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VERY attractive :)

What type is your small tree (centre of pic)?
I love small trees, and am in the process of sourcing an immature Catalpa, to grow as a bonsai!

This is a Sargentii Crab. I planted it about 15 years ago, ordered it from a reliable nursery. I wanted a tree that would be clean and spread rather than go up. It looked a bit odd at first but now is exactly right I think. Would a catalpa make a mess??? (in the fall)? The Sargentii has gone out of fashion here, everyone wants quick results-- I have a pair of these, one down below. You can make the branches interesting but the berries and the Spring blooms are beautiful.

Thanks Posy. Maybe I should try dwarfing a crab apple instead? A bonsai Catalpa is unlikely to make a mess, as it would be a long time before flowering! But I will look into it more carefully . . .

I lived in Princeton NJ, warmer Zone than Vermont. Catalpas everywhere, beware.

How about a small evergreen? There are a lot of good topiaries from these. do you want Bonsai?

Growing dwarf trees is an absorbing hobby of mine Posy. I have a miniature Hawthorn, Cotoneaster, Copper Beech, Silver Birch, Acer, and many others - I'm not an expert (don't wire them for example) - it's just a bit of fun!

Sheila..I thought of you at Dundee food and flower festival. There was a stunning crab apple bonsai. I've no idea what kind. Would it be possible to grow a suitable one from seed o you think? I would love a bonsai fruiting tree!

Wow Karen - how lovely! It would be fun to try, but I haven't yet had any fruit from my crab apple . . .

Hmmm...pity.

Oooh, my mistake . . . just looked this afternoon, and it DOES have tiny crab apples! It's a very new tree, so not sure whether they'll get much bigger, but I'll look out for the seed :)

Brilliant! :)) we forget to look sometimes don't we! The one I saw was a beautiful shape, but the apples looked too big for the scale of the plant. Didnt spoil it exactly, but It would be better if the fruit were in scale.

Exactly Karen - 'scale' is everything. That's why I won't be growing a bonsai Wisteria, because the flowers look much too big on a dwarf plant.

Could not agree more. Scale is the challenge for everyone, and then there is texture! It is just like the five principles of good Art.

You got me curious there Posy so I googled that....and it gave me 7:

In summary, the principles of art are:
balance.
proportion.
emphasis.
variety.
movement.
rhythm.
harmony.

Thank you though...I've never been taught them :) Will help me with my painting.x

Very useful - and the principle of the Golden Section applies to garden design too.