The Art of Bonsai Project

The image is a pot I commissioned Dale Cochoy to make for me. The tree is an old collected quercus agrifolia. Height including pot is 37 inches.

Mike

Mike,

Let me congratulate you on a beautiful tree. The things I like about the tree. Excellent trunkline and taper, good nebari, great canopy with good branch ramification, beautiful shari and also a very nice pot.

Must confess that I have a weakness for tall trees and this reflects in the collection of my own trees. I have seen many trees like your tree pictured above in nature. Trees that are, stately, battered by the elements, stood their ground over the years. They add whole new meaning to the phrase "STANDING TALL".

While the tree looks great as it is, including the small branch on the left, you might want to consider letting this branch grow so that the canopy line extends to encompass the future foliage on this left branch. The only disadvantage when you do this is that you will loose the Bunjin look.. and the overall tree "looks" shorter.

Which would you prefer??

Regards
Ravi

Ravi
Many thanks for your very kind words.
About the tree: It was collected with permission about 18 years ago from a working ranch near Monterey California. The trees were kept short by browsing cattle.
About 7/8 years ago I decided to make changes to the tree by removing branches and carving a long shari to give it a taller and somewhat of a bunjin effect.
About the lower left branch: I didn't plan to keep it, so I cut off all the original foliage.When it came time to lime sulfer the shari and jin branches, I also painted lime sulfer on the lower left branch to preserve it until I finished the jin carving. I didn't do any more carving, and to my surprise, a new bud broke from the lime sulfered branch. I had always thought that the lime sulfer would damage and maybe kill the live tissue in a branch, but that's not so.
I don't plan to let the upper and lower foliage merge. As you say, the tree would seem shorter, and the bunjin effect would be lost.
Also, thanls again to Dale Cochoy for building the great pot. It wasn't originally intended for this tree, but when I started thinking about the combination, it seemed very right.

Regards

Mike