How to style trident maple

[BobbyLane]

In the UK the horse chestnut loves a dipping downward branch, but on those too you will first see the majority of stronger branches exiting the trunk in the upward phase, note how the tertiery twigs reach up to the light in most cases. even the ones on the underside of primary branches want to curl up.

that is typical deciduous habit.


Outside my front balcony is one.

 

[TomB]

typical deciduous habit.

I took this picture about an hour ago - mixed deciduous trees on the skyline. What strikes me is just how variable they are. There even some there that look like pines, and have deadwood

 

[BobbyLane]

if you like horizontal branches and you wanted to mimic a deciduous silhouette, you would need to arrange the branches first so they exit the trunk in the upwards phase, then have them dip or go horizontal and curl up at the tip. but thats half the job. you then need to wire the tips or tertery and secondary branches up up towards the light as they dont search for light by staying downwards. then as you go up the branches should ascend and its also common for more than one apice to form the entire crown.

 

[BobbyLane]

I took this picture about an hour ago - mixed deciduous trees on the skyline. What strikes me is just how variable they are. There even some there that look like pines, and have deadwood View attachment 345320

Thats true Tom, you will see variations, i think some of the characteristics i mentioned in my last post will come into play very often.
Even on those, the one standout feature is the rising branches as you go up.

 

[TomB]

Thats true Tom, you will see variations, i think some of the characteristics i mentioned in my last post will come into play very often.

Yep. I think " they exit the trunk in the upwards phase, then have them dip or go horizontal" - is true for about 90% of branches on 90% of trees.
On some species - Lime (Tilia) in particular - they may actually exit downwards a bit more often.
There are no absolute rules

 

[BobbyLane]

Yep. I think " they exit the trunk in the upwards phase, then have them dip or go horizontal" - is true for about 90% of branches on 90% of trees.
On some species - Lime (Tilia) in particular - they may actually exit downwards a bit more often.
There are no absolute rules

no rules i agree, BUT whatever you do, you want it to be convincing, or to look good. the pine style look on deciduous trees with all due respect to anyone who uses this style, its going to be extremely difficult for this image to look like a natural deciduous growing wild. but for most who love the style, that is not the goal, they just want to create good bonsai.