Help with Douglas Fir yamadori

[mrfish33]

I'm a total bonsai newb. Although I'm good at finding and digging up yamadori, I am very inexperienced (zero) at actually styling. I have this really healthy Douglas fir. To me the trunk has a good shape (but it was growing on a steep slope so the root ball is at an odd angle). There is a lot of decent foliage to work with. However, I don't know where to start. Any and all advice is genuinely appreciated.

 

[0soyoung]

Nice tree.

If you dug this up just to show that you could, quit - there is no point in doing any more of that, IMHO. You should see something interesting in it, something that it could be (artistic vision) and how you would generally move foliage to focus attention on its notable feature(s). You should only dig after you have consciously identified this (possibility).

So, please describe what you see to be this tree's primary features or your artistic vision for it. Then lots of BNutters will likely help you figure out what the next steps would be and how to go about doing them. You should wind up with an abundance of insight and help with getting it there. Otherwise, you maybe should repost in the tree selling forum.

 

[mrfish33]

Nice tree.

If you dug this up just to show that you could, quit - there is no point in doing any more of that, IMHO. You should see something interesting in it, something that it could be (artistic vision) and how you would generally move foliage to focus attention on its notable feature(s). You should only dig after you have consciously identified this (possibility).

So, please describe what you see to be this tree's primary features or your artistic vision for it. Then lots of BNutters will likely help you figure out what the next steps would be and how to go about doing them. You should wind up with an abundance of insight and help with getting it there. Otherwise, you maybe should repost in the tree selling forum.

Thanks for the feedback. You said: "You should only dig after you have consciously identified this (possibility)." Don't worry, I'm actually saving trees that would otherwise be destroyed and lost. Some trees I can see that artistic vision and that's why I harvest, but this one was a quick save before a road brusher turned it to mulch. To answer your question, I definitely love the movement of the trunk. In fact, I love the tree as it is in a way, but it's pretty big. Just hoping maybe I can bring someone's idea to reality. Thanks again.

 

[0soyoung]

I hadn't thought of that. Thanks for saving trees!

I've posted many of my observations about Douglas firs here.

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The BNut search function should show you a lot more on the subject