First forest attempt - Dawn redwood

Cattwooduk

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Finally got around to sorting out the big shed at the end of the garden in our new place, set up a table and got decent lighting out there so I now have somewhere nice to do some work in the evenings once the kids are in bed!

I've been eager to make something with these little dawn redwoods I bought from Herons when I visited last year. They'd been sat in their tiny pots since last feb so were insanely rootbound but had grown well over the last 12 months, and all I did was clip them a little through the year so I had some difference sizes when I got round to using them. I went with 8 and grouped them as a 5/3.

Quite pleased for my first try. I would have liked the left side to have been slightly higher up to give more gradient difference to the right but can be adjusted easy enough in future. Found it quite hard to work out the best way to photo it, most angles it appears the tops of the trees are all close in height when they aren't but due to perspective. Need to look more closely at how people take shots to get the best perspective to show relative heights of the front/back trees.

IMG_20200214_163643.jpgIMG_20200214_163654.jpgIMG_20200214_215838.jpgIMG_20200214_215857.jpgIMG_20200214_215920.jpgIMG_20200214_215943.jpgIMG_20200214_220127.jpg
 

sorce

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Interesting.

I'm looking at the shadows thinking about how there is a mathematically correct randomness to where the shadows appear.

It's quite pleasing when you get passed the "annoying" part of it.

Wonder if using shadows like this to add those "other" trees while designing couldn't be useful.

Tricks of randomness.

Resorce.

I can't see this forest through the shadows.

Sorce
 

WNC Bonsai

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What Adair said—I can’t see the forest for the trees!
 

Cattwooduk

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Thanks for the tip, I'll have another go at picturing it and see if it helps!
 

Cattwooduk

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Third photo is nice. I like your forest. I would remove the stone and use moss only. But thats my taste.
Yeah I wasn't sure about the stone, I had taken some pictures before I added it. The plan had been to find a couple more and make a line of them to make a little cliff-edge kind of scene to highlight the higher/lower areas but couldn't find anything suitable.
The other idea I had was to make some tiny wooden steps or something maybe to create a little pathway, just playing around with it!

View attachment 285428


One from 2016....looks a bit similar. I say you did a pretty damn good job.

Thank you! Nice forest - I could only find the same few photos of redwood forests when I did a google for some inspiration of what to aim for in a few years.
I've not done a forest or used redwood before so will be a nice project to learn the development process.

Do you have any pictures of this forest in winter all nekd?
 

Tieball

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Nice work on the forest. Can you post an update when you get foliage growth?

I'd try to let a couple of the trees grow taller, just to increase the lower diameter, then cut them back for height balance....while keeping the other trees in height check. I feel like it needs at least one larger diameter tree, a mother tree so to speak, in the mix. That’s just my way of thinking though.

I like the spacing and the near overlaps in the view.....what a natural forest would look like to me.....and that the trees aren’t all perfectly straight up. Nice natural visual harmony. Well done...Mighty fine!
 

j evans

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I really like that, nice job. Maybe you should use a darker background?
 

Warpig

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Finally got around to sorting out the big shed at the end of the garden in our new place, set up a table and got decent lighting out there so I now have somewhere nice to do some work in the evenings once the kids are in bed!

I've been eager to make something with these little dawn redwoods I bought from Herons when I visited last year. They'd been sat in their tiny pots since last feb so were insanely rootbound but had grown well over the last 12 months, and all I did was clip them a little through the year so I had some difference sizes when I got round to using them. I went with 8 and grouped them as a 5/3.

Quite pleased for my first try. I would have liked the left side to have been slightly higher up to give more gradient difference to the right but can be adjusted easy enough in future. Found it quite hard to work out the best way to photo it, most angles it appears the tops of the trees are all close in height when they aren't but due to perspective. Need to look more closely at how people take shots to get the best perspective to show relative heights of the front/back trees.

View attachment 283737View attachment 283738View attachment 283739View attachment 283740View attachment 283741View attachment 283742View attachment 283743
What is the pot size?
 

Cattwooduk

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Really like that first one @LanceMac10!
My plan depending on how this one goes is to create a much larger and more dense one like yours eventually. Decided to start with something smaller as it was far more fiddly that I thought it would be to wire the trees into position even loosely.

Did you do much wiring besides primary branches? I need to do some more reading about controlling the growth on these things as it seems to be pretty vigorous. I've got another bigger one to work at some point and it put on insane growth last year. Also want to layer that one for better roots as I think they respond well from what I've read.

Nice work on the forest. Can you post an update when you get foliage growth?

I'd try to let a couple of the trees grow taller, just to increase the lower diameter, then cut them back for height balance....while keeping the other trees in height check. I feel like it needs at least one larger diameter tree, a mother tree so to speak, in the mix. That’s just my way of thinking though.

I like the spacing and the near overlaps in the view.....what a natural forest would look like to me.....and that the trees aren’t all perfectly straight up. Nice natural visual harmony. Well done...Mighty fine!

Thanks :) that's pretty much what I was aiming for re the spacing and angles. I tried having the sides leaning out more but it didn't look right, probably be ok with a more dense planting.

That was the plan for a mother tree - the tallest one in the 3rd picture slightly off centre left I didn't cut back and will let it put on girth to be the dominant focal point once it's fattened up.
 

Cattwooduk

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I really like that, nice job. Maybe you should use a darker background?

Yup I need to hang something up to photo against. The plain board I used was a bit of an experiment using the dodgy lighting to get some funky shadow play. Should probably stick to something a bit more tried and tested!

What is the pot size?

30cm oval plastic pot I grabbed from eBay. Don't actually own any 'proper' bonsai pots yet as all my stuff is in super early stages and I don't know what I'm doing enough to require putting my shit sticks in nice pots haha.
 

andrewiles

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View attachment 285437 View attachment 285438

...a few more images if your looking for branch styling cues...different planting but styling is pretty straight-forward..

@LanceMac10 I really like this one. Do you have trouble getting enough light to the trees in the middle? Multiple trims each summer?

@Cattwooduk looks really good. I'm on a similar path with mine in https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/dawn-redwood-forest.47312/ Any progression pics from this winter?
 
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