Bonsai in the Northeast

[The Bonsai Herald]

Someone in another thread posed the question of bonsai in the Northeast compared to the Northwest.

I would love to get a discussion going about it, and thought I would start by sharing my thoughts. I must first of all note that this is only my second year living in the Northeast, and my eyes are only beginning to open to the potential of bonsai in the Northeast.

I happen to see great potential for east coast bonsai. Our main treasure in North East bonsai is Larch. It's the native species out here that you see the most commonly, and there are some real specimens out here. We have some great species out here that should be used more for bonsai, such as Pitch Pine, Black Spruce, Common Juniper, and White Cedar. I'm curious about Balsam Fir for bonsai, and to be honest have just only begun to think about native decidious material in the northeast for use as bonsai. Eastern Hemlock is an amazingly delicate tree in nature, but it seems to be pretty scraggly for bonsai. I'm hoping to put together an Eastern Hemlock forest since a nice stand-alone tree seems impossible to come by. I'm also waiting for someone to pioneer Eastern Red Cedar, which is technically a juniper. Although it grows upright, I've seen some nice ones, and think there are probably some amazing specimens out there waiting to be appreciated as bonsai.

Nick Lenz has done a lot to get the ball rolling on native northeast material for bonsai, but we are still waiting for someone to come pioneer it to the level that Ryan and Michael have in the Northwest, and Boon has done in California.

 

[The Bonsai Herald]

No takers?

 

[GGB]

No takers?

Just saw this! I just finished reading Nick Lenz's book. And I have plans to collect eastern red cedar this fall, maybe this weekend. As for deciduous, I have no interest personally. But I hear american elm dwarfs down nicely and handles chopping back. Spruces have just hit my radar. I see no reason to be afraid of them. Being new to bonsai and starting blindly my best collected tree is a spruce. It responds predictably and puts up with my beginner fumblings. Cheers to the Northeast!

 

[GGB]

I looked high and low this year for a good hemlock to collect. I admit defeat, unless I stumble upon something perfect, I won't look actively

 

[The Bonsai Herald]

If you collect anything this fall, make sure you winter them on 40 degree heat pads!

 

[GGB]

I did an unheated garage last year with much success. I know some people say that it's to dry, reworking my strategy this season

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

The Midwest has its own array of species, although there is a great deal of overlap with the Northeast species, we do have some that are unique. And we do have some species that are also Western species.

Juniper virginiana has some real drawbacks for growing in a container. It really resents root disturbance. And it takes forever to develop mature, shimpaku like foliage. But it does eventually develop mature foliage. I've only seen it on trees over 100 years old, but that does not mean it can't happen sooner, it is just the only time I've noticed it. For bonsai purposes plan on it being a needle juniper with fairly sharp foliage. They are also very upright, cascading and horizontal styles are a battle, not impossible, but always a fight with this species.

Some bad cell phone shots of a couple 300 to 800 year old J. virginiana growing on a cliff in the LaRue Pine Hills Wilderness Area of the Shawnee National Forest, near Murphysboro, Illinois. Nephew says some University types put these trees at about 800 years. I'm skeptical, so I put the range of 300 to 800. But they could have done cores, though I saw no evidence of cores having been done. So I assume the "university guys" just guessed. Hard to see, but foliage on these trees is just as fine as a landscape shimpaku. Not as fine as Kishu, but fairly fine. Of course, given the location, absolutely no collecting in the preserve. Hard to believe such cliffs exist in Illinois, but they do. Really inspiring trees, unfortunately bad cell phone pictures. The "dude" is my 21 year old nephew. It was a tricky climb for this fat 60 year old to get to this spot. Nephew just danced his way there, nimble as can be. I "clenched" a few times at the narrow points of the trail, there are no hand rails. Or man made stairs.

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• Leo in N E Illinois
• Oct 7, 2015

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• Leo in N E Illinois
• Oct 7, 2015
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• Leo in N E Illinois
• Oct 7, 2015

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• Leo in N E Illinois
• Oct 7, 2015

 

[sorce]

Awesome Leo!

America is so diverse.

Each few states can have its own,
JBP, J.maple,and Ume.

Let's just end the hosta accent.
Like for good. What a dumbass accent.
Out of 4.5 billion plants.

Sorce

 

[M. Frary]

There is also Jack pine,Scots pine,American and Hops hornbeam,Hawthorn,White spruce,American elm and Siberian elm. If you are a glutton for punishment include Red maple and Eastern White pine.
I'm finding Jack and Scots pines are very good candidates for bonsai. Except collecting them from sandy areas can be problematic to get enough feeder roots. But both back bud on old wood and the needles reduce dramatically.
Of the decidious the 2 elms and the hawthorns are easy to collect trees.

 

[BrianBay9]

Add American hackberry, crabapple.

 

[whfarro]

Aside from the variety of trees that are native or zone hardy in each part of the country.. my half joking post in the original thread was "is there now or perhaps an evolving rivalry between East and West Coast bonsai...like that in old school rap?"

My thoughts were more along styling and display preferences.

Thoughts?

 

[jeanluc83]

As mentioned there are east cost trees that respond well bonsai technique. The problem being is finding naturally dwarfed trees that can be collected. The areas in the northeast that have these trees are for the most part protected. Getting permission is difficult.

What the northeast and the east in general does have is an abundance of cultivated trees and shrubs. A quick walk around most older neighborhoods will reveal great possibilities for collecting material. There is still the problem of getting permission but if you come across something it is always worth asking.

 

[GGB]

As mentioned there are east cost trees that respond well bonsai technique. The problem being is finding naturally dwarfed trees that can be collected. The areas in the northeast that have these trees are for the most part protected. Getting permission is difficult.

What the northeast and the east in general does have is an abundance of cultivated trees and shrubs. A quick walk around most older neighborhoods will reveal great possibilities for collecting material. There is still the problem of getting permission but if you come across something it is always worth asking.

AAAAAmen

 

[rockm]

As mentioned there are east cost trees that respond well bonsai technique. The problem being is finding naturally dwarfed trees that can be collected. The areas in the northeast that have these trees are for the most part protected. Getting permission is difficult.

What the northeast and the east in general does have is an abundance of cultivated trees and shrubs. A quick walk around most older neighborhoods will reveal great possibilities for collecting material. There is still the problem of getting permission but if you come across something it is always worth asking.

I believe the east coast has LOTS of hundred year old, or even older trees and shrubs that would make spectacular bonsai, something the west coast generally lacks because of its shorter settlement.

I've posted these ancient boxwood before, but I'll do it again, as they show some of the extremely old landscaping material that can crop up here in the east. These are protected and the extreme, but boxwood and other bonsai able trees have been a fixture in eastern landscapes for going on 400 years. The shot of the house (George Mason's plantation) shows the boxwood allee where these live...

 

[whfarro]

Another post regarding the Artisans Cup said that the top West Coast trees had only been in training 4-5 yrs whereas those trees representing the East Coast were in training 40-50 yrs. Is this true? And I think that also speaks volumes to the differences between Bonsai cultures on each coast.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I think there are regional differences in bonsai tastes and sensibilities. I like to create broom style trees, guess what, in the Midwest, we have a lot of broom style deciduous trees. I noticed this most dramatically, when a friend who is in another country, styled a bald cypress. He had never seen a bald cypress in the wild. His tree looked more like a hemlock or atlas cedar than a bald cypress. So obviously, there will be a different flavor due to local availability and what locals see and are familiar with every region of the country. I don't think there is any rivalry. East, Midwest, Southeast, Southwest, West And Pacific Northwest are distinct climate regions and have their distinct species in the wild to serve as tree models, and lets not forget Hawaii and Puerto Rico, Canada and the Caribbean Islands in general. All have their local feel, local influences in their bonsai. Mexico has its own style too, though except for a member here from Baja del Sur, we don't often see images of Mexican bonsai. Canada's style is 2 tree species make up all of their bonsai, Thuja and Larch (just kidding, no need to flame me)

Actually, its rather obvious there would be differences. So the answer would be "of course". Silly question.

Is there rivalry, I don't think so.

If there is any rivalry at all, it likely comes from student's of one teacher or another teacher doing the bad Kung Fu movies impression, "My Bonsai Master's technique is superior to your Bonsai Master's technique", followed by the retort; "my bonsai master can fully heal grafts on a Ponderosa pine in 2 hours, his Power of Bonsai is so strong". of course never that crass nor blatant. My example is just me being silly. There is some friendly back and forth about who's teacher is better. But this is not regional, as there are teachers on both coasts who teach all over the country. The students of some of these teachers "hang out on the internet" together, and are in regular contact. So it is not a regional effect. These peripatetic teachers actually help homogenize bonsai across the USA. Do a few Colin Lewis weekend Intensives, or do a year long cycle with Boon, either way you get top notch bonsai training, one is in Maine, the other is in California, you can't get much further apart. They both travel the country, or have you travel to them. Both have students from all over the country. The list goes on. So while climate, environment, terrain and what local species look like growing there will influence people's ideas as to what a tree could look like, beyond that, all the wandering teachers that criss-cross the country do have a homogenizing effect. The internet also has a homogenizing effect. I hear beginner or intermediate level members at out society meeting occasionally say things like I want to style this tree like that pine I saw on Ryan Neil's website. Or pick the website. Now we can all see images of the Kokufu-ten winners just a few hours after the show happens. All the bonsai apprentice Blogs on the web, letting us see what is happening at the nurseries in Japan or shows like Gomen Goku-ten on Danny Coffee's blog, or MeiFu-ten 2015 on Andy's Shohin Blog, and then the blog posts from the USA shows. Many if not most of us, whether we admit it or not, will sometimes style our trees to look like a bonsai tree we saw a picture of somewhere. I know I need to make my bonsai look like a tree, rather than make my tree look like a bonsai, but lets face it, it is an easy habit to fall into. We have all done it. All these blogs with all these images will have a homogenizing effect.

So climate and tree species growing locally to serve as available local models of trees will tend to create regional differences, and the web and the peripatetic teachers work in the opposites, tending to homogenize the hobby across the country.

What does all this stuff I wrote really add up to? Yep, there is enough homogenization that indeed there is a "North American Style" and there are enough climate and geographic differences, that inside this "North American Style" there are regional differences.

 

[whfarro]

Leo, well stated.
I like the KungFu Master analogy.
My comments on another thread (which I believe led to this one) were also tongue in cheek and used a music analogy. It was / is all a unique yet common genre (rap) but with regional nuances and loyalties to their "masters".

 

[M. Frary]

Crap is 3/4 rap.

 

[Paradox]

I was under the impression that "American bonsai" whether east coast or west meant native species used for bonsai. Not non-natives grown here?

 

[whfarro]

Crap is 3/4 rap.

Or vice versa...