Japanese Beech Forest

A very nice forest planting! I would like to see a more rounded top to make it look more mature (old).
 
Chuah said:
[QUOTE="MACH5

Perhaps the biggest compliment I got at the exhibition was when I was approached by Young Choe!
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Sergio, my wife loved your kusamono very much. She was very excited and looked for me to go over to see your display.[/QUOTE]


Thank you Hoe! Yes Soon came over and asked about my accent. She said that I may win best kusomono award. Well little did she know she was going to win it instead!! :p It was so nice meeting you both. Congrats again to the both of you for your beautiful bonsai and accent! :)
 
MACH5 said:
Thank you Hoe! Yes Soon came over and asked about my accent. She said that I may win best kusomono award. Well little did she know she was going to win it instead!! :p It was so nice meeting you both. Congrats again to the both of you for your beautiful bonsai and accent! :)
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Thanks Sergio, likewise very please to meet you. She loves everything about your kusamon.
 
All prepped to be displayed at the Winter Silhouette show in Kannapolis, NC. Some of the leaves were purposely left on the branches which is a common practice when beech are shown in winter. I am hoping that the white marble background at the venue will work well with this forest. I would much prefer the black backdrops but regardless I am definitely looking forward to what I am sure will be an excellent exhibit this year!

The forest has been growing very well in the last two years and slowly developing and ramifying nicely. I find these species to be exceptionally beautiful but equally just as challenging. A very intriguing species for me.




















Forest eight years apart. Original photo from 2008 courtesy of Don Blackmond when the forest was at Doug Paul's garden.

 
Back to the original planting....I'm wondering how so many trees were planted so close together ???
How were they planted so close to each other without compromising their root systems ???
I really appreciate the forest grouping display, it is a show stopper IMO...
Very nice to see Bonsai setting without large gnarly trunks that seem to symbolize good bonsai...
 
JudyB said:
Very beautiful. I wonder if you could use a few less leaves?
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Thanks Judy! Perhaps between now and Friday some more may come off :D Interesting how almost all beech I have seen either show the tree completely covered in their winter bronze leaves or stark naked. I was asked by Bill to bring this forest to the exhibit and suggested showing it with the leaves which I liked. I have tried to strike a balance and make sure that the structure was still visible while looking natural and not too premeditated as far as where leaves were left on the branches.
 
Bolero said:
Back to the original planting....I'm wondering how so many trees were planted so close together ???
How were they planted so close to each other without compromising their root systems ???
I really appreciate the forest grouping display, it is a show stopper IMO...
Very nice to see Bonsai setting without large gnarly trunks that seem to symbolize good bonsai...
Click to expand...


Thanks Bolero! Trees planted closed together, eventually, as is the case in this forest, fused together and form part of the same root system sharing resources as they grow. However, the real challenge, is that most often some trees may become very strong and shade the smaller, weaker ones. If something is not done these will die.

When I first purchased this forest, three of its original trunks were already dead. These grew in the center and became weak due to lack of air and light. At the moment there are two smaller trees that are a bit weak and have been addressing the problem by cutting back branches from the nearby trees that shade them. They have been gaining more strength and hopefully they will continue growing and developing.


EDIT: A problem with beech is that one cannot cut back anywhere and expect back budding specially in older trees. I usually cut back leaving at least two viable buds on the weaker branches. The strong ones can be cut back further to one bud without much fear of loosing that branch altogether.
 
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MACH5 said:
Thanks Bolero! Trees planted closed together, eventually, as is the case in this forest, fused together and form part of the same root system sharing resources as they grow. However, the real challenge, is that most often some trees may become very strong and shade the smaller, weaker ones. If something is not done these will die.

When I first purchased this forest, three of its original trunks were already dead. These grew in the center and became weak due to lack of air and light. At the moment there are two smaller trees that are a bit weak and have been addressing the problem by cutting back branches from the nearby trees that shade them. They have been gaining more strength and hopefully they will continue growing and developing.
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Although it is hard to tell because I think the front has changed slightly, but did you put some more movement into some of the trunks? If so, was that challenging with this material? I'm looking forward to seeing it in person this weekend.
 
Lars Grimm said:
Although it is hard to tell because I think the front has changed slightly, but did you put some more movement into some of the trunks? If so, was that challenging with this material? I'm looking forward to seeing it in person this weekend.
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Lars, I made the original back become the front. So movement of trunks was there and one reason for me to choose this side, as the main tree in particular had a very nice trunk line. I did, however, defined a more clear apex (still in progress) and wired many of the branches by wiring for better overall movement. Great care must be taken with wire. If it bites in deeply enough it will be extremely difficult if not impossible for the scars to ever disappear. The bark is thin and delicate!
 
I was reading some back issue's of International Bonsai (1993 Issue #1) and came across this neat article in the Contemporary Masterpiece Series... Japanese Beech...It is from the collection of Saburo Kato (A Japanese Bonsai Master).

Saburo says it is 24" above Slab, In Japan it is known as Fuji Beech, Started as seedlings and Trained for 35 years before this Planting which Saburo started in 1985, he considers this setting to be Naturalistic...

I thought it was appropriate to show here for a comparison to Mach5's excellent Grouping of his Japanese Beech...


jap beech 001.JPG
 
Bolero said:
I was reading some back issue's of International Bonsai (1993 Issue #1) and came across this neat article in the Contemporary Masterpiece Series... Japanese Beech...It is from the collection of Saburo Kato (A Japanese Bonsai Master).

Saburo says it is 24" above Slab, In Japan it is known as Fuji Beech, Started as seedlings and Trained for 35 years before this Planting which Saburo started in 1985, he considers this setting to be Naturalistic...

I thought it was appropriate to show here for a comparison to Mach5's excellent Grouping of his Japanese Beech...


View attachment 124648
Click to expand...


Bolero always great to see Mr. Kato's work! Fuji Buna as I understand it is a more rare type of Japanese beech with very small leaves from the Fuji mountain region that grows at higher elevations. The are very sought after for obvious reasons. I do not believe my forest is composed of Fuji Buna but I could be wrong. Perhaps Bill could chime in since he is an expert on many Japanese species.
 
Again, so nice! I started a American beech forest that I really need to start a thread on it. No where this nice but It's a start.
 
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