bonsaikc

The main tree is the lovely ume, or Japanese flowering apricot (prunus mume) which is just coming into full flower. The second tree is shimpaku.

What do you think?

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JTGJr25

Very Nice!

Tom

Phil

Nice display. The shimpaku is quite beautiful in my opinion as well as the apricot. However, I would have much rather seen more development on the apricot before I would have shown it from its obvious hard pruning. I will have to say that with its flowers I would have been more than tempted to display it and it does indeed place forth a very delicate simplicity and beauty but, I would have held back for more structure. That trunk and its curvature is beautiful but it simply does not hold up well with it's branching. The trunk overpowers it and it seems a tad out of balance at this time. I Would definitely love to see that tree in about two more years. Yes, I know I am simply placing forth my opinions as to the trees and not as to the composition of the display, but that is admittedly not my forte so I'll leave it at that.

~Phil

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Ledanta

I am with you Phil, I too love the shimpaku - very nice!
As for the apricot, yes, a great future.

I am not very good with composing displays either - so I will leave that to someone more experienced.

Love that Shimpaku!

Cheers,
Leigh.

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Pup

Nice trees.
However the display IMHO.
Is wrong first the main tree is on a stand that is too low, the accent is above the stand of the main tree which should be more dominant, ie placed in a position of prominance, the stands of the trees are in line with each other.
Which creates this feeling of imbalance. The accent has a round pot and a round stand that is the same size as the pot.
As I said just my opinion. Pup

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Mindcrime

I think the Prunus has the same problem as the juniuper in the other thread. I also agree with Phil(?) that it has a couple of years left before truly show-worthy. It has a great future though at will look awesome in a couple of years.

As for the display, the secondary tree is a bit too high in my opinion. The height of the stand has a bit too much visual weight and with the accent that close it's almost like the accent and secondary tree becomes the main attraction. There are several ways to remedy this. The stand of the sec tree could be more slender or shorter (as in my virt) although I think that a more slender stand would not look so great with that tree since it's pretty stout. Personally I don't have a problem with the round accent/round pot in this case although I do know that it's considered "bad-ish", at least when it comes to tree/pot combo. The apricot would look better is a different pot IMHO.

I made the stand shorter, gave the apricot more movement to the left and moved the accent a bit to make that area a bit lighter.

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Rick Moquin

Einstein having a bad hair day!

Displays evoke feelings in people, that is what I got from this display. Displays are a funny thing, and I really don't know enough about depth of these settings. It either works for you or it doesn't.

The stand for the accent planting is far too heavy IMO, it would have been better without it.

Beautiful trunk, bark, age and movement on the prunus, but as Phil stated a tree that is being rebuilt and is far from being show ready.

As far as the stands go, I believe the height of the shimp's stand was to diminish the focus on the prunus and direct the viewer to the composition vice the elements. There is a certain balance with the way the elements are displayed, however as Emil I would have brought the accent forward and more to the right.

Thanks once again for taking the time to share these with us Chris. I see these threads as an educational tool in enlightening everyone on the intricacies wrt 3 point displays. However, I believe that unless someone comes along and really explains the rationale behind the reasoning for individual displays as portrayed (the pros and cons), this becomes an exercise in futility, where a bunch of amateur merely state their opinions with little educational value gained.

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bonsaikc

I disagree, Rick. Of course they could degenerate into he said/she said, but so far we have gotten excellent input not bound by "formal display conventions."

For my money, I am glad to see the ume any time it is in bloom. When shown for the blooms, it need not be bound by other bonsai rules. I would simply carve this one.

I like the suggestions about the height of the stands and how this display stacks up. On the other hand, I can see that this bucks some template type of 3 point display. On the whole, it works for me.

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Mindcrime

I think the Bonsai community as a whole suffers from a lack of confidence. The knowledge about these things arten't that hard to find, it's basically only a google away. Without looking down on experience, I can't really feel the need for some "pro" to state their opinion so we can all copy them. The real problem is people waiting for someone else to say if it's good or bad. Knowing that it's good but not understand why and how to apply that knowledge to one owns display seems futile to me.

Sorry for being off topic.

Rick Moquin

Chris I'll pm you later.

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