Trident maple raft - windswept

[jk_lewis]

This has been in the works for years.

 

[terry]

Very nice. Thanks for posting, Terry

 

[Eric Schrader]

Have any older photos? I'd be interested to hear a description of the process by which you created the raft. Did you find that laying the stems on the soil allowed for spontaneous root production along the branch? Or did you have to coax it?

 

[BK Bonsai]

^^^^Yes me too. Looks awesome though!

 

[Arcto]

The horizontal raft trunk extending from both sides of the main trunk is not something I've seen before. Very nicely done.

 

[Kodama16]

Diffrent and I like it

 

[sorce]

@jkl update!

This is a beautiful specimen.

Sorce

 

[erb.75]

very hard design to pull off (windswept) and hard to do with deciduous material...an inspiration!
How does it look with leaves on it? obviously it looks best in your picture, but I was curious

 

[jk_lewis]

Well, you asked for it. This is an air layer off the top of a very poor trident bonsai that came into my hands. Here's the tree after I'd had it a couple of years and decided it had nothing in its future in its then-present form. I marked where I formed the layer:

 

[jk_lewis]

When I cut off the layer, I peeled bark off the lower hlf of the limbs, sprinkled Rootone over it, and planted.

 

[jk_lewis]

I let the roots grow for a few years, then repotted into a shallower container, trimming off the stump and snipping branches.

 

[jk_lewis]

From there it was refine, refine, refine. I wired, pruned, pinched and plucked for several years. As you can see, it is pretty messy with leaves.

The pic of the base is from 2012. It is fatter now.

 

[jk_lewis]

Fall color last year.

 

[jk_lewis]

This year at the Carolina Bonsai Expo.

 

[JudyB]

Great development post. Thanks Jim!

 

[Dav4]

Good wind influenced bonsai are as rare as hen's teeth in my opinion. This is a good one.

 

[M. Frary]

Good wind influenced bonsai are as rare as hen's teeth in my opinion. This is a good one.

And a raft to boot.
Jim doubled down on this one.

 

[sorce]

And a raft to boot.
Jim doubled down on this one.

And won!

And small! The pot? @jkl 12in?
Probably 6in! Right?

Sorce

 

[klosi]

Great vision! I would never figure it came out of a top of another bonsai.

 

[jk_lewis]

Thanks, all.

Pot is 14-15 inches long.