Bama Snow ‘22

Brian Van Fleet

Pretty Fly for a Bonsai Guy
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Location
B’ham, AL
USDA Zone
8A
It was nearly 80 on New Year’s eve, and it’s 30 now. We have close to our annual snowfall total on the ground. Happy New Year, B’nuts.
Kiyozuru Itoigawa:
80A46AB3-BB48-4B20-82E5-D4204E9B9C52.jpeg

Trident maple:
A9B5E707-3A44-463E-9ACD-39E6B4924638.jpeg

Stewartia:
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Corkbark JBP, ‘Taihei’
D3803D7C-03D3-4E8B-A8FF-38E83CDDE09E.jpeg

JBP:
AA1D3BA4-4194-4DA7-A1BD-53A94AA22058.jpeg
 
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Apparently, here in southern Fairfax co. we're in the 8-12 inches bullseye. Hoping that's the case. Supposed to be lows in the teens in next few days. Snow insulates...
That sounds about right for what I have heard. The are calling for only about 2-3 inches in Front Royal. Its supposed to clear this afternoon.
I am very glad to have it around my bonsai.
It is a very sticky snow. May be power outages.
 
That sounds about right for what I have heard. The are calling for only about 2-3 inches in Front Royal. Its supposed to clear this afternoon.
I am very glad to have it around my bonsai.
It is a very sticky snow. May be power outages.
Power is flickering here every ten minutes or so. This snow is "sticky" and is coating power lines and trees up to a couple of inches. Wind is also picking up--not a great recipe...
 
BVF, very pretty magical photos. Question, most of your trees (could be wrong) have an initial bend/kink to the right.
Is that classical Japanese aesthetic or just worked out that way? Is first movement to the left frowned upon?
 
BVF, very pretty magical photos. Question, most of your trees (could be wrong) have an initial bend/kink to the right.
Is that classical Japanese aesthetic or just worked out that way? Is first movement to the left frowned upon?
I don’t agree that most of the trees have their initial movement to the right. It may be that most of the snow is stuck on the left side?

However, the western eye “reads” left to right, and in Japan it’s top right to bottom left. Therefore we do have different learned tendencies toward establishing movement in the west from the east. Kathy Shaner works with our club setting up our show and always says she has a hard time placing trees on the right end of the display tables because so many of our trees “read” left to right, and tend to move right. On the right end of a display, you want a tree that moves left to move viewers’ eyes into the displays.

I actually have quite a few trees that move left for display purposes; particularly shohin trees, ROR trident, and the big Shimpaku from Evergreen Gardenworks.
 
I don’t agree that most of the trees have their initial movement to the right. It may be that most of the snow is stuck on the left side?

However, the western eye “reads” left to right, and in Japan it’s top right to bottom left. Therefore we do have different learned tendencies toward establishing movement in the west from the east. Kathy Shaner works with our club setting up our show and always says she has a hard time placing trees on the right end of the display tables because so many of our trees “read” left to right, and tend to move right. On the right end of a display, you want a tree that moves left to move viewers’ eyes into the displays.

I actually have quite a few trees that move left for display purposes; particularly shohin trees, ROR trident, and the big Shimpaku from Evergreen Gardenworks.
Very interesting answer to a thought provoking thread. I have an inherent disposition to work from right to left which is seen in most of my bonsai.
 
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