Bonsai forest material and tips

[barrosinc]

Why rush it with the pot? It might break being large and laying around.
If you will get yamadori next year, you are like 3 years away of even thinking about a pot.

 

[Saddler]

Why rush it with the pot? It might break being large and laying around.
If you will get yamadori next year, you are like 3 years away of even thinking about a pot.

Why not get the pot? I sincerely doubt he will just leave it “laying around” to be tripped over. Having something like that can be the much needed motivation to carry on when things don’t go according to plan. He can use it to try his tester forest planting’s on. It doesn’t sound like his new born is going to without milk because he bought a pot.

 

[SuperMarioZZZ]

Saddler, you are right. The pot will motivate me and this way I am starting the project. Trees will be found to fit the slab.

Another extremely good reason is that after spending a good time researching for a special bonsai forest pot or slab, there are not many options on the market. Erik is an artist and I don't know what will happen in a couple of years when my trees will be ready. Why risk? I hope to see his work for 100 years from now but what if he will quit the fantastic work he is doing? I love his work and I want it in my house.

 

[Saddler]

@Vladimir13, please don't let anyone water down your dream. If you want to build a Walter Pall level forest, go for it. For me these goals I have usually end up taking 3-10x more money and 100s more hours then I thought it would take at the beginning. I have never regretted what I have done when I reach my goal. I can’t see Walter Pall getting to where he is by being ok with taking the common path.

 

[leatherback]

Nice dreams!

As you are near to Walter, I am sure that come repotting time for his big forest, he could use a few additional strong hands. If you ask nicely, maybe you can lend him a hand.. That would help you see first-hand what this forest look like, and how to deal with such a beast.

 

[rockm]

I want to create a bonsai forest like Walter, not to copy but to have it as a model.

Being a long time project, I wanted to get informed on which path I should go. Yes, I ordered today a 2,000 euro (including transport) custom slab from Erik in the end. It will be ready in September or October.

The biggest pleasure for me is to make the bonsai forest myself, not to buy masterpieces and arrange them as a forest. One problem here is that I don't have the experience to care for such trees and the second is that I won't learn too much if I go on this path. As Walter said, yamadori is the way and this is what I will do. Many benefits are coming from this:

- I will learn to collect. care for and prepare yamadori to become a bonsai at some point.
- The journey, the books, the forum and the articles will teach me much more than going straight to a shop and pick the best of what they are having.
- Hopefully, I will have better material than many shops and nurseries are selling.
- I will get prepared to take care of the forest as I will take care of each tree for several years.
- The project will take longer but it will be made by me with maximum attention and the cost will be much less than buying masterpieces made by others.
- Being a long project, I can play with sticks in a pot to arrange them as a forest and get used to. I can fail many times without losing important money and I will get some experience.
- I will spend time in nature.

It's a big dream for sure but the journey will be excellent even if it takes many years from now. Dream big, succeed big. Failure is not an option in this project, for me, it's the second important project after taking care of my newborn.

Fair enough. Can't do much better than Walter Pall.

The point I've been trying to make, however, is that is mostly unnecessary to spend a fortune on trees--it won't necessarily make your forest any better. If you're in it for the long haul, developing nursery stock or seedlings can produce excellent forests.

The compositions below are in the U.S. National Bonsai and Penjing Museum. None, that I know of, were developed using collected trees. They either began as nursery stock or as seedling plantings...


John Naka's "Goshin"


Mas Moriguchi's "Foemina" forest


Marybel Balendonck's Catlin elm forest

Susanne Barrymore's Chinese Elm forest