Your Vote - which pot for my Cascade

[Japonicus]

Votes displayed publicly.

I have my own idea. I think the darker and a little taller pot would best suit the foliage.
That's a Chinese pot with windows, but it is still en-route and has not arrived yet.
Would be awesome if @Arnold could do a quick virtual mock up unless it takes too much time.
I can wait till the pot gets here, and am good with mid April potting. Expected arrival March 16-31.


I'm hoping for a non biased vote and or input due to the source. The American man made pot is double the cost of the Chinese pot
and feels very solid in hand. It's attractive to me as a pot...as is the Chinese pot, but no idea about how it feels in hand yet either.
The solid colour and less rounded edges, a more traditional style I think, just looks like it would set the foliage off better
and raise the lower apex some for during Winter storage on the ground. (ever try to put a cascade on a flat plane not elevated?)

Both are fired to cone 10-11 it is said.

Being the owner, I feel the juniper is up for a repot. Soil pools water some and those roots that grow this year aren't going to help.

 

[Japonicus]

The last time this cascade was repotted...

3/15/2018 four years ago to the day


This is how the root work went. It was following a fairly heavy thinning from the previous Fall.
That year, 2018 this juniper took quite the set back. I feared for its life actually, so no more
potting up junipers for me the following Spring after a previous Falls work. At least not a 45-50% root reduction.

 

[Crazy Diamond]

The chinese pot is beautiful

 

[NaoTK]

 

[HorseloverFat]

Chinese Brown Window FOR SURE!

The American one is great too.. just not the best choice of the two for THIS tree, in my opinion..

 

[Japonicus]

The chinese pot is beautiful

Thank you Arnold! Here's what Vicki Chamberlain (another American potter) had to say about it when
I inquired about her commissioning a pot for it, or checking her inventory...

Oh gosh, the pot you have selected is beautiful and much more elegant than I would make. Mine is very simple compared to this pot. If it was my tree, I’d purchase the pot you already have in mind and are ready to purchase...

 

[Japonicus]

The purple sand Yixing pot made it in today with no chips or other damage
It is a little taller than the Sara Rayner pot beside it in this pic we were voting on.

* The volume of the Yixing pot is enough I think I could slip pot into it if I had to,
but I need to renew a bit more soil than that and get at the crown more.

* The amount of root work I may do, might make the volume of the Sara Rayner pot
more attractive to the trees root system...
Makes it harder waiting for the procumbens to waken now that I have the pots.

Votes CAN be changed

 

[HorseloverFat]

Well dang...



That...

..requires new consideration.

 

[HorseloverFat]

The color even looks different in the new photos....

And comparatively.. I "considered" the American pot a DEAL shorter, when making my decision(That and color were my final
swinging opinion criteria). Now BOTH those facets seem different..

...aaand I'm sold!

 

[Japonicus]

The color even looks different in the new photos....

And comparatively.. I "considered" the American pot a DEAL shorter, when making my decision(That and color were my final
swinging opinion criteria). Now BOTH those facets seem different..

...aaand I'm sold!

Tomorrow I'll oil the pot and post a couple more side by side.

I did include both with and without flash last post. The Chinese pot is pretty proper for a juniper on colour in person.

 

[Ruddigger]

The tree has a Chinese style to it, so I vote for the traditional Chinese pot.

 

[Japonicus]

The tree has a Chinese style to it, so I vote for the traditional Chinese pot.

But I'm not Chinese lol.
I started this from 1g nursery can.
Sent a pic of it to a friend i work with
from Burma or Myanmar. He liked it of course.

 

[TinyArt]

I love that Sara Rayner, now that I've had a better look -- and the sweeps of texture seem a nice compliment to all the texture & movement of the juniper -- but -- I suspect that the window pot will "step back" and showcase the tree to greater effect. (Either way you'll have a beautiful result!)

 

[Dav4]

Both pots are nice and appropriate for a cascade like yours, the yixing being a classic formal cascade and the Rayner a nice solid Western textured style. Frankly, I believe you're overthinking things. One pot is bigger then the other... I'd go and get the root work done and put the tree into the pot that is the best fit for the tree... literally... easy peasy . If the Rayner pot (the smaller one) is the best fit for the image/size of the tree, but you're reluctant to reduce the roots enough to fit, use this re-pot to set the stage for the next re-pot in a few years.... my gut says it's a bit too small based on the pics. Never "slip pot" a tree like this... absolute waste of an opportunity for meaningful work on the roots a they can always be improved. Good luck!

For the record, I lean toward a more classic presentation so the windowed rectangle would be my go to if it was the right size.

 

[Japonicus]

I love that Sara Rayner, now that I've had a better look -- and the sweeps of texture seem a nice compliment to all the texture & movement of the juniper -- but -- I suspect that the window pot will "step back" and showcase the tree to greater effect. (Either way you'll have a beautiful result!)

Thanks @TinyArt I’m in the same boat. Neither pot is the size I requested upon commissioning inquiry.
I am afraid with the Sara Rainer pot that the overlay dusting colour will be too static, obscuring the green foliage.
I have 3 or 4 other cascade type juniper that could use a pot and I see the same issue with each.
Sara really increases the price on pots that are not round or oval as they’re more difficult for her,
so not sure I’d ever get my $ back if I decide to sell It. In the right light the brown has a coppery look.

 

[Japonicus]

Both pots are nice and appropriate for a cascade like yours, the yixing being a classic formal cascade and the Rayner a nice solid Western textured style. Frankly, I believe you're overthinking things. One pot is bigger then the other... I'd go and get the root work done and put the tree into the pot that is the best fit for the tree... literally... easy peasy . If the Rayner pot (the smaller one) is the best fit for the image/size of the tree, but you're reluctant to reduce the roots enough to fit, use this re-pot to set the stage for the next re-pot in a few years.... my gut says it's a bit too small based on the pics. Never "slip pot" a tree like this... absolute waste of an opportunity for meaningful work on the roots a they can always be improved. Good luck!

Thanks Dave. I have no intention of slip potting.

The volume of the Yixing pot is enough I think I could slip pot into it if I had to,
but I need to renew a bit more soil than that and get at the crown more.

* The amount of root work I may do, might make the volume of the Sara Rayner pot
more attractive to the trees root system..

Now I just have to wait for the juniper to wake up quite a bit more and approach one of the voting options properly…

Both are good choices, wait till roots are trimmed to be sure, and get a true visual​

I am not as experienced at pairing bonsai to pots, so I reached out to the community to get a consensus.
I still feel the Sara Rainer pot will compete with the foliage. I will get a few more pics up later today
attempting to place the pot in front of the current cedar pot.

Im not so sure that the larger Yixing pot, if a more loose fit would be a bad thing though

 

[HorseloverFat]

Get a nice stand for the Rayner.

 

[HorseloverFat]

.
increases the price on pots that are not round or oval as they’re more difficult for her,

....

This hurts, as an artist.

I love her work, and didn't think she'd have constructed her pricing model this way.

 

[Japonicus]

....

This hurts, as an artist.

I love her work, and didn't think she'd have constructed her pricing model this way.

Yeh we discussed it on the tele, and honestly, if it requires more skill on her end...
...anyway I'm happy to have this one as my 1st named artists bonsai pots.
An oval commissioned for my JWP 15.5 x 12.25 x 4.25" was just north of being---half the cost of this ready made semi cascade pot.

Now, as for this threads direction, in seeking a non biased vote, I declined to reveal the American artists name.
Sara is rather popular on this forum, and I feel that would drive the votes away from proper pairing.

It is a beautiful thick alternating overcast day, mostly quite cloudy and windy.
A perfect day to acclimate my cave dwellers back into the Sun.
These pics are using natural overcast daylight with no flash, Yixing pot just oiled.
With a keyboard I can toggle back n forth between thumbnails, but just a glance at these
2 thumbnails above ^ demonstrates my concern with using the SR pot. It hazes, blurs, or obscures the foliage.
It crispness up with the solid colour behind the foliage.

Here is another cascade with an Amazon purchased pot, that did not survive the Winter.
It's shape allows me to place it in these pots, sort of, and give a better idea how a procumbens will look
in either pot, though the SR pot is smaller and it won't slide down in.

Even the feet of the Yixing look to me to be better paired however...

use this re-pot to set the stage for the next re-pot in a few years..

This ^ is spot on, and I do agree entirely with your post but slip potting was never an option.
I am trying to remove more and more old soil in the crown at each repot.
Last repot in 2018 nearly claimed the life of this "tree", so there's actually substance to the last voting option, not full enough.
That's just a call I have to make. I do wish the cascading foliage was as full as the top half, but I try not to thin
one half as much as the other in any one year. I alternate with this one, or not at all for a couple of years.

 

[Japonicus]

Here are 5 more candidates. The Blue Pacific conferta may work better with the overlay on the SR pot.
It needs a pot more than anything I own I think. Was hoping for a sorce pot to train it in but that never worked out I tried.
The one on the top right in the round faux stone, was an emergency repot when it blew off the railing and its pot broke.
The HD purchased faux stone pot is crumbling...
The Sargent juniper that is overly weedy is in need of a professional layering off of the cascade.
It is 2 totally different "trees" in one and conflicts.