Straight line raft Juniper. I borrowed this photo from Bill Valavanis' blog. Bill took the photo at the 2015 38th Mid America Bonsai Exhibit.
This is a somewhat failed attempt to finish our series on forest plantings. Specifically raft style forest plantings. More specifically straight line raft plantings.
Problem is, couldn’t find good photos of straight line rafts (the exception is above). So rather than spending more time searching, we’ll settle for some informative text on raft-style borrowed from ofBONSAI Magazine (one of the better online bonsai sites).
“Raft style bonsai mimic a natural occurrence when a tree topples onto its side due to heavy winds, a flood, or soil eroding beneath the tree. Branches along the top side of the trunk continue to grow as a group of new trees. Sometimes, roots will develop from buried portions of the trunk. Raft-style bonsai can have sinuous or straight-line trunks, all giving the illusion that they are a group of separate trees creating a unified apex.
Advantages of Raft style
“Are that it is not seen often. We have the ability to use a large main trunk and create multiple trees off of that line. This is great because it shows great age as if the tree was blown over a long time ago, re-rooted itself and kept on thriving; Each branch becoming its own tree and creating its own apex. It is really intriguing to see a raft style bonsai and is a real advantage to presenter when created correctly. The trees will balance off each other like in a forest planting, but in this style we have the ability to display it as one tree instead of multiples as in a forest.
Disadvantages of Raft style
“Are finding a suitable tree. Yamadori raft style is very rare and prized…” There’s more here.
Win! If you are one of the three people who read this far, here’s your reward (well, potential reward). Send me a high quality photo of a high quality straight line raft style bonsai and you’ll win a 25.00 gift certificate to Stone Lantern (I will be the sole judge of what constitutes quality). Offer ends August 31st 2015.
Just in case you missed (or blocked) our add at the top of the post, here’s another reward for reading this far down.
25% off all Bonsai Wire. Plus an extra 5% off for any Stone Lantern order of 100.00 or more.