Coast redwood yamadori

I collected this tree spring 2010 on private property near Santa Cruz, CA. All the branches have been developed from new buds since that time. My plan is to design it with multiple tops as is often seen in ancient, old growth Coast Redwoods and to do more carving on the dead areas at the top and base. The tree is 39 inches tall and 10 inches across the base.
Paul

PaulH wrote:I collected this tree spring 2010 on private property near Santa Cruz, CA. All the branches have been developed from new buds since that time. My plan is to design it with multiple tops as is often seen in ancient, old growth Coast Redwoods and to do more carving on the dead areas at the top and base. The tree is 39 inches tall and 10 inches across the base.
Paul

So how come the picture is the size of my thumb? (no rhyming intended) It looks good... from what I can see.

He posted a thumbnail instead of the image...click on the thumbnail to see a larger image.

Nice development in a short time. Looking good.

That's a nice piece of material you've got there. I'm jealous! Coast redwoods have long been a favorite of mine, and I'm working on one that I got as a seedling from Brent Walston about 4 years ago. I'll never get it to this size (in terms of trunk/base thickness) but I do hope to eventually style it something like this. Any tips regarding working with the branches, pruning, etc? On another forum I've read that the branches tend to die back if you prune at the wrong time, but that would surprise me given how vigorous these seem to be.

I'm not sure about the multiple tops, though - haven't seen enough of those old growth forests out there to be really familiar with that look. I'll be interested to see how that turns out.

Chris

coh wrote:That's a nice piece of material you've got there. I'm jealous! Coast redwoods have long been a favorite of mine, and I'm working on one that I got as a seedling from Brent Walston about 4 years ago. I'll never get it to this size (in terms of trunk/base thickness) but I do hope to eventually style it something like this. Any tips regarding working with the branches, pruning, etc? On another forum I've read that the branches tend to die back if you prune at the wrong time, but that would surprise me given how vigorous these seem to be.

I'm not sure about the multiple tops, though - haven't seen enough of those old growth forests out there to be really familiar with that look. I'll be interested to see how that turns out.

Chris

Check out this link to a National Geographic photo. I've got this photo hanging in my office for inspiration!
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/redwoods/gatefold-image

Paul

Ah, now I see the kind of structure you're talking about. Very interesting! Are you planning to allow the tree to grow significantly taller to help achieve that look? I would think that would be helpful in getting the scale to work.

BTW, that's a great photo, especially with the climbers for scale.

Chris

I don't think I want it much taller, (It's already 39") but I want the top to fill in and ramify and as the branches ramify I'll narrow the silhouette to accent the height.
Paul

That's a cool design concept. Some sort of broom variant but should make an nice tree.
Maybe you could add miniature climbers to yours.

Good inspiration, good luck achieving it! Would like to climb such a giant one day! :-)

Rob Kempinski wrote:That's a cool design concept. Some sort of broom variant but should make an nice tree.
Maybe you could add miniature climbers to yours.

I like the design concept! I have always considered this concept as the "American Tall Tree" style which is uniquely North American in derivation. There are a number of tall american trees that would fit into this style and the height limitations imposed by "rules" should be ignored. To call it a "broom variant" is much to constrictive and doesn't recognize that their are numerous styles of trees in nature world wide.

PaulH wrote: ... ... All the branches have been developed from new buds since that time. ... ...

It is amazing to see the new growth emerging on dry wood. I could never imagine that this is so easy for this species. PaulH, I assume that you will not have backbuding problem

Randy_Davis wrote:

Rob Kempinski wrote:That's a cool design concept. Some sort of broom variant but should make an nice tree.
Maybe you could add miniature climbers to yours.

I like the design concept! I have always considered this concept as the "American Tall Tree" style which is uniquely North American in derivation. There are a number of tall american trees that would fit into this style and the height limitations imposed by "rules" should be ignored. To call it a "broom variant" is much to constrictive and doesn't recognize that their are numerous styles of trees in nature world wide.

That's a good idea Randy, I like it "American Tall Tree."

What species would you recommend for it. Obviously Coast Redwood. Does anyone use Sequoia for bonsai?

Rob Kempinski wrote:That's a good idea Randy, I like it "American Tall Tree."

What species would you recommend for it. Obviously Coast Redwood. Does anyone use Sequoia for bonsai?

Rob,

The obvious candidates are the Coast redwood (Sequoia), giant redwood (Sequoiadendron), North Western Firs (Pseudotsuga),Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata), Sitka spruce (Picea stichensis) and I'm sure there are others that could easily fit the category. I would think any tree that is very upright, is 100 ft. in height or more and has a long trunk bare of limbs would be a fine candidate. There are even some European trees like Picea abies that could be used.