Uniqueness in Brooms

[Don Blackmond]

I have some zelkova brooms for sale in case you are interested.

 

[MichaelS]

Walter's tree has several flaws, judged by the classical style. To wit, there are crossing branches, the "sub trunks" don't have any taper, and there are some large still unhealed scars.

Don't get me wrong, it's a very nice tree. But it does not have the refinement shown in the Japanese trees.

Is it because Walter strives for a "natural look"? Or is it because he took the fast track, using branches that already existed on his stock and didn't grow out the branches? I don't know. I suspect it's more he used what he had and made the most of it, rather than spend the decades it takes to grow one out.

And there's the problem: it takes decades to grow these out properly.

Agree completely with this. Even if aiming for ''natural'' we are still creating bonsai not just small trees. The difference? IMO a bonsai (a good bonsai) should have elements which raise it above the ordinary. For example, Walter's tree looks very similar to a tree in any amount of Ash avenues down any street in Melbourne. They are all ''nice trees'' but they don't have that illusive element which attract the eye and makes us stop and look more deeply. In other words they are ''ordinary''. Whether Walter ''rushed'' the shaping of the tree for no other reason than expediency, or purposefully used the existing structure because he wished to let the tree continue to express how it decided to grow is besides the point that it's what the ''finished'' image and what it says that's most important.