rockm
Spuds Moyogi
As pointed out, bonsai is NOT simply making an exact replica of a tree, only tinier...That approach produces bad, mostly unsatisfying bonsai. Bonsai is, and always has been, about humans, NOT trees, just like stone carving isn't about stone (is Michelangelo's "David" all about the stone used to make him, or is it how the carver used the stone to interpret human emotion?).I was once told that a tree can be defined as any woody plant which, all things being well, will grow to in excess of 4 metres or 13 feet. I Don’t know how true that is, but to that end, I find myself only really getting excited by the prospect of bonsaiing plants in this category. There are plenty of privet, dogwood, spindle etc growing wild around here, as well as all the garden centre shrubs, and they are often easier to visualise in terms of turning them into a bonsai quicker, but at the end of the day they would just be small shrubs in pots made to look like trees as opposed to actual trees in miniature. Also, to my mind it seems like a more fruitful way to learn quicker by just concentrating on 5 or 6 species or genus. In my case that would be Oaks, Elms, Maples, Hawthorn, Yew and Hornbeam.
I just wondered if anybody else has a similar outlook and why, or alternatively, am I being too narrow minded in my planning / education?
the thought that "small shrubs" don't make good bonsai material vs "big" tree is exactly wrong. The OPPOSITE is true, small shrubs are far better able to become good bonsai than 'big' tree species simply because small shrubs are already smaller in growth patterns. I have both "big" native species and "small shrub" bonsai...
Big trees have to be "tamed" in containers. There growth habits are extremely long and lanky when scaled down. That is they tend to push very very strong growth of big, bare limbs with lots of space between leaves--not what you want.
Smaller shrubs, boxwood, azalea and others can be trained to look EXACTLY like big trees. The photo below is of a Kingsville boxwood less that eight inches tall that is trained as a "Southern live oak" common across the American south. And if you think azalea don't look like "real" trees, take a look through here...Look at the bases of the trunk (nebari) and try to mentally edit the flowers out if you want (they're only around for a couple of week in June anyway-so satsuki azalea spend most of their time mimicking "big" trees.