Advice on first forest planting?

Haines' Trees

Shohin
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Hey all!

So last season I bought a few Japanese maple root stock with the intent of creating a forest planting this coming spring. The trees came from California so I planted them each in their own pots to allow them a season to acclimate to my midwestern weather. I’ve got a 16inch wide oval pot picked out that I’d like to use for this piece but other than that I’m not real sure on how to approach this project.

I allowed them to grow unrestricted all last season since I figured that was the way to go and I plan to use either 5 or 7 of them (I have 9 total) depending on how they fit into the pot best. Planning on doing some pruning once they’re established and the growing season has started, assuming I don’t murder them during transplanting. Just looking for general advice on how to make this work best.
 

Tieball

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Some photos will be helpful.
Are the trees in small plastic pots now? Perhaps for one of the photos you can begin to organize the placement....what you initially think.....helpful to you and readers to see what you’re thinking. Or...are you and the trees still under a blanket of snow?
 

Shibui

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Trees in individual pots can be problematic for a group unless you are prepared to root prune some really hard. Individual pot root systems tend to space the trees evenly in the group. You should cut all the roots off one side of some so the trees can be placed close together. This is the only way to make a believable randomly space group.
When preparing trees for groups I plants some 2s and 3s in a single pot so I have some closer planted trunks for the group when I assemble it.
 

Forsoothe!

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There's a lot of different forms of "forests". I like the vertical style of an old growth layout where the trunks are bare for a substantial length, while many people like what I call a clump where the trees are closer together at the base and all of the trunks bow outward. You need to choose one or the other. (There may be other layouts that can be called forests, so expect others to chime in) I like to be able to look up and see bare bottoms of branches and architecture. Some people prefer a low canopy with just the toes of the nebari visable. Most canopies eventually grow together into one canopy, with some individual canopies partly visible on the outskirts, while some others become one big helmet. My Maple forest is losing the individual canopies because I didn't start early enough to shape them that way. Alas.
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This Tamarack forest has the same number of trees, 12, and has branching that lends itself to layers of branches and I have always maintained
the character of individual branching from day one. That kind of branch requires more space between the trees and forced me to space the trees further apart, which was good. It's too late to do that with the Maples. It also requires that the interior trees be taller than the trees in front so that a pyramid of ascending tops evolves. It looks more natural if you can place one or two slightly shorter trees in the interior, but then they need extra room. You do this with intent or it doesn't evolve right.
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Layered branching requires wiring flat branches before you attempt to merge them into a forest. It's a mechanical thing, -your hands will be hemmed-in by other branches and when they are pre-wired you are forced to position them differently so the layers can be overlapping and still have space between them. So, a tree with normally good looking space between the layered branches will not have enough space between the branches to sit close enough to another tree to be in a forest. That means that most trees must have too much space between layers if they were not in the forest (read that a couple times). Except, the branches on the outside left and outside right and straight out the the rear and straight out the front. Candidate trees that are one-sided have an obvious place, outboard. Trees with lousy branches but a good top are good interior occupants. The interior branches are going to do much more poorly than the outboard branches. That's life. But remember, you can't see the trees for the forest! As long as all the outboard branches are well spaced they will do well and the whole picture will be of as much foliage as is necessary to look like a forest. You want to observe some real important rules: There should be two groups, with a crooked or curving path between them. The groups should not be obviously separated, and only apparent when the viewer discovers the path, and even then it should look like a path through one forest, not two groups. The hardest thing to do is to arrange the trees so that no two trees are lined up one in front of another. This is more difficult than it sounds. There are two distinct looks, a distant forest with the biggest trees in back (Tamarack), or the close-up view with the biggest trees in front and smaller trees filling in space in the rear, or something in-between like these Maples. The viewer should have difficulty counting the trees. Even numbers are to be avoided because the brain more easily clumps things into pairs and it makes mental counting easier. Dissimilar spacing is useful in disguising numbers of individuals.

There is a tendency to pack the trees tighter in the beginning to please the eye, in the beginning. Don't do that. They will grow and you are planning for what you want them to look like, in the future.
 
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Haines' Trees

Shohin
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Very detailed answers! Thank you guys!

All of the maples are quite young, if I had to guess I’d say this spring will be their 4th growing season. I expect that initially it’ll look a bit strange since they’re relatively small. They’ll probably require a couple years to grow into the pot, so to speak. I didn’t think of planting a couple smaller groups in preparation for the final planting, that doesn’t sound like a bad idea.

I guess I envisioned a picture more like this link shows, with the individual canopies forming one large collective canopy (obviously this link is NOT my own work, just some food for thought).


This type of thing would still be years away, but I’d like to allow them to grow into the scene, along with some clip and grow to sort of guide the trees toward a final look.

I’ll post a couple pictures of some of the maples I’ve got tomorrow when the sun is out. Fair warning: they’re pretty ugly at this moment, being so young with no actual work done on them and it being mid January haha
 

Shibui

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I like the idea of growing a forest. The trees get to grow with each other an develop as a single entity and a few years is no time at all for bonsai.
In the link you posted note the different trunk thicknesses and different spacing between the trunks. Both vital for good group design IMHO.

I didn’t think of planting a couple smaller groups in preparation for the final planting, that doesn’t sound like a bad idea.
Still not too late as mentioned initially. Japanese maples are quite tolerant of root pruning so you can still remove all roots from one side of a few when you put the trees together to enable close plantings where required.
 

Haines' Trees

Shohin
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Here are a couple of the maples I have. Not the greatest pictures but they get the point across, at least of how young they are. They all had fairly solid growth last year. I was hoping to trim them back fairly hard once they get established in whatever pots they end up in this spring. Pretty lanky looking at the moment.
 

Adair M

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If I may...

Here are a couple examples of young forest plantings that I think are better examples of what to shoot for than Forsoothe’s: (and I’ll explain why...)

2C9FA882-D8B8-402E-9AF9-61CF6C969E91.jpeg

This first one is of Japanese Maples. Notice how the group is not evenly spread across the pot. They’re not all perfectly upright. They are unevenly spaced, some close together, some farther apart. They are all different heights. The tallest tree has the thickest trunk. They all have different trunk calipers. Yet, there is still some degree of order: the tallest tree us in the center of the clump, even if the clump is planted off-center. There is a roughly unequal sided triangle formed by the branches and apex. This is the first pot, and later, after a couple years, this planting can be moved into a substantially shallower pot (tray). This grouping way made with bare rooted trees. So that you can place them anywhere you like.


794BA53F-0BE1-4ED9-9078-508982AAFC2B.jpeg

Here’s another Japanese maple forest, again showing how leaving open space in the pot creates a better image. Again, all trunks are different heights and calipers.
 

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Shibui

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Yes, very young trees. I'd put those at closer to 2 years than the original estimate of 4 years but it is possible to grow under bad conditions and take longer to achieve the same result. You can see how much growth these trees are capable of under your growing conditions. You will need to shorten the new growth at some stage to get some taper and some branching. Your group will need some thicker trunks and some thinner ones - see examples from Adair posted above. You should probably let a couple of these grow without pruning - maybe even transfer to a larger pot for another year or 2 so they thicken faster. Keep others in the smaller pots an prune more often to restrict growth so you will have some thinner trunks for the group or else get some more thin ones when you assemble the group.
If you put these into your bonsai tray now you should expect slow development so allow more years to reach your goal. Trees will usually grow and thicken far faster in larger pots.

Slow development usually ends up producing a superior result but few of us are prepared to wait the time required. Only you can decide whether you have the patience and drive to take the slow route.
 

Haines' Trees

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Great thoughts as always.

I do plan on picking the best one or two to try and get some good hard growth out of. Two of the five in the pictures I posted are in relatively small pots which I was hoping would help in restricting their growth to a degree. The other 3 I’d like to see some thickening of the trunk, but I find myself debating between waiting for them to thicken in their respective pots (but making root pruning more difficult when the time comes to combine them) or moving them this year and making That aspect easier and risking less when I need to adjust the roots.

I like to think I have the patience to wait one way or another (that’s something we all need, right?). At the end of the day, each of these individual trees was only like $11 I think, so there hasn’t been a ton of monetary investment that I could potentially kill.

Impressive specimens by the way, Adair.
 

Vance Wood

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There is a formula and method for doing forests, including patterns that should be available on the INTERNET of you take the time to look for them.
bonsai-forests

It is hoped that you will notice that the trees are not all of the same size, planted in a straight line with even spacing. They are made to look like a natural forest and most of the time the forest is not of an even number. The above are considered masterpiece works of of art.
 
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Adair M

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Great thoughts as always.

I do plan on picking the best one or two to try and get some good hard growth out of. Two of the five in the pictures I posted are in relatively small pots which I was hoping would help in restricting their growth to a degree. The other 3 I’d like to see some thickening of the trunk, but I find myself debating between waiting for them to thicken in their respective pots (but making root pruning more difficult when the time comes to combine them) or moving them this year and making That aspect easier and risking less when I need to adjust the roots.

I like to think I have the patience to wait one way or another (that’s something we all need, right?). At the end of the day, each of these individual trees was only like $11 I think, so there hasn’t been a ton of monetary investment that I could potentially kill.

Impressive specimens by the way, Adair.
The root systems of your trees will be very easy to work with. First, bare root them by washing all the soil off. All the soil! Then, cut the tap root off, flat. Leave some radial roots, but you don’t need many. You’ll be able to place the trees as close together as you like!

The hardest part is making a grid of some kind across the bottom of your pot to have something to tie the trees onto.
 

Haines' Trees

Shohin
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Okay, so some light gauge steel wire for the grid and tie the trees down with some wire at the surface of the soil, easy enough.
 

Leo in N E Illinois

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To get the different diameter trunk, it is worth getting separate batches of trees. You want your main trees to be at least 3 years, preferably 5 years older than the youngest trees in the pot. If you are buying 1 year bare root seedlings, buy seedlings every other year for 6 years, then pick and choose between them to make your forest. The ones that are 6 years older will have noticeably larger trunk diameters.

You can get different size trunks all from the same age seedlings, by letting some grow unrestricted and keeping some pruned back & or under potted. The problem is the ones allowed to grow rapidly will have longer internodes and more coarse branching than the ones pruned & confined to grow slow. Where if you start successive batches of either seedlings purchased or batches of seedlings, they will all have similar growth pattern, because all were grown equally. The older ones will be larger diameter because of age, and their branching will be similar in internode length as the younger, smaller seedlings.
 
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