Styling Native Bonsai

[shibui]

The following is the second part of a talk presentad at the 2010 Native Bonsai show in Canberra recently.
Hopefully it will reignite the debate on 'Native Styles' for bonsai.

I believe that a good bonsai should stir the viewer's imagination and memory. A good tree should conjure thoughts of a place, a time or an event.
In order to do this the bonsai must be believable. It must look somewhat like the viewer's memory of the natural tree so when we create a bonsai we need to consider the natural shape of the tree.

It is not necessary to produce an exact copy of a tree in a bonsai. As poets use few words to convey a thought or feeling so a bonsai uses an abbreviation of the real thing to convey the impression of a tree.

When designing the form of a bonsai we need to consider the important characteristics of the natural tree. I find this easier if you draw on your memory of the tree rather than looking at a real tree - the detail often overpowers the general characteristics. A memory, on the other hand seems to store just the important parts to give an impression rather than a photograph.

For this I asked the audience to think of a Red gum. (I know tese trees are difficult to cultivate as bonsai but most people are familiar with the species and we are looking at the PROCESS (which can be applied to any tree species) rather than creating a red gum bonsai.

Any thoughts on what you feel are a few of the MAIN, IMPORTANT, STANDOUT characteristics of a red gum?

[Jamie]

i think some stand out features of a red gum is the powerful trunks, going to twisted distorted branching and the bark, after seeing some of the pics fly put up the other day, the first redgum has inspired me to trying one.

obviously there is more stand out features, i have just named a few to begin with.

jamie

[FlyBri]

Gday Shibui and Jamie!

I started to list the important characteristics of River Reds in the wild, but it quickly became a novella. I'll try to finish the post this evening, but in the meantime will link to some of my photos.

Thanks.

Fly.

[shibui]

I'm back again. Busy week!
Not much interest in this topic!

When i think of redgum I see:
Stout trunk dividing into several main branches. They rarely have a main trunk going to the top of the tree.
Lower main branches arching out and trending down.
Sub branches again arching out and down, especially on the lowe part of the tree.
Foliage mostly on the outer part of the branches forming a 'mushroom' shaped canopy. Redgum rarely has 'pads' of foliage that Japanese trees are noted for.
Foliage may tend to appear in clusters at the end of branches.

Red gum Lawson's_RR_01.jpg

See also more red gum pics that Fly has posted elsewhere for more inspiration.

For me this means that IF I was to try to create a red gum bonsai I would try to style it in a fashion to suggest the characteristics above.
It was interesting to note that the eucalypts that have been shown at the native show largely exhibit these characteristics.

I am not saying that all red gum bonsai should be styled this way. there are exceptions - see following photos but I believe that for most Australians a bonsai that reflected some or all of the characteristics above would be believable.

Just around our area I found eucalypts in all shapes and styles so it is legitimate to create trees other than the classic redgum referred to above.

Red gum leaning Beechworth.JPG

I can't find the photo of the semicascade at the moment but severely leaning trees do exist. There is also a raft style redgum in our area from a tree that was blown over many years ago.

Red gum beechworth.JPG

Note the clusters of foliage at the end of each branch.

Red gum Meringo 2.JPG

The point of this thread is to get would be native bonsai growers to really look at trees in nature to find out the usual characteristics of the species and also what exceptions may exist.
Next thread outlines the styling of my 'Waterswept' style callistemon.

[FlyBri]

Gday Shibui et al!

Sorry for the delay, but I have been hit hard by work and a nasty cold this week.

Nice work so far: the characteristics you have noted for the River Red look pretty much spot-on to me! I mentioned above that I had begun a short essay about the natural form of the River Red Gum, so please excuse me while I dig up the draft:

E. camaldulensis grows in a variety of locales and climes, and as such the species presents us with a number of different 'styles' to choose from, but it is the ones I see locally that I use as a template for styling my own River Red Gums (photos here).

The most obvious styling element when looking at such River Reds is that they will tend to grow naturally in the Informal Upright style, with the trunks often exiting the soil at quite severe angles.

Massive taper is also common, but it is rarely a smooth transition from fat to skinny: from my observations, it appears that much of the taper of the River Red is created by the loss of low 'sacrifice' branches, or even by giant 'trunk chops'. Thus, the girth of the trunk tends to be somewhat constant until it makes a change in direction, at which point there is likely to be a hollow or branch stub to indicate the former presence of another large branch (or trunk). I believe it is this natural "clip and grow" process that creates such angular, gnarly old Eucs.

I believe that Shibui has already covered everything else, but if I think of any more Red Gum attributes, I'll be sure to post.

Good one Shibui!

Thanks.

Fly.

[Mitchell]

Me thinks this topic must have been buried quickly, I missed it completely and have been waiting for these threads...

[FlyBri]

Me thinks this topic must have been buried quickly, I missed it completely and have been waiting for these threads...

Likewise, CD...

As a postscript to my previous post, I must thank Mr Shibui for drawing my attention to the 'no main trunk' issue. I think this observation may help me in developing my River Reds - we'll see.

[Jamie]

definately amazing trees i think that styling them would be enjoyable to i have been keeping my eye out for a few as this thread has inspired me especially this pic fly put up earlier in an inspiration thread.

redgum.jpg

this tree is absolutely amazing, i guess this one is one of the rare redgum that has a smooth taper but it is really nice, i will definately be trying to imitate this tree when i find a suitable specimen to work on

[FlyBri]

Gday Jamie!

Not wanting to be pedantic, but the tree you're showing is exactly the one I had in mind when I spoke of a 'not smooth taper'. Every change of direction in the lower 2/3rds of the trunk indicates a "chop", and the stepped taper reflects this. If you want smooth taper, it is better reflected in the Red that Shibui posted at the start of the thread.

I like that many of the 'chops' or 'sacrifices' have not healed over, or have healed in an exaggerated way, thus giving the look of scarred old knuckles. If I can cultivate this trait in my own trees, I will be closer to being a happy man.

Thanks.

Fly.

[Jamie]

gday fly

i am gonig to have to beg to differ a little, this is just my opinion, but in the pic below you will see two colour lines, i beleive personally that the red line at the base shows a nice taper to that kink and then from there onwards shows smooth transition too, i beleive it is just that elbow that is a little angular.

on that note of the knuckles and joins i completely agree that they do add a lot of character to the style of the tree and makes it quite a defining feature of redgum.

redgumlines.jpg

cheers mate

[Bretts]

Very nicely put Shibui. Although it has been stated how the Gum has many different forms I am not sure if it has been highlighted that it also has (can we say) many different styles.
Although I find Peter's Gums very impressive in many ways it did not seem to stir in me what a gum was. As you say this can be very personal.
Watching Fly's gums over the last years I have very much liked it's progress but I thought it looked more bonsai than Gum. I thought I wanted to aim somewhere in between.
After recently viewing Flys pictures of Gums in the wild I now understand the image of a gum he is portraying and I would say I am very much more impressed with his work. Some how the gums I see and remember are different in a slight way. In general though I see a gum as Massive and muscled yet graceful. Lush and pretty yet hard and scared. One day delivering some material at a farm I looked out in the paddock and saw the biggest lushest Gum I have ever seen. I just wish I had been able to take a picture. I thought I had seen ramification that happens as a tree gets too big for itself But the sight of this tree was like nothing I had ever seen. It looked like it had wanted for nothing a day in it's long life yet it was getting to the extremes of it's growth capabilities. It was magic.
Here are some pictures that I found on hand of some local Gums some are close to what I think of with Gums but still not quite there.

gum.jpg

gum2.jpg

gum3.jpg

There is a tree at just this spot leaning out over the River that I would love to have here but I can't find it. I think I have posted it on the forum before?

gum4.jpg

This Gum in front of the Old shed is one of My favourite Gum pictures

gum5.jpg

[Bretts]

It is an interesting observation with the taper in the trunks Fly. I would agree that the gum pictured is a good example. I can see at least a few places where there seems to have been a trunk chop or loss of branch that has caused the taper. I would say as I have recently that a Trunk or branch does not really taper although it appears to. It only diminishes in size from branching out.

redgum.jpg

I have marked 4 missing parts to this tree (one behind the trunk) maybe you can see more Fly?