Redwoods - Red Chief Sequoia

[MJL]

Different. I am attracted the trees that are a somewhat out of the ordinary. I think I can learn new skills from two Redwoods.

I may take advantage of the natural multi-trunk

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I think this might be a raft. What?!

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Let the games begin.

[Ryceman3]

Raft.
Yep.
I like it.
Don’t know much about redwoods but I like the concept, worth exploring I reckon. It’s a decent base on that tree!

[Ryszil]

Wow, I just bought a red wood yesterday too. Great minds think alike hey?

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It's a lot smaller than yours but I'm looking forward to developing it, I'm thinking of putting it in a colander in the ground for a while and going straight up. I took a couple of cuttings as well that I hope will take root.

My wife is from San Jose California and while visiting family we went for a hike in the redwoods. Amazing majestic trees. I found them hard to get a photo of just for the sheer size of them. Sadly I put my phone through the wash and lost my photos. I was also lucky enough to time my trip with the San Jose Bonsai societies annual show. Again I lost my photos but I found some photos of the trees on their website.

Metasequoia plyptostooaids

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Sequoia sempervirens

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And for a little bit more inspiration, think Endor

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[MJL]

Hey Ryzsil,

Thanks for responding - cool coincidence! You will always have a closer attraction to the species due to the family connection and you are fortunate to have seen these grand trees in the flesh!

When I was buying them, I did a quick search and noted some people are making fine bonsai from these trees. I was reminded recently that this tree - in its raw form as pictured below - looks like the some of the well known angled rock plantings of Kimura and others.

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While thick - there is no taper in the truck - hence I am thinking raft and selecting shoots of different thickness to create interest in the final grouping.

Cheers,

Mark


Bonsai teaches me patience.
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[Daluke]

Did you pay a visit to Conifer Gardens?

[MJL]

[THUMBS UP SIGN]


Bonsai teaches me patience.
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[Sparid]

Is there anywhere you can purchase these from in Sydney?

[MJL]

Hi Sparid, I am in Melbourne so not much help to you. Perhaps someone in NSW may be able to provide some insights. I hope you get some guidance.

Speaking of guidance - I am quite excited by the juniper - I will take my time and consider options - but the Redwood raft seems a solid idea that I will start in spring.

I happened upon this helpful article below and I think I’ll follow these steps into a foam grow box come spring.

http://bonsailearningcenter.com/2016/02 ... echniques/




Bonsai teaches me patience.
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[MJL]

A lovely day in Melbourne today. After a few chores around the house - I got stuck into an initial styling of these Redwoods.

First the multi-trunk:

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I noticed this amazing golden sap too. See below.

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All very rough at this point but I wanted to select the three trunks before repotting later in the year.

And also the raft:
I will straighten each trunk - it is not my intent to keep the windswept look.

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I have purposely kept numerous side shoots as I will lay these down when I sink the raft to create depth - in front of and behind the main raft/trunk.

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Fun to work with and they smell beautiful.

[MJL]

Folks of AusBonsai - I have designs rattling around my head for these - so best I put them to this community to offer opinions.

I am not sure whether you can see the original pics in my first post. I cannot see them for some reason. It probably does not matter because yesterday's posts show progress.

My mind is stuck on this. There are not that many pics of redwood bonsai online. Redwoods in their natural landscape are super tall, majestic pillars.

So I think I can emulate pillars in the raft - excuse my crap drawing below:
I'll just straighten the trunks - onwards and upwards.

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But with the multi-trunk - even though I have movement in them now - I am wondering whether I should keep curves down low at the base of the trunk but then just straighten and grow.

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Any thoughts. I am thinking that these trees are probably best treated as formal upright - in the raft and pretty straight in the multi-trunk too. Of course, I could just keep one one trunk in the multi but this feels like an opportunity lost (for something different at least.)

[Ryceman3]

Hi MJL,
Went for a drive to Kyneton last weekend and took a stroll through their botanical gardens while I was there... worth a look if you find yourself in the area at any stage, plenty of mature, tall and imposing trees on show, including a few of these:

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It was a beast! Amazing bark, sensationally vertical trunk with rather thin (proportionally) horizontal branching protruding radially and sweeping beautiful green feathery foliage. Not sure if yours are Sequoia or Metasequoia but when I saw this I thought of you. Just thought I’d share the pic, an impressive species and this was an impressive example.

[Ryszil]

Hey Mark,

Sorry been meaning to reply for a while. I'm with you on straightening the raft and go with the long straight, as for the multi trunk, my novice eye is having trouble. I think I like the curve in the trunks, or a bit of both, go straight on the one on the right and leave the other 2? Something like this...?

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I'm liking the idea of a forest or something The cuttings I took are still nice and green so fingers crossed, still a long way to go though. How are you planning on developing? I'm taking a guess but thinking about where they grow. They grow very tall and really have to compete for the light, a tree that keeps loosing its top probably wouldn't survive, sacrifice branches maybe?

[MJL]

Hey R3 and Ryszil,

Thanks or your responses and my apologies for my delayed acknowledgment.

Lovely photos R3, thanks for thinking of me. I am actually loving the fact that I purchased these two interesting trees.

Initially, I nearly left the raft behind but it is becoming a favourite too work with. I thought I might learn a little and today I used a bar across the raft to wire the new trees upright. It was a technique I noticed in the link above and it seems to have worked.

Ryszil, in truth, I am not sure how I will continue to encourage the upright nature of these statuesque trees - other than continually wring new top/leader and cutting old top accordingly.

Here's the newly wired raft - it give more of the idea of future direction.

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While difficult too see - I have left some side branches and I intended burying them when I put in a training box in spring. I think these side branches will give lovely depth (front and back) and set off the main feature of the raft. It looks a bit messy now but you should be able to get the idea.

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[MJL]

Hi All,

Not an update regarding my trees - rather a link to some information on Redwood bonsai https://www.reddit.com/r/Bonsai/comment ... l_redwood/

The linked thread is hard to navigate but there's reasonable info on it if you look. This thread indicates a mid-winter prune followed by a spring prune too. By luck, my initial styling started in July and they have responded well - starting to push out new growth now. Also, I have not yet subscribed to Mirai but Ryan has some info on them too.

Anyway - as a few people were interested, so I thought I would link the above thread.

Cheers,

Mark

[MJL]

Today I started my raft. I am not sure if my technique is sound but I have given it a crack. The photos will tell the story but the trickiest part was figuring out how far to strip the bark back. I cut the bark sections under the main branches - thinking that the future roots will look best position under each of the raft uprights. (Not a great description but hopefully you get what I mean.) I also applied liquid rooting hormone to the parts where the bark was stripped. Further, I teased the roots out after the photo was taken. Finally, the moss is not just decorative - it is protecting one side of the root ball that I needed to be shaved to allow me room to lay the plant down ... and is also helping to keep some the of thin branches that I have places underground to re-appear at the edges of the planting (to help create a sense fo depth in future). Confused yet?

Anyway - here 'tis. I picture this being quite a large setting when mature. Hence the grow box should do for at least a couple of years of growth to hopefully settle in and create new roots!

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