Show us your 3 favorite Bonsai....

JasonG

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I figured we could do something fun to offset the political/religous thread that is grabbing all the posts.... :)

Lets post our 3 favorite trees that we own. They don't have to be the best trees you have, just your favorites. It could be that it was your very first bonsai, a gift from a loved one or your best trees. Its up to you.

This should'nt turn into a bashing thread or anything like that, just share some pics and keep it fun. Not a competition, or anything like that....just trying to shift gears a bit and have some fun. With BT down I am sure there are some wanting to post trees.... ")

Make sense??

I will go first. I have many trees that fit the bill, but I kinda narrowed it down to these 3....in no particular order.

Vine Maple, this I collected growing on the side of a mountain and was radically changed from how we found it. This is one of my favorites because it is large, is the best Vine Maple I have seen and was the most fun to work on of any tree I have styled to date. Pictured this morning in between rain storms..... just leafing out.
0001.jpg


Rocky Mt Juniper.
This is a favorite for obvious reasons. Said by many to be one of the best junipers in the country and I learned a TON working on this under the guidance of Walter Pall. It has only had an initial styling and will get some root work in the next few weeks.

0002.jpg


Ponderosa Pine.
I love this tree because it was one of the first major stylings that I have done by myself. It was a major transformation from what it started out as and was a blast to work on. The results are pretty good. I removed most of the wire a few months ago and will rewire it this summer. I will also widdle the roots into a better pot over the coming few years.
0006.jpg


NEXT.........
 

akhater

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Shohin is not really you style is it :)

great trees the first is my fav
 

JasonG

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Shohin is not really you style is it :)

great trees the first is my fav

I have very good shohin too...infact I am becoming more and more fond of shohin....they are much harder to work on than the big trees.... :D

Jason
 

amkhalid

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Jason! Awesome trees man... that little ponderosa is perhaps my favorite ponderosa I've seen.

With the vine maple - did that second trunk die or did you decide to remove it? It still looks great, but that must have been a tough decision (unless it died!)

Awesome trees... I would post something but I'm at work (obviously working very hard haha)
 

JasonG

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Jason! Awesome trees man... that little ponderosa is perhaps my favorite ponderosa I've seen.

With the vine maple - did that second trunk die or did you decide to remove it? It still looks great, but that must have been a tough decision (unless it died!)

Awesome trees... I would post something but I'm at work (obviously working very hard haha)

Thanks amkhalid.....

On the vine maple the snd trunk died on its own....it is alive up to about 8 to 10 inches above the soil line. If you look you can see lots of new shoots coming from there. I need to remove them. I left the dead trunk long because right now it is an anchor for guy wires.

When you get home post some trees :D
 

HotAction

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I don't even have 3 bonsai(s), but thanks for sharing.

-Dave
 

AlainK

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A scots pine, from a very young seedling taken in forest about 15 years ago. still in training, but one of my favourite :

pinus_bunjin_090317.jpg


A Japanese maple, from a cutting that was as thick as a match 12 years ago, because of its changing colours :

acerp_ishigami_080718b.jpg


acerp_ishigami_081102sm.jpg


And a larch, from a 2-3 year-old seedling. the photo was taken two weeks ago, the foliage is more dense now :

mlz9402_090411.jpg


... and :

I figured we could do something fun to offset the political/religous thread that is grabbing all the posts....

Thank you ever so much for such a sensible suggestion.
 

JasonG

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Thanks for posting 3 nice trees! Glad to see someone else post!
 

amkhalid

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Alright alright... I agree we need to get some bonsai on this forum... or pre-bonsai. I'm a student and have only been doing bonsai a few years... so I do what I can.

Hard to say if these are my 'favorite' trees, but I am enjoying them right now... its not nice to pic favorites :p

First pic is a tiny (~10cm) potentilla which I started last summer from nursery stock... deadwood still isn't finished but its close. I just repotted it from a 1 gallon nursery pot to a tiny training pot. I am letting it recover... it will be defoliated and wired a few weeks. These are nice trees in the spring but the foliage gets out of control very quickly... I have some tricks up my sleeve which may solve that problem though ;)

pot1.jpg

The second is another small (~12cm) potentilla from nursery stock... It just had its 1st hard pruning and repot (Nick Lenz pot... too big but was the right size for now). I like how it almost has an oak-ish feel to it. I think it will have the basic branch structure done by the end of this season - again, they grow like weeds.

pot2.jpg

Final is a Korean Hornbeam stump. I like this tree because it is such a challenge. It needs branches... I have done some thread grafting on it, and am also thickening the first main branch (it had 2 ft shoots growing off it last year). Long way to go (estimating another 5 years of thickening branches and growing a new apex), but in the end I hope the hard work will pay off.

koho.jpg

p.s. I will be in Harrisburg for Walters workshop on Friday, hopefully I will see some of you there!

Cheers

Aaron
 
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akhater

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@AlainK
WOW these are fantastic

for the last one BIG wow that you were able to acheive something like that in just 3 years
 

cquinn

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@AlainK
WOW these are fantastic

for the last one BIG wow that you were able to acheive something like that in just 3 years

I'm doubting it was grown from seed....ha..ha..ha. Great Material!
 

AlainK

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I'm doubting it was grown from seed....ha..ha..ha. Great Material!

My English is not so good, what I said was ambiguous : it was a 2-3 year-old seedlind when I planted it in a pot. Er, some 12 years ago :eek:

At the time, I wasn't aware that it should be put in a growing box for a few years otherwise it can take very long to form. Here is what it looked like in October 2004, before i cut off the top and use a branch from the back to form a new leader :

mlz9402_040110_1.jpg


Much less spectacular now, but yet, I still like it :)
 

Ross

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Ok, here's three from me.
 

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My new favorite and really my first major styling of any signifigance.

A landscape rip up from one of my clients. I decided to save 3 of them and I gave one away to a friend. This is the second season since I dug them out of the ground. This one is showing good signs of vigor this year so I decided it could take the trauma.

I did not do any work on the foliage planes this year except wire them in place. Next year repot into transition box and then wait and see for super refinement.

:D
 

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Nomiyama

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Just went out and got a few pics before it started raining too hard, here are my current 3

Trident Maple- Imported from Korea many years ago, when I purchased it was just a stump.
Bald Cypress- Collected from the swamps of East Texas.
Ponderosa pine- Purchased from you Jason a few Years ago.
 

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An old pic of the same from 2007/8 winter.
 

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grizzlywon

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This is a fav of mine. Just cause it is unique. A olive styled like a pine.
These are old photos and taken after a hard pruning. I have a lot more leaves now and the trunk is starting to fatten up. I have it in a large grow box in full sun. I plan on showing it as a nice shohin in the next few years.
 

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shohin kid

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My very first bonsai is this kingsville boxwood
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My biggest tree is this Japanese black pine
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This last tree is a shinpaku I did in a workshop at the St. Louis Shohin convention, sorry for the bad pic.
100_1960.jpg

Andrew
 

davetree

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Here's my three favorite at the moment - all shohin - Kingsville boxwood, Crimson Pygmy barberry, and Goldflame spirea.
 

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