How do you choose a pot? Bonsai+Pot discussion

[MattA]

Hey Roger,

Thanks so much for your input, as a potter who has always inspired it is great to have your take on the subject... Sorry to hear you no longer have the time to make them as you once did.

My own path to clay started with a Cycad that needed something special, like you I could not find a pot suited to it amongst those commercially available and further could not find a potter to make it to my specs(some of that disconnect you speak of)... so the journey began, first with slabs (too much hassle) then handbuilding (soo much fun & soo many ways to do this) and finally stumbled upon carving (kurinuki) as the way for me. Deceptively simple...

With regards my comment on freeform pots, I should clarify... freeform slabs/trays are a great way to get the look of a stone slab without the extra weight given by the stone. However, the following is is a prime explanation of my coomment

I will be putting it into a freeform pot/ cresent shape and that should nicely hide the weak roots

I am off to play with some clay & oxide, I particularly love mixing different clays & oxides in a raw state then working into the form it dictates...

Matt

Ps I am yet to make the Cycad pot but am nearly ready to start, enough practice now to do...

[Ash]

Hey Edward- Sorry I have been offline for a bit - this root over rock fig is about 60 - 70 cm high and is in a 50 cm Tokoname tray. It has been one the rock for about thirty years. It was planted on the rock by my bonsai teacher's eldest son in 1981 but the fig had already been a bonsai. It has a hollow in the top and originally was a pot. But it outgrew it and overgrew it.

Some great input here, thanks Roger, Matt, Brett and Edward. I very much like that linked article too. Many of the pots I have chosen for my trees are oval shaped with either convex or concave sides. I find them so easy to match with the tree. And the rectangles that I do have just about all have the corners taken out. Perhaps I have chosen them because they looked softer without even knowing it!

cheers
Ash

[Jerry Meislik]

Very interesting discussion.
I personally find rectangular pots just about impossible to use. Like Ash, they seem much easier to use if they have rounded off corners, indents or something to break the straight lines.
Jerry

[Ash]

It was Rogers comment

unglazed, oxide coloured

that has prompted me to ask this question. Without knowing it it appears that I have chosen green or greenish blue or white glazes for pots for trees I feel are growing near sand or water and dark brown unglazed for trees that I consider growing in forest. I have only been able to get a few oxide, ochre or rusty coloured pots and have used these for more dry climate trees.

When choosing the colour of a pot are you choosing it to compliment the foliage? Or to remind you of the earth from which the plant is growing?

Ash

[Kyushu Danji]

It was Rogers comment

unglazed, oxide coloured

that has prompted me to ask this question. Without knowing it it appears that I have chosen green or greenish blue or white glazes for pots for trees I feel are growing near sand or water and dark brown unglazed for trees that I consider growing in forest. I have only been able to get a few oxide, ochre or rusty coloured pots and have used these for more dry climate trees.

When choosing the colour of a pot are you choosing it to compliment the foliage? Or to remind you of the earth from which the plant is growing?

Ash

Hello Ash

When choosing a pot, as per the guidelines from the web site provided earlier in the thread entitled 'selecting a pot' http://www.bonsai-keramik.com/en/teorie.html, what comes into consideration is whether you wish to compliment the foliage, or choose a pot with a colour resembling an aspect of the tree.

Usually the tree is complimented by it's pot with a colour that is of the opposite side of the colour spectrum to the foliage/flower colour that you wish to display. For example, a tree that has striking yellow autumnal colour might be seen in a pot that is an appropriately contrasting shade of blue.

On the other hand, choosing a colour based on 'resemblance' to ensure balance in the overall image of the tree, you could look to the colouring of the bark for instance, and use a pot with resembling colour. - You would be surprised on close inspection how much the colour of the bark varies depending on the species.

Of course these sorts of things are guidelines and no one is going to force you to follow their methodology. If you wish to try and mimic the soil that these plants would naturally grow in, then go ahead. Its only a pot after all, it can be changed fairly easily if you don't think they happen to match up.

James

[Elmar]

We (well my family chose it on our recent trip to Sydney) have bought this square pot and I'm struggling to find what tree and or style of tree to out in to it, if anyone is interested in sharing their ideas I'd be grateful.
The pot:

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1432473719.453234.jpg

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1432473752.669098.jpg

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1432473777.572671.jpg

I really like it and have been scouring the forums for suggestions; this thread being the most relevant to date. It suggested that I find a tree whose trunk colour matches the pot colour and that it is recommended to be in a semi cascade style.

Please help me out!


Cheers
Elmar

[Pearcy001]

Hey Elmar,

By chance I got on to researching pot choice today. I found this link extremally informative. Hope it helps you too.

http://www.bonsaiempire.com/blog/bonsai-pot

Cheers,
Pearcy.

[Elmar]

Thanx Pearcy,

this has very similar information as this post and the referred site (see page 1)... but it still leaves me a little lost as to what to use this pot for. Unfortunately I am painfully aware that I don't quite have a tree worthy of the PK pot, but it doesn't stop me from looking!

Thank you anyway

[kcpoole]

We (well my family chose it on our recent trip to Sydney) have bought this square pot and I'm struggling to find what tree and or style of tree to out in to it, if anyone is interested in sharing their ideas I'd be grateful.

Elmar

I have a Parthenocissus semicordata. Which is similar to Virginia creeper in a similar style pot, ( but I think much smaller pot).
Great Autumn colour and nice contrast to the pot

Ken

[Elmar]

Hah, very cute! I really like that... My pot is around 5x5 cm...

Would I choose something where the colour of the fruit/flowers are bold?


Cheers
EZ
Via Tapatalk

[JaseH]

Maybe look into Kusamono or an accent planting.

[Elmar]

Interesting option, Jase, thank you.


Cheers
EZ
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[Pat K]

Hi Elmar,

This pot is a similar size to yours but it's glazed. Clinton Nesci planted this Rosemary into it 6 or 7 years ago... it had a longer tail then but what with many fishing trips (me, not the tree!!) and generally lack of proper care I've finished-up with this. Sorry Clinton, but I still love it.

Cheers,
Pat

[Elmar]

Nice Pat.
So Thai was a semi cascade then, too?!? At some stage that is...


Cheers
EZ
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[Pat K]

....yep, at some stage