What's up with Literati?

jportock

Hi ya'll.
I'm hoping my picture is worth all of ya'lls consideration. I've Contemplated the possibilities for a considerable amount of time and I've come to the conclusion that this plant wants to be a bunjin bonsai.
OK, let me start at the beginning. I read about airlayering, so I tried it. I have a bunch of "Rose of Sharon", hibiscus shrubs behind my house and I like the flowers. I decided I'd try to take a thick branch off the back of the large (20 year old) purple shrub. It got to be late October and I figured I'd better grab it so I sawed the the airlayer off and put it in a pot(1 gallon, I think). Then it got cold. My airlayer had one root to speak of, I didn't hold much hope. BUT, low and behold the tree made it through the winter!

Now let's take a small break here. This "thing" where I'm at is a beautiful shrub with lots of wonderful flowers; that everyone (read: my neighbors) hates. It's invasive (please see this thread by Will_Heath ), I don't know if it's in the list but; YOU REALLY CAN' KILL THESE THINGS!

I *really* like the flowers. I wake up in the morning from the middle of June through August and I look at these beautiful specimens from my window. I want one!

Now let's get back to winter with this. It litterally had one root coming out of the side of the airlayer site but I knew I had to cut it off. It was above ground, but not so high that I could ignore the frost warnings that were coming my way. I cut it and put it in a pot, then I buried the pot in the ground and I mulched the site.

Come spring I had high hopes. It wasn't the only tree I'd buried in my garden to ward off the cold .

Now( then actually as it still is yet to be determined whether I would have the guts to post when the tree's disposition was in question ), all of my trees have come out of their winter slumber, (I still have some doubts about my contest tree from last year; but it passes the scratch test) and my "Rose of Sharon" airlayer has begun to bud.

From the budding grew some braches and I confirmed my impression of a literati. Now I hope that you will pass along your opinion. I hope to learn from this and I feel I've been treated with kid gloves in the beginners section so I'm posting here. The background of the picture isn't great but I think you can see the tree.

My thoughts on the tree; I figure to change the planting angle to a more vertical position and I thought I might develope the lower branch to a second trunk, that would cross over (and almost hug) the primary trunk. The result being a multi-trunk bunjingi.

Any and all options that you might see in this tree will be considered (including the compost heap ). I haven't been up to this (bonsai) for long so I hope to learn a lot from this.

Kind regards,
JP

Attached Images

bunjingi.jpg (70.8 KB, 124 views)

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cbobgo

I think that your trunk is probably too thick and too strait to be workable as a bujin style. Probably a slant style would be more appropriate, or, if you can get it to back bud along the trunk, you might be able to do a formal upright.

- bob

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malhomme

I would keep the grill and raffle-off the tree.

Cheers,
Jim

jportock

The grill was an early father's day present. My wife just wants me to cook more meals

But back to the tree. Is there a "rule" that says that bunjingi can't be straight? I (me personally) find interest in the trunk as presented. Again the plan being to develope a nicely curved trunk from the low left branch. I just want to know why not!

JP

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I'm an acorn, small and round, sitting on the cold, hard ground. Everyone walks over me, that is why I'm cracked you see. I'm a nut, I'm a nut, I'm crazy. -author unknown

Joanie

The bunjin should be like a graceful movement, like the pose of a ballet dancer. Think of calligraphy, think of naturally attenuated, long, delicate trunks on solitary trees.

Look at lots and lots of bunjin pictures! It is hard to express, hard to achieve, but you will know it when you see it.

Is it possible, for your tree, to use the naturally shari'ed stumpy side? That seemed interesting.

The lack of taper and movement in the longer trunk is pretty hard to overcome.

But if it has lovely flowers, you might just enjoy it as a container plant and be pleased to have had the practice of air layering!!! Successfully! Bravo!

Joanie

jportock

I thought that lack of taper or even reverse taper were sought or even coveted for the literati form. The trunk does have some movemoent that it not evident in the 2D picture but that is neither here nor there at this point in its developement, it seems it may be scrap the trunk or don't.

Please give me *your* opinion. If you have some thought don't hesitate to chime in

JP

__________________
I'm an acorn, small and round, sitting on the cold, hard ground. Everyone walks over me, that is why I'm cracked you see. I'm a nut, I'm a nut, I'm crazy. -author unknown

Joanie

If you want *my* opinion, which isn't worth the paper it's printed on, I would play with the scarred and interesting piece on the left. I would also consider laying the long root flat and making some sort of raft planting from it. That's hard to consider in 2d, there are so many factors, but if the leaves and branching of the tree would be reasonable in a raft (or clump) style, it's one thought.

Hope you get some more thoughts from people more equipped to see the potential. There are some mighty talented people here, when they aren't arguing about Life, the Universe, and Everything.

(Oh, about the taper....yes, bunjin lacks taper in a general sense but makes up for it in movement....and you still tend to have some small amount of taper from nebari to apex. As to reverse taper, hmmm....have to look again. Certainly the trunks can reverse themselves, or even have several changes in direction, but going from thick areas higher up to more narrow areas lower down, that seems an oddly distressing situation even for a bunjin. Do you have a particular tree or example in mind)

Joanie

jportock

sorry Charlie (sorry I always wanted to say that.)

Photo #21411 Click to Enlarge

Its not a lot but it is there and I remember reading it somewhere. But I don't know where.

JP

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I'm an acorn, small and round, sitting on the cold, hard ground. Everyone walks over me, that is why I'm cracked you see. I'm a nut, I'm a nut, I'm crazy. -author unknown

bonsaial1

JP, this is a thread I had looked at earlier. This is one of those threads that I stay away from because anything I would offer would come across as mean or hurting.

But... since I recieved a PM from JP asking for my opinion, good bad, or indifferent, here goes. BTW, Hold on.


As it is, I would probably lose interest in this fairly fast. For me, If I am going to invest any kind of time in a piece, it has to have some real good stufff going on to keep my interest. Otherwise it just sits and flounders, it dies or worse, I give it to some unsuspecting soul that thinks its good and spends the next ten years on a shrub that still looks liks a shrub ten year later.

Literati..forget it. This trunk is thick, stiff and clublike. Great adjectives for some movies, but poor adjectives for bonsai. This bonsai anyway.

I see your only hope as working with whats coming out near the base of this trunk. I see some possibilities for a shohin size tree. The rest of the trunk is useless. I do see some great potential in the top above the red line. There is movement and taper there due to recent prunings. Airlayer that off for a possible shohin and the base. You may end up with two suffcient trees out of one poor one.

Hope that helps, Al

Attached Images

red.jpg (68.5 KB, 45 views)

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