Crataegus literati

[aaron_tas]

entry 1...

yamadori, hawthorn (Crataegus sp.) presumed common (white flowers).

images are at time of first potting, about 30 minutes after i got it home 05.09.2009 from my mates property up in grindlewald, near the swiss village.

height is 450mm

horey1.jpg

the mix is around 80% gravel, 20% coir peat.

horey2.jpg

i cant exactly remember if there was any nebari under the soil, there were not many roots at all when collected. we shall see under the soil when full dormancy has been reached.

as this tree posesses aged bark, a nice natural line with differing degrees of aggressiveness, a very slender trunk in comparison to its height, and is also one of the more rugged deciduous trees, it lends itself well to the literati type bonsai style.

[aaron_tas]

the next installment will be quite soon...

so please at any point, ask questions or make suggestions as i will probably learn more by trying to spill my thoughts productively over this thread.

[aaron_tas]

thanks for your thought jamie, i will consider it

although i do like the height to trunk width ratio, and in my next post i think ill pick the line from the few fronts (that i haven't even considered properly yet) to choose from.

check the shadow on the wall, the straight bit does move a little

[Pup]

Aaron this looks to be very interesting. I would like some better photographs if possible. Don't want to be picky.

Good luck Pup

[aaron_tas]

pup, all my trees will get better photos from more angles 2moz... i promise

it was already in the pipeline, i do agree though

[aaron_tas]

heres how it looked yesterday...

whore11.jpg

ok, now this is how i choose a front. ill pick the tree up so the crown is roughly sitting over where the trunk leaves the soil, and give her a spin
and i'm not too worried about the potting angle just yet, just the most ineresting line for literati or bunjin.

whore12.jpg

whore13.jpg

whore14.jpg

everytime i see a line that is appealing, ill make mental notes on what are the good and bad features of the tree, and if at that angle, i can change the bad into good

whore15.jpg

whore16.jpg

as an example, the line in pic 13 is quite nice. but we don't see the shari at the base of the tree, just the one leading to the jin closer to the top, for the gnarlyness of the trunk, the jin looks silly that straight, so otpions are, burn and bend the deadwood, or shorten/carve the jin. the line happily dances around until it sort of gets straight in comparison to the rest of the trunk at the red line where we could make a cut, losing 1 shari and its jin. good option.

whore17.jpg

i will look at this tree for longer periods before making any major decisions...

[Pup]

thanks fly

i think you might be right

but i do like the idea of a preferred viewing angle, esp. for an online comp

maybe that could be part of the comp... 360

Thats why they invented round pots I think Looking good Pup