Trout Fishing in America (off the Bonsai Mainstream) 2/18/14

I like this full cascade with its flowing lines and unusual perspective. It’s from Ed Trout’s facebook photos as are the other four bonsai photos in this post. I’m going to guess that it’s a Lantana, but my guessing record isn’t all that good.

Ed Trout’s bonsai are unique. Distinctive is another word that comes to mind. It’s as though he branched off from the bonsai mainstream (please accept my apologies – twice) years ago and followed his own inclinations and now those inclinations have borne fruit. You might have to see more of his bonsai to get a feel for this distinctive quality, but here are a few that I lifted from facebook to get you started (there are some more here and here).

Trout Fishing in America is a poem novel by Richard Brautigan. I don’t think Mr Brautigan had either Ed Trout or the bonsai mainstream in mind when he wrote the poem novel, and I suspect very few of you have heard of him, but Richard Brautigan was a 1960s and 70s West Coast poet. It’s not my habit to drop names and ramble off topic (better skip ahead to the rest of the photos now) but I met Richard at Floyd Salas‘ 35th birth party. Richard was tall and quiet and I was not tall and most likely impaired, so conversation was limited. BTW: Floyd Salas is a fighter and writer (Tatoo the Wicked Cross, What Now My Love and several other novels) with a large personality, who once gave me a friendly boxing lesson. Fortunately, he was highly skilled and had no trouble pulling his punches.

 

Looks like a Chinese elm. My guess is that it’s a sub-tropical variety that was originally imported from China that Ed cut way back and trained to look like a Weeping willow.

Looks like a Bald cypress forest. Bald cypress can make great bonsai and these are no exception. Especially that main tree with the flaring base that’s so full of character. I’d like to see this planting once the branches develop a bit more and the foliage fills out. Not that it’s not already worthy of a good look.

 

This powerful little tree looks like a defoliated Willow leaf ficus (Ficus neriifolia). It’s got all those important bonsai features: excellent nebari and lower trunk, great taper and well-placed, well-developed branching. All topped off with a perfect apex.

I know this unusual planting with its flowing, almost abstract look. It’s a San Jose juniper that we featured in one of the later issues of Bonsai Today.

 

Ed’s hands using his trusty Sword shears that originally came from Stone Lantern. The photo is from the Miami Herald. For some strange reason no URL came up with the article, so no link. We do have a link for our Sword shears however.

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