Rules for bonsai

erubeck

There is an excellent article by Brent Walston on the rules for bonsai. In the article he gives some very broad guidelines for pots.

i.e. Colored glazed pots should be used for flowering and fruiting trees and the colors should complement the flower color. and Style of the pot should match the tree. Uprights without much movement should be in rectangular pots, informal uprights with a lot of trunk movement should be in oval or round pots. Massive trees should be in deep rectangular pots.

Other than the placement of the tree in the pot, the depth corresponding to the trunk caliper, and the width of the pot proportional to the spread of the tree, not much is said.

I was wondering if there is a more elaborate set of rules or guidelines for using pots with the different styles and species than this. Perhaps there aren't and the color, glaze, shape, etc. are left to the individual artist provided one stays within those broad guidelines.

Any thoughts on this?

__________________
Regards,

Ed

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Earl

I think those are great guidelines, but maybe not rules. If you follow then you won't go wrong. But as I have studied and looked at many pictures and gone to a few shows, they certainly aren't rigid. For instance I recently saw a windswept juniper in a long, low white (sort of dirty white, not pure white) pot. That breaks all the rules, but it was breathtaking. I keep finding if I follow the "rules" all will be fine but as I get more experienced I am starting to develop an eye that sometimes breaks the rules.

There has been alot of discussion about Eastern verses Western, or traditional vs contemporary and I find that contemporary artists tend to break the rules alot, both in pots and in tree design. Just go to the pot forum here or on the IBC and you will find all sorts of pots that don't follow the traditional design, but they are beautiful.

But I also found that in the first 7 or 8 years of developing bonsai, most of the time when I broke the rule, the results were less than satisfactory, to say the least.

erubeck

I see your point, Earl. I guess it's OK to break the rules but you better know what you're doing when you do. i.e Knowledge and experience will give the artist a "feel" for what looks good.

At any rate, this old beginner better stick to the rules (guidelines) for a while.

__________________
Regards,

Ed