Growing trees for winter silhouette- Catalpa and Platanus

[Jzack605]

Curious if anyone grows trees for winter silhouettes that would not make great bonsai in the growing season. Two trees of interest to me would be Catalpa and Platanus species (London Plane, Sycamote, etc.) I suspect both species have leaves much too large for bonsai but these are two of my favorites when it comes to winter silhouettes.

 

[Jzack605]

Horsechestnut would be another.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Horse chestnut is pretty coarse in the sense that it makes fat twigs and has huge buds.
But I'm keeping them none the less. Castanea sativa would be a better type of chestnut though, it has huge leaves but the twigs are significantly smaller.

Ash is a good and cheap subject too. Develops quite fast and it's almost indestructible.

 

[PA_Penjing]

As WGW mentioned above somewhat, when a tree has giant coarse leaves it tends to have giant coarse growth. It's not coincidence that zelkova and ulmus have the most striking naked images. I know someone on here has a sycamore for sake of winter silhouette but I forget if it was any good. It's always best to experiment and see for yourself but I wouldn't spend any money on this project. Obviously the bigger you go the better it will look

 

[Jzack605]

Yeah they’d be low cost experiments, and no doubt species that would need to be larger.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Yes, some grow for winter silhouette. Seldom is a tree grown for just a single season.

For example, Wisteria and Magnolia, are grown for winter silhouette and early spring flowering. The late spring and summer flowering Magnolia are not normally used as large leaves interfere with a nice image.

The coarse branches of Sycamore (Platanus) would likely keep it in the "fail" category. Catalpa are usually attempted by those that love the flowers. Again the branching is coarse, but not as coarse as Platanus.

Ash (Fraxinus) the eastern North American species are not good for bonsai, too coarse in branching. But some of the desert dwelling species, and the Asian species may be better, I'm not familiar with them.

In general, with species with coarse branching patterns, long internodes, you need to "go big" to get the sense of proportions right. Or you need to "go abstract", using extreme minimalist representation for the emotional impact of a "image of a tree", like a brush painting, a single stroke representing that which is much more complex.

So try if you want, who knows, you might be able to bring an image together. But I am not artistic enough to invest the time it takes to make one of these coarse branching species a project. The finer branching species, like elms and hornbeams, will allow an "mere mortal" like myself create a pleasant bonsai.

You can apply bonsai technique to just about any woody species of tree or shrub or even herbs and perennial flowering plants, but some will yield pleasant results much easier than others.