Maple forest

[Topdec]

Might have left it a little late but I got a bunch of maple seedlings on the bargain shelf at the end of last year and decided to have a go at making a forest planting. I only trimmed enough roots to get them to fit together, was going to leave it to settle in and recover before trying to trim the branches

 

[Shibui]

Unfortunately it is a bit late to bare root Japanese maples when they have leaves fully open but I have seen trees survive this sort of treatment. Be prepared for all the leaves to turn brown and drop off but don't give up hope. That's their way of dealing with trauma and to survive. Most will start to grow again after 2-4 weeks

One of the results of your late forest assembly is that you've left roots around all the trees which means they are now evenly spaced in your group. You may be familiar with natural forests where trees grow at random spacings, some close together, others at wider spaces. The group you now have looks much more like a man made plantation or park where trees are all spaced at uniform spacings and are similar sizes/thicknesses. If that's the look you are aiming for then you've achieved it.
If you'd rather have a more natural looking forest you should wait until next spring to reassemble a bit earlier - before the leaves open. Take some trees and chop roots off one side so they can be placed much closer to neighbours and others a bit further apart. Truly random spacing in a bonsai group is something we need to really concentrate on because it seems we have a natural tendency to space things evenly. Yours is not the first even spaced bonsai forest, nor will it be the last. I've even made them in my early days.
Another tip is to try to source some of the sam species in different sizes to give the group some variation in trunks. Hopefully these will thicken a little this year so adding some more thinner trees next spring will help. If you can source a thicker tree that will be even better.

I find that bonsai is a long term project. If I miss a critical time there's always next year. 12 months is not much in the scheme of a 40 or 100 year project.

 

[Topdec]

Unfortunately it is a bit late to bare root Japanese maples when they have leaves fully open but I have seen trees survive this sort of treatment. Be prepared for all the leaves to turn brown and drop off but don't give up hope. That's their way of dealing with trauma and to survive. Most will start to grow again after 2-4 weeks

One of the results of your late forest assembly is that you've left roots around all the trees which means they are now evenly spaced in your group. You may be familiar with natural forests where trees grow at random spacings, some close together, others at wider spaces. The group you now have looks much more like a man made plantation or park where trees are all spaced at uniform spacings and are similar sizes/thicknesses. If that's the look you are aiming for then you've achieved it.
If you'd rather have a more natural looking forest you should wait until next spring to reassemble a bit earlier - before the leaves open. Take some trees and chop roots off one side so they can be placed much closer to neighbours and others a bit further apart. Truly random spacing in a bonsai group is something we need to really concentrate on because it seems we have a natural tendency to space things evenly. Yours is not the first even spaced bonsai forest, nor will it be the last. I've even made them in my early days.
Another tip is to try to source some of the sam species in different sizes to give the group some variation in trunks. Hopefully these will thicken a little this year so adding some more thinner trees next spring will help. If you can source a thicker tree that will be even better.

I find that bonsai is a long term project. If I miss a critical time there's always next year. 12 months is not much in the scheme of a 40 or 100 year project.

Thanks for your input and advice, I really appreciate it, I realise it does look a bit uniform but I thought it would be too harsh on the trees to chop the roots with it being a bit late. I'll certainly be looking to get some more young trees to add to it at a more appropriate time. Do you think I would get away with doing some work on it in late summer or would you suggest waiting till early spring next year?

 

[Shibui]

By work I hope that's not repotting again?
If you mean trimming, that will depend how they grow. Given the very late repot it is not yet certain they will all survive. I'd be waiting to see how they grow before making more plans.
There's no harm in letting some or all of these little trees grow a bit. Plenty of leaves will feed the roots and the trunks and give them some more strength for later work.
Remember that growth = trunk thickening. At the moment they are all very uniform in size. Ideally some trunks being thicker and some thinner would look much more natural. If you choose the trees you'd like to be the thicker trunks and let them grow as big as they like through this summer the trunks might even double in thickness in just one summer. Keep some trimmed quite short and they'll stay skinny. That way you'll end up with some variation in a few years.
From experience the trees around the outside have more root space and tend to grow faster and get thicker than the centre trees which is the opposite of what's desirable aesthetically. You may find you need to trim outer trees more often and harder and thin the shoots more often to maintain the desirable balance of trunk thickness.

If some seem to be growing strong there's no harm in trimming if you are happy to keep the trees all the same as they are now. Sometimes recently transplanted trees don't grow much until the roots catch up. You'll need to watch and proceed according to what the trees do.

 

[Topdec]

By work I hope that's not repotting again?
If you mean trimming, that will depend how they grow. Given the very late repot it is not yet certain they will all survive. I'd be waiting to see how they grow before making more plans.
There's no harm in letting some or all of these little trees grow a bit. Plenty of leaves will feed the roots and the trunks and give them some more strength for later work.
Remember that growth = trunk thickening. At the moment they are all very uniform in size. Ideally some trunks being thicker and some thinner would look much more natural. If you choose the trees you'd like to be the thicker trunks and let them grow as big as they like through this summer the trunks might even double in thickness in just one summer. Keep some trimmed quite short and they'll stay skinny. That way you'll end up with some variation in a few years.
From experience the trees around the outside have more root space and tend to grow faster and get thicker than the centre trees which is the opposite of what's desirable aesthetically. You may find you need to trim outer trees more often and harder and thin the shoots more often to maintain the desirable balance of trunk thickness.

If some seem to be growing strong there's no harm in trimming if you are happy to keep the trees all the same as they are now. Sometimes recently transplanted trees don't grow much until the roots catch up. You'll need to watch and proceed according to what the trees do.

Thanks again, I'll think I'll leave nature to do its thing till next spring. Hopefully the trees survive and I can pick up some more mature trees this year. I did take about 6/7 little cuttings off some of the trees as I was going and potted them up so with a bit of luck I might get some of them to root and have them to add to the edges of the forest too next year.