Small Japanese Maple Forest

[BCS1980UK]

One of our bonsai club members is downsizing his collection, and I couldn’t resist taking this little Japanese maple forest off his hands—especially at an unmissable price!
Yes, I know… there are only four trees. I might try propagating a few cuttings and add a fifth down the line, but honestly, I really love the composition just as it is.



(Edited to add: According to the previous owner, he grew this group from seeds he picked up off the street—how cool is that?)

 

[Shibui]

Nice pick up.
I count 5 main trunks but I guess the tree on the right splits and the fork is hidden behind that leaf?
I agree that another trunk or maybe a few more will help the composition and with more random trunk thickness. Good luck with cuttings. I know cuttings of JM are very difficult for me so I start all JM as seeds. Cuttings will ensure the new trees look similar to the existing trunks but if you can find a similar looking JM most seedlings from it will usually be similar enough to fit in.

Growing bonsai from seed is very cool, but need to remember that all plants originally started as seed. Seed is a great option provided you are committed to a long term project. It is certainly very satisfying to look back at the whole process.

 

[Colorado]

Very cool! I don’t think I would have been able to resist, either. Ha!

For a forest, personally I don’t think it is all too important to have the same genetics for all the trunks. In fact the minor variation in leaf type might add to the “forest” image (contrasted to a clump where all the trunks are connected to a single root base, then I’d want to see all the same leaf type since it’s a singular tree).

I do think that another trunk would look nice.

 

[Michael P]

In my three tree trident maple group, all the trees look alike when in mature foliage. But one has different colored spring and fall foliage, plus it begins growth in spring and shows fall color on a different schedule than the other two. As @Colorado says, to me it makes the group look more natural and interesting.