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Bonsai Doer
Join Date: Aug-2001
Location: Fresno, CA
Country: USA
Posts: 5,369
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Trident Maple; A model Species
The trident maple is probably one of the most forgiving species in bonsai for a beginner to work with. The look good, heal well, bud well, grow well and above all are just plain hard to kill. Along with the elm all beginners should have two or three of each to work on all thru the year. They grow almost year round in most of the US and both look good year round even in dormancy. Spring and summer show each to their leafy glory and winter shows a delicate tracery of twigs and trunk.
I wish to share some of the projects I have tackled this year and the previous couple of years on one in particular.
I aquired this one trident as a larger tree. It was about 9 feet tall and about an inch across at the soil. It was chopped back hard at around 18 inches tall and went on to develop into an informal tree. The branches came along pretty well and it was well ramified. The problem was the terrible nebari. It had large roots crossing over each other and would never look good even with years of work on a good canopy.
I decided to layer off the terrible roots with a ground layer.
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A tree a day...thats all we ask.
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