Please don't post yet, I'll let ya know when it's safe lol.
This is a tutorial on creating a Cascade Bonsai.
This one isn't Mame.
It already had a downward growth habit so I'm halfway there instantly. lol
I don't know the species, I just yanked it outta the yard.
The entire tree was soaked overnight in water to help make it more pliable for wiring.
This second Photo is showing the size of said tree.
The roots will be planted in a rock no doubt, letting the tree cascade down the "mountain".
I'll probably add plenty of mosses and possibly some much smaller trees.
It depends on the rock I find.
We shall see what I find in the woods later.
This is showing how much wire I used on the one limb and trunk.
Wire seems like alot but you double it over. It's always better to have too much wire than not enough.
You can always trim excess off later.
This photo demonstrates the loop I make when I first start the wiring process.
It helps hold the wire in place for the twisting that goes on later.
I wrap it around the trunk first to anchor it, then slowly make my way around the branch.
Here is my wired mess.
I am not a perfectionest like some Bonsai addicts.
I just wrap the wire around crisscrossing (basically braiding the two pieces over each other.) until the limb/trunk is wired.
No matter how neat and tidy you wire, it will still look like crap, so why bother spending 10 hours making it pretty.
My philosophy, not theirs.
Here's a bit like what it will look like when potted/rocked.
I haven't decided completely how I will finish it out.
There are still places I have to trim/wire but I will wait for another day when I can access my tools.
Second example.
There are some limbs that are still too green and delicate to train.
When they toughen up I will wire them later.
Rome wasn't built in a day and neither was a Bonsai!
Post Away!!! LOL
what is the ID of the plant?
Beth
I have no idea, lol.
I just found it growing in my yard.
I just have one question. Are any of the roots in soil at the moment to keep it alive, especially after just ripping it out of the ground? You'd hate to do all that work and then have it croak on you, lol!
vm
Hmmmm. Interesting and novel perspective on creating a cascade.
Do you think it would have worked better if you simply planted the plant upright & allowed the top to grow unencumbered for a few years while you concentrated your training efforts on the longest low branch on the right (refer to your first picture) as your "cascade"? The top part of the plant would feed the whole plant, fatten the trunk, strengthen the planting (which would allow you to work on the branch with reduced worry of waning vitality), and a few years down the road you simply chop off the top of the plant leaving you your completed (and much fattened) cascade.
Al
lol, yea the roots are good.
While Im wiring them I keep them wet by dipping then in water constantly. Then I pot them up! ^_^
I'll post with my " grow out setup" maybe sometime this week so ya can see what I'm talking about.
No, it wouldnt have worked better, it would have worked but what I do works just fine, lol.
I have potted thousands of bonsai using this metod and the soil mixture in my previous thread with great success. ^_^
I do not have any cascade bonsai that have been potted for years just sitting in my yard.
They're not my favouite style so I don't usually keep them.
I wanted to make a tutorial so I went ahead and started this one.
The trunks perfectly fat enough to work with.
After I train them I usually pot them in huge pots on plant them in the ground to fatten them up. ;-)
-Jocie.
Ok Jocie, I trust what you say, especially if you've grown thousands of them this way. I've been playing with bonsais for about 25 years and have my own methods lol! Anyway, about wiring. It's the easiest thing in the world. I always use copper wire and generally use about 3 different gauges. I always just wind "clockwise" and unwind "counterclockwise", but that's just a habit I've got into and is "second nature" to me now. I wire fairly loosely and it is always easy afterwards to bend branches to where I want them to grow, without breaking or damaging them. It's such a great, relaxing, and rewarding hobby I find. It's obvious you have a lot of fun with your guys too!
vm
I really appreciate tutorial format of Jocie's posts. I've been hanging around this forum and find that most of the posts are way beyond my level of knowledge and are intimidating at times for the novice. I have to confess that I belong to the group of not true devotees. These tutorial make bonsai sound easy and fun and experimental. They make me feel like I can try it and have fun even if I don't get it right and true.
Do you k now that there's only 10 threads with tutorial in their title on the whole of DG?
This message was edited Apr 21, 2008 1:27 PM
That's interesting, but I've never looked into that. I'm pretty new here at DG so there's a lot I've yet to find or discover, like this Bonsai Forum for example lol. It never occurred to me to visit it or mark it as a "favourite", but I guess I should now. I've been a little too "tied up" in a couple other forums.
I have to say enya, that Bonsai should be fun and not something to be taken too seriously. I personally do follow some basic rules, just because they make a lot of sense and make my little "bonsais-in-training" look more pleasing to the eye. Generally however, I think it's just about trying to make small plants look like miniature, older trees, and if you observe how they look in nature, just try to make them look as much like that as you can. Having said all that, there are a lot of proven tips and techniques to help achieve that. Basically, there is so much you can do with just simple root and top pruning/shaping, without getting into all the wiring and tying etc.
Sorry to get off topic and write stuff that probably doesn't belong here in Jocie's thread! I think I'm in one of my "yakking" moods today, lol!
^_^
People have different ways of wiring and theres nothing wrong with being different, or the same or whatever, lol.
I do what I taught myself when I was a little kid, it changes a bit with more experience.
It's all for the joy of the art though. Art is wonderful.
Why don't you write a tutorial? They're great fun. Im gonna do one on a self sustaining aquarium soon too.
In case you haven't noticed, english was one of my favourite subjects! LOL
Only ten? :-O
Thats really hard to imagine LOL. Now I gotta do a search, haha!
Thanks for the intrest, it makes my day!
It's fun to see what someone else is doing and then add to it or take away. Make things your own.
There are some things I can't share because I learned them when I was doing this professionally and promised my bosses I would never tell their secrets lol. Bonsai is a very guarded art. LOL
Yeah true, lots of people do things differently lol! It's when they think THEIR way is the ONLY way or the RIGHT way, that I have trouble with. It's whatever works for you that counts. I think I got that about the English, "favourite" lol! That's how I spell it too, like colour, flavour, etc. Canadians use the English spelling for words like that!
Hopefully I will have a lot more time soon, after I move and would love to get back into Bonsai. Keep up the good work Jocie It's clear you like to pass on your knowledge and experiece and help others!
^_^.
LOL I get alot of beef about my "U's" LOL.
All in good fun lmbo.
I blame all the romance novels and the James Herriot books! haha.
Bonsai should be fun and relaxing. But it is a bit like politics and religion, people can feel very strongly about what is and isn't acceptable.
I doubt that any of my plants will ever be in a show. I am sure that, in the opinion of experienced practitioners, I am butchering my J squamata instead of training it. But the only way any of us can learn is by doing. Book knowledge and pretty pictures only take you so far. At some point we all have to get a tree and just do it. All the books I have read seem to offer the advice that success is not an instant thing.
There are some pretty heated discussions on other forums pertaining to the morality of collecting from the wild, entering a tree that you own but did not train in a show, and so forth.
There is a saying that the woods would be silent if only the birds with the prettiest songs sang. The rankest beginner with enthusiasm is as valuable as the oldest veteran in propagating interest in the hobby and sharing the joy.
Beth
There is a saying that the woods would be silent if only the birds with the prettiest songs sang.
Now THAT is so true and Ive never heard it before, thanks for sharing.
Well, I collect from the wild all the time, bonsai and other plants.
We have a trail leading down to our creek and yesterday I was looking downt here wishing (cant trapse the woods yet hehe) and I saw another Rattlesnake Orchid right where we walk. The poor thing was smashed and I can't believe it was still alive. It's the second one Ive saved from that area LOL.
Ive got to make plans for moving about a zillion trillium so my husband and the dogs don't descimate them lol.
These little privets I pot up get mowed down several times a year by the county and my husband LOL. Helps me though, makes them small and fat with a great root system, haha.
I have a vine I found too. I dont know whait is but it looks awesome potted and trained.
