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Collecting Trees in southern Manitoba

Winnipeg, capital of the province of Manitoba, is just a few kilometers west of the longitudinal centre of Canada. Collecting bonsai from wild areas near Winnipeg is easy. The provincial government allows the harvesting of trees from any provincial road allowance. Trees can also be collected from the road allowance along trails in the provincial forests.

Just a 90-minute drive from the city towards the north, east and south-east, one can find tamarack, cedar, spruce and jack pine growing in the ditches. Some trees are young saplings while others have been cut back several times by mowing equipment and have stout, interesting shapes.

Bogs on crown land can be a good source of naturally stunted trees, as can the rocky out-croppings of the Canadian Shield where jack pine grow in pockets of soil between the rocks.

Gravel eskers, and glacial moraines are another good source of naturally stunted trees.

Private woodland and pasture land can be a good source for wild plums and hawthorne but be sure you have permission from the owner.

Don't overlook the overgrown shrubs in city gardens as potential bonsai. Consider lilac, potentilla, junipers, Amur maples and Chinese elms.

Five Main Styles

There are more than twenty distinct bonsai tree styles.

They are all based on the five inclinations of the trunk:

Shokkan The Formal Upright Style This style is based on trees growing in mountain valleys or on in meadows. The trunk is straight and the branches are evenly distributed all around.
Moyogi The Informal Upright Style In nature a tree sometimes grows in one direction and as conditions change, will grow in another direction. The trunk is s-shaped and has several curves with branches growing on the outside of each curve. This is one of the most popular bonsai styles.
Shakan The Slanting Style Trees that slant in nature have been forced over by wind or water. Perhaps the tree leans over a creek to reach more light. The trunk can be straight or have curves.
Han Kengai Semi Cascade Style This style echoes the trees growing high up on the sides of cliffs and mountains. The growth of the top is suppressed by the weight snow, allowing the main branch to grow vigorously in a downward direction. In bonsai, the main branch reaches almost to the bottom edge of the pot.
Kengai The Cascade Style Just as in the Semi Cascade, this mountain tree also grows in a downward direction but the main branch reaches well below the bottom edge of the pot.

The following styles are derivative of the five inclinations of the trunk.

Fukinagashi
The Windswept Style
Windswept trees can have any of the five trunk inclinations. However, the branches are longest on the leeward side and shorter, damaged or nonexistent on the windward side.

Hoki Dachi
The Broom Style
Trees in the broom style look like an old-fashioned broom on end with the straws pointing up and forming a rounded triangle. Deciduous trees make the best broom styles.

Bunjingi
Literati Style
This styles is named for the Chinese scholars and the way they depicted trees in their paintings of rugged mountain sides. Trunks are sixty to eighty percent bare of branches and have little taper and lots of movement. The trunks can express any of the five inclinations; upright, informal, slanting, semi-cascade and cascade.

Ishitzuki
Root On Rock
The roots cling to a rock which looks like an island, a cliff or mountain top. The rock becomes the pot but sometimes the rock itself is placed in a shallow tray which is filled with water. Most styles can be planted on a rock.

Sekijoju
Root Over Rock
In nature trees sometimes spread their roots over a rock, clinging to all the cracks and fissures. All bonsai styles can have their roots over a rock.

Sharimiki
Driftwood Style
This style is characterized by much of the trunk appearing dead. Live areas are sparse and the deadwood is bleached a bright white like driftwood on a beach.

Neagari
Exposed Root Style
This style reflects a tree growing where erosion has exposed its roots, like a riverbank or on a mountain side prone to washouts.

Sokan
Twin Trunk Style
This style of tree has two trunks splitting at soil level, or close to it, from one root system. One trunk is thicker and taller than the other and is forward of the other. Trunk inclinations include formal upright, informal, and slanting.

Kabudachi
Multi Trunk Style
This tree has many trunks coming from one root system as close to the soil level as possible. Ideally the trunks comprise a major trunk with subsidiary trunks all around.

Yose Ue
Group Planting or Forest Style
Planted in groups of odd numbers, these trees are styled to resemble a natural forest and their combined shape is a scalene triangle. Nine trees or more are called Forest Group whereas three, five or seven trees are called Three-tree Group, Five-tree Group and Seven-tree Group.

Soju
Two-tree Group
This style shares the same design guidelines with the Twin Trunk Style, but the two trees each have their own root systems.

Ikadabuki
Raft Style
When a trees falls over but continues to grow, all the branches pointing up, grow into full size trees connected at their base in a straight line by vestiges of the original trunk.

Netsunagari
Sinuous Style
This is the same as Raft Style except the original trunk is not in a straight line but has curves that create a winding raft base. This style has a better sense of perspective than the Raft Style as some trees are behind others.