Best current 3d modeling for organic forms (Trees, Rocks in particular)

[Southern Crane]

Just wondering what the current consensus is on the best option both free and paid to use at the moment for a focus on organics like trees and rocks for hobby use.

Blender, 123D, Sketchup or Metasequoia for free?

Thank you.

[Dumont]

From personal experience, I can only speak to Blender on this list, but it has come a LONG LONG way in the last decade and is now an incredibly powerful framework for a free piece of software.

Depending on what you want to do, however, it might even be *too* complex, and your desires may be to work with something more streamlined. I would definitely at least crack it open though and find some YouTube tutorials, and play around.

[Mouse]

There's a really useful 'draw sapling' plugin for Blender, but I've no idea how that measures up with anything else. The downside is that you need a PC with plenty of RAM and a really fast video card.

Doesn't do too well on my cheap little laptop!