A Question About Foliage Pads

Mittar

Hi all,

It seems to me that most bonsai foliage pads have all their foliage on top of the branch. In fact, there are often little twigs curving up from the branch and the foliage sits on top of that. So not only is it on top of the branch, but it's about a half inch above the branch proper.

Now, I have never seen this in nature. The reason is that the branches in nature are heavy enough to weigh them down and the leaves droop over for the most part.

Does anyone have any advice on how to achieve this effect? I really don't like the whole lawn on my branch look. The only thing I've been able to come up with is to periodically wire the branches straight, thus lowering the foliage. But this happens to make your branch longer than desired.

Thanks.
Mittar

__________________
Knees in the breeze.

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K.A. Rutledge

You are detecting the difference between the verbatim elements common in nature and the way artistry can communicate with seemingly unnatural affectation.

Actually, there are a lot of species (large trees in nature) that do have their secondary and tertiarty branching growing up from the primary branch. I just walked out of my front door and saw 3 examples. So, your generalization doesn't work in the overall. However, neither is it "the" way to create bonsai foliage pads by having the shoots standing on the primary branch. Many bonsai branch forms have the secondary and tertiary shoots moving down from the primary branch. This form does, however, generally require some foliage above the primary branch so that it does not look awkward.

In the end, there are many ways to make good looking bonsai branches; some by replcating what nature commonly shows us and some by using artistic affectation to evoke a natural look-and-feel.

Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge
zone 8, Texas

Mittar

Thanks Andy,

Could you please elaborate on how to go about making the secondary and tertiary branches grow downwards? I definitely agree that there needs to be foliage on top of the branch, but I would appreciate the balance caused by having it on the bottom and sides as well. Especially since my favorite tree right now is aiming for the downard "slide" of foliage. Not quite cascade, but a sliding scalene triangle, if you get my meaning.


Cheers
Mittar

__________________
Knees in the breeze.

K.A. Rutledge

Sure, Mittar. Here is something from the Winter 1994 issue of BonsaiUK. In his article, Colin Lewis provides an excellent illustration of this principle. The drawings are my own, based on Colin's photographs...

First, here is a branch that is a flat plane; all shoots are on the same plane. Not bad, but not really dynamic either.

Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge
www.bonsai365.com/
zone 8, Texas

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K.A. Rutledge

...and here is the same branch with the secondary shoots moving down from the main line of the branch.

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K.A. Rutledge

Here is a real example of that styling that Colin used to illustrate his point.

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Mittar

Thanks again Andy, good illustration.

Is it safe to assume that this is accomplished primarily with wire? Or is there a horticultural technique to coax the foliage to grow in a downward direction. Maybe a grow light below the tree off to one side?

__________________
Knees in the breeze.

K.A. Rutledge

So anyway, you can see how this seems to work fine for a juniper. It will likely look awkward for an elm, however and you may note that the foliage still resides on the top of the shoots/branches. The main difference is that the main spine of the branch is strong enough to stay more upright, but the foliage-laden shoots fall below the main branch line. The result is quite natural looking.

This article and the series in which it resides was wonderful. Colin does good work.

Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge
www.bonsai365.com/
zone 8, Texas

K.A. Rutledge

Yes, this must be accomplished with wire. Trees of the size we work with in bonsai will not grow this way.

Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge
www.bonsai365.com/
zone 8, Texas