Collected Western Hemlock styling suggestions welcomed..time for initial styling

[Rose Mary]

Collected this Hemlock a few winters ago in the nearby coast range when I spent a year on fire/equipment watch.

It was growing on top of a very old round stump about 12 ft. across from logging back in the 20's n 30's at least. I collected quite a few trees that winter.

This one attracted me because of it's gnarly trunk growth, surviving growing through the rotting bark. Very shallow rooted naturally, it hasn't blinked since collected. I love Hemlock, the needles reduce so quickly and they do well here in my yard.

This was from the coast range only about 28 miles from my house (as the crow flies...ha ha, almost 2 hrs to get up there, beautiful drive.

This winter it will go in a colander and undergo further root development.

So with the short naturally curled trunk and too many branches, what would you do?

Havent removed anything since the initial chop when collected. Wasn't very tall and has nice taper and apex beneath all the green. It's time for a styling...comments please?

Rose Mary
SW Oregon

 

[iant]

Pictures are super small. Can you try uploading larger ones?
Ian

 

[Rose Mary]

rats i felt lucky getting them up at all....no cord direct to laptop from phone so it's a process. Will try new pics and check for larger settings tomorrow.

 

[Rose Mary]

different photos

new photos of western hemlock styling suggestions please?

It is about 16" tall.

Rose Mary

 

[JudyB]

I can't speak to this specie, so I'll leave those thoughts to others.

What I can say is that I think you should plant this deeper, I don't think the space between roots and soil is pleasing to the eye. I wonder if over time, you could take off the large right hand root (in pic#2) altogether. If so, you'll have a lot more styling options. You could then tilt the tree to the left...

Just my thoughts, it certainly looks very happy.

 

[Victrinia Ensor]

As traditional bonsai goes... this isn't... so I wouldn't be too worried about the crazy rootage if it appeals to you, because I'd give this a very penjing feel to begin with. I like it myself... it's something I understand having seen so many nursery log trees... That being said, I'd much rather work with you than try to give too much styling advice over a forum, the material is complex. So if you are coming to Portland this fall for PNBCA we should make arrangements to get together and get some time with it.

But I can tell you that you aren't going to get back-budding on needless wood. So whatever you do with your pruning, take growth back to the lowest growth areas that make sense on the tree. Sometimes if the growth is out towards the end without a lot of inner growth, you'll have to do some serious wiring to compress the imagine. But in all things keep the foliage movement consistent with the trunk movement (think dragons etc when you are wiring) and you won't be disappointed. They set branches fairly well, but usually have to be guy wired into position after the main wires are taken off. Wire should be monitored a lot during heavy growth since biting can happen fairly quickly if it's really happy and flushing out hard due to ramification.

Nice thing about WH is that it bends well with wiring... if you have to do something extreme you'll want to wrap then wire... (see recent thread I did on a RMJ) and then you can make it do ballet.

Let me know if you are coming to Portland. We get down to Salem area to go to Telperion Farms a few times a year too... so we could always meet you half way sometime.

Take care,

Victrinia