Bonsai "in the round"?

Nice to see the responses in this thread. I just realized that I have trees that I am working on, only to realize I am checking my work from the back, instead of the front, so non-obvious is the front/back for many of my trees.

A tree is to bow towards the viewer. I've several trees that could have multiple fronts..but the one that has the proper lean is by far...the best choice.

Now let's address the scars. Some trees don't heal a scar. Like for instance ginkgo. Then it's wise to make your cuts and choose a front. To hide what can't be hidden.

It's your bench... design the tree as you wish. I'm far from traditional in my collection of trees. But...I can and do admire a proper bow to a tree. Side profile...it's a fingers kiss to my brain's appreciation. You can have that with a tree still looking good from all directions. Not all trees will be so powerful...doesn't make them less than.

A tree at the end of the day...should stand on merit.

It’s not that they have a bad side….they have a preferred side.

ABCarve said:

It’s not that they have a bad side….they have a preferred side.

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PRICELESS! YOU WIN

ABCarve said:

It’s not that they have a bad side….they have a preferred side.

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I was waiting for exactly this.

Funny thing... when I style a tree with a preferred front, the other sides usually end up looking pretty good without even trying .
Fwiw, I'm not a fan of creating a silhouette by pulling foliage unnaturally from one part of the canopy to another... I'll grow out or graft foliage in the right spot or change the design... might take longer but that's ok.

As many have said, I don't think choosing to optimize a preferred side has to always come at the expense of making all other sides ugly. In other words, your bonsai don't have to look like this:

At risk of beating a dead horse, when is it necessary to have a tree that must look good from any arbitrary angle?

I don't find myself appreciating or analyzing the side of a tree terribly much, unless I'm looking at how it's constructed. The monkey poles in my garden are mostly set in front of a fence, so they automatically have a suggested angle to view from. When I rotate my trees during the growing season, it's a 180° rotation, not 90 or 45.

The only time I can think that all sides of a tree must be equally spectacular is if it's displayed in the middle of a room/garden on a pedestal. That also necessitate skipping any kind of pot that doesn't have rotational symmetry, otherwise the pot itself suggests a proper viewing angle

The more you push asymmetry the less the tree is going to look good from all angles because of awkward foreshortening. The designs that will work best for 360 degree viewing are going to be ones that are more symmetrical/uninteresting/boring.

Thank you for your comments. I realize I am an outlier in my preferences. I will continue trying to style avoiding optimizing any one viewpoint.
I may study some of @Walter Pall bonsai and work. I usually find that he is so far beyond me that it feels inaccessible. I have admired the progressions he has posted here. Does he have any published works?

James W. said:

Thank you for your comments. I realize I am an outlier in my preferences. I will continue trying to style avoiding optimizing any one viewpoint.
I may study some of @Walter Pall bonsai and work. I usually find that he is so far beyond me that it feels inaccessible. I have admired the progressions he has posted here. Does he have any published works?

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Morton's "Modern Bonsai Practice: 501 Principles of Good Bonsai Horticulture" has a foreword by Walter and there's an extensive gallery in the back that's all from his collection.

While working on a tree last night, I thought of what a club member said when we were having a similar discussion:

“I know which side is my wife’s front, but I still like looking at her backside”

pandacular said:

While working on a tree last night, I thought of what a club member said when we were having a similar discussion:

“I know which side is my wife’s front, but I still like looking at her backside”

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Depending on the mood of the day, sometimes that's the preferable side

I think that there is always going to be a side that is visually the most appealing, but that certainly doesn't mean we can't work on improving the other angles, and sometimes those other angles eventually become our preferred viewing side.

Cheers,
Dave.

I guess you could show a tree on a motorized turn table.

Gabler said:

I guess you could show a tree on a motorized turn table.

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Sometimes to truly appreciate and tree. It pays to. I share trees on a motorized turntable on Instagram. My Chinese quince... you can not grasp the trunk in 2D. You can understand it better when it turns...to see the sinuous movement of the trunkline that goes slant,forward,twists and whatnot. 2D...it's totally lost. It bows toward the viewer...yet in 2D...I've had ones say the front looks like the back as it moves away from you. Yet...clearly it leans toward the viewer. You lose a lot in 2D images. But even still...some trees...you just have to admire from all angles to appreciate that trunkline as well. But I believe in having a nice canopy overall shape. May take years on a deciduous if done right.

I had one tell me to use guy wire and force my one maple more to where I want it. No...It isn't a sprint to the finish. I'll grow the canopy over to where it needs to be. I did move some with wire in that direction. Winter silhouette should always be considered. It can't be forced...or, it will look forced.

FWIW, I started a thread back in 3/2023 titled Understanding Viewing Angles when I first had the same issue. The conclusion I came to is that unless you intend to have a perfectly symmetrical tree, there will naturally be a preferred viewing angle. This doesn't mean that other sides need to be outright ugly, it's just that there will be a preferred side. Once a full canopy is developed with branch ramification, it could look nice from all around (not that I have any trees at that point). With trunks in development (where I tend to be nowadays), I find that I am clearly preferring certain views over others simply because of the movement of the trunk. For example, from a side view I find the trunks to look a little wonky on an informal upright without a developed canopy and a chunk of the trunk leaning forward.

For example, I attach a pic of a JM in development from the "front" view. If I move clockwise and view the trunk from the left side, it looks like a longer straight trunk that veers well to the right (at the point where it gets thinner). There will be a branch facing directly at the viewer from this angle as well, not to mention the nebari (which needs work) is less ideal from this angle. The tree also moves away from the viewer from this angle. If all things go as plan, I imagine that one day the tree could look quite nice from all angles once it has its canopy. It's just always going to look better from the angle that served as the focal point for development of the rest of the tree.

James W. said:

One one of the things I dislike about the traditional Japanese styling is the insistence that my little tree must be designed entirely from a "front". The first thing we absolutely have to do is to identify the front and then all aesthetic decisions are based on that view. Ugly features are simply hidden, sacrifice branches are grown off the "back" so that the scars are not on display, etc. I want my little trees to be attractive from all sides the extent that I will compromise the front view to add interest to the back or sides. This is the reason I am reluctant to get styling advice during a club meeting or in a workshop with a pro. Does anyone else do this? I think maybe Walter Pall might put a lower emphasis on the one-sided design? Are there any resources that approach design not from the front?

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I agree with you. I cannot often identify a front unless there are flaws on other sides of the tree. I am fundamentally unconventional and tend to do things my way. I have no intention of showing my trees, so I just do as I please. Follow your heart and gut.

Perhaps this discussion would benefit from some trees that actually have been designed with no front? Seems it’s silly to talk hypotheticals without examples.

pandacular said:

Perhaps this discussion would benefit from some trees that actually have been designed with no front? Seems it’s silly to talk hypotheticals without examples.

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Here is the tree I am contemplating. No, it has not been styled much yet.