Nursery Stock

RonMartin(deceased)

Every now and again I like to put out little notes on bonsai stuff. Nothing earth shattering just little tid bits of information. Hopefully some of you will find this useful.
Let me know if I have left anything out.

Nursery Stock

SELECTING SOMETHING TO START WITH



So where do I start ? I have read almost all the books. Looked at a zillion pictures. Just what kind of pre-bonsai do I need to create a masterpiece? If I want to create a beautiful bonsai can, I start off with just any thing?

A maple after all is just a maple. So all I need to do is get one and, presto, a few whacks and a bit of wire later one has, or should have, a masterpiece. Sounds simple.

What happened ? I did have all the pieces-parts to do the job but, somehow it just did not work out. How could this happen ?

Wish there was a simple answer to this. None comes to mind but I do hope that the following helps a bit.

First, let me say that all trees are pre-bonsai. Every nursery has lots of pre-bonsai lined up in all those plastic nursery containers. A walk in the woods will yield plenty of pre-bonsai that can be dug up. They are easy to find. Pre-bonsai are everywhere. They just need a little work to become at least something.

Problem is sorting through all those pre-bonsai's and finding the potential bonsai among them. Lots to chose from but very few correct choices to make. A bit of time spent in the selecting process goes a long way.

Just what turns a "pre-bonsai" into a bonsai? More, important what makes some not a good selection? How do we find the potential bonsai among all those possibilities?

Lots of answers to this question. None of them are all that easy to give in a few short paragraphs. Whole books could be written on the subject and still not cover it completely. It might be easier to tell you what to stay away from than to tell you what is good.

Bonsai is a time consuming art form. One makes a few cuts then waits for the tree to catch up. Then we use some wire and wait some more. Try as we may that tree will not be forced to grow faster that it wants to.

Styling a tree does damage the tree. Hopefully this is constructive, well thought out, but it is still damage to the tree. Cuts take time and energy to heal. What we do to the little bugger does slow down the growth process. Anything else that also slows down this process should be avoided at all costs. At least during the styling process.

Sick plants are bad. They slow down the growth process more than anything. Time must be spent getting it healthy again before we can start. Working on a sick one usually means disaster. If you do find that the sick thing in front of you has potential, then make sure it has enough to make the time spent in getting it back to healthy is worth the effort. Something to think about when you are tempted to save that half dead poor thing in one of those chain stores.

Sloppy pruning cuts, wire marks, poor graft unions and large amounts of dead wood are all good indicators of a bad choice. They all take time to correct and heal. Poor graft unions are one thing that you will be stuck with forever. Poor pruning cuts, etc, can be fixed. But again that takes extra time.

Time is a valuable commodity, only the young can afford to waste it. And even their supply is limited. Don’t waste it on a sick or poorly formed tree. Get something healthy. You will do enough to the tree to slow down the process all by yourself. You don’t need any extra help.

But what makes for a good choice?

Trunk

Most important, and what takes the longest to grow, is the trunk.

Does it have good taper? Does the shape suit your needs ? Is it pleasing to look at ? Growing a nicely shaped trunk takes time and, unless you are growing from seedlings a poorly formed trunk will always be a poorly formed trunk. Basically, if the trunk is small enough to bend with wire then it is going to be a long range project. Do you want to wait that long? Look closely and make sound decisions based on realistic goals.

The root spread or Nabari

Is there one and does it match the trunk? Big question. Sometimes you have a great Nabari and a great trunk but they both go in different directions. Not an easy thing to correct.

Branches

It is better to have too many. You can always take off what is not needed. That is easier than putting them on. Heavy branches at the top and thin branches at the bottom are always a problem. So look closely.

Growth habit of the plant

Know the growth habit of the tree. One that wants to grow prostrate will not make a good formal upright and one that wants to grow upright will not make a good cascade. You will always be fighting to make the tree do something it doesn’t want to do. Use its natural growth pattern. It is a lot easier that way.

Domestic trees are always better than imported ones. Dwarf varieties are always preferable over the standard ones. Just a short note here. By imported trees I don’t just mean trees that have come in from Japan, Korea, etc. Trees that have been brought in from a climate different than your own falls into the same category. Trees do not know borders, just climates.

Fruits and flowers will not reduce in size. Colors will not change. Look hard at these things, you are stuck with them for the most part.

Look at the size of the plant you’re working with. A six inch plant will take years to make into a three foot tall masterpiece. Taller, however, can be cut down to size, the offending scars hidden and a nice piece completed in a shorter time.

When you think about it the choices are not all that hard. The stock you start off with, to a great extent, will make the bonsai. Bad will get you bad and good will get you better.

You just have to think about what you are doing .

Spend some time, a lot of time, in the initial selection of your material. Look closely and study it hard. If you can’t see the tree in it then DON’T BUY IT.

Continue looking until you find that perfect specimen. Pass up the pre-bonsai and go for the potential bonsai. Don’t waste your time, use it wisely.

Decide what you want the finished product to look like then go in search of raw stock that will give you a chance of achieving these goals.

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FredL

Ron, it's always a pleasure to read your musings. They convey a sort of live-and-help-live spirit that is not all that universal in this day and age. Count me among your fans!

I've seen many articles in Bonsai Today that deal with the make over of material that most of us would take to be pretty low quality. I find myself wondering if the challenge implicit in mediocre material helps stimulate new and novel approaches and designs that benefit the artists that employ them and the rest of us that marvel at unexpected beauty found in unlikely places. I'm still at that stage where I'm accumulating lots of material, much of it without obvious high potential. No doubt, I'll move into a more selective mode soon; in fact, clearly am already. Sounds like I'm following the same track you have before me. But, one thing I'm curious about: I wonder whether any of the material you collected early on turned out to have more potential than you recognized at first. I wonder whether you collected material at random that at one point didn't look like much to you and then, at a still later time, turned out to be a pretty decent starting point after all. As you went along, did you discover potential that you missed at an earlier stage?

Fred

RonMartin(deceased)

Fred
You have posed a good question. One that will require some thought on my part to give a good answer. Let me think on it bit and I will post something tomorrow morning.
It is an important question, believe it or not.

aaguilar

Hi I'm wondering about trees trained since seedlings. Are these better? I you have any photo of a mature bonsai grown from seed please post it I would like to see it.

I'm not worried about time. I only have 17 years old. Plenty of time to enjoy.

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Shibui

ripsgreentree

I find this path interesting as I have followed it myself.
Fredl, I have had my boss become disgusted with material and toss it my way only to offer to purchase it back after I had spent a couple of years working on it.
The opposite is also true. I have given material away that was bad from the beginning and ten years later it was still bad.
Here are some things that I do know.
Not every tree is potensai.
Potensai is created by deligently working on the roots as the tree grows a trunk and nebari.
Fifteen years ago when I wanted to create good bonsai I could not find any good source for material. I did what everyone else does, haunt the nursery looking for nursery stock that I could convert to bonsai. Little of this material was ever successful.
What I have learned is that seedlings and cuttings need to be grown and cut for the bonsai container from the beginning. Recut every one to two years depending the material to keep the roots under control. If this is done faithfully when the trunk has achieved the size and shape that you want you can consider it good potensai.
All of us look at pictures of master class trees and this is what we want to create. The problem is that the master class tree has a master class root system to support the tree in its shallow container. I have found almost no one who is willing to teach the proper techniques to create the root structure that is required to do really good bonsai.
I have an excellent example from a Ted Matson work shop that I attended today. We were looking at an Elm that I had just finished potting. Ted settled on a style and front based on the nebari that he could see on the surface of the soil. When I asked about other possibilities he said no that the roots dictated this front. I suggested that we knock the soil off of the top of the pot and Ted said "why do you have roots" I hit the pot against the heal of my hand removing all of the soil that I had just packed into the root structure. Ted seeing this said "you do have roots" we found that because the tree had an excellent root structure there were four new possibilities for a front. This is the point. Instead of one root dictating the front of the tree we could now choose the best front and know that the root structure was there to support it. Excellent roots also allow the artist to succesfully establish the tree into the pot of his choice and not a pot that has to accomodate bad roots.
This I know to create excellent bonsai the artist must have all of the aspects of a good tree starting with the roots and their health, then the nebari and trunk line. Next is branch placement and last is ramification. Add to this balance form and feeling.When all of these aspects are present you will find that you have an excellent bonsai. Oh! also pot shape size and color. If any one of the aspects is not present or out of balance and your bonsai can go from great to good to ho-hum in a hurry.

Glenn

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ripsgreentree

It requires an open hand to give and to recieve.

bonsaial1

Help me to understand something here. Ted had picked a front based on the root that he seen exposed on your newly potted tree. You felt there were posibility's.



What I do not understand is, if there were four more possible fronts for this tree, why were they buried so that they could not be seen? Why was Ted wrong when all he had to go by was what you had exposed? Remember, Ted is there to work on the attributes of the tree as presented, not unpot your tree.

Obviously by you unpotting the tree this gave the artist new avenues to work with, but this is something that everyone should be doing before choosing the front of the tree.

Regards, Bonsai-al

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Real men don't wear coats with "happi" in the title.

ripsgreentree

Al; I guess that you had to have been there but I will do my best. The root structure was just under the soil and Ted was assuming that what he could see was the only choice. When I uncovered the structure that was there he was pleased to show me some other posibilities. We looked at three trees that I had brought with me. I potted an olive and an elm. The third was a twisted pomegranate. Ted liked this tree enough to take it home.
The experiance with Ted was over all a very positive one. I asked him to cretique the material from my aspect as a grower. His sumation was this "When I am looking for plant material to conduct work shop's this is what I want to see." He asked me if I had more like the olive, when I assured him that I did have more he asked if he could reserve enough plants to do five workshops. I asked how many plants per workshop and he indicated 10 to 12. We are working out the details.

Glenn

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ripsgreentree

It requires an open hand to give and to recieve.

bonsaial1

I understand that you uncovered the soil to show new possibilities, but you still haven't answered the question.

Why were potential fronts covered up, and why were they buried.
So, I pick my front based on visible nebari. I think we can agree on that. If the plant had four more possible fronts, what were these fronts based on.

Buried nebari that you covered, or just growing roots that were large and may become nebari in the future?

The photo's that you have posted with the coresponding photo's goes along way towards showing what is under the ground. I think that is a very good way to show the trees underpinnings and may help someone pick out good stock based on the roots.

The only thing I have a problem with is the nebari versus roots. If the plant has a suitable nebari then I would expect that to be visible on the selling table. I agree that no one wants to come home with a tree that looks good on top and is a tangled mess of roots in the pot. But... if the plant is really sharp on the top, and the visible nebari is good, I am willing to take a chance on the roots will be good enough for me to put a couple years in the plant. I have no problem in overcoming some root problems under the soil.

For me, tamato, tomato, Al

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Real men don't wear coats with "happi" in the title.

ripsgreentree

Well Al we are trying to create trees that will garentee good root structure and nebari. I think that the pictures that I am posting say as much. I know that the trees that we are growing say as much and they will be saying it louder every year.

Glenn

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ripsgreentree

It requires an open hand to give and to recieve.