AusBonsai

Indulged in my pot addiction this weekend.

Really liking this Hattori pot. Pictured with 210mm concave cutter for scale.



The bottom - used but in great condition. Oiled it with camelia oil (because I heard that's what people do) and noticed more details.


Slightly indented tie-down holes.


Crackle glaze.


Not sure what tree to put into it. Was thinking about a chojubai - to highlight the flowers. I'm a newbie to pot selection though, so feel free to let me know your opinion on why this works / doesn't work, or any other suggestions for trees that might suit it and why.


Other pots.

Nice grabs!

I don't own any Hattori pots but they have a lovely quality to them that I appreciate, just they tend to be on the smaller sizes than I need

Tree selection for a pot is an interesting area to get into. The obvious one to do is a tree that has a colour (flower/ bark/ leaf) that is opposite the pot colour on the colour wheel that makes that colour pop more dramatically. This is done commonly with deciduous using a blue pot to make the red leaves even more attention grabbing

Another option is to use a tree that has subtle similarities to the pot colour, this enhances the tree while making the effect of the pot less noticable. This is what I did with the pot my Chinese elm was in for the show. I don't know for others but for me it kept forcing my eye back to the tree itself, like my eye didn't want to rest on looking at the pot at all

If you have a tree growing over a mossy rock I think the same effect could be achieved with this soft green colour nicely, or a tree with mature grey bark like an olive?

Think of it like a frame for a painting; gold leaf will make everyone look at your painting, but they may appreciate the gold more than the painting. A simple wooden frame won't grab attention, but keeps they eye on the painting itself. Same thing with pots and colour use

At the end of the day these are really final choice though, I use whatever pot I've got for whatever poor tree I'm repotting at the time and that's totally fine. Only thing I would 100% avoid is using the same colour pot as the feature you want to show off ie using a yellow pot to display a forsythia in flower

Oh and given the choice I prefer used pots; already have the character new ones will take years or decades to develop, so there's nothing wrong with buying used pots as long as they are not broken

Is that the actual tree you are using?

Daluke wrote: ↑August 14th, 2023, 4:59 pm Is that the actual tree you are using?

Unfortunately no, just an image I found online.

I wish I had a chojubai that well developed... One day...

I was going to say the red flowers would pop on a white/cream/light blue.

I wish I had a chojubai that well developed... One day...

I've been growing Chojubai for around 15 years, maybe longer and I can let you know that it takes waaaay longer than that to get a trunk anywhere near that thickness. They grow very slow and put most energy into new suckers than into the main trunk.

Daluke wrote: ↑August 14th, 2023, 6:43 pm I was going to say the red flowers would pop on a white/cream/light blue.

I was thinking of an offwhite pot for a developed chojubai.

https://crataegus.com/2018/08/31/how-to ... -chojubai/

Both white and green in that post.

@shibui - I'm giving up on trunk thickness for chojubai. I'm just going to make a very ramified twig and enjoy the flowers I think.

The pot hole is one which people go down and can’t get out of lol

Daluke wrote: ↑August 15th, 2023, 10:58 am The pot hole is one which people go down and can’t get out of lol

How far down the hole are you? Or are you observing from a distance?

This channel sent me down the hole a bit further: https://www.youtube.com/@stonemonkey1968

shibui wrote: ↑August 14th, 2023, 7:28 pm

I wish I had a chojubai that well developed... One day...

I've been growing Chojubai for around 15 years, maybe longer and I can let you know that it takes waaaay longer than that to get a trunk anywhere near that thickness. They grow very slow and put most energy into new suckers than into the main trunk.

With control of suckers, ground growing does accelerate thickening substantially after the first year.

Some more pots. Shout out to bonsai ceramic in SA and bonsai island in VIC for these pots.