This mixed forest/landscape is from Spain. The Museo del Bonsai Marbella to be exact (from Bonsais del Sur). It's too bad the pot is chopped off and the whole photo is cramped, but that's the way we found it. Still, from what we can see, it look s like a very ambitious project with a numerous type trees and other features to integrate. No mean feat to pull off

Today we’ll stay on our forest and other multiple trunk theme of late, only this time it’s mixed bonsai forests from mixed sources. Mixed forests present challenges all there own and are not as common as single variety forests

Forests with mixed species can be a little tricky; not only does the planting have to make sense aesthetically, particularly when it comes to questions of scale, but the various types of trees should make sense growing together (would you find them growing together in nature?) Not that you can’t experiment with trees that normally might not grow in the exact same locations, but the more different their natural habitats are, the more unnatural the planting might seem and the more difficult it is to keep all the trees healthy.

This mixed forest is one of my favorites. It’s from Saburo Kato’s Forest, Rock Planting & Ezo Spruce Bonsai (published by The National Bonsai Foundation and distributed by Stone Lantern).

Here's the cover. The forest in this case is all one species; Ezo spruce, a favorite of Kato's. This beautifully done, classic book is one of the best bonsai forest books, if not one of the best bonsai books period.

This swirl of colors is a different kind of mixed forest. All the trees are one species (Japanese maple) but there are at least four or five different varieties. It's by Juan José Bueno Gil. Note: I'm not sure why the trunks are so white. Not something you'd expect with Japanese maples. Maybe someone fiddled with photoshop a little too much?