Trident Maple Group progression
Posted: March 24th, 2013, 5:08 pm
Over the years I have created a few Groups mainly with 20+ trees. I like the dense forests with trees planted very close together. The largest group completed has been 50+ Palmatums in a 24" tray that is around 10yrs old.(pic attached)
I have a 5m Trident in my backyard originally purchased as Bonsai material but abandoned. It has grown beautifully and now self seeds up to 500 plants a year. I decided I wanted to create a forest planting from this tree with 100+ trees on a fibreglass slab I had, that was imported from Japan in the early 90's. To achieve a planting with so many trees I have grown the trees from seedlings tight together in 3's, 4's, 5's and more over a couple of year period. This will help achieve the variable height and thicknesses that are important to a Group planting.
In 2010, I had a number of trees planted together in readiness to eventually put together.
In 2011, I further collected seedling planting them together, repotting the previous years trees to larger pots for thickening.
I put my "first" group of 1 and 2yo trees together and further planted new seasons seedlings together.
In 2012, I repotted my "first" group while using the next lot of trees to create my "2nd" and "3rd" groups being careful to ensure they were not taller than the "first" group to ensure the overall group triangle.
March 2013, I am continuing to trim and shape these three groups so they can come together as one planting. There are around 70 trees in the 3 groups created already and I have plenty (200~) of trees planted in multiples to plant around the setting. A photo attached has all the trees together to gauge if I have the triangle about right.
Winter 2013, I intend to put the Group together with at least 120 trees.
As much as it is an exercise of numbers, I want to show space around the group. The Group wont look like an old forest of trees for some time but I am hoping the effect will be a pleasing grove of trees. Often people cannot get their trees close enough together because the root systems have not be prepared well enough. This is my way. Obviously, if I wanted an older looking group sooner, I would have left the trees longer in training pots to thicken and get more branch ramification. I think planting together early is important to reduce stress to roots and heavy cutting to nebari's.
I have wired the trees each year so there will be minimal work in the final arrangement because I have learnt from experience the difficulty of trying to keep trunks from crossing over each other and looking untidy. As the group matures, I will need to remove inner branching to let in as much light as possible and ensure it does not look like a hedge. The plan is to create 2 triangles that come into 1 uneven triangle to create the canopy.
I hope this is of interest to someone. There are many ways to create a Group planting and this is just one.
I have a 5m Trident in my backyard originally purchased as Bonsai material but abandoned. It has grown beautifully and now self seeds up to 500 plants a year. I decided I wanted to create a forest planting from this tree with 100+ trees on a fibreglass slab I had, that was imported from Japan in the early 90's. To achieve a planting with so many trees I have grown the trees from seedlings tight together in 3's, 4's, 5's and more over a couple of year period. This will help achieve the variable height and thicknesses that are important to a Group planting.
In 2010, I had a number of trees planted together in readiness to eventually put together.
In 2011, I further collected seedling planting them together, repotting the previous years trees to larger pots for thickening.
I put my "first" group of 1 and 2yo trees together and further planted new seasons seedlings together.
In 2012, I repotted my "first" group while using the next lot of trees to create my "2nd" and "3rd" groups being careful to ensure they were not taller than the "first" group to ensure the overall group triangle.
March 2013, I am continuing to trim and shape these three groups so they can come together as one planting. There are around 70 trees in the 3 groups created already and I have plenty (200~) of trees planted in multiples to plant around the setting. A photo attached has all the trees together to gauge if I have the triangle about right.
Winter 2013, I intend to put the Group together with at least 120 trees.
As much as it is an exercise of numbers, I want to show space around the group. The Group wont look like an old forest of trees for some time but I am hoping the effect will be a pleasing grove of trees. Often people cannot get their trees close enough together because the root systems have not be prepared well enough. This is my way. Obviously, if I wanted an older looking group sooner, I would have left the trees longer in training pots to thicken and get more branch ramification. I think planting together early is important to reduce stress to roots and heavy cutting to nebari's.
I have wired the trees each year so there will be minimal work in the final arrangement because I have learnt from experience the difficulty of trying to keep trunks from crossing over each other and looking untidy. As the group matures, I will need to remove inner branching to let in as much light as possible and ensure it does not look like a hedge. The plan is to create 2 triangles that come into 1 uneven triangle to create the canopy.
I hope this is of interest to someone. There are many ways to create a Group planting and this is just one.
Beautiful work so far, its going to be a impressive dense canopy. How will you train the secondary branches, clip and grow?