Inspirational Trees

Hope Treebeard doesn't mind me adding these here. I think threads like this should eventually be saved for posterity.

Here are some of my favourite trees in one of my favourite places. This stand of Scots Pine and European Larch have probably been growing here since the last ice age.

The next one has the largest witches broom I've ever seen.

This is a close up of the witches broom. I've been up there with a good friend Simon Temblett for a proper look. Quite a climb.

Natural root over rock trees.

Lightning struck pine that has developd saba miki (mackerel skeleton) style trunk. Note the internal heartwood and branch stumps.

And the last one for now is another elegant witches broom that makes a lovely literati.

Kev Bailey wrote:Hope Treebeard doesn't mind me adding these here. I think threads like this should eventually be saved for posterity.

Here are some of my favourite trees in one of my favourite places. This stand of Scots Pine and European Larch have probably been growing here since the last ice age.

I don't mind at all, in fact when I started this thread I had hoped that people would add their own photos of Inspirational British trees for us all to see.

It's great to see wonderful trees from parts of the UK I haven't been to (yet), these Scots pines are wonderful, especially the first one.

Chris.

This dramatic pine is (or was) near Epsom in Surrey. I used to go past it on my way to Windybank bonsai in Carshalton. I say 'is' and 'was' because the last time I went by it had been cut down. Shame.



Chris.

Here some dutch willow tree's,these tree's have some dramatic hollow trunks and fantastic deadwood on it
I find these tree's very inspirational,and it's a good source to make deadwood on my own tree's.
Greetings Ed

eaton2008 wrote:just a couple of pictures that came up when i put Fontigall Yew into google!?

Sorry you are not allowed to post copyrighted pictures from other websites here. They must be your own copyright or Copyright free such as under the creative commons license - Admin

Although a link to some search results should suffice...
The Yew

This is one of my favourites. An African Baobab.

There was a report here on the morning news that a couple of English land trusts are doing a survey of "ancient trees" thoughout the British Isles. The report said that England probably had 70 to 80 percent of Europe's remaining "ancient trees."

They mentioned the yew -- but said it was 3,000 years old, not 5,000 (but what's a millennium or two among friends?).

Can any of you UK tree folks tell us more -- or give us a link?

I've heard that 70 to 80% figure bandied about. I've got many books on British trees, many of them talk of the uniqueness of the British ancient tree heritage.

Some links:

http://www.ancient-tree-hunt.org.uk/

http://www.treeregister.org/

http://frontpage.woodland-trust.org.uk/ancient-tree-forum/

http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/en/Pages/default.aspx

Chris.

Here\'s a great Pine in Falmouth Cornwall.

If I could work out how to post images. I\'ll go read the thread on that and come back.

Here we go.

(maybe the thread title can be changed to something like Inspirational world trees, seems churlish to exclude everyone else )

I have heard a piece on the radio about this, so I looked it up. There's more on the National Trust pages here http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-global/w-news/w-latest_news/w-news-ancientreemap.htm
and the Wildlife trusts pages here
http://www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk/news/oaks_conquer_in_notable_tree_survey/
and there's also this initiative
http://www.ancient-tree-hunt.org.uk/
THat ought to keep you busy for a while. Me too!

Dammit, you're too fast Treebeard! Well done NJF. Great Pine.

All in my favourites

Chris.

Now there's a job to have: Ancient Tree Advisor!!! Please let me know when it goes vacant again.

But one wonders what advice you could give an ancient tree that it hasn't heard many times before.

Jim, maybe it's the advisor that is ancient not the tree!

Ah the vagaries of language!

Well, hey . . . I can do that, too.

Now, now. Just because it's your birthday....

Inspirational indeed! Its perfect!Thanks for posting, This is how our bonsais should look.
Pabling

padychitan wrote:Inspirational indeed! Its perfect!Thanks for posting, This is how our bonsais should look.
Pabling

No! Just look at that pine! Two apices! Same height! Similar mass! The eye doesn't know where to focus! It's terrible! Now I think perhaps if we were to take the right hand apex and convert that to a nice jin perhaps shortening it some and doing some moderate carving to remove that cylindrical young look but being careful to disguise our tool marks and then thin an rearrange the left hand side into something more acceptably akin to a lamp shade with a pointy top, we might have the start of a decent literati, although that nebari, or lack thereof, will always be a problem I'm afraid. The bark, at least, is ok.
Mike (ducking)

Quite right!!! Having to look at such a monstrosity would make it a good candidate for ringbarking')" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">

Any ideas what gauge of wire you'd need to bend those branches? And I'm suspecting you'd need more than a Dremel for the carving.

Trees in nature are inspirations, not models. Our bonsai are abstracts of natural trees -- conceptual trees, idealized trees.

Yeah I know that, but did anyone else actually cover half the foliage with their hand and mentally rearrange the other half and then say "Ah"?

Here's a couple for you Chris.This rather stumpy English Oak grows in the grounds of an olld mansion in the middle of Suffolk. Recorded at over 1000 years!!! Now hollow and split, the bottom branch is supported by a brick pier. Just found these looking for an Orchid.

What a cracking tree! I'd love to incorporate a brick pier into a bonsai...

That split and bent section in the second photo looks just like a fell beast from LOTR.

Another tree with a brick support, the Japanese Pagoda tree (styphnolobium japonicum) at Kew Gardens.


Chris.