Where to start with kusamono?

[badatusernames]

Curious if this ground has been trod before and if I'm missing a broad and general kusamono thread... if not, everyone, feel free to pile on with other questions or chitchat!

I know absolutely zero about kusamono, and I'm curious as to where to start. Are they plants you tend to keep permanently, or are they more gathered from the environment for a brief appearance? Honestly, I have a few pots I'd like to put some things in >_>

 

[n8]

There is a kusamono forum here: https://www.bonsainut.com/forums/accent-plants.27/

I probably have more completed kusamono than bonsai. I collect ferns, horsetail and other interesting riverbank plants when I'm out fishing and stuff 'em in my waders. I also have a few friends with nurseries in town and they tip me off to good small-pot prospects. Latest idea-brain pickup is conehead thyme, which looks like a mini-mini Sierra juniper, rugged bark and everyhing.

You gotta look at (most of) your accents just like your bonsai: long-term projects. While some you may grow from seed every year (quaking grass, I love you), the majority should have a grown-in appearance for display.

If you have some pots that need using, collect some local plants, visit a nursery or order some terrestrial orchid bulbs.

I also recommend Kyuzo Murata's Four Seasons of Bonsai Paperback, which really turned my brain around on non-woody bonsai prospects and led me to plant more kusamono in the first place. It's also just a really nice picture book to be had on the cheap.

 

[MrWunderful]

Young Choe is considered one of the top Kusamono artists. Look up her work.

 

[badatusernames]

There is a kusamono forum here: https://www.bonsainut.com/forums/accent-plants.27/

I probably have more completed kusamono than bonsai. I collect ferns, horsetail and other interesting riverbank plants when I'm out fishing and stuff 'em in my waders. I also have a few friends with nurseries in town and they tip me off to good small-pot prospects. Latest idea-brain pickup is conehead thyme, which looks like a mini-mini Sierra juniper, rugged bark and everyhing.

You gotta look at (most of) your accents just like your bonsai: long-term projects. While some you may grow from seed every year (quaking grass, I love you), the majority should have a grown-in appearance for display.

If you have some pots that need using, collect some local plants, visit a nursery or order some terrestrial orchid bulbs.

I also recommend Kyuzo Murata's Four Seasons of Bonsai Paperback, which really turned my brain around on non-woody bonsai prospects and led me to plant more kusamono in the first place. It's also just a really nice picture book to be had on the cheap.

Oh man, I don't know how I missed that, thank you!

Consider this thread answered, haha

Young Choe is considered one of the top Kusamono artists. Look up her work.

Will do!

 

[sorce]

And @Chuah wife Soon.

@TomB kills!

I think it's important that they make sense in a display.
Not high mountain flowers with BC.
Not bog plants with RMJ.

Good thing is almost everything local works if you keep local plants.

It's important, I believe, to utilize a still position to the sun to create a natural movement.

There is nothing more darling than the little ones reaching up.

Sorce