For some reason that I cannot discern, using tikz={\node [draw,circle,fit to tree]{};} to draw a circle around nodes in a tree works as expected if the nodes are embedded in a larger tree.
However, this does not work if you want to draw a circle around the entire tree:

How can I draw a circle around an entire tree with forest?
MWE
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{forest}
\forestset{sn edges/.style={for tree={parent anchor=south, child anchor=north}}}
\begin{document}
\begin{forest} baseline, sn edges
[w
[x]
[y, s sep=20pt
[z]
[a,tikz={\node [draw,circle,fit to tree]{};}
[b]
[c,circle,draw]
]
]
]
\end{forest}
\vspace{5em}
\begin{forest} baseline, sn edges
[a,tikz={\node [draw,circle,fit to tree]{};}
[b]
[c,circle,draw]
]
\end{forest}
\end{document}


grow=0for nodeswandy. I'll try to fix this asap. – Sašo Živanović Dec 02 '14 at 07:36:P– Adam Liter Dec 02 '14 at 15:06:P– Adam Liter Dec 02 '14 at 19:21pgf's transformation matrix in some calculation, so, in your example, essentially x and y coordinates got switched. However, as a major new version (1.1) should be out very soon, I don't think it makes much sense for me to publish a bugfix version, especially as there are workarounds for the problem. Unless you really want it, of course! – Sašo Živanović Dec 19 '14 at 14:18