Lately, I decided to start offering Arborsculpture, scmething I used to enjoy for myself, back in the 80s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arborsculpture That's an article on Wikipedia that I've been helping with. It was started by an Arborsculpture expert, who I discovered to live 20 minutes west of me in Williams, Oregon. This tree manipulation is actually much easier to do than most people realize. A lot of it is bending and bracing. Much can be done without grafting too. The practice makes people much more aware of tree development and growth, and its much, much quicker to master than bonsai. Bonsai really requires a lot of time to do the right way. Arborsculpture really has no limits, and is up to the individual's imagination. It can involve bracing like bonsai, but often goes further into grafting. I've had quite a few bonsai trees. One of my college instructors in an Oregon landscape program was a bonsai master. Afterwards, I made bonsai trees for years. Eventually I gave them away as gifts because the watering needs were more than I wanted to be responsible for. One aspect about arborsculpture - the ones in the ground - the watering frequency needs are generally much less, since some projects remain in the garden permanently.
AWESOME! I've see it done with willows. They make tunnels for children to play in. The video was super! And my son can't understand why I don't want a low lying English walnut branch to be cut or any low lying branches. I try to purposely leave some low branches on my fruiting cherry trees, for my Grandchildren when they get older.
