Collected Melaleuca ericifolia

[hugh grant]

I though id share a tree i recently worked on, Its a larger piece of collected material, with fair age to it. The tree, a quietly old Melaleuca ericifolia, the swamp paperbark. The melaleuca species is a gnarly yet graceful tree. These trees grow for a long time in the swamps, reaching high. Over time these trees with there heavy tops are snapped in half and the tree grows again. The repeated process of this leaves a history of dead wood along the trunks and kinked twisted trunks that follows out to low falling branches, the oldest deadwood at the bottom and the newest at the top.

This is the initial styling from raw material, the structure is set, time now will be spent working on developing the foliage and working the tree into a pot.

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Hugh

[bodhidharma]

I can see where this guy is heading and like it Hugh.

[Raymond]

[wattynine]

Nice Hugh, love the collected material

[treeman]

How come you are forcing the branches downward?

[Josh]

Nice looking tree Hugh. Love where your going with it. Will follow with interest.

Josh.

[Rory]

How come you are forcing the branches downward?

Seriously... Are you reading my mind mike? This is starting to get freaky

I had the same thoughts when I saw this.

Hugh is one to push every boundary, but in this case I think it would look better with the branches up. It juxtaposes the whole trunk but not in a pleasant way for me, having it styled like this.

[bodhidharma]

I think, and i say think, treeman, he might be gunning for something like this?

[Rory]

I think, and i say think, treeman, he might be gunning for something like this?

Yeah, I think Treeman gets that too, and so do I. There is nothing wrong with that style per say, but because it is Melaleuca ericifolia it doesn't quite lend itself to that look for the species. Obviously if the point is that he is the master, and can master anything he wants, then the issue is pointless. But in the wild you generally wouldn't see the branches grow like that. Though, this is the old age debate of whether you should style the tree like it grows in the wild, or style like a bonsai, so it is merely a preference issue I guess.

What I have always love about Hugh's styling, is that his styling is often out of the box and different.

Personally I feel with Mels that this sort of branching doesn't work, but if you ignore what species it is, then it may work. I guess Hugh is taking the artistic approach. Which is not like Hugh
The only other issue is that you have a long leaning trunk, which suddenly develops crooked laden branching. Perhaps this is also what Mike is referring to as this would contradict the reaching for light as he states.

As always, bonsai creates so many different contentious issues, that this is inadvertently what we may also love about the art.

[cre8ivbonsai]

I like this approach Hugh ... Australian species with traditional styling sensibilities applied, done right (like here) can/will look amazing (providing the species can physically tolerate the forced downward branch movement)

Hugh, I wonder if the top deadwood could/will be refined, to me it seems rather heavy - esp in the top half around and above the bend?

[treeman]

As always, bonsai creates so many different contentious issues, that this is inadvertently what we may also love about the art.

Man you're so diplomatic. How do you do that?

If this where a conifer then yes I would go this way.
But I live in ericifolia country surrounded by about 100 million trillion of them. They grow upright always. Even REALLY old ones (usually bunjin style but branches up).

[treeman]

I think, and i say think, treeman, he might be gunning for something like this?

For a weeping Callistemon like Dawson river (Think that is a callistemon???)...yes.
But I don't think we should force a tree totally against it's nature.

[Jarad]

But I don't think we should force a tree totally against it's nature.

...like growing it in a pot, trimming off all the branches we don't like and bending the branches...

(I mean this in a tongue-in-cheek way, I'm a natural bornm smart arse... It gets me in trouble occasionally)

[bodhidharma]

For a weeping Callistemon like Dawson river (Think that is a callistemon???)...yes.
But I don't think we should force a tree totally against it's nature.

I agree in principle Treeman but most of our Aussie natives are that, styled as Aussie native Bonsai. You just need to look at the Ausbonsai banner to see that. Informal upright is fine but can become a tad tedious. When i was in Omiya looking at all the stunning, refined trees they sorta became all the same after a while and my mind switched off. Personally i think it is nice to see something a bit different, Hell i even like some of Nick Lentz's designs. I like this tree just for the fact it is creating interest.

[dansai]

To my eye if the jin were shortened dramatically and thinned down this would be a stunning tree. (I already like it)

Styled like a Melaleuca no

Still a stunning tree yes