The picture you posted is Rodney Clemens’ winged elm. I’ve had the oppprtunity to see this tree many, many times over the years.@Adair M for my own personal knowledge, is there no way to save a deciduous telephone pole?
I am looking at the attached photo (taken from: https://valavanisbonsaiblog.com/2018/09/13/2018-6thus-national-bonsai-exhibition-review/), for example. To my inexperienced eyes the trunk of this tree appears to have very little taper, if any at all. However, i don't know if it is the 'mushroom' shape of the silhouette that is compensating for the trunk, the flare at the base, or something else(?), but this tree is very pleasing to me as far as trees in its style go.
I'm asking because I often see (at the other extreme) tridents with trunks shaped like triangles (for example: http://walter-pall-bonsai.blogspot.com/2010/02/new-pot-for-big-trident-maple.html), which are the reason why I gave my young trident away for free - this dichotomy was creating a mental block through which I simply was not able to see an interesting future for my trident. I probably just haven't seen enough tridents in my life.
Would love to hear your thoughts
Critiquing this tree will be a challenge! Rodney and I go WAY back... here’s what I see:
Pros: old age, good bark on the trunk, great ramification. Shallow root system, well matched to the pot, pleasing Silohette.
Cons: lack of taper on trunk, poor taper in the branches, lower branches same size (caliper) as upper branches. The apex area shows thicker, but shorter branches up on the right side of the apex. The nebari is one sided, with a “missing area” on the left. The surface roots on the right appear heavy, too heavy when compared with the “lightness” of the branches in the canopy.
Things I’m confused about: the tree is potted on the right side of the container. Which is also the side where the roots are heavier. But there’s less soil over there! How does that happen? The first branch is on the lower right. But there’s a heavier branch above it on the left. Which is the key branch? The key branch should normally be the heaviest, and the lowest. And be over more of the soil. Then, there’s the apex. It appears to be moving to the right. The rest of the tree is a formal upright, so the apex should be centered. And my moving to the right, it again is moving towards the short side of the pot. All these contradictions make the tree look awkward to me.
Now, Rodney has been working on this tree for a while. And, this illustrates why it is really, really hard to make good deciduous trees. The temptation is to start making ramification before there’s a sound structure. And that’s exactly what has happened here. You can see old scars on the trunk where old branches were removed, and all the new branches started as new buds off the trunk. And when they popped, they grew out a bit, and then started getting pinched to create ramification. Years later, this is what can be achieved.
What should have been done is the branches should have been wired into position, and allowed to grow out more, then cut back more. Grow and cut back. Rather than pinch. Grow and cut back creates more taper. You can put on more wood if you let it grow out more. By letting the lower branches grow out a bit more, they would also have helped the taper of the main trunk, too.
But this is hard to do! It takes longer! It’s no fun building structure! What’s fun is making lots of twigs, and defoliating to make lots and lots of little leaves! Ramification! That’s the fun part!
And, the roots could have been fixed while the structure was worked. The nebari is hard work, too.
Now, before everyone hates on me, I will say that the tree is very beautiful! I like it a lot! But, it could be better. I’m sure that if Rodney knew then what he does now, it would be different. That’s the thing about bonsai: as we learn, we go back and say, “Gee, if I had only known...”