Will_Heath

I'm a advid reader of bonsai forums, books, and magazines, lately I have noticed a trend that seems to lead to a primary focus on trunk size alone.

It may be just me, but I have noticed alot of super developed trunks lately that have little or no branch development and seemily lacking in any grace what-so-ever. "A stump with a few suckers," as I heard one described before.

I also seen a demo that took a nice pine and sawed it off about 6" above ground level, leaving one thin branch for the apex that would never catch up in size. In fact the instructor knew this and said that he would wire a future branch across that area to hid it.

I realize that a bonsai should have a trunk width in proportion to it's height and I have seen some very nice bonsai that were reduced in size to match the trunk. I also realize that a trunk should have a taper, gradual from roots to apex, this is what seems to be missing in these trees.

However, there is a awful lot of bonsai lately that have way to fat of trunks for the height of the tree and some of these "sumo" are very nice. Yet, some of these border on the bizarre as they do not have branches in proportion to the trunk and they lack in the grace that only well defined branching can bring. I have seen some that you would be hard pressed to point out a branch at all.

My question is if I am the only one noticing this trend, or if it has always been like this?

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