New User: Yamadori Northern White Cedar group: need design advice

Hello, I am new to the site and would like to begin by asking for design suggestions for this group Northern White Cedar collected from Lake Huron. It holds a special place in my heart as I have been spending summers up there since I was 6 months old. It was collected over 5 years ago. There are four trees in the group; I realize that an even number of trees is not as aesthetically pleasing as an odd number; but due to the dense fibrous nature of the interconnected roots it would be impossible to separate the trees without killing them. The smaller tree in the first photo must either stay or be sacrificed for the overall design. I have not done any work on the group, so it is a total blank slate. Any suggestions are welcome! I realize the pictures aren't very high quality....I will try to take some other picture and post them later.





And the offering photo

Welcome to the forum.

Four trees shouldn't be a problem if you can come up with a pleasing design. A small group of 3 and offset by 1 works well with 4 elements. I would be nice to see photos showing more detail of the trunks and branches.

I made a 4 trunk planting in a snake root raft style in a snake root pot. Here is a photo of it from a Florida convention a couple of years ago. I defoliated it for the show.

Thank you Rob, I will take some better pictures tomorrow; I have to study for an exam now haha. I just wanted to say thank you for your post, and it is an honor speaking with you. I love your work; I saw some of your trees in Rochester this summer---I love your buttonwood that is printed in the new International Bonsai magazine. I am in my second year of bonsai and look towards you and others for inspiration and guidance.

Welcome to IBC.

from the initial offering photo the group seems to be over crowded. a wider and shallower pot would help you a lot in distributing the trees properly and create the needed negative spaces. wider gaps between trees will help you come up with a good branching design. play with the trees height and size too.

Odd number planting is the conventional way of doing the group/forest planting but if you can do it better with even numbers or even number and a half...go with it.
good luck.

regards,
jun

Re: The Snake root tree and pot:

I didn't know there was a name for this type of "root". Wow!
I like this tree BTW!
Todd

Todd Ellis wrote:Re: The Snake root tree and pot:

I didn't know there was a name for this type of "root". Wow!
I like this tree BTW!
Todd

Hi Todd, I didn't make up the snake root style. I saw it mentioned years ago in a Japanese book (can't recall which book however). It was called "ebi nebari" which means snake roots.

Hi Rob, is the snake root pot a traditional way to display this type of tree? Where did your pot come from? did you make it?
Todd

Very nice Thuja. It is hard to comment on the design with the provided photos, but I can say that the tree is ready to be pruned back and thinned to promote interior growth. It looks very healthy and is starting to get leggy. Thuja have a tendancy to die back in the interior when they get overgrown, and chasing back the branching can be quite challenging.
Beautiful tree collected from a beautiful area. One of my favourite species that we do not see enough of on this forum. Good luck, I am looking forward to seeing more pictures.

Todd Ellis wrote:Hi Rob, is the snake root pot a traditional way to display this type of tree? Where did your pot come from? did you make it?
Todd

I doubt the snake pot is traditional use for the style. I made this pot prior to creating the tree. Just trying something new when messing around with pot construction. The planting happened when I noticed some ficus roots and made cutting s from them.


As for the cedar, I'd like to see the branches thinned out also. They take lots of wiring to make the foliage look presentable.