Selecting a pot for a small trident maple bonsai
For months, I’d planned on showing a small hinoki in Bay Island Bonsai’s 13th annual exhibit. The hinoki’s health took a turn for the worse and I found myself with a few weeks to prepare another tree for exhibit. I selected a deciduous tree for the exhibit – a root over rock trident maple. I last showed the tree in 2010 in a cream colored oval pot made by Sara Rayner. It was time for a change.
Trident maple – Sara Rayner pot
I brought the tree and a number of candidate pots to a Bay Island Bonsai workshop for repotting. Before selecting a new pot, I removed the tree from the pot and worked on the roots. For a complete description of the repotting process, see the series of posts beginning with”Repotting a trident maple.”
Ready for a new pot
Selecting bonsai pots for show trees is a favorite activity of mine (see “Pot selection redux” for a similar exercise with a small black pine). Here were my options.
Option #1 – Old Chinese pot
I don’t typically associate trident maples with green pots, but I happened to have several that were the right size. The above oval pot was made in China. It’s about the right size and shape for the maple, but it didn’t strike me as an interesting match.
Option #2 – Old Chinese pot
The next pot I tried was also Chinese. It’s the right size, but very shallow. Not surprisingly, the pot makes the tree look taller.
Option #3 – Japanese pot
This Japanese pot above is much newer than the two Chinese pots. It’s a good size for the tree, but it lacks the character of the older pots.
Option #4 – Sakura pot
The fourth option is a slightly darker green. The curved sides didn’t look right to me and the pot seemed a little on the big side. Next!
Option #5 – Sara Rayner
The fifth pot I looked at is another Sara Rayner pot. A bit on the small side, this pot seemed to bring out the dullness of the stone. Ideally I would like a pot that brightens the composition, but for some reason most of my small, shallow pots are shades of green.
Option #6 – Sara Rayner
The sixth pot was also from Sara Rayner. The size and shape are appropriate, but I found the stripe formed by the lip to be very strong.
Option #7 – Michael Hagedorn
The seventh pot was made by Michael Hagedorn. It’s a very useful pot. One side is a light shade of green. The other side is a darker green.
Option #8 – Michael Hagedorn
The pot is a bit deep for the tree. I think it would look best when the leaves turn color in the fall, but like the other dark-colored pots above, it brings out the darkness of the stone.
I think all of the pots are acceptable for exhibit, but some are better matched to the tree than others. I decided to go with the oldest looking pot, which happened to be the pot with the most interesting shape – the warped, old Chinese pot. Here are some close ups.
Old Chinese pot
From below – no chop
I fit what roots I could in the pot and the rest sat above the rim.
Repotting complete
To dress it up for the exhibit, I placed moss on the surface of the soil (see “Moss technique” for details).
All mossed up – as shown in BIB’s 13th annual exhibit
Because this tree is on the small side, I showed it with another tree, a Japanese black pine I grew from seed. The display would have better balanced were there a greater difference in size between the two trees, but I didn’t have another tree to accompany the maple.
Medium display – shohin black pine and chuhin trident maple
The old Chinese pot was good for the show, but it was a bit shallow for a growing pot. Not long after the exhibit I repotted it in a slightly larger pot. Which one? Pot number 3.
Rocky Mountain Juniper bonsai
One of the trees displayed at Bay Island Bonsai’s 13th annual exhibit got a lot of funny looks. It’s a Rocky Mountain juniper, Juniperus scopulorum.
Rocky Mountain Juniper
It’s not exactly “show-ready” as we like to say – the tree is only a few years out of the ground and branch pads have yet to be defined. The tree offers, however, a glimpse of how floppy the tree’s foliage can be and plenty of interesting deadwood. Maybe too interesting. The large piece of deadwood on the left looks like something an undiscerning artist found on the ground and affixed to the first tree they dug. It is, however, very naturally connected to the live part of the tree.
Old deadwood – evidence of an older, larger tree
If you look closely, you can easily discern the old deadwood from the new. The deadwood supporting the live part of the tree lacks the deep fissures evident on the big jin. In the photo below, the upper part of the deadwood is light in color with subtle fissures. This wood has been exposed to the elements for a while, but not for as long as the jin on the left. The lower part of the deadwood is darker in color and lacks fissures. This wood has more recently been exposed to the elements.
Older and newer deadwood
A few days before the exhibit, I cleaned the tree’s deadwood with a water gun and then treated it with a mixture of lime sulfur, water and sumi ink. This helped to even out the different tones of deadwood on the tree. A new pot and some bright moss completed the show prep.
Rocky Mountain Juniper deadwood
Moss
Why so much effort for a tree that’s not quite ready for display? Interesting deadwood, great age, and curious foliage contributed to the decision. Beyond that, the tree offers a great puzzle for aspiring bonsai stylists. In other words, what improvements can be made to the tree? There are plenty of alternatives. It’s the kind of tree I’d like to walk by in the garden for a while before making up my mind. Although I don’t know what exactly is in store for the tree’s future, I do know it will look quite different the next time I see it in an exhibit.
Displaying a shimpaku juniper
Bay Island Bonsai held their 13th Annual Exhibit this past weekend at the Lakeside Garden Center in Oakland, CA. The exhibit featured a well developed shimpaku juinper.
Shimpaku juniper
Before reading any further, which way do you think the tree points – to the left or to the right?
When setting up exhibits, we often start by identifying trees that point left or right and put these at the ends of each row where they can point toward the center. Cascade and semi-cascade bonsai often end up at the ends of rows as they are strongly directional trees. With the exception of formal upright bonsai, most trees tend to point or lean a bit to the left or the right. When trees point to the left, we tend to place accent or companion plants to the right in the attempt to create balanced compositions.
The apex of the shimpaku pictured above points strongly to the left, as does the first branch on that side of the tree. My inclination was to display the tree on the right and place an accent plant on the left. Daisaku Nomoto, a bonsai professional visiting from Miyazaki, Japan, however, wanted the tree placed on the left. I winced at the suggestion, and appealed to Boon. Boon seconded Nomoto’s opinion. While we stood there discussing the matter, the tree’s owner set the tree on the right. This made sense to me and I liked the resulting display.
Displayed on the right with accent and scroll
At the end of the day, I found myself very curious about the direction of the tree. Maybe if the trunk or branches were arranged differently I could see what Boon and Nomoto saw. The next morning I asked Boon and Nomoto for an explanation. Simply put, they typically find the movement in the lower part of the trunk to be the most important element in the determination of direction. What about the apex or the key branch? Not important, Nomoto replied. It really is all about the lower part of the trunk. Tilting the tree a bit to the right would increase the movement of the lower part of the trunk and move the apex to the right. Growing out the lowest branch on the right could further this movement.
What does the tree look like displayed on the left?
As displayed on the left
Turns out the tree looks good on the left too.
Armed with new knowledge, I found a new way to look at bonsai. Like the Ponderosa pine below, for instance. Surely it points to the right?
Ponderosa pine
No such luck. Nomoto insisted the tree points to the left, just as the owner had displayed it.
Bonsai top dressing
It’s customary, for bonsai displayed indoors, to cover the surface of the soil with moss. Moss, however, isn’t always readily available. What can a bonsai artist do? Here are some solutions from the East Bay Bonsai Society’s 50th Anniversary Show.
Moss – nice when you can get it
Scotch moss
Lava rock
Bonsai soil with patches of moss
More moss
Patches of moss with lava
Bonsai soil
Patches of moss, lichen, and fine soil particles
Moss growth accelerates in fall in the Bay Area. It’s around this time of year when Bay Island Bonsai members start scoping out moss collection locations ahead of the January exhibit. If the supply falls short, we’ll be sure to employ some of the above techniques.
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