Is this tree placement bad?

[HENDO]

Here is my idea and thouhts:

Looks like you are trying to fill the container. Negative space is important.
Both sections look asymmetrical balanced. Try more trees on right side because the largest trunks are there.
Move left group towards the front leaving more space on left than right.

Just my thoughts today and very quick virtual....View attachment 276046

Thanks William, I think I'm almost there now. Perhaps a little bit more shifting then the worst part: trying to wire all this together close together for the first time. Really appreciate everybody's feedback so far! Should be starting to wire in the next 30min or so.

 

[HENDO]

Wiring progress

 

[HENDO]

Muckin' it up - big shout out to Mr. Rodney Clemons whoever/wherever you are, you make a mean muck!

 

[WNC Bonsai]

There seem to be two approaches you are looking at. First as one grouping which should be placed off center, and a second with the trees broken up into two clumps as Bill showed. I like either approach, just don’t do anything in a uniform arrangement—you rarely see anything uniform in nature so when it occurs in a bonsai forest it looks unnatural.

 

[HENDO]

There seem to be two approaches you are looking at. First as one grouping which should be placed off center, and a second with the trees broken up into two clumps as Bill showed. I like either approach, just don’t do anything in a uniform arrangement—you rarely see anything uniform in nature so when it occurs in a bonsai forest it looks unnatural.

Hey Cofga,

I am now leaning towards the clump approach you mentioned - my initial inspiration for a BC group was actually a really neat bayou scene I saw at Timeless Trees here in the Houston area (and the bayous in Louisiana where I lived for a while!).

I just placed the trees and could really use another round of critique before I anchor them down - how does this spacing look, is there anything majorly wrong here or opportunities for improvement?

Thanks

 

[William N. Valavanis]

Looking good! the second tree from the right side looks hidden, move to the right.
Front tree might look better closer to the others. Just my ideas..

 

[WNC Bonsai]

I really like the direction you are going, and suggest you also pay heed to Bill’s suggestions, he is THE expert.

 

[HENDO]

Those 2 trees moved as suggested, looking much better. Tie-down nightmare almost complete after losing only ~50% of the foliage!

 

[William N. Valavanis]

Good and interesting placement. Don't worry about losing the foliage. We usually remove it all.

Now, be certain to give the forest plenty of soil/much. Here is an idea of how I would contour the soil. Be sure to cover the entire soil surface with green moss. Sheet moss is good for this purpose to help with erosion.

 

[HENDO]

Final mucking and soiling done - ready for moss! The ground base is a bit higher than I was going for but perhaps next year I can cut it lower during repot.

Sorry for all of the updates but I thought I'd share my beginner method in case it would be helpful to other beginners, or could get some feedback for improving next time.

 

[HENDO]

Good and interesting placement. Don't worry about losing the foliage. We usually remove it all.

Now, be certain to give the forest plenty of soil/much. Here is an idea of how I would contour the soil. Be sure to cover the entire soil surface with green moss. Sheet moss is good for this purpose to help with erosion.View attachment 276102View attachment 276105View attachment 276107

Hey William, here are the two mosses at my disposal, are you able to tell if one is more suitable than the other, closer to the sheet moss?

Thanks

 

[William N. Valavanis]

The third photo has at the best moss for this job, but any of these would do. Be sure to put the pieces of moss next to each other, no air space between.
Good luck and great job!
Bill

 

[Silentrunning]

One thing I personally like in groupings is for the trees on each end to have a modest lean away from the center. This can be seen in nature when there is a group of trees is out in the open. The trees on the outside lean out to capture more sun. When all the trees are perfectly vertical it feels staged to me.

 

[HENDO]

All mossed up! I only had to steal 90% of the wife's supply to get full coverage.

Thanks to everybody for the input and huge thanks to Mr. Bill and Cofga for the support throughout the day to get it completed!!

 

[vp999]

Looks great! Did you make that slab your self or purchased it somewhere ? Its a nice slab and I would love to get my hand on a few. Thanks .

 

[WNC Bonsai]

I like the way you mounded the soil, gives it a natural look. I collected a bunch of dawn redwood seeds from a tree in my neighborhood this fall and plan to germinate a bunch of seedlings this spring for a forest to go with my BC forest.

 

[Cable]

Nice work. Thanks for starting this and to everyone who participated.

 

[HENDO]

Looks great! Did you make that slab your self or purchased it somewhere ? Its a nice slab and I would love to get my hand on a few. Thanks .

Thanks! Yes indeed it's a nice slab isn't it? Believe it or not my wife found it buried underneath a bunch of other pots at a local nursery here, so we snagged it up. To date I haven't been able to find it anywhere else but would really like to.

Hopefully this doesn't horrify too many people on here, but I've attached some nasty pictures of the bottom. The first day I had the slab I sprayed it off and had it standing up to dry. Go figure, it tipped over and broke in two. This is my "Very Ghetto Kintsugi" minus the gold - after epoxy, being overly paranoid of it breaking again, I glued two steel bars underneath. The bars were then rust-proofed and bumpers added to keep them from contacting anything.

Brutal I know, but I liked the slab too much to let it go to waste.

Next step will be to try to duplicate it with a homemade version! It's about 17.5" wide.

Thanks

 

[HENDO]

Here it is coming out of winter mode! Buds popping out on 6 out of 9 trees now just started this week. Fingers crossed that the remaining 3 will follow suit soon. Some very light wiring done a month ago to get the branches in a better place.

 

[HENDO]

Spring Update!

It is really starting to take off - very pleased with the results so far.

Wishing I had used a different color of wire, and perhaps done more work on the branches, but overall it seems to be filling-in quite nicely.

The akadama and muck mix worked out well for the BC.

The sun moss is regenerating regularly, although a squirrel magnet for whatever reason. The fertilizer cages are a good way to focus / saturate nutrients into the akadama areas, and keep fertilizer from killing too much moss.

I took @William N. Valavanis and @Silentrunning advice on the outer trees (I tried to during potting but couldn't get the right "lean" at the time), and leaned them outwards more. I used so short bamboo wedges to push them out against the other trees, and they seem to have set.

Thanks all again for the great advice on this one! Will be interesting to work on it again.