Weeping Willow Styling ideas wanted

[Bretts]

This is a one year old Willow cutting. I am using a new method of growing them. Instead of sitting the water lovers in a plate of water I have a constant feed of water coming in from the top by way of a gravity fed dripper.

willowwater.jpg

I also have given lots of feed as is recommended. It gets the usual liquid feed every 10 days but it also has alot of dynamic lifter and slow release tabs and spikes to supplement.

willow.jpg

As you can see it is growing well and this has already had one major(back to stubs) but rough trim this season. I figure it needs a good going over again with some wire and a refinement of the plan.

I was wondering if any members can see something I don't. As it has so many interesting angles I did a Youtube vid to show them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nFM2Q3PDnw
Any ideas would be great
Thanks

[bodhidharma]

Ah Bretts Why do it? I have always desired a weeping Willow and always wondered why you rarely, if ever, see them in shows or for sale in Bonsai nursery's. As you know i have an advanced one going and the problems i have encountered are considerable. You have solved the first two problems of water and food and that is a great start. Your next problem of styling, as they do not weep naturally in the pot, and dont respond well to wiring, is to keep the foliage weighted down with modelling clay etc. One problem i had was the clay melting. Inter nodule growth is hard to keep close as you have to feed them so much to keep them healthy. I have opted for the stark silhouette look in winter. They also grow so ferociously they leave the trunk behind so you get thicker branches than the trunk and a thicker apex. You can also get a weeping habit by daily bending of branches between thumb and forefinger, but only the new ones. This is hugely time consuming. This will test your patience as a Bonsai. Mine has been in training for quite a few years now but i always wonder if it is worth it. There is a great, and i mean great, article by this fellow Simon Temblett in Bonsai Focus and if you can get it do so, it is very helpful. Good luck

[banksia]

Brett! Talk about an interesting piece of material!. I too have always wanted a Willow as a subject but for some reason have never got around to it.
I therefore can't give you any advice, but, with all that movement in the trunk line, I think you'll have an dynamic looking tree either way.
As Bohdi mentioned, the article in Bonsai Focus is about as good a guide to growing Willow bonsai as any I've seen on the net. Something leads me to believe you've got the issue anyways (vertical drip method of watering).
Anyway, kudos to you as I've read the very demanding in the repotting sense and a real challenge to style gracefully...as Bodhi has pointed out.
Please keep us updated.

Cheers!
Anthony

P.S That's one way of getting your own 360 published

[Bretts]

I gave up on them a couple of years ago Bodi It was with great regret as that was one of my aims when starting Bonsai I loved the look of the willows.
It was the article in Bonsai Focus that got me interested to give them another go. So far so good but we will see if there is any branch loss through the winter One branch was ripped of the trunk as it got caught in the trolly wheel I used to cart it today
I have heard of issues with Wiring but have never had that explained to me and I have found no trouble when I wire?
Branches have usually drooped how I wanted so far without weights but maybe that will be an issue as I get to the refined stage with lighter branches.

As from the Bonsai Focus Article and others that I have been fortunate to see pictures of we know it can be done so I will give it another good go. I wanted a real normal looking willow bonsai but this tallish one may work well? I think I need one more nice chunky trunk one

[Bretts]

The bends are intresting Banksia but as always with material like this it is hard to find the perfect front.
I was after a chunky informal upright but could not go past the bends in this branch when I walked past it.

[Jamie]

am i missing something here??????????

i cant see the trunk behind that mass of foliage... brett do you have any pics of the tree before all this growth was put on? i think you are going to find it hard to keep as a bonsai as it has been suggested above, the only way you could style it is to keep it as its natural habit, weeping, which also means your basically gonna have a bush that you cant see a trunk on?


JMO.


jamie

[ozzy]

am i missing something here??????????

i cant see the trunk behind that mass of foliage...


jamie

LOL I had to have a double take too, you need to have a sqizz at the youtube link

[Bretts]

See the youtube link Jamie

[Jamie]

ahhhhh, cheers i did miss something


now that tree has got some major movement in it, i think you are gonna have to work on two areas, one, the apex, giving it a full canopy of weeping foliage but trim it so it shows that wonderful trunk and two, which is a maybe where the first curve is on the trunk which you can see in the video link, that might act like a second canopy, not quite sure of that though, this could be just a one crowned tree. if you got any pics of the angle that is last seen on the video, the very very end, where the video stops i could do a quick mud map


cheers



jamie

[Bretts]

No worries Jamie. If any one wants pics of different angles of certain fronts I can do that. There may be a front and angle that I can't see. I think one of the first pics below is the one you are after.
I think the front you consider has been my first choice but I still was not that happy with it. It seems wherever I moved it there was a vertical or horizontal section that looked too static.

I am still not so happy with today's effort but it will do for now. where is Robert Stevens when you need him this is his type of material

This is the front that I figured when I last re potted.

willow 003.jpg

It seems a little static to me and the base is at it's almost worst.
A different angle helps

willow 004.jpg

I am starting to like this front

willow 001.jpg

Again a bit of angle change works better again

willow 002.jpg

I would remove some branches at the front if I was to use this front. But I will do that next time as I consider it for a bit

Here it is back home for now but I have the new possible front looking out for consideration

Any ideas still welcome
Thanks.

[hugh grant]

I like the look of the second last pic where you have tiltedthe pot to the left, I think it looks better than the first front that you had in mind.

Hugh

[Jamie]

yep, spot on there about the second last pic i reckon, even tilt a bit more to the left, this will give you plenty of height to work with for the weeping foliage.
the first pic is the one i was talking about there is an option in that aswell, i was just tilting the laptop loking at it too, might even be a semi cascade there
i will virt it up asap mate


jamie

[Bretts]

Was a nice workout re potting this guy today. Decided to stand it up more. I think as the selected roots grow the base will expand some. It will need more room for the roots before the end of the season so I will be on the lookout for a large drum or similar. Still not totally happy but I am pretty confident it will make a very interesting yard feature tree if nothing else in this form. Some body might turn it into a cascade one day when I am gone
I am going to let it grow unhindered for maybe the first half of the season so maybe some pegs to weigh the branches down as we go for now.
I have it set back up on the gravity fed constant water feed agian after being off over the Winter.

003.jpg