Very simple forest planting: American Hornbeam

I love working with yamadori, but I tried to calm things down today and make my first forest planting after being inspired by an article in Bonsai Focus #120.

The material is just Carpinus caroliniana (American Hornbeam seedlings), 2-3 years old.

I know it doesn't have the dynamic, exciting impact that a collected juniper does, but I think it is a nice change of pace. Maybe in a few years it will start to show some characteri. Pot is by Yamafusa.







Take care

You did a great job placing the trees and selecting different size trunks. I think your trees are older than you think; to have that much ramification from collected material indicates older material; especially on the primary trees.
Again, good job!

Todd Ellis wrote:You did a great job placing the trees and selecting different size trunks. I think your trees are older than you think; to have that much ramification from collected material indicates older material; especially on the primary trees.
Again, good job!

Thank you Todd. Sorry I should have clarified. These are 2-3 year old seedlings from a wholesale nursery. I didn't collect them, just selected them carefully from a sea of their brethren.

I like the overall composition. The outward trees (of both the groups in this composition) are nicely leaning out to suggest a larger image. I like the variance in space between the trees, the variance in height and also variance in trunk thickness... all suggest a more natural setting. However I do have a criticism:

The main tree in the composition has very sparse branching; which could have been fine if it was consistent with the other trees 'in perspective'. If you ever go to a real forest, you will notice that most of the trees are slender, tall, and most of their branches are located near the top. Only the trees near the forest edge will have a fuller appearance (in terms of branching). This is all dependant on the amount of light reaching the lower branches.

Given this composition, I would probably reduce the lower branches of only one or two other trees from the inner part of the group planting (don't touch the outer trees - they are fine). Play around with a virtual first to get an idea.

LS
Nice forest. good balance for initial planting. Little more branch refinement and it is going much better.


regards,
jun

Excellent and careful placement of the trees. They look as if they'd grown there.

aman wrote:
The main tree in the composition has very sparse branching; which could have been fine if it was consistent with the other trees 'in perspective'. If you ever go to a real forest, you will notice that most of the trees are slender, tall, and most of their branches are located near the top. Only the trees near the forest edge will have a fuller appearance (in terms of branching). This is all dependant on the amount of light reaching the lower branches.

Given this composition, I would probably reduce the lower branches of only one or two other trees from the inner part of the group planting (don't touch the outer trees - they are fine). Play around with a virtual first to get an idea.

Hi Aman, thank you for the constructive criticism. I agree there is a disparity in the density of the branching throughout the forest. I think once the main tree fills out a bit it will look better. Making the cuts you mentioned will also help. There are a few other issues I have noticed, but can be easily fixed once the planting is established.

Cheers

It is exactly what we see in the bonsai books
Great work

Could I have a brief description of how you have prepared your pot please? Is that regular chicken wire? I did not read the article you refer to and I would like to attempt a group planting myself in the near future. This is very nice by the way and I look forward to seeing it develop.

Andrew Campbell wrote:Could I have a brief description of how you have prepared your pot please? Is that regular chicken wire? I did not read the article you refer to and I would like to attempt a group planting myself in the near future. This is very nice by the way and I look forward to seeing it develop.

Hi Andrew. It is 1/2" steel mesh just wired into the bottom of the pot. The article I referred to didn't use it. They were using smaller trees and just fixed them in place using keto muck.

More details of the process are on my website. Take care, and be sure to post your work!

Simply but nice!
Your forest is so realistic and proportionate

LSBonsai wrote:

Andrew Campbell wrote:Could I have a brief description of how you have prepared your pot please? Is that regular chicken wire? I did not read the article you refer to and I would like to attempt a group planting myself in the near future. This is very nice by the way and I look forward to seeing it develop.

Hi Andrew. It is 1/2" steel mesh just wired into the bottom of the pot. The article I referred to didn't use it. They were using smaller trees and just fixed them in place using keto muck.

More details of the process are on my website. Take care, and be sure to post your work!

Thanks for that, much appreciated