AusBonsai

Hey folks,

Picked up my first cedar to have a play with on the weekend,

I went for something biggish knowing what everyone says about these being very slow to thicken. I also found out that Cedars are a pain in the butt to wire, I thought the needles on pines were hard to work around but this was ridiculous, I ended up being a little rougher than I would otherwise be but the growth is so thick that I don't think it mattered haha

Anyway this tree went in a bit of a different direction to what I first had in mind, but I am fairly happy with the result

Here's before And after Hope you all enjoy, as always thoughts/opinions welcome, as mentioned above this is my first cedar so any tips or experience would also be great, I intend to treat this like a pine but if anybody has anything specific lay it on me

Kerrin

Hi Kerrin, nice stock

Cedars are great , bend em twist em ... 2 options i can see: 1. cut the right (main) trunk at the V, keep the left and develop a smaller interesting tree; 2. tilt 80 degrees cw and you've got the basis for a substantial semi-cascade

You've taken a lot off the tree already, which is good, now you can let it recover for a month or 2, and now next time you can pinch off even more of last years needles which will help you rewire and give a more refined look.

Couple of seasons and you'll have a nice tree

Nice start. I'm with Ryan - at the moment it goes strongly in two directions at once, which does my head in a bit. If it were mine, I'd lean it over strongly to the right (over a couple of years/repots) so the left side becomes a head, and the right side stretches out elegantly. Plenty of time to think about it - lean it over, play around, cover bits up with paper or cloth to see what it would look like if you cut them off, the usual. Don't take my word for it, or Ryan's - keep looking and experimenting until it makes sense to you.

Thanks for posting,

Gavin

Was thinking the same as the 2 comments above. Make a real nice cascade

Ken

Hi Kc over here in Florida most people with cedar bonsai let th wire dig into the bark and loosen it from time to time so the cut bulges. They heal well. You get old looking bark after it heals.

The V where the trunk splits into two is very high up. Makes for some creative problem solving. Cutting the right trunk off leaving the left will leave the lowest branch looking too high. With cedars not back budding that would still leave an issue with the trunk. Luckily cedars are very malleable. I'd change the planting angle further to the left, use the left trunk as the low branch and wire some serious twists and bends into both trunks but also compact the right side. Of course you'd have to leave the wire on forever!


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Yes it would take a while. Your tree is older. I did it with young trees. But you have a few a good tree there. We have alot of conifers here in florida . I saw some nice yamadori at a beach close by growing in mangroves and dwarf oak brush. They had nice shapes . once you get away from the beach all the pine trees are straight as can be. But they have great branches . I will take some pics and post them. Cheers

Time for an update on this one,

Another tree needing to be rescued after some "creative" initial work.

There was a lack of good branching at good intervals along the trunk, with lots of important branches coming from one spot, and a lack of back branches.

sooo,

Here's it is as of today, may never be a stunner, but we will see if people think its better than it was What do we all think?

Kerrin

Definitely better than it was, though the cascading branch appears quite linear to me! Perhaps a shot from above?

I think it could definitely be a stunner with some more dynamic movement - how you get that movement though is a toughy.

Kerrin, you have a knack for styling trees. Every tree you touch seems to be greatly improved in a short space of time.

Well done and keep up the good work.

Mo

I'm with Mo, the cascade definitely looks better but needs some more movement in it

Cheers for the kind words folks, Mo especially, I am learning all the time and try to get into as much stock as I can to develop my eye and artistic side.

Here's a little more bend into the cascade and a bit of side to side, it's a bit thicker than my thumb though so not much more I can do at this point Lets see what we all think

Kerrin

Hi Kerrin
Good job so far.
I'd tilt the angle more to the left so that the angle of the cascade branch points downward, not horizontal as it is now. That would also make the movement of the remaining trunk to the left, instead of going straight up.


Regards


Tien

bonsaisensation wrote:Hi Kerrin
Good job so far.
I'd tilt the angle more to the left so that the angle of the cascade branch points downward, not horizontal as it is now. That would also make the movement of the remaining trunk to the left, instead of going straight up.


Regards


Tien

Agree with this!

Also, re: Movement, being a Cedar, a bit of raffia, electrical tape and some heavy gauge wire, you should be able to get some movement into the cascading branch. I might buy an Atlantic Cedar soon and try bend it just to see how thick a branch I can bend without breaking it.

Tien, you got any Atlantic Cedars I can experiment on? MUHUHAHAHAHA

Mo

I really like this tree, Kerrin.

I suspect as the foliage pads develop and fill out, the 'straightness' of the cascade branch will be broken up anyway. They do seem to have very dense foliage after all.

How big is it exactly?