Creating A Miniature Landscape

by Norman Haddrick

I was asked to demonstrate the process of creating a miniature landscape, using trees in a rock environment, for the October 15th meeting.

The Container:

For these landscapes, containers are traditionally shallow trays, which permit a visual focus on the composition, while creating a discrete framework in which to arrange trees and rocks. TBS President, Dick Morton, donated a nice oval, 22" X 12" ceramic tray, with rust coloured glazes. I took possession of the tray 4 weeks before the demonstration, to ensure that my selection of rocks did not conflict with the colour or texture of the tray. The oval contour of the tray, blended well with the visual movement of the selected trees.

The Rocks:

On my drives, I always seek rock out-croppings, where the ice affects surface layers to separate from the main body. In this case, I had chosen granite schist, from a Muskoka, location near our cottage. Ontario is a great place for gathering rocks. An important point to remember is, to match colours and textures of all of the rocks in any one composition, and to show the naturally eroded and textured surfaces, not the ugly breaks.

The Trees:

Several years ago, my garden greenery included a small 20' tall tree, species named Amelanchier, commonly called Serviceberry in Canada, or Juneberry in the USA. There are 13 varieties of Amelanchier growing across Canada, and 18 in the USA. So, it is tree readily available. They grow, in one variety or another, in every province. The mature bark creates an interesting striped pattern. In spring there is a profusion of white flowers, which turn into berries that are very popular with birds and squirrels. The fall leaf colour is also a brilliant blend, making this material a most enjoyable bonsai potential.

In this case, 6 years ago I had air-layered a number of branches on these Amelanchier, including one section where 3 'trunks' of differing diameters, grew from the same area of a secondary branch. These were selected for air layering due to the 'flowing movement' in their overall composition, which I felt would fit well into a windswept landscape, at some future date.

The Amelanchier air layering roots within 8 weeks, and adapts well to container growth. The benefit of air layering mature branches is that they continue to bloom and set fruit. After 3 years in a plastic nursery pot, I repotted all of them into over sized bonsai containers to further develop their root systems. This triple trunk example is what I chose to use for the demonstration.

The Remaining Preparation:

The main soil ingredient, which holds the rocks together, and apart, is a sticky "muck". I make this from 50% long-fibre Sphagnum moss, cut to 2" lengths and soaked in hot water. (It will just float on cold water.) Squeezing out most of the water, I then mix 50% (by volume), of "Black Earth", which is available from many garden centers. Thoroughly knead this mixture to a sticky mass, and keep it wet.

Bonsai soil is also added around the root system. In this particular 'demo' it was not used, since I left intact 85% of the root ball because of the lateness of the season. It fitted into the rock composition created for that purpose. Because of this solid root base, I also did not tie the tree down to the "hardware-cloth" base, as the trees were locked securely into place by rocks and muck.

Play sand was added to the remaining spaces around the rock, to simulate water, or sand, to the viewer.

Over all of this, wet moss is added on the muck surfaces and between the rocks. I recommend Bryum argenteum, which is very attractive and grows in full sun.

The Composition:

The main design influence here was the 3 tree windswept form. It was a simple matter to build a rocky mound, with liberal amounts of muck on the bottom of the tray, to stick the rocks down on, then to add thick layers of muck between each added layer of rock. A slight slope of the rocky mound compliments the 'windswept direction', moving the eye from right to left. I hope this design shows up well in the accompanying photos Reiner Goebel took.

In these plantings, preparation is everything. A few days of prior work allowed me to complete this demo within one hour. I encourage all TBS members to seek out material for similar plantings. While air layering deciduous trees is always a good experience in understanding how a tree functions, small nursery grown species are also a good source.

See Reiner Goebel for his catalog of containers.

I wish to thank the audience for their keen interest throughout the demo, and for the intelligent questions they asked.

The following series of images from Jean Charing and Reiner Goebel will give those members who were unable to attend a good idea of how to go about creating their own miniature landscapes.