Mixed Species Clump Style

[BonsaiLoudon]

I've been spending a lot of time this summer experimenting with propagations techniques. Today I prepped a bunch of small seedling containers and added some seedlings from my yard as well as a few cuttings from my Coastal Redwood and Giant Sequoia. I only had one container left, so I threw a cutting from each in there. Considering my success with propagation so far, I doubt either will survive. But it did get me thinking, I don't think I've ever seen a clump style with mixed species. Is this due to people thinking it looks bad? Or will one of the species generally kill the other? I've tried searching for this, but I must be using the wrong words because I have not found anything other than mixed forests. Has anyone seen this done in a way they liked? Or at all?

 

[BonsaiOnTheBrainTX]

I keep coming back to the thought of making a clump style of different types of Japanese maples. Probably all different acer palmatums, to have different colors in one clump. I probably wouldn’t put in a rough bark type like arakawa with smooth barked ones. But maybe a couple Coral barks fused with green ones could look really cool. One bright red leaved tree, one green leaved, one orange, one purple etc. I think it could be awesome but everytime I’ve asked about it people have been very lukewarm in response due to a ‘lack of uniformity in the composition’. Which is fine it’s all subjective anyway right? So, I’m gonna do it.

That’s a very interesting question regarding a multi specie clump. Maybe one would kill the other I’m not sure. I doubt they could fully fuse? But worth a shot imo. Let us know how it goes!

 

[BonsaiLoudon]

That does seem like a really cool idea with maples. Keep me updated and I'll let you know if I ever make it work in the next decade. Fortunately Sequoia and Redwood like similar conditions, but the bark is rather different. We'll see if they adapt to each other at all in the long run