New spin on slabs-
A couple years ago I tried a nylon cooking board as a slab for a twin-trunk Mountain Hemlock.
Last year we had some fun here making a Vine Maple Tower, using an internal nylon board framework.
And earlier this spring we took a new spin on that idea, using this time a countertop material called Corian. Here are a few photos of a large Mountain Hemlock that I’ve yet to feature here (eventually…) being placed on a Corian slab:
Konnor (solids) and Bobby (stripes) bringing the Mountain Hemlock into the studio. It’s been on this plywood board since designing it a couple years back, and this year it was in danger of simply rotting away.
After sliding it onto the Corian board, Konnor traces the shape of the soil mass.
Bobby trying out a new idea, cutting the board at a 45% angle.
Glueing on the feet, just pieces of Corian-
I’m having a ridiculously hard time lifting the camera. Whew.
Our completed slab. We painted the cut 45% edge a dark grey. We rather liked the floating feeling of the large mossy mass, what do you think?
Michael Hagedorn 
12 Comments
Sir Hawthorne, it looks wonderful! One of my all time favorite viewing trees! The naturalness brings that melancholy feeling for the mountains.
Awesome!!! A very nice Shohin bonsai…
We tried a shohin pot but it looked a bit tight.
Tried your Idea yesterday with what I think is a white Lexan board (at least hard Plastic). The tree used was Scot pine being trained as a raft. It had been growing in a wooden box for 2 years. For feet on the lexan SS bolts are being used. The box was placed on top of the oval shaped hard plastic and taken apart board by board. The center of the oval board buckled so 2 more SS bolts had to be added.
I now have my fingers crossed. Thanks for the idea.
Tried your Idea yesterday with what I think is a white Lexan board (at least hard Plastic). The tree used was Scot pine being trained as a raft. It had been growing in a wooden box for 2 years. For feet on the lexan SS bolts are being used. The box was placed on top of the oval shaped hard plastic and taken apart board by board. The center of the oval board buckled so 2 more SS bolts had to be added.
I now have my fingers crossed. Thanks for the idea.
I’m all for planting in/on other than pots.
I read about it for the 1st time about 9 years ago in a book called “gardening on pavement, tables, and hard surfaces” by George Schenk. When reading your article I decided to try it. Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2014 02:27:28 +0000 To: paul3636@msn.com
looking forward to the complete hemlock article.
Cool ideas, and wonderful trees! Tsuga mertensiana is my favorite native conifer, it is nice to see them used as bonsai.
How did this material hold up? Where can this stuff be purchased?
It’s very durable…and ridiculously hard to find. I hear the manufacturer keeps a tight rein on its distribution.
As a retired Corian fabricator with 43 years experience, I would say simply call any shop that fabricates, and they will gladly sell you pieces. We did it all the time.