Developing bark texture

Carl_Bergstrom

One of the of the less-discussed components of bonsai styling is the development of bark texture. I just love this aspect of old trees - deep furrows in pine, smooth light bark in a beeches, peeling white on birch, vertical striation on maple, or colorful patches on quince.

A general question for all of you. Do you do anything specific to develop aged bark texture?

For example, have any of you experimented with Colin Lewis' sphagnum wrap techniques? (See
http://www.btinternet.com/~colinlew...ding/Aging.html)

Regards,
Old Mister

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TreeBay

Haven't tried any sphagnum yet. It would be interesting to see a controlled study. Sphagnum on one side, no sphagnum on the other..

That kind of thing. Thanks for the link!

Regards,

Matt

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zeb

Thanks for the link! It's a great site with lots of interesting stuff. I have always believed you can't hurry the bark texture, but now I do and I also know how!

I also like the texture that many mature trees have. The shohin maple at Mini-Bonsai.com is a wonderful example of a bonsai that combines the bark texture with trunk movement and fine ramification.


Zeb

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Carl_Bergstrom

[b:de994a4cdc]Yes![/b:de994a4cdc]

Mini-bonsai.com was actually the next link that I was going to post, for exactly that reason. One of the really wonderful things about shohin and mame bonsai is the spectacular bark that they develop after a decade or so. The ones at that website are some of the nicest I've seen, in this regard.

Which brinfs me to another point, given all the talk on this board about what people do and don't want in purchased bonsai or pre-bonsai material: I sure wish that there were more sources of finished or at least relatively well-developed shohin and mame bonsai. Pretty much all the bobonsai nurseries with which I am familiar have scores of $100+ full-sized trees, but little or nothing of the same quality in the smaller sizes. Maybe the market won't support it; maybe most people aren't willing to pay $150 for a 6-inch-high tree. But I'd just as soon spend it there as on a large caliper, three foot high field-grown hornbeam, for example.

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Jay

OMC... on your request for info about places with large selections of Mame and Shonin I may have something for you.
Suthin Sukosolvisit, is Royal Bonsai outside of Boston. I have not been to his place but have met him at conventions. He has small Bonsai. If there is no reference in a picture of one of his trees you would bet it to be huge, they are not. Most of his stock is Mame and Shonin. You will pay for his expertise, but you will get one heck of a tree.
This I believe is his web site:
http://royalbonsaigarden.com/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/RBGShopping.htm?E+scstore

This is just one of his trees on the site...take a look it is a air-layer into two trees:
http://royalbonsaigarden.com/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/Gallery/TridentMaple2.htm?L+scstore+ykch8550ffeaf1ea+10227 88106

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Old M,
Yes I have tried the s-moss trunk thingy dingy. I did it on about 20 gangly chi.-elms. Well they air layered all over the place. I mean roots every where!!!
I now use a commercial tree wrap, suppossed to keep trees from scorching in the sun. Seems to do the job real nice.

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