Winswept trident raft - fall color

Jim Lewis here under another name. Can't post pics with Firefox 33.x. This is (shudder) IE.

I started this as a very ho hum bonsai in 1994. Started working on it as a raft in 2001. It stands about 10 inches from the pot rim. I use it for its winter silhouette, but it's OK this time of year also. (Not much in summer.)

nicely done jim

Looking good Jim. G

Did a little work on this today. I'd been letting it get a bit leggy (by accident or otherwise) and cut it back a bit today. It probably could stand a bit more, but I suspect that'll be someone else's chore. Here is a before and after.

Hi Jim , much better " after " .

Regards Daniel

Looks good

Very nice Jim, could you look at the smallest tree, and see if you can separate the branches a bit? My eye seems to stick there. Otherwise, it's so nice the undulating flow...

The 'windyness' of it almost makes one want to put on an overcoat to look at it,so it must be good

JudyB wrote:Very nice Jim, could you look at the smallest tree, and see if you can separate the branches a bit?  My eye seems to stick there.  Otherwise, it's so nice the undulating flow...

Thanks, all.  

Judy, the smaller "tree" in the left grouping is the one I think you mean.  It is fairly widely (pardon the double adverb!) separated horizontally, and looks fine with nekkid eye.  The small one in the front pair is a bigger problem that I hope time solves.  

This is, of course all one tree; it is a raft.

I guess I don't know what to call the "trees" coming up from a raft base, is there a term? Or are they branches at that point? Yes that one "tree" is the one that I was talking about, I'm sure it's just a photo thing. I do really like this, and I agree, it makes you want to reach up to hold onto your hat!

Maybe "trunk" would do?

yes - of course. silly me!

hey jim - i know this is in discussion and not questions, but if i may be so bold as to suggest a couple trims:


VS


those were just a couple places where it looked (to my untrained eye) like the flow was interrupted...
and the removal of the front crossing branch may alleviate the swelling at that juncture over time ?

wondering it this is a valid suggestion or if not, why not ?
(for learning purposes)

I think the lower (front-most) branch is needed; the swelling doesn't bother me that much.  Work probably needs to be done on the upper ones, if not -- maybe -- that much.

I like it!

When everyone talks about the trees, I feel odd in my comment, BUT
with the nice movement on the trees it's nice to see the acknowledgement that
such a grouping needs a pot with some nice movement of it's own. It would not have the same
image if the trees were stuck in a standard oval.

To me this type of thing comes in the doting I's and crossing T's catagory....but the sentence isn't complete till it gets done....

Hmmm.  And just as I was thinking this needed something more formal.  I have this pale blue green shallow rectangle, with lip . . .

In an excess of boredom (it's still too cold for me outside) and possibly hubris, I thought it might be interesting to some to see the evolution of this tree from the beginning.  Note: In my earlier days of recording bonsai photos, I had a different dating system and in the transfer of pictures from one computer (and operating system) to another over the years, I lost some of the exact dates.  So, some of the middle pictures may be a bit out of order.

On or about 1994 as a poor bonsai (I acquired it this way):



I air layered approximately as marked:



And put it into a cut down 10 gallon pot:





And then a yer or two later into its first pot.  Lots of roots went missing, so it stayed in the pot for a while as I worked on the top.





Eventually, it went into a shallower pot:



And a shallower one (a bit larger than its current pot, but very similar).  Somewhere in here I began wiring the top into shape:



One of our members who doesn't seem to post here any more, kindly sketched me a concept for the tree. I've been trying to stick closely to it:





From this point on, I've just been refining to where I was where this thread started.

Cool. I love to see progressions, and this is a good one!

Very good job on this one, Jim, I like the windswept look of it, it is very convincing. What did you do with the airlayer?

John

If you mean the bottom of the tree, I planted it in my yard, where it did nothing for three years -- tho it remained green under the bark. I finally gave up on it and planted something else.

thanks for the progression pics, jim...

i have seen how rafts were done before, but looks like you took a different approach than i am familiar with (where the host tree is basically lain on it's side, retaining its original pot and root mass, to feed the part being newly put into the ground and then once the new roots are established the host tree is severed)

so after removing the air layered upper part, you went directly into the first container, simply planting the new roots and laying the branches into/along the top of the soil, correct ?

did you remove anything from the part of the branches that were in or contacting the soil ?
if so, did you then hit that part w/ rooting powder ?

sorry for all the specific questions, but i really think i would like to try this on the right material.

so after removing the air layered upper part, you went directly into the first container, simply planting the new roots and laying the branches into/along the top of the soil, correct ?

Yes.

did you remove anything from the part of the branches that were in or contacting the soil ?
if so, did you then hit that part w/ rooting powder ?

It was a LONG time ago, but I'm sure there were branches poking into the soil that I cut off flush, and I probably doused them in Rootone. There are roots all along the base of the raft now.

Don't apologize for questions. That's what we're for.

cool... thanks !
me thinks i like that method better than the other one as it seems less cumbersome

and sorry for apologizing