the look like a broadleaved tree – which is what you did. This does not look very good for an untrained eye. Fro my eye it is a good start and will result in a lot of back budding. This will be a fine broom in a couple of years. Then you will be able to cut back some of the too long branches and make the crown more compact.


Ranking: number three of beginners together with a few others.




5) rododendron or rather azalea


material: good choice, good material


result: good start for an unusual twin trunk. Very good nebari already!°


critique: you made the right choices for the branches. I think you could have wired everything and it wold look MUCH better immediately.


Ranking: number three of beginners together with a few others.




6) buxus


material: very good choice of material


result: this is a good start for long term development.



critique You could have used a lot more branches and created a convincing instant broom form right away. For a challenge like this you want to have a nice looking result. But this will continue and we will see how this will have developed next time.


Ranking: number three of beginners together with a few others.


7) ilex,


material: good choice, good material


result: informal broom form.


Critique: fine, good start. This will be nice one day. Unfortunately the nebari is not so good. You could have tested the nebari in the shop where I suppose they had more of those. .You could have found one with better nebari. Unfortunately it is very difficult to improve a poor nebari. So you better start with a good one right away. The whole thing looks stiff to me. I think you could have bent the branches down and then up at the tips again. You also could have wired all the small branches too.


Ranking: number three of beginners together with a few others.
 

Alain

Omono
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Thanks a lot for your time and critiques, really appreciated! :)
Thanks also to Vin for taking the time to take care of all that.

Regarding my own tree:
I know I should have wire everything, the problem: I don't have the gauge of wire suitable for these branches diameter yet ;)
This will be for the extended to Sept 2016 part of the challenge now!

Congrats to the winner and to everyone for that matter :D
It was really fun! :)
 

Bunjeh

Chumono
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Mr. Pall: Thanks for taking the time to pass on your wisdom. As you noted, working with a tree in full leaf and flower buds was challenging. It has since bloomed, started to set berries and shows no signs of shock. See you again in September 2016.

Thanks again.
 
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Congratulations jedge76 on winning! Everyone else keep up the awesome work!
 

jedge76

Mame
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Thanks sawgrass. And same to you. The ability you showed with that azalea is something for beginners like me to strive for. The nebari has been talked about a lot on that one and rightfully so, but I love the planting angle you added to it, too!

Thanks a ton to both Vin and Mr. Pall. It is really cool to have a place like this to get that level of feedback from someone like Walter Pall. And Vin, this must be a lot of work for you and I know we all appreciate it immensely. Not to mention, nice tree Vin! Congrats!

I'm looking forward to viewing everyone's progress in September!
 

jedge76

Mame
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Thank you Bunjeh...this seemed to be a really vigorous grower--there was mud caked in the center of the tree, right where the main trunk splits off, and roots were actually pushing right out of the branches into that mud. It's a fun tree for sure. Thanks again.
 

f1pt4

Chumono
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Thanks Mr. Pall for your time and effort. As a beginner, I really appreciate any advice regarding any of my trees.

To be honest, my styling was done hastily, as I was in the middle of renovations and preparations for the sale of my house. I was afraid I over did it, and the boxwood wouldn't survive, but after seeing it at my parents a couple days ago, where it is currently vacationing, new growth has been emerging so I'm optimistic for it's future.

Vin, also much obliged to your efforts. It was fun. I'm looking forward to participating in the twist of the challenge portion. Keep up the good work! And lastly I apologise for misunderstanding some of the fine print! But now due to the twist we're all on the same playing field.

And congrats jedge76! Looks great!
 
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