Saikei help

Greetings Guys,

My name is Mike and I'm new to the forum and pretty new to bonsai really, I have two pines seedlings and a 2 year old Oak which I'm planning to turn into bonsai. What my aim is is to create a little English landscape. Now I've read a few bits from Craig Coussins book but I'm after some specific info on what English trees are best suited for Saikei. Now this is my first attempt at this and I have very little funds so I'm hoping to just plant some seedlings, accent plants a few rocks etc, I'm not really wanting to spend some money on shohin or mame trees to do this, I have some heathers, a load of moss and I'm going to use some Thyme to hopefully look like a privot hedge. I've not really found much info on the net how how to create such a piece other than the BSA ( i think ) which has a cool vid by David Penny but there was no narration just come nice chill out music. Any help would be appreciated, thanks Mikey

I'm not much help from the other side of the pond. However, aside from the esthetics, your major consideration is to use trees that require the same type of soil, the same amount of sun, the same winter dormancy, etc. To a certain extent, this also includes your companion plants, although they will probably get a little more shade. I'm not sure thyme will work.
Iris

Thanks Iris, a few good points there I never thought of. How come you dont think thyme will work ? with it being quite hardy and sort of mimicking a little bush on the scale of things I though it would work quite well, Im going to create a little wooden fence for it to go along side with

Mikey, Thyme does not like to have its roots tampered with in my experience. Unless you can find some well established Thyme in small grow pots, root pruning Thyme to fit into a shallow tray landscape will probably kill it. I have tried numerous times to grow Thyme in containers and am only successfull when I leave the roots alone. Your results may be different. Godd luck.
Best, Todd