AusBonsai

NATIVES STYLED NATIVE

There will always be two schools of thought on when Japanese inspired styling stops and enthusiasts shape Australian natives to suit the way our natives grow naturally. Any bonsai needs to be stylised but Aussie natives can [I hesitate to say ‘should’] be styled in their natural growth habit. You will get a more representative tree because your styling should enhance the way they grow naturally.

At the 2014 AABC Bonsai Convention in August this magnificent melaleuca is testament to Japanese styling on a native tree. Does it work?? To me the styling is stunning but it makes me feel uncomfortable. The styling itself is excellent; shape, form, harmony and balance… but on the wrong tree. No melaleuca ever comes close to looking like this. It’s styled for a rugged landscape and a melaleuca is a tree that likes wet feet. I feel it is doing a disservice to the tree but serves as an example of how styling must bring out the tree’s qualities and not be something that is imposed on it. By contrast, this is a melaleuca styphiliodes. It is meticulously wired and styled and looks like a melaleuca styphiliodes. The integrity of the tree has been maintained. This is one of the demonstration trees and this is how the setting looked after its initial styling. The Chinese master, Zhao, emphasised that the trees need further refinement but this is as much as he was prepared to do in the first phrase to ensure the trees survived. The trees look like melaleucas and impart the feeling of a native landscape. Our trees are glorious and unique. We don’t need to try to replicate a black pine with our native stock.

Hi Mel, always an interesting discussion ...

for my on your examples:

#1 very well styled, but as you say in the traditional style, therefore not 'recognisable' instantly as a native. I actually like this tree but would be interested to see it once the foliage thickens up a bit.

#2 I don't think the weeping styling helps this tree at all. Naturally these trees grow foliage in more 'cloud' formation 'levels' with the branches growing up, so I think it should be styled more like a maple, or a least with the branches more horizontal.

#3 Beautiful !!!!! Penjing inspired Aus landscape. the rocks are not quite what we'd find in nature, but you work with what you have - call it artist licence . Absolutely nailed it

Thanks!

The third tree does it for me.
Let natives be natives.

this poses a question, What is Native Style
Ive had a couple of people say my Juniper looks like it has grown in Native style... Your thoughts
viewtopic.php?f=131&t=16956

Good comments... thanks.
A mela styphiliodes is a semi weeping style tree and I feel the style works and the structure of the tree up close is admirable. Some smashing trees at the AABC/BCI Gold Coast show.

A native style to me is a style that reflects the way a tree grows naturally. Stylised, modified as one does when working with a much smaller subject than a ground grown specimen but still recognisably 'native'. I have seen natives styled more with an Asian influence and it can work but the style still has to suit the species. A lot of our native have a rough growing habit - just look at the callistimon - all over the place like a dog's breakfast. But simplified it can be amazingly evocative of our landscape. And I trim my melaleuca linariifolia in foliage pads but the I found the 'secret' is keeping the foliage thin, no packed leaves, open - open - open and this is what helps to give an Australian feel. Our trees rarely have the rich ground nutrients to grow lavishly and that should be reflected in their style. Lillypilly and melaleuca are two that grow in damp ground and can carry heavier foliage. But it is the openness of native foliage that carries the bush ambience.

And with the melaleuca group - it was incredibly impressive that Zhao Qingquan, the Chinese master who styled these trees, had NEVER seen this species before and yet he captured the essence superbly. He was truly able to get to the soul of the tree.

@Mel

I'm new to bonsai but the issue(s) you've raised is one that struck me the moment I looked at styling a bonsai, which just happened to be a melaleuca. I was racking my brain as to formal upright, informal upright, slanting, et al. With the right wire and enough patience you could probably turn a melaleuca into pretty much any of those styles and if you didn't know melaleucas you'd probably be comfortable with any design so long as it was artistically correct. But, I've never seen a melaleuca in the wild that conformed to any of those styles. The trees I've seen have been knee deep in mud/swamp pushing and shoving each other to gain space/height. Cut all the neighbours down and the remaining melaleuca(s) goes ballistic.

I'm still no closer to resolving my conflict between native and artistic bonsai; then again, black holes confuse the hell out of me too. For now, I'm probably going to apply bonsai philosophy to oz natives without the rigour of formal styling. The formal styling, imo, belongs more in the realm of trees native to Japan and China.

My 2c.

Wayne

Two Melaleucas - two photos each. One showing a denser foliage pad, one showing a lighter foliage pad and the Aussie feel comes out in the lighter pads. These two trees easily flop and it is necessary to keep the foliage short to maintain shape. And the Rev Gold is in its third or fourth front change as the once blatantly wrapped root matures into a nice nebari.

That third picture of the trees are Melaleuca rhaphiophylla, they do not grow like that naturally. They are one of the few Melaleucas that do not like there branches past the parallel.
There a few that grow in granite out crops down south. As I have in a post said, there is a Melaleuca for all Zones and all styles. I have seen them grow as in the first picture.

Just my
Cheers Pup

This is something I'm studying as I learn, the natural style, especially for Mels... is bloody difficult to wrap your head around.

There has been quite a discussion previously about the need for following the rules in styling and that's why "informal upright " style was invented so we could do whatever we wanted---are we now saying that rules rule in styling ?

MelaQuin wrote:A mela styphiliodes is a semi weeping style tree and I feel the style works and the structure of the tree up close is admirable.

They must not like it north of the border ...this is how Melaleuca Styphelioides grow down here in abundance: viewtopic.php?f=151&t=14916&hilit=+melaleuca#p166277

MelaQuin wrote:Some smashing trees at the AABC/BCI Gold Coast show.

Lucky Duck

MelaQuin wrote: A native style to me is a style that reflects the way a tree grows naturally. Stylised, modified as one does when working with a much smaller subject than a ground grown specimen but still recognisably 'native'. I have seen natives styled more with an Asian influence and it can work but the style still has to suit the species. A lot of our native have a rough growing habit - just look at the callistimon - all over the place like a dog's breakfast. But simplified it can be amazingly evocative of our landscape. And I trim my melaleuca linariifolia in foliage pads but the I found the 'secret' is keeping the foliage thin, no packed leaves, open - open - open and this is what helps to give an Australian feel. Our trees rarely have the rich ground nutrients to grow lavishly and that should be reflected in their style. Lillypilly and melaleuca are two that grow in damp ground and can carry heavier foliage. But it is the openness of native foliage that carries the bush ambience.

Well put, nice tips and observations!

MelaQuin wrote: And with the melaleuca group - it was incredibly impressive that Zhao Qingquan, the Chinese master who styled these trees, had NEVER seen this species before and yet he captured the essence superbly. He was truly able to get to the soul of the tree.

Wow, now that's intuition, that would have been a real treat to see

Interesting idea. The word styled stands out for me. Even trees done in a natural style are still styled.

I often think about why we advocate a natural style for our natives when a lot of classical bonsai trees are styled in a way that doesn't always represent how they really appear in nature. A highly refined Japanese black pine is quite a long way from natural. Albeit the ruggedness of the trunks can be, especially collected material.

I'm not suggesting we shouldn't strive for a natural style. There has been many discussions as to what constitutes a natural style and I think these discussions are very valuable. Some of the best Aussie natives I've seen don't conform to the accepted styles. Then again, so many of the most dramatic and inspiring trees I've seen both here and from other countries don't conform either. And not all would be considered natural.

On one hand you have Grant's stunning banksia that has been highly recognised as a great bonsai, yet far from a natural style, and the other you have some of Pup's, to name just one artist, beautiful trees that have many elements inspired from natural trees.

all have a place.

Thanks MelaQuin for the photos and the inspiration.

dansai wrote:Interesting idea. The word styled stands out for me. Even trees done in a natural style are still styled.

I often think about why we advocate a natural style for our natives when a lot of classical bonsai trees are styled in a way that doesn't always represent how they really appear in nature. A highly refined Japanese black pine is quite a long way from natural. Albeit the ruggedness of the trunks can be, especially collected material.

I'm not suggesting we shouldn't strive for a natural style. There has been many discussions as to what constitutes a natural style and I think these discussions are very valuable. Some of the best Aussie natives I've seen don't conform to the accepted styles. Then again, so many of the most dramatic and inspiring trees I've seen both here and from other countries don't conform either. And not all would be considered natural.

On one hand you have Grant's stunning banksia that has been highly recognised as a great bonsai, yet far from a natural style, and the other you have some of Pup's, to name just one artist, beautiful trees that have many elements inspired from natural trees.

all have a place.

Thanks MelaQuin for the photos and the inspiration.

wise words jedi tree master

There is an image in the AB banner, the fourth tree from the left, I think captures what an Informal Upright Eucalyptus would look like (not even sure if it is a euc?), but it looks very different to any regular informal upright style

Might not be a matter of creating a new style, but just adjusting the current styles with native growth patterns in mind?