Rafting Premna

I got this pre bonsai rafting premna from a local nursery 3 year ago. I was told that it had being trained for 2 years...
I hated the way he trained the foliation, a common mistake in many tripical countries, many people train their deciduous tree in connifers way; either the ramification structure or the crown with single apex line. Only connifers have "apical dominant" structure, not deciduous trees...

I am one of the wire suppliers, but I always advise people not to use too much wire on their deciduous trees during the training if not neccessary. Wire is usually only used for initial directing purpose, but the correct way to train the ramification in deciduous trees is by clip-and-grow...no other way !

So I took off all the branches and started from the beginning...
I also changed the front because I found a better viewing angle. Rafting style bonsai is just like connecting-roots or grouping bonsai..they are all about composition, dimension and perspective.

This is how it looks like now. It will take another 2 years to complete the ideal ramification and get all the leaves' size reduced....
The length of the pot is 80 cm.

I will be faithful, waiting for your development Mr Robert

Bigger pot, faster development

Don't worry with Premna on this size..they are fast enough since we need to repot and do root-prunning every 6 months.

What a beaut!!

Is rafting not the same as a raft style bonsai? Where can I learn more about this style?

They are the same. Despite of the technique of making the raft, the main skill is to form the trees placement to create composition, dimension and perspective. Basically, the concept is similar to make grouping style bonsai. There are many ways to create raft style bonsai, but this one was from nature.

Here are my other raft style bonsai collection...

....

Thanks for sharing Robert!

These compositions are outstanding!

Thank you Robert ,
almost no wire?.

regards,
Pongsatorn.K