Yamadori Casuarina - Literati or Natural style?

[Hector Johnson]

Casuarina are natives. What are they doing, destroying those? Is it about water conservation?

Anyway, there's nothing wrong with a straight trunk. Just lop it off and let it grow a few options to bring up into a new leader so as to achieve some taper. It's how the bonsai nureserymen do it, all over the world. If you're too impatient to wait for that and you have to have an instant bonsai out of it then I'm sorry to have to tell you that you're going to have to settle for substandard trees unless you are willing to pay the price for decent quality stock trees from a good bonsai nursery (Buying time, as I've heard it called). There is no way that you'll magically find a perfect bonsai growing on a creek bank or a mountainside or anywhere else unless it's in the same month you win Lotto four times.

Sorry to break it to you that way but it's just not plausible to expect to find them growing naturally unless you are extremely lucky.

Now, as for turning the tree in this thread into an instant literati tree there are a few things to consider:

1. It's one of the hardest styles to get right because it is about portraying a tree that has endured long suffering and hardship. In fact, I have understood for some years that the style may be the portrayal of trees that have had all of their low branches ripped off for firewood, in the area of China where they were first drawn by the "Literati" public servant/artists who developed the drawing style responsible for their name. It also explains the preponderance of Jin and Shari that you see an good Chinese literati trees.
2. It's not so much about soft, graceful curves as it is about line changes forced by overcoming adversity, leading to a crown that has survived in spite of everything.
3. Attaining good balance with the style requires very good development of the small canopy, which should be a very good shohin tree in itself, at the top of the trunk.
4. Most of the trees that I have seen that are supposed to be literati, especially on bonsai forum threads, were deficient in most of the recommended attributes because the owners did not really understand what they were trying to achieve, so far as I could tell.

I know that sounds pretty arrogant, but I also know that places like this should be about real information and not about stroking the egos of people who've bought a few poor, commercial crap "bonsai" and have somehow become "experts" overnight. I've been learning about bonsai for 22 years and I reckon I'm about 10% of the way to knowing enough about it to be able to do OK... not good, just OK.

[Steven]

I've done a quick Naka inspired sketch of how I would like this tree to look in the future.

Yamadori Literati Casuarina sketch.jpg

As mentioned before, Casuarina are prolific back shooters so I will have no trouble in getting branches where I need them. Where the tree goes from here will depend on what I see or feel coming from it.

I have no intentions of creating an 'instant' bonsai. In fact Hector, I may just keep it in the blue bucket

Advice or opinions are encouraged and please feel free to alter my drawing if you feel inclined to share your ideas visually.

Regards,
Steven

[PeterW]

You forgot i small thing Wilson! Your design is good Steven, its on its way.
Peter

[anttal63]

nice one steven good choice.

[Si Van Nguyen]

Hi Steven, thanks for the email about this thread. I haven't seen this thread until now. Your land is beautiful by the way!
Like most people here, I like this tree as a literati, a very "natural" literati. Ask yourself this: if this tree was left growing on that river's bank for another 50 or 100 years, what would it look like? Would it be a big round canopied tree with a fat squatty trunk? Would that be a "natural" look for this bonsai? Or would it be tall and leaning and droopy? I think it would be tall and light and leaning and windswept looking.
On the practical side, bonsai with large or long foliage like this should be tall , in order to reduce the scale of the size of the foliage to the thinness of the trunk. The tree has this height requirement now, so why chop it down and start over again. Of course, one option is to put it the ground and grow it out really big to thicken the trunk and aim for a more traditional mojogi style bonsai with appropriate trunk taper. That would take too long I think.
As a literati, you still have many options. Which ever way you lean it, just wire and place the branches to balance the tree out accordingly. The trunk needs to be wired and bent too. Here's how I see it if you were to lean it to the right. If you were to lean it to the right, I would suggest also leaning it rearward, then wire and bend the top portion forward and to the left. This would visually shorten the top straight portion, which is the only "ugly" part of the trunk.

Steven's bunjin.jpg

I sketched this tree as it is now, before any bending, to make it easy to see. After bending it, it should show more sharp or angular curves. I can sketch it again later on how I would bend this tree if it was mine.

Here's a real bonsai for your inspiration. I took it from BonsaiToday #84 (thanks Bonsai Today!). It's a red pine. Your tree would have a sparse looking foliage like this. In other words, don't try to aim for a big canopy of foliage like on most "natural" bonsai because you will never get it with this tree of yours

BUNJIN.jpg

Good luck!
Si
PS. one of the hardest thing for beginners to do is the making of the apex branch. Don't do it like the way you drew it Steven. I can go over this later when you start to wire the top branches. It's really easy once you see it. One should be able to get a full apex in 1 or 2 growing seasons.

[Kunzea]

Hi Steven
Your river she-oak is truly a great find. To have such material on your property is wonderful.

You should have no trouble with the tree settling down to pot culture. Pup is right about this species shooting from the trunk pretty much all growing season. I've found that after some years, the quantity of shoots from the trunk reduces, but doesn't stop. It is easy to rub or pull off the unwanted material. For the first year, you might leave a lot on just help re-establish a strong new root system, following the considerable reduction that probably occured when you dug it up and is the cause of so much back-shooting. After that, like this coming winter, remove all the unwanted new branches.

In my experience the river she oak doesn't fatten the stem anything like as fast as other casuarinas do, but maybe if you give them richer growing conditions than I have, you might get a more rapid response. I've found some individuals will produce an attractive rough bark (not corky as in some species), while other individuals will keep their smooth bark for years, and maybe for ever. However, the wood does harden in 2-3 years and bending becomes close to impossible.

Some of the posts have provided advice on how to turn this specimen into a 'literati' with fairly strictly set rules. Your sketch looks a bit like a pine (as in Pinus, real pine) rather than a she-oak. I've seen section of the Cotter River lined with trees that your specimen could very well be based on. I cant' show you photos just now as my computuer is being repaired and access to images is difficult. I'll do it later. The key image is that the trees were on the edge of the river bank, leaning somewhat over the river, but strikingly, one or more of their branches that dominated the 'crown' were exceptionally long and spreading out across the river. These branches were probably close to the height of the tree in length and arched out and down somewhat. The branches had highly shaped forms with curves, bends zigs zags etc, which would complement your trunk. Seeing this form in 'bonsai' mode would be eye-catching indeed. I suspect it would also attract many negative comments because it didn't follow the 'expected' shapes for such trees. However, the potential for artistic expression, coming from observation of what trees do in nature is great here. What a wonderful opportunity.

Good luck with what ever you choose. Let art and nature guide your hands.
Cheers
Kunzea

[Hector Johnson]

I never set any strict rules in my post. I pointed out that it's a misunderstood and difficult style to get right. It is often used as a catch-all for any stock that doesn't have low branches, unfortunately.

[Jon Chown]

I have read all of the replies to this thread with interest and while I bow to the greater experience of some of the members, it occurs to me that I would probably still do a trunk chop if it were mine for the simple reason that I just don't like Literati. The tree is lucky it is in your hands Steven.

Jon

[Dario]

Hi Steven,
How is your casaurina? would love to see some updated pics please!
Cheers, Dario.

[Steven]

G'day Dario and thanks for reminding me about this one!

Here are some shots and a brief outline of what has happened over the last couple of years...

I repotted it in March 2009 into a 50/50% mix of river sand taken locally from where it was collected and a native potting mix. I also trimmed it and put a bit of movement into some branches.

2009 March.jpg

It was a bit slow to respond and in future I will repot earlier in the warmer months.

2009 November.jpg

It had become very basal dominant to the point that I lost the apex I had wired up 12 months before. I was getting lots of new growth at the bottom but nothing much up top.

2010 March - before.jpg

I decided to do some thread grafts to see if I could get the top to fill in. I gave it a bit of a trim first, leaving the branches for grafting long. I did strip the branchletts off the branches that were being grafted and just left a bit of green growth at the tips.

2010 March after trimming.jpg

2010 March drilling.jpg

2010 March after grafts.jpg

The following day I took some better pictures in my garden to hopefully show the grafts a bit better.

2010 March graft detail a.jpg

2010 March graft detail b.jpg

2010 March graft detail c.jpg

I let it rest in my garden in full sun and it didn't skip a beat. The branches that were virtually defoliated except for a tiny bit at the tips kicked on immediately with fresh new growth and started thickening immediately. The following pictures were taken 10 months after the grafts were made...

2011 January graft detail.jpg

2011 January.jpg

The tree continues to be basal dominant and the original apex and first branch have both died. I haven't separated the grafts from the donor branches yet but I will have to soon as the primary donor branches are thickening too much. The most recent picture I have was from a couple of months ago before I trimmed some of the rampant growth. If it ever stops raining I'll take an updated shot.

2011 April.jpg

Thanks for your interest,
Steven

[ozzy]

I often see these mad scientist like attempts at making something out of nothing using all sorts of grafting bending splitting and other associated forms of plant torture and wonder wouldn't it have been a lot easier to just go and get a better piece of stock? , I think in a lot of cases though this experimentation is just all part of the fun for some

[dansai]

Hey mad scientist,

Would love to see how this has gone?