Another project finally completed

Hey gang,

I've been lurking here for a while and have enjoyed the conversations, advice and pictures of member trees. I have been reluctant to post anything not knowing exactly how to get pic's into the topic but here goes the first try. I have been working on a Juniper forest project for a number of years and I finally got it finished. I have had this huge pot (4 feet x 2 feet x 5 inches) for over 7 years now and it's so nice to see some trees finally in it. I started the trees as cuttings in 2001, grew them in the ground until November 2007, trained them all of 2008 and finally got the forest completed in the last couple of months. It will still take another 2 or 3 years to get it flushed out and into a reasonbly finished condition. There has not been much here on forests so I just thought it might be nice to add one to the mix.



hope this works!

Hi Randy... nice group man! but I must say that the pot is not wide enough! even though it is 48" I think you need to have at least 8" each side to make the group not feel crammed in... sorry just get a bigger pot... If you can find someone to make it... I am struggling to fine a potter to make a 32" x 18" x 4" pot for my monster Escallonia.

Very nice trees. I like them very much. My only concern is the uniformity of the trees. They all seem just about the same height and girth. Perhaps replacing some of these with smaller trees and giving some of these fine junipers their own pots for individual development might work out.

Good luck and welcome to the site.

Tony wrote:Hi Randy... nice group man! but I must say that the pot is not wide enough! even though it is 48" I think you need to have at least 8" each side to make the group not feel crammed in... sorry just get a bigger pot... If you can find someone to make it... I am struggling to fine a potter to make a 32" x 18" x 4" pot for my monster Escallonia.

One word Tony - China.

Rob Kempinski wrote:One word Tony - China.

Carolyn won't let me use the best China, only when family and friends come to dinner.

Zacs Bonsai here in the UK has said that he will have one made for me in the far east. John Pitt I recon could make it but it may be too big for his kiln... Brian Albright has a big kiln... huuum! I will make enquiries at the Best Of British in two weeks time in Birmingham (NOT ALABAMA)

Tony wrote:

Rob Kempinski wrote:One word Tony - China.

Carolyn won't let me use the best China, only when family and friends come to dinner.

Zacs Bonsai here in the UK has said that he will have one made for me in the far east. John Pitt I recon could make it but it may be too big for his kiln... Brian Albright has a big kiln... huuum! I will make enquiries at the Best Of British in two weeks time in Birmingham (NOT ALABAMA)

Try this guy.
http://www.bonsaiinformation.com/Potsforbonsai/potshome.htm
Cheers Gman

Hello Randy! Nice to see your forest, and you on IBC. I've missed seeing you at Dave's. As to the critique of your forest, I'm not the expert they or you are, but I like it and I hope to see it in person.

Tony wrote:Hi Randy... nice group man! but I must say that the pot is not wide enough! even though it is 48" I think you need to have at least 8" each side to make the group not feel crammed in... sorry just get a bigger pot

Hi Tony, I certainly don't want a bigger pot, it already takes 4 people to move this bugger! Since this is the first year that the forest has been put together I have left some foliage to help the trees establish a good root system in the container. The long range plan is to remove, actually Jin, some of the pads in the upper tier to open it up a bit more than it is now. By removing some of the foliage it will eliminate the "crammed in" look and hopefully take on a more aged look of a mature forest. Only time will tell but then bonsai is a long term process and in 10 or 15 years it should be better if it's still alive, I certainly know I won't be alive! Hope you have success in getting your large container made for you. It's always nice to have the container made for the tree.

EdMerc wrote:My only concern is the uniformity of the trees. They all seem just about the same height and girth. Perhaps replacing some of these with smaller trees and giving some of these fine junipers their own pots for individual development might work out.

Hi Ed, I understand completely where your comming from. I have purposefully made this composition without significantly smaller trees to emulate a mature forest with a close in perspective. While the trees are rather simular in height, there is some variation to them. I also placed the trees farther apart from each other than one would normall do in a traditional forest compostion. All to often forests can be rather boreing because of perspective. Most of the ones that I see and the ones that I have created in the past are of the "far" view which necessitates the use of varying sizes of trees. I wanted to creat a "close in" view with this composition to emulate as though you were actually in the woods and in my case looking for a place to pitch my tent for the night. I started out with 20 trees so I still have many left to make into individuals or groups for this years projects.

Rob Kempinski wrote:

Tony wrote:Hi Randy... nice group man! but I must say that the pot is not wide enough! even though it is 48" I think you need to have at least 8" each side to make the group not feel crammed in... sorry just get a bigger pot... If you can find someone to make it... I am struggling to fine a potter to make a 32" x 18" x 4" pot for my monster Escallonia.

One word Tony - China.

One more word, Dale...I have seen him produce some large pots that are very nice. You can see some of his work at https://ibonsaiclub.forumotion.com/bonsai-f1/dale-cochoy-pot-t408.htm


The near view is nice, but this is one setting where I think the jins are unessasary, I think lower branching jin would be better on this piece.


Will

Hi Randy,
I really like your forest as it reminds me a lot of the old growth forests that we have in the PNW. I'm very fortunate in that I work in the forest industry and can identify with your forest and the close in viewpoint. I get the feeling of walking amongst giant western red cedars (Cw) that grow to heights of 50-60 meters. One other unique feature of mature and old growth Cw is that they have what we call “spiked tops” where the tree tops are dead, which your forest has.
I also agree with you that the pads will have to be thinned over time but I would also look at removing some of the lower ones or at least reducing the mass on them and incorporate some more jin. My thinking here is that if this a mature or "old growth" forest the interior light conditions would have shaded out much of the foliage pads and left dead branches. Also within an "over mature decandent forest" the canopy lets in considerable more light, allowing natural fill in to occur, so that other trees (of various ages, sizes and species) are gowing within the forest.......... so you might want to consider this in the future.
Cheers Gman

gman wrote:Hi Randy,
My thinking here is that if this a mature or "old growth" forest the interior light conditions would have shaded out much of the foliage pads and left dead branches. Also within an "over mature decandent forest" the canopy lets in considerable more light, allowing natural fill in to occur, so that other trees (of various ages, sizes and species) are gowing within the forest.......... so you might want to consider this in the future.
Cheers Gman

Hi Gman,

You have it just right bud! While you can't see them from the existing pic that I posted , but there are many internal branches that are jinned on all of the trees in this composition. Your comments on "old growth" and "over mature decandent forest" will be the driving guidelines on the future style of the composition as it ages. I'm very pleased that you as a professional forester identify with my attempt at this style. I must say that my inspiration for this forest was the Western Red Cedar (Calocedrus) and mixed forests of the Serria Nevada's near Yosemite in California along the Tioga pass. It's a pity that these particular Junipers won't have that lovely twisting bark so common to the mature Calocedrus but I won't complain to loudly.