A Little Help here

Entling

Hi Guys.

Well, I am ready to take a stab at another attempt here with this aborvitae I picked up from Wal-Mart. It has a slightly curved trunk and is approximately 29" high. The trunk is about .5" diameter. Any suggestions?

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Entling

Another view

Entling

And one more!

TreeBay

Greetings,

I think this species was on my Bad for Bonsai list earlier. If not, it coulda been a contendah.

IMHO, if you have the choice, don't try to make bonsai out of nursery material in these species: Thuja, Arborvitae, Italian Cypress, Leyland Cypress, Hollywood Juniper, Walnut, Willow.

If you run across a garden tree or collected specimen of any of these with any redeeming attributes, go for it. But if you try to turn a 3 gallon can of one of these into a bonsai they will fight you every step of the way.

Please if you have a nice specimen of any of these plants, post away and prove me wrong. I would like to believe these can make good or even acceptable bonsai; I just haven't seen it yet.

Regards,

Matt

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jswise13

Dear Matt,

You posted the following reply in June 2002 to a question about an arborvitae:


Greetings,

I think this species was on my Bad for Bonsai list earlier. If not, it coulda been a contendah.

IMHO, if you have the choice, don't try to make bonsai out of nursery material in these species: Thuja, Arborvitae, Italian Cypress, Leyland Cypress, Hollywood Juniper, Walnut, Willow.

If you run across a garden tree or collected specimen of any of these with any redeeming attributes, go for it. But if you try to turn a 3 gallon can of one of these into a bonsai they will fight you every step of the way.

Please if you have a nice specimen of any of these plants, post away and prove me wrong. I would like to believe these can make good or even acceptable bonsai; I just haven't seen it yet.

Regards,

Matt


I've wanted a weeping willow for a long time and just two days ago I found one in a three gallon container at a garden center. It was 8-9 feet tall and about 1 1/4" diameter at the base. The tree had sprouted a number of new branches on the bottom 12-18" or so of the trunk. I couln't resist buying it for $13, thinking that it would be a good start if I discarded all but the bottom 18" of the tree and encouraged the budding branches, which I did. Then I came accross your reply above and am now a little disappointed. Could you please tell me what problems I can expect?

As always, thanks for your anticipated response.

TreeBay

The trees listed above tend to grow like weeds with foliage that is large in scale (for most bonsai) and do not diminish much in cultivation.

I have only seen one willow that looked anything like a willow. Someone posted it awhile back. I think it was in a tokonoma setting.

Here's a post with more details, suggesting tamarisk if you are after a willow look:

http://forum.bonsaitalk.com/showthr...ighlight=willow

If you take a look at the arborvitae above, you'll get the idea. It buds back well enough, but the foliage is out of scale and getting any refinement in it will be a battle of wills.

BTW, keep your willow in a shallow saucer of water throughout the summer and replenish as needed (this holds for all water loving trees, like Bald Cypress and Wisteria. Wet feet would be a death sentence for most, but there are exceptions to every rule)

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jswise13

Many thanks, my friend.

TreeBay

Don't let me discourage you from certain species too much. It's only intended to provide fair warning that working with certain trees can present technical challenges that you may wish to weigh against the benefits of (potential!) success.

Regards,

Matt

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