MACH5
Imperial Masterpiece
Last year I traded Judy for this beautiful and elegant red cultivar of European beech (fagus sylvatica). I have long loved this tree for its beautiful smooth light bark, scarless and thin elegant trunk and gorgeous foliage. Yes there is still a place for thin trunked trees in the bonsai world. The tree looks strong and healthy with well placed and developed branches. Judy acquired this tree a few years ago and did a beautiful job moving it forward and keeping it strong and healthy. It clearly thrived under her care.
When I received it from her it had a beautiful yellow golden autumn color. After I enjoyed it for a while, I defoliated it to get a better look at the general structure. In looking at the overall canopy mass against the trunk girth, I decided to reduce and simplify it to enhance its elegance. In the photos I tilted the tree slightly with a small piece of cardboard underneath to enhance the movement towards the left.
Here is Judy's original thread which is titled "Japanese Red Beech": https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/japanese-red-beech.15074/. In that thread, it was determined it was a red cultivar of European beech and not a Japanese beech. The bark almost seems to glow and is much whiter than many other sylvaticas I have seen which have a much grayer bark coloration.
Below the tree recently pruned, wired and set for its next phase of development.
A root that was growing awkwardly upwards and towards the front was cut back shorter to roots growing closer to the trunk.
When I received it from her it had a beautiful yellow golden autumn color. After I enjoyed it for a while, I defoliated it to get a better look at the general structure. In looking at the overall canopy mass against the trunk girth, I decided to reduce and simplify it to enhance its elegance. In the photos I tilted the tree slightly with a small piece of cardboard underneath to enhance the movement towards the left.
Here is Judy's original thread which is titled "Japanese Red Beech": https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/japanese-red-beech.15074/. In that thread, it was determined it was a red cultivar of European beech and not a Japanese beech. The bark almost seems to glow and is much whiter than many other sylvaticas I have seen which have a much grayer bark coloration.
Below the tree recently pruned, wired and set for its next phase of development.
A root that was growing awkwardly upwards and towards the front was cut back shorter to roots growing closer to the trunk.
This tree is actually much larger than I had originally thought at 32" tall. This is one tree that has been grown slowly in a pot for many years and will continue to improve. It has that "slowly cooked" quality as I like to say.
