Suburban Bonsai Shape Inspiration

[DeutschElmDisease]

I live in a suburb in the midwest USA, and I was wondering if I'm not the only person with this particular bonsai inspiration point. In my area of the world, we don't have cliffs, not too much wind-sweptness, or ancient forests.

However, we do have very interesting trees that have been cut back in fascinating (sometimes dumb) ways due to power lines or away from house roofs. Some have big holes in the middle of the branching, others bend away from the power lines and the branches flow out from there,, or lean over the street, looking a little dangerous. This gives me some hope that these things could be pretty resilient even if I do cut the wrong branch off or if the tree gets wired a little off kilter.

Does anyone else derive inspiration in this or other interesting ways?

 

[ShimpakuBonsai]

Wherever I am I look at trees and you can see interesting trees everywhere that can give you inspiration on styling your own trees.

 

[johng]

Certainly! I like to call it Americana bonsai but there is probably a better name...
KiyoHime Maple...famous for the tops dying out! A friend took a look at this tree and said it looked like what the electric company does to neighborhood trees....

 

[johng]

How about a Planation Alley done with Harland Boxwood???

 

[johng]

Or maybe a treehouse???

 

[A. Gorilla]

Certainly! I like to call it Americana bonsai but there is probably a better name...
KiyoHime Maple...famous for the tops dying out! A friend took a look at this tree and said it looked like what the electric company does to neighborhood trees....
View attachment 469227View attachment 469228

 

[Srt8madness]

I live in a suburb in the midwest USA, and I was wondering if I'm not the only person with this particular bonsai inspiration point. In my area of the world, we don't have cliffs, not too much wind-sweptness, or ancient forests.

However, we do have very interesting trees that have been cut back in fascinating (sometimes dumb) ways due to power lines or away from house roofs. Some have big holes in the middle of the branching, others bend away from the power lines and the branches flow out from there,, or lean over the street, looking a little dangerous. This gives me some hope that these things could be pretty resilient even if I do cut the wrong branch off or if the tree gets wired a little off kilter.

Does anyone else derive inspiration in this or other interesting ways?

Absolutely yes, I've considered doing a penjing like scene showing this. I see them everyday, glad I'm not the only one. Will try to grab some pics for this thread.

 

[ShadyStump]

I've had the same thought about suburban street trees, just seemed like the individual trees would look horrible without the context of the rest of the scene - houses and power lines, etc.
Makes me think of doing a model train type set up with a whole city and all, but actual trees.
Problem there is I'd finish it, then be tempted to go all Gomez Adams on it with some cherry bombs.

 

[Srt8madness]

Somewhat related to the topic, this happens at my parents house. The power company is only interested in the upper power like. So one of their oak branches is resting against a phone/cable line, and haa grown a burl that totally envelopes it now

 

[dbonsaiw]

Love the topic. Never realized how little I was able to actually picture the canopy of a tree. Reminded me of a show I saw where random people were asked to draw a bicycle and basically no one was able to draw a functioning bike - they totally butchered where the chain is and how things connect. That's kind of how I feel about canopies now and study as many trees as I can to see how the canopy was actually formed.

 

[Michael P]

When I read your first post I immediately thought of a penjing with power poles and wires. Johng has already done it!

 

[penumbra]

How about a Planation Alley done with Harland Boxwood???View attachment 469229View attachment 469230

This is really amazing. I will start one this spring.

 

[penumbra]

Or maybe a treehouse???
View attachment 469231View attachment 469232View attachment 469233

I love the idea, but I would like it better if the house were more subdued. I guess that will naturally happen when the tree eats the house.

 

[Leprous Garden]

I love this idea and have thought of it many times. There are enough "perfect" looking bonsai out there, I think there ought to be more weirdos. I find the ugly, malformed and butchered trees surviving in cities to be quite inspirational.

 

[19Mateo83]

This is really amazing. I will start one this spring.

Have you ever seen what I call “homestead trees” growing in the woods? Homestead trees are the trees that used to be planted around homes in the early 1800’s. The homes and farms are long gone (except the occasional chimney remains or rubble) but the trees that lined the driveways and surrounded the homes are still there. They are usually massive oaks in a straight line or in a square. These days they are becoming rarer and rarer due to the land getting developed and them getting destroyed or just old age taking them. JohnG’s plantation alley planting reminds me of these. I’d love to see a forest setting penjing of old homestead trees in the woods surrounding the decomposing ruins of a chimney.. maybe some cobblestone foundation remains.