Collected Black Spruce Group (Picea Mariana)

[Shogun610]

These 5 Black spruce yamadori were collected in Vermont , they are best little trees with old bark. Not the final grouping but the main tree and smaller one were together so I like the movement of those two atleast. I can see these on a slab of some sort , or on a stone one day, with nice wiring / extended down. In a repurposed wooden box, used Akadama and Pumice to hold them in. They will be under shade netting on sunnier days.

 

[Tycoss]

Very nice! I love spruce and the bark and movement in these is beautiful.

 

[sorce]

Nice.

Why the shade?

I'd reckon it better to shade the pot not the top.

Sorce

 

[Shogun610]

Nice.

Why the shade?

I'd reckon it better to shade the pot not the top.

Sorce

, it’s 40% shade netting , just so the foliage doesn’t get burnt by sun and stays moist

 

[sorce]

moist

Sorce

 

[Shogun610]

Sorce

My favorite word in the English language

 

[sorce]

If there was an occasion, that words had to rise to, I feel like "moist" would always rise above the rest.

No word is so good and so bad, both on the tongue and of the tongue.

Of course, at that occasion, if there was a streaker across the field, it would be "cunt", in an Aussie accent.

Sorce

 

[PA_Penjing]

Never had black spruce, but if you feed some species heavily they shoot buds right out of old, craggly bark the next spring. I like the little dude in the corner

 

[Shogun610]

Nice.

Why the shade?

I'd reckon it better to shade the pot not the top.

Sorce

Just a 40% shade net

 

[Colorado]

Nice spruce group - lots of foliage to work with on these! Will look super cool in a pot!

 

[Shogun610]

 

[Shogun610]

The one thing ain’t doin so hot .. but that’s fine as long as three of them survive and they all have new buds all over the branches so fingers crossed

 

[Shogun610]

Starting to bud out … Sadly one of the trees did not make it… but the three I care most about closer together is probably what will be in the final composition… the lone one I can use on its own for sure as a literati spruce

 

[Shogun610]

Super freakin pleased w the growth of these spruces … they have morning sun and afternoon shade.. the three closed together will remain together forever . The small lone one will be its own literati style.

 

[Shogun610]

Turned that larch rock upside down

 

[Cruiser]

Nice collection.
What’s the status of these trees?
Did you keep the dead lower branches and snag in the composition? They add a touch of realism to the piece.

 

[Shogun610]

On stone slab 3 total there is one more that is on it’s own idk what I wannna do w it yet

 

[Shogun610]

Here’s what I did with that 4th spruce … in a 7” Nick Lenz pot

 

[Shogun610]

I will wire this in the fall.

 

[Viridian Bonsai]

This is one of my favourite spruce species because of the incredibly short needles and rougher bark than most other spruces. They don't seem to be common for bonsai and that's probably because they are a far north growing species naturally, growing across all 10 Canadian provinces, all 3 Canadian territories, and in the northeastern US in their natural range. I'm not sure how well they would do in warmer growing zones.

Picea mariana is closely related to the Red Ezo Spruce (Picea glehnii), which is greatly admired in Japan and abroad for bonsai. These two species both inhabit Picea series Jezoenses so that explains their similarities in needle quality for bonsai and exceptional bark characteristics. These two species also come from similar habitats, tolerating the wetter soils found in bogs and muskegs so one should water them more frequently than their mountainous cousins. Many of the best Red Ezo Spruce in Japan came from bogs or wetlands in Northern Hokkaido or Karafuto prefecture (Sakhalin) and were collected during the early 20th century.

All in all, I would love to see more of these used for bonsai going forward. In my growing zone, they are a particularly excellent choice since they are non-fussy for winter protection, being cold hardy to USDA Zone 2.