AusBonsai

Hi all,

This privet group needed repotting, and the trees needed repositioning.
The whole thing was much too heavy for me, so I asked Shannon Young, formerly Assistant Curator at the National Bonsai and Penjing Collection of Australia, to help. It proved to be a big job, with a very thick, very dense root mat that needed reducing and combine out. See below. Shannon chose a different pot: more shallow,"longer and a little less wide. The trees were partly rotated, partly removed from the rootball and repositioned. The smallest ones were planted at a little distance, which left a gully between the groups. The trees were planted somewhat higher than before. The path in the gully was covered in fine gravel and the slopes aroun d the 2 groups were partly covered in moss. I need to make muck to further cover the slopes, and put more moss on the muck. See Shannon with the finished repotting/restyling in the last photo.

To all: Shannon works quite independently of the NBPCA. He is available for high level professional bonsai work and advice. I can provide interested people with his details via a PM.

Lisa

Hi Lisa . What a great improvement .well done , I'd be pretty chuffed if I was you . Please post photos when its mossed .

Thanks, Sno, will do.
Yes, I'm very happy with the styling now. The tallest trees may be cut back a bit after leafing out, depending on how they look together when in leaf.

Lisa

Nice Lisa
I like the new pot too, it makes the forest look less scrunched up and crammed in.

Ken

Yes that's what it is Ken - I knew it was much better looking but couldn't for the life of me figure out why

Thanks, Ken and Tony. I would have preferred a nice glazed pot, but this one was the only one I had that fitted. It's just a mica pot. I have too many pots, but not very often the precisely right one for a particular bonsai.

Lisa

Agree with Ken, it seems to have more room and be much better positioned to create the right feel.

Good luck finding the right pot, I am always struggling to get the right one for groups. The mica pot looks pretty good though! (Does anyone make that shape and style in glazed?)

Nice result

Lisa,

I am very new to this hobby and have only attempted one group/forest but looking at the pics I agree with everybody - it looks very good and an enormous improvement.

John

Beautiful outcome , looking forward to the next update. Cheers John .

Looks great.
Would love to see a better setup photo on a nice background.

Looks amazing!
how many years before the roots started pushing the forest planting out of the pot?
from what i hear privets are quite vigorous.

Underpotted

melbracksstone:

The mica pot looks pretty good though! (Does anyone make that shape and style in glazed?)

I've never seen anything like it in ceramics. Somehow the wide, rounded lip does not seem suitable for ceramics, but I could be wrong.
banong:

how many years before the roots started pushing the forest planting out of the pot?
from what i hear privets are quite vigorous.

It started after 2 years and the setting has been in that bad state since last Summer. And yes, privets are very vigorous indeed. About the same as Chinese elms.
Boics:

Looks great.
Would love to see a better setup photo on a nice background.

Me too. I'll try to take a better one after the moss has been put in place.
Charliegreen:

Underpotted.

Not really. Type "penjing" in Google, then click on "Images", and have a look at the tray plantings shown.
You can do a shallow planting if the root balls of the trees are sufficiently developed and strong. It helps if the chosen species is a vigorous, fast growing one.

Thanks everyone, on Shannonn's behalf, for the compliments!

Lisa

Hi Lisa , the shape of that pot looks somewhat familiar , not sure about the size , but I will look amongst my moulds . I don't make many shallow pots so I might have a mould sitting amongst the dust layers .
Cheers
Graham