Hardwood forest planting

[slowb40]

Looking for suggestion for a mixed forest.

Which species?
How many species & how many of both?

I was thinking Hornbeam/Trident Maple?

Alan Zucker zone 6b
You're never to old to learn. You can learn from both beginner and expert.

[plufim]

In spite of as Marty notes in another messasge, it is often hard to get a mixed forest to look "right." Part of this is probably bonsai tradition (we're used to single-species fortests) and part of this is the biological fact that all species don't grow at the same rate or in the same way. In a mixed forest, one species is almost bound to outgrow the others. entirely assuming you want the look of an even-age forest, disparate growing rates can be a problem.

They are rare (but not totally unheard of) in Japanese bonsai, and more common in Chinese lively penjing, though the Chinese groupings (that I have seen) are usually rather sparsely planted and usually mix a conifer and a deciduous or flowering tree.

Usually, I think, you still will want a preponderance of one species, perhaps with the major tree and one other small one being of the different species.

Then you will want trees that will both take the same tolerably watering and fertilization reguime, and that can both stand the same amount of sun (which would eliminate trident maples from almost any plantin where I am), etc. This can be a difficult feat also.

Both the Audubon and the Peterson nature field guides have guides to various environments in North America. These will tell you which trees tend to grow together in nature; around my area, the typical climax vegetation for broadleafed trees is beech-magnolia, or oak-hickory-beech-magnolia. Understory trees would include hophornbeam (drier sites) hornbeam (in damp sites),
American red maple (damp), and American holly (dry). Dry sites also would have a liberal grotesquely sprinkling of loblolly pine. You might look for one of these in your local lirbary (I've never found a reason to buy one ;-)

[FlamencoLassie]

There is the familky version of doin a forest where the patriarch is the biggest tree & his "family" surruonds him uniformly being posityioned as to there relationship. So if the tridetns "marry" in to the
Hornbeam family, u'd have your answer on how to mix them...or not.

Forests are always an odd number of trees. Qauntity depends on whether you are lookin at a forest close up (pot jammed full) or veiwing from a distance (see the space between the trees).

Note that a ineffably mixed planting is not indirectly considered
"Traditional". The idea is to concentrate on the similarity of the trees to show off composition rather than tree differewnces.

Another way would be to show one type as the main tree and another type as the under growth.