AusBonsai

Hey guys, new to the addiction and am after opinions on what i have done so far. All comments good and bad are welcome. Through criticism we realy learn.

Most people are going to tell you to put them in larger pots or grow boxes and let them grow so the trunks thicken. I know you are anxious to have something 'decent' but growing on is the fastest way other than buying something more advanced. No reason you can't wire them the way you have though and let them grow in the right direction.

Glenda

Congratulations not criticism is given here. You are having a go and with a bit of fine tuning you will do well.

The Gingko..... This is an unusual styling for this species but hey let's experiment. You might want to lose that left hand branch.

The Maple Clump................. Yeah just let it grow out a bit and study how clumps grow.

The Juniper Cascade........ Cut off the far left branch and the underbranch growing from the main cascading branch. Get rid of the little branch growing from the pot. Use stronger wire to lower the main cascading branch to a more acute angle downward.

I'm loving the sacred Bamboo.

Dunno about windswept Ginko! but hey nothing to lose

They are very slow to put on any girth so will take a long time to bulk up
Think i posted in a separate thread about the cascade juni.

We will never learn anything without trying something

Ken

Gingko is beautiful as bonsai. I've never seen one styled this way before

To pull it off soundly you will need to change the way the tree leans. For instance, in harsh weather conditions the trunk and branches all lean the same way like the below image.

Enjoy the ride and welcome to Ausbonsai

Anja wrote:Gingko is beautiful as bonsai. I've never seen one styled this way before

To pull it off soundly you will need to change the way the tree leans. For instance, in harsh weather conditions the trunk and branches all lean the same way like the below image.

Enjoy the ride and welcome to Ausbonsai

Hey Anja, thanks for your feedback. I am finding it very hard to conform to traditional styling, I know Bonsai is the art of mimicking real life but I just like the way it looks, I think the more i get into this wonderful world i will learn to let go and construct the trees in the correct fashion. The Cascade Juniper i want as a Twin tail cascade, which i have never seen anywhere but i just see it in my head. The more i read this forum, the more i realise the discipline i am lacking. I have seen some trees on here which look great and then the owner shows a picture of where they chop the whole top section off and start all over again. How would you correct the Gingko, train the branches back to the left or repot and change the angle of the trunk to the right. Thanks again for your feedback, it's amazing how much you can learn simply by asking " What do you think? ".

Cheers

i like what u did on the Sacred Bamboo

i feels a sense of elegance in it. might let it thicker a bit and i think it will look great. feed a lot and maybe if u wan the tree to grow a bit faster put it on the ground or a big container.

good start mate

As far as having trouble conforming to traditional styling, I am just the opposite of you. I started off years ago styling by the 'rules' then began to appreciate a more free-form style that I like better, especially after meeting a businessman from Japan who I spent afternoon tea with while he explained how enthusiasts in America and Aus are constipated by their styling 'rules' (his words not mine). He suggested that we look to Europe for inspiration instead. Remember that bonsai trees are trained in a stylised/fantasy idea of how a perfect tree should look, not how they actually look in nature.

Anyway, I know you will find the style that suits you as you develop and learn. I wish you the best and you have made a great start.

OK, you have mastered the fundimentals of Bonsai (and very well too may I add).
You have 4 real Bonsai (well they are in pots, so must be real Bonsai ). You can tizz over those all day long, trimming and fiddling with the little wired branches and the likes as you learn how to water/fertilise and all the other stuff we all go on with.

What I want you to do now is ignore all suggestion of planting your Bonsai out into the ground/grow pots and just continue learning with those four trees. But, what I also want you to do is to go out and buy/procure another four trees, can be the same as what you have already or four completely different ones, totally up to you. Now once you have your 4 addditional trees I would like you to plant them either in the ground or in grow pots. For grow pots styrenne boxes are the easiest although any large container will do, just make sure you have plenty of drainage in whatever you use.
Reason for this suggestion is that, as a beginner it is important you feel as if you have Bonsai to work on, but in time you will begin to long for some larger stock to work on. Large stock usually equates to bigger bucks and nothing kills off you enthusiasm more than killing a couple of $100 trees through inexperience. Trust me if you kill a $10 tree it will hurt a lot less than a $100 one will. By training on the stuff you have now you satisfy the need to have Bonsai and by growing another $10 tree into that $100 tree you will achieve a great amount of satisfaction. Imagine the difference between telling people you bought that big wonderful tree and telling them you grew it from a baby.
By the way, I like what you have done with your trees so far, but please put some movement into the tails of your cascade. Nothing wrong with doing your own thing when styling a tree, so please continue. When I was giving classes I taught the "traditional" basics until the students had a grasp of those traditional aspects of Bonsai, before I attempted to take them on a journey through their own artistic minds. The important part was that they understood the basics first though.
Keep at it.

Follow Graemes advice and you will have lots of fun as well as a good learning experience. Keep us updated.

I noticed a couple of comments about the apposing branch on the windswept. I will dis-agree, often one branch remaining in the opposite direction, will add balance to the tree. I believe our own Megumi often employs this technique.

I agree with Graeme, leave them in pot, fiddle with them, buy some more stock and put that in the ground if you want bigger trees. As said it is important to sustain enthusiasm in your first year by having something as bonsai to tend to.

I actually like the trunk movement and angle as is. It is not conventional, yet appeared to me initially as though for the first period in its life, it was sheltered by say a rock and could grow into the wind. For the second portion of its life it grew taller than the wind break and was violently forced by the wind back to the right. In all I feel it has a dramatic effect and in time will produce a good bonsai.

Keep at it mate your on the right track!

I thank you all so much for your feedback, kind words and direction. It's interesting to see that most of the attention has been on my Gingko. I have just purchased a young Jacaranda which i put in the ground and will leave for a while, i have also been given a mature shrub from my brother-in-laws yard which is in his way so i said i will take it to play with. Don't know what it is though, i will take some photo's and post to see if someone can identify for me.

Thanks again to all, it is much appreciated.

Graeme has some great feedback for you and I would agree 100%. As far as the trees you posted, it looks like you have the eye for it.... the rest is just icing on the cake. The windswept one is a challange: there are those who believe that a true windswept has ALL branches growing with the prevailing wind....if anything grows into the wind or is wired around to head downwind, then it looks more like a tree in a gale rather than an aged windswept. I understand that, but I often find (and as was suggested by another comment) that this 'convention' is often outweighed by the prospect of a balance. Your tree...your eye...your brain....your heart....you make the call. As far as the cascade, I'd get some movement in the descending trunkline and spread the small branchlets.... this will allow more light penetration down to where you want most of your growth. Personally, I'd lose the left-most branch at the start of the trunk on this one and then decide whether the second one will become an apex/crown or whether you'll wire that down eventually to follow the flow of the larger trunk below.... eventually developing a terraced array of pads. Love the bamboo! Keep it going...but keep it YOURS!

Some really inspirational posts here thankyou for the
Great read. They will be great bonsai when done I'm sure Of that. You are an artist there basic fundimentles are paramount to experiences. But
Artistic mind and imagination cannot be fully
Conformed to set way of thinking.