Spruce forest- question by the Canuck newbie

Good day,

first official post...though I have been learning much from your discussions! I am pondering the styling of a spruce forest...have a number of 4-5 yr old trees that are 18-24 inches high but not tremendously thick at the base but all are fairly compactly built in terms of foliage. I thought I may try a forest with these....are the generalities of bonsai observed with forest creation? ie does one "have" to observe the 1:6 ratio?

The examples I see online seem to be not so hard and fast but rather focused on the scalene triangle idea and putting together a nice landscape.

And followup question is if I need to trunk chop these, in your opinion, do I create deadwood at top or try to grow/wire a leader over a period of a couple years?

Appreciate the feedback and will be posting some pics as my bonsai love progresses....cheers
Jon

Hello Boomer,

Welcome to the forum. Could you please post some pictures of your material?

will do as soon as I am allowed to post pictures! Thanks for the reply,
Jon

Who isn't allowing you to post pictures??????

Good question.

Jon, are you using the instructions on the picture posting tutorial or trying to import from another picture hosting site? Please let me know your problem (include any screen messages you are getting) and we'll try to sort it.

Oops, sorry! Where's my brain??

Posting pics here can be tedious - ok, IS tedious - but if I can figure it out anyone can!

Here are a few sources for very good info on creating a forest.

Generally, the trees should be straight, there should be 2-3 trees of significantly thicker girth, and they should be of varying heights. Whether you chop and include deadwood on top depends on the trees and your taste and intent -- an older looking forest might have deadwood (or even an entire dead tree!).

Anyway, most all you need to know will be here:

http://www.evergreengardenworks.com/forests.htm

and here:

Part 1
http://bonsaibpsbonsaiblog-bonsai.blogspot.com/2011/02/creating-forest-planting-part-1.html

Part 2
http://bonsaibpsbonsaiblog-bonsai.blogspot.com/2011_02_13_archive.html

This is also helpful, if not as useful as the othe two:

http://www.bonsaiempire.com/train/forest-planting

Which species of spruce are you using? If you can get hold of a book called Bonsai Master Class by Chan, it has a whole cookbook chapter on creating a forest. One thing to remember is trim the roots rather severely beforehand, then wait until the trees recover a bit. Also, it helps to have some wires crisscrossing the bottom of the container to fasten the trees in place. They will be very tippy at first.
1:6 is for individual trees by BIG experts who have the resources to grow them in the ground, or live in the tropics. The rest of us make do with what's available & what we can afford. It doesn't apply to forest plantings anyway because they would naturally be skinny.
A few simple rules:
Try to have all the trees different thicknesses & different heights. Tallest tree is thickest & has the first branch highest up.
Trees all different distances apart. Biggest tree toward the front. One or two smallest trees way in the back to give perspective.
Odd number of trees.
Center of interest not in the center of the pot. More space toward one side than the other.
Iris

The message read "New members are not allowed to post external links or emails for 7 days. Please contact the forum administrator for more information." I did read the sticky and uploaded my pics to a public website like Flickr but still no go. Will be allowed by the weekend so no biggie.

Jim and Iris,

thanks so much for the detailed responses. This is tremendously helpful and I have to read the links provided by Jim now. It is nice to hear from experienced folks in terms of interpretation of "rules" and best practices...like the public health worlk I work in, it is great to know how to best approach something but also to know that practice sometimes deviates from theory (but hopefully not too much!!).

Iris, these trees are black spruce...not ideal specimens but great to begin my first forest presentation.
cheers all,
Jon

Good luck and when the &^%$# system lets you post (that was a new one to me), keep US "posted" on your progress.

Jon, you say the message advises you about not being able to post "external links".

Have you tried the more direct method of posting which uses the forum's internal image hosting service? The relevant tutorial is THIS ONE HERE .

It is our prefered option altho we don't hold people to it. Can you do us a favour and try it and let us know what happens? It is always helpful to us to know what problems new members are experiencing.

This is one of the better forum systems but sometimes the creators do make changes without always letting us know promptly.

Thanks for your help. And your patience.

Fiona

Black spruce is Picea mariana, a well-known & recommended species for bonsai. There is a nice spruce forest of another species in Wikipedia, which should give you some ideas. Notice the forest is in two groups, one with four trees & one with three. This is a common arrangement.
Iris

Jon. Please see my previous post on using the system's own image hosting service (free).

I notice that another new member is having no difficulty posting pics using this.

The link to the the appropriate tutorial is on my provious post. Please note also that there is no reason why you can't use our system when you're on here and also post the same pics on whatever other system you use yourself.

regards

Fion

Fiona, I was able to post this time when I tried to do a different way of approaching. I went through the method indicated by you now and I think I may have not followed this way. I will try again this weekend when I post my spruce forest seedlings and will use this mode of posting to see if this does indeed work. I appreciate your help and love this forum! Nice to know there is help out there as my nearest club is 5 hrs away!

I am looking forward to seeing your forest.

Good luck with the picture posting - it is actually quite straightforward when you get used to it.