Forest bonsai

[Shifty]

Hi again, just wondering what species might be for a a Forest Bonsai for a beginner? I'm thinking of ash or olives but not sure where I can get seeding or a few year old trees of that kind in Perth!

Thanks

[kcpoole]

Any of the easily grown trees will be good for a forest as well
https://www.ausbonsai.com.au/wiki/index. ... ter_Bonsai


Ken

[shibui]

In my area Trident maple would be the best species for larger forests. Easy to get (here), easy to train and quite hardy. They will be less common over there but if you can find someone with a specimen tree in their yard you'll never be short of seedlings.

You might try some of the wholesalers. Some specialise in supplying seedlings for other growers to grow on for advanced trees.

Also don't overlook some of the natives for group plantings - melaleuca, callistemon, maybe banksia? and lots of others. Seedlings easy to get at native plant nurseries and you should be able to also find some in larger pots for the bigger trees in the group as well.

[kcpoole]

I grew lots of callistemon I that have self sown in my yard and put together a forest of them last year. The seedlings came up 2 years ago.
Took a photo of it today too
I lots a few of the original trees, and have replaced them with new seedlings recently. they will take a year or so to grow to reasonable size.

Ken

[Shifty]

Ok great thanks, I will check out the local Ausie species. The Callistemon forest looks great, now all I need to do is find some stock, Iv only just moved To Pertt so need to get out there and look for it. Iv emailed a few tree places but the smallest seems to be 1.5 tall already. Not sure if that to far gone or not!?

[Jimbomelville]

I had the same issue when I was considering a 7 tree forest (my first also). I went and saw Ray Nesci at his bonsai nursery at Annangrove here in Sydney. He put me straight onto Trident Maples as a great learning type and easy to manage. It has been a great experience and I am really pleased with the results to date. I have tried to incorporate all the forest principles. I will try and post a pic. Good luck.

[ToddB]

Hi Shifty.

I live in Bunbury and because of a shortage of material, have resorted to germinating my own seed and experimenting with that.

What you see here are 18 month-old Monterey cypress seedlings germinated from seed that I collected just south of Collie, and planted on stone slabs from the bush near Harvey. I constructed these landscapes merely as a trial just to see how they might develop. I'm hopeful that they'll become established and turn into something good in a few years time.

I'm showing you this as it might inspire you to try the same approach. It does require patience, but there's just something quite satisfying about controlling the whole process from scratch. I have several of these on the go, so there's more than enough to maintain my interest.

Monterey cypress landscape.JPG

Monterey cypress landscape 2.jpg

Of course, most people - myself included - tend to want a quicker result than having to wait for seed to germinate in order to get trees to work with, so I've tried planting a couple of small landscapes using Sargent juniper cuttings purchased from a small nursery not far from here. I'm hopeful that these might develop into something good too, although I'm expecting it to take a while.

Here's one of them.

Sargent Juniper grove.jpg

These results might not satisfy the die-hard enthusiast, but in my neck of the woods it's a case of beggars can't really be choosers, so I take whatever I can get my hands on.

I also have a large trident maple forest on the go, 100% from cuttings, but again, it's still in the establishment phase and thus still several years away from turning into anything decent.