Douglas Fir Yamadori

Greetings IBC, this is my first post here. Just finished a preliminary styling of a collected Douglas Fir from the Rockies collected in Spring of 2007. I will probably remove more branches and also make it more compact over time (especially the crown on the right side), but for now this was all the bending my skill allowed without breaking something important. Any comments/critiques would be much appreciated!

Welcome to the IBC, Benjamin. I'm sure there will be many folk wanting to comment/offer advice on your tree over the coming days. For now, all my little experience allows me to say (for now) is that I can see potential for a nice tree in maybe four or five years time. Lovely bark, decent looking nebari and an interesting trunkline, all in 1 tree! You're off to a good start.

Can you tell us any measurements? Have you any thoughts on what you'd like to do with the tree?

Is the little yellow stick in the 1st pic the front of the tree?

Thanks for the comment! Yes, the chopstick in the first picture is to mark the front of the tree. The trunk is over 5 inches in diameter (measured about 4 inches off the soil). The canopy of the tree initially extended for about 3 feet off to the right and there was very little foliage around what is now the left side of the tree. There is now a good bend in the upper trunk to bring the weight of the foliage into a semblance of balance. From the back you can see a stub in the top left part of the tree (as of yet to be carved) where about half of the crown was removed at the time of collection. Because of the orientation of the root ball, the major challenge is going to be getting this in a pot that is properly oriented with respect to the front of the tree. It is planted on the far side of a long box because the majority of the root system is coming off of a single "root" about 3 inches in diameter (its more a continuation of the trunk below the soil level) and there were very few feeders within two feet of the tree at the time of collection. Shortening the "root" and making the root system more compact to the tree is the major work. Each year so far, by digging at the far end of the box and without disturbing the rest of the root system, I have removed a few inches at a time. I then place a 2x4 to fill the void that has been created, making the usable portion of the box smaller over time (illustrated in the photo). The 2x4 gets closer to the tree each year--making the root system more compact while still allowing the tree to recover from collection with minimum additional stress. This is a trick that I learned from Larry Jackel. I will pot it in the Spring.

Benjamin,
What you are calling the back of the tree looks much more interesting and promising than the current front in my opinion.

Mark

Benjamin,

second photo perfect for the front, but you got to rotate the tree clockwise, just a little. branches are more defined from that view.
nice bark character and nebari.

welcome.

regards,
jun

great tree, but juns right 2nd photo is a better front . regards john

Thanks Mark, Jun and John. I am definitely going to have to consider that side more carefully as a candidate for the front of the tree. One problem with that perspective however (and something that didn't show well in either of the two photos) is that the tree moves strongly away from the viewer in what I had been calling the back and towards what I had been calling the front. Should be clearer from the side view below:



You also miss out on some of the awesome upper trunk movement from the "back" although the movement of the lower trunk is more evident (which, admittedly, is more visually powerful):

Decisions, decisions, eh?

Good problems to have though.

It's been almost two years since I posted about this tree so I thought it was due an update. Here is a photo of it as it stands today. I had the good fortune of having Ryan Neil's help in refining this tree. I potted this in the Spring of 2011 and the potting angle will be changed slightly this coming Spring, as you can see in the photo. We considered taking this tree in a very different direction: by inclining the tree in the opposite direction (as in, tilting up the left side of the pot) and compacting what is now the crown into the negative space under the currnet apex, the tree would have been far more dramatic. In the end, we went for the more graceful look and I think the tree has a bright future.

Hi

No comment, other than (great styling and a very promising future in the making)

This will be "their majesty" fir tree. Ryan involved? I smell it on the front view he suggested. Very strong potential. Keep us informed about development. Thanks

We dont see many of these with the age this one has...an ancient one indeed....good luck with it.
Graham

Wonderful tree Benjamin, really coming along beautifully. The new front is a vast improvement.

Some personal thoughts:
I was wondering whether it wouldn't be improved by shortening the left jin - Worth keeping for the quality of the deadwood no doubt but just too straight and long for the harmony of the image in my opinion.
The other change I would consider is the shifting of the apex back toward the trunk in order to 'hold back' and balance the slanting movement a little.

A rough idea of what I mean:

Loke, Vlad, Graham, thank you for the nice comments. Yes, Ryan was very heavily involved--the two of us spent several hours wiring and styling this together. He's really something. Justin, thanks for the virt. You’ve drawn exactly what we had in mind and out only limitation was that there was a bit of cracking as we tried to get there and we didn’t want to push it. Next year I’ll go a bit further and end up hopefully exactly as you’ve suggested. I’ll also have to consider shortening that jin, although it has always been one of my favorite features as the texture of the wood is really something (doesn’t come through in the photo so well). Point definitely taken though about the straightness and proportion relative to the design. Thanks all!