Arbovitae or Thuja orientalis or "Aureus nana"

renatthecat

I saw Thuja orientalis in a bonsai nursery but I have never seen a real bonsai of this tree. It is a beautiful conifer: a symmetrical globe shape found along fences and doorways. So I bought two of them to plant them together. Concerning its final look, I was debating between "nature" or "nurture," that is a more traditional approach keeping the original form (which is not interesting for me at least) or a more creative, free spirit approach. I decided on the last one, but after trimming ahere and there, I am not convinced that it was a wise decision. I feel now that I betrayed the little guys giving them a shape that waas not intended.

Is this a common feeling among beginners?
Best wishes,
Renato

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Tony

If you mean you gave the littly guys a shape that was unintended by them, that's nothing to worry about. In fact, that's the whole essence of bonsai. It's all about manipulating and coaxing them to grow in a way that they nomally wouldn't. This is not to say that the end product will not look "natural". It's just that the tree, if left on it's own, would not grow this way "naturally". Afterall, you're trying to make a shrub look like an old tree in miniature.

If you mean that you gave the tree a shape that was not intended by YOU, well, that's pretty common too. It's easy to get carried away with the pruners, especially if your design plan is not firm in your mind. Something that always helps me is to sketch the tree before hand, showing the branches I want to save.

If you can post pictures of your trees in the gallery I'm sure someone could give you some pointers on where to go from here.

Tony

renatthecat

Thank you for your reply Tony. I meant to say that most growers are very creative, but at the same time they keep "something" in the tree that proper for the speies. You know, "a rose is a rose is a rose..."

The thuja I am talking about is below (or in the address below)

Best wishes,

Renato

Here is a link to the photo. May not work right

TreeBay

Sorry Renat,

Angelfire won't let you link to or post images from their site. But I saved it to my computer and uploaded it as an attachment. You can do the same in the future.

Here's your pic

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Tony

Renato,

With a two tree planting like this the idea is to have one tree larger/taller than the other and in a style that the branches aren't growing into each other. Otherwise they look like they are in competition instead of harmony. Also I think you need to do some more pruning. Try to leave 5-7 primary branches on each tree and have secondary branches coming off these, creating individual leaf pads.

It's important to have a certain amount of "negative space" within the tree. These are spaces with no foliage where the sky will show through. Here is a fact that most beginners don't grasp: It is not possible to replacate a full grown tree, branch for branch and leaf for leaf, the scale just isn't there and you'll end up with something that looks like a shrub. What we do is to create icons of trees, something that when people see it at a glance, will say that's a tree. The best advice I can give you is to read all you can, look at as many pictures as you can find and join a local club. They can give you some good advice on how best to care for your bonsai and hands on experience on how to best style it into a believable composition.

Tony

TreeBay

You don't see a lot of Thuja as bonsai. It can be difficult to work with. I personally don't like Thuja, Italian Cypress or Hollywood Juniper for bonsai, but that is a personal preference, and everyone has his/her own favorite.

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