This is a forest of Vine Maples, Acer circinatum, that came to the studio recently. Last week we took it apart and redesigned it.

This forest has older plants with a few young ones. The age range has promise, but there is a uniformity to the design. I see this a lot in Western bonsai—a “polite rootball” design, for lack of a better term. We tend to keep a full, 360-degree radial root system intact on our forest trees at the time of creation, which forces even-spaced placement.

Seasonal workshop students dismembering the forest. So far the root balls are full and radial. And for now, that’s OK.

This medium-sized Vine Maple was also bare-rooted. The forest could use a tree with this trunk width.

Here is the reworked forest. We left two trunks of the original forest out. Added the medium-sized trunk to the right. And repositioned the rest.

Now we have some trunks very close together. Students cut away parts of the root system to be able to place trees trunk-to-trunk, wood-on-wood.

It is best to wait to see where you want each tree before cutting a big hole in the root system. But being bold with the roots is what opens up placement possibilities, and which brings variation, negative space, and movement.

Single trees often have movement. Forest plantings can also have movement within the planting, which adds a level of delight to them.