Cork Bark Maple (advice please)

top_cat

I'm very new to the world on Bonsai and I have just two trees. I am very interested in the clasical formal upright style and was wondering what I could do to my cork bark maple to help train it in that style, if possible

I have made a little webpage with a couple of pictures on it, and using quicktime you can spin the tree 360 degrees and view it from all angles (if you have quicktime installed and I recommend you are on broadband).

http://www.mgt.uea.ac.uk/crosswell-t/bonsai/bonsai.html



If you don't think this can be trained into a more formal upright style please give me any suggestions you have. I'm always willing to hear ideas. I am new so basic instructions welcome.

Thanks,
Tom

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pootsie

"Duh .. hey, TC!"
(I'm a Topcat fan!)

Nice little tree!

I'm not sure this particular tree is suited to the "formal upright" style, as the trunk is not perfectly straight. Some might even argue that maples are not suited to the formal upright, but I'm not going to weigh in on that.

I think you might rather use the natural shape of the trunk and work from that. The angle of the photos and the moss make it tough to see what is going on at the base of the trunk. Please check out Carl's photo guide to see what I mean.

I'd love to know how to make a Quicktime movie like that. How do you do it?

pootsie

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p.s. My cat is a bonsaiTALK Master.
Columbus Bonsai Society

top_cat

Hi pootsie,

Thanks a lot for your reply, I'm a big Top Cat fan as well (as you can probably tell be the name). Thanks for the compliment about the tree, I know its still very early stages but I really like the bark on this variety of maple and I'm hope that with a lot of work I can make it into some good.

I would have to agree that a formal upright isn't possible with the shape of this trunk but thats the kind of direction I want to head, the classical bonsai shape rather than windswept or anything like that. I think that by training the branches using a formal upright as a guide it might produce something similar enough for me to be happy.

Regarding the moss and the base of the trunk, there is a little lump on one side of the trunk, my plan is to cut this away and apply some cutting paste afterwards, its a little ugly but the moss covers it for the moment. Here a closeup picture of the lump and the nice bark.

.

I tried to follow your Carl's photo guide link but it just went to a photo of the brain (nice picture though). I made the VR quicktime using VR ObjectWorx http://www.vrtoolbox.com/vrobjectworx.html, and by taking 36 pictures of the tree every 10 degree's. It was my first attempt so I'm pleased you liked it (I thought it might be helpful to see the tree from lots of directions).

Thanks again for your comments,

Will_Heath

Here's the photo guide Pootsie was trying to link to...


Will

top_cat

Thanks for the link will. New to bonsai and bonsai picture taking, so I'm learning all the time.

Jay

Hi Top Cat,

The idea of a classic Bonsai shape is good, but there are several 'other' classic Bonsai shapes this tree could/should be trained into. The possibilty of an informal upright, or a broom are two that come to mind.

As a novice I have found that the formal upright form is the most difficult to follow. There is little wiggle room to this form. Everything should be exact and I'm sorry to say that this tree could never be a formal upright, if a) never is useable in Bonsai and b)this novice is correct in his thoughts.

Jay

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Think before you act... then think again... no good comes from rushing

pootsie

Allow me again, to say DUH.
How ironic.
HTML skilz y'all, uh-huh!
Thanks Will for picking up the slack!

TC, windswept might actually qualify as a "classical" form. But what I'm saying is think about the "classic" forms second -- and think first about what the tree itself is up to. Don't force it into something it's not adapted to.

MHO,
pootsie the brain

__________________
p.s. My cat is a bonsaiTALK Master.
Columbus Bonsai Society

top_cat

Here are a couple of other pictures that I have just taken. please excuse the photograph quality, I'm going to invest in a proper backdrop soon but didn't have anything to hand this time.



And another


My plan at the moment is to repot it, as you can see there are a few buds forming at the moment, so I was thinking that repotting will have to be soon?

Thanks for looking and your comments, all are appreciated

Larry

Looks a nice tree, that bark is awesome, so whatever way you style it I'd make the most of the bark! I wouldnt imagine a broom would be a good idea with this species, it looks to have big leaves, big for a broom anyway (would they reduce, peeps?)
It would mean a drastic cut either at the fork or just below it, and you'd want to correct that lean too.
Theres alsop a strang crossing branch that needs correcting. Looks a nice species to work with I must admit!

(I like Top Cat too!)

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