Bonsai Styles I Haven't Seen

waltseed

I have had questions I have wanted to ask for some time now.
I live in Kansas, an area where trees were rare until about 150 years ago. Trees tend to be young.
The land is generally flat. So I don't see cascades or semi-cscades, nor many other styles common in bonsai.
If I style a tree into something that brings back memories of trees to me, they might be things like the following.
Orchard-This would be a variation on teh forest style, but the trees laid out in rows and all teh same age and all the same style. They would be fruit trees, or at least trees that flower in teh spring.
Riverbank tree-This would be a broom style up above, but the roots would be growing hrizontally into a vertical bank of fertile soil. This is due to the river eroding away the soil teh tree started growing in 50 years ago.
Fallen tree-Not 50 feet from my front door, there is a willow tht grew a nice trunk a couple of feet thick, then fell over because the soil got saturated during a flood. The trunk just fell oveer, with a rootball still attached. Now it is arched accross the stream, rootball on one side, a few branches suporting the tree on teh other side of the stream.
Up and down the old tree trunk, there is a row of new trunks growing up. They are a big around as the origional trunk.

I won't say that these styles are never done. But I haven't seen them in the few years I have been reading about bonsai. But these tres are the trees I see around me.
Yes, I grow bonsai, or more acurately, pre-bonsai, in the styles I see in books, on the internet, etc. But I am starting to want to grow bonsai in the styles of the trees I knew as a child, and as I see them every day now.

Comments please.
Walter Pickett

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mkonig

Hi Walter

Only because you don't see them in books should not stop you experimenting with YOUR bonsai creations. I am sure it would be a lot of fun and if you are the only one who likes them, who cares.

On the other hand, you might become a trendstter.

Mike

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Jonny D

Hi walter I agree with Mike, variation in style will (hopefully) take the art form forward, someone originally had to try and do a broom style why shouldn't you try the orchard style (you've even got me quite tempted to try it!), and hey if these ideas don't work out you can always fall back on the established styles. The fallen tree style you describe however, doesn't sound far off the raft style.

Cheers Jonny.

Carl_Bergstrom

Hi Walter,

I've often thought about similar issues. I think that you'll find that some of the penjing artists get at these sort of landscapes that you describe. In his book, Brook Zhao, for example, goes into great detail about how to style a tree that leans out over a riverbank.

There was also a two-part article in the ABS journal a few years back on Nick Lenz' work in this direction, entitled "A sense of place". Nick had put together a set of landscapes that recall those that may be more familiar to those of us who grew up in Middle America.

With my best regards,
Carl

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Jerry Meislik

This is a great challenge. You need to get these new styles done and let the world see them.
Someone had to be the first to accomplish all our existing styles.
Go for it.
Jerry Meislik
Whitefish Montana USA
Zone 4-5
http://www.bonsaihunk.8m.com/

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Jerry Meislik
Whitefish Montana USA
Zone 4-5
http://www.bonsaihunk.us/

waltseed

In the trees I'm referring to, the tree isn't leaning. It is totally upright, but it is cantilevered out on huge roots, that go into the bank. The whole trunk just ends at a spot out maybe a meter or more out from the bank, and a few, maybe three, huge roots are suporting the whole thing.
From the other side, you wouldn't realize the tree isn't growing in the ground near the river.
I have thought about this for over a year. While reading Andy's ebook a few night ago, I realised the shape the pot would have to be. This had been a block to me, because the soil level would need to be vertical, and bonsai pots aren't normally that way.
I think it needs to be long sideways, shallow front to back, L-shaped cross-section with endcaps.
The soil cros-sectoin would be retangular, with the top edge having moss to represent the vegetation that is always along riverbanks. The soil on the front would be exposed.
When growing it should be tilted back slightly, to help the water penetrate andto help keep the soil in the pot. For show it could be stood completely upright. This would tilt the tree just a bit forward as they generally should be.
The tree is commonly hackberry, and I read tht they make nice bonsai. but this one may have to be grown from scratch, to get the roots right.