A Procumbus Nana

[october]

It seems there was a miscommunication in regards to the front and leaning towards the viewer. Although most of the tree is leaning towards the viewe with the chosen front, the top of the tree is leaning/growing away from the viewer. In general, it is the apex or upper portion of the tree that should be growing towards the viewer. It is considered displeasing when the apex is growing away from the viewer. So my assessment that the original pic 2 was leaning towards the viewer was correct in that aspect.

Aesthetics aside, there are some things for future reference that should be mentioned. Leaving the apex like it is. That being as wide as it is and as long as it growing from front to back is probably going to cause you future problems. The branches are only going to get longer and become far out of proportion. Given enough time, the tree will be thickening up the branches in the places you don't want. Also, when you realize what is happening, you might have lost a good deal of interior growth so it might be difficult to reduce the silhouette at that point. Cutting back the apex will do several things. One, it will let more light penetrate down to the bottom branches. Also, it will balance the energy throughout the tree.

I am only mentioning all this to save you possible problems in the future. Even if you don't prune anything until next year, it is something that will need to be addressed at some point.

Rob

 

[Mellow Mullet]

Thanks everyone, I know that I need to do something to bring it out and your opinions really help. I think that ti=his weekend will be the time that I cut and wire. Thanks again.

 

[Vin]

What my rather inexperienced mind likes about using photo 2 as the front is how it tricks you into thinking the tree is relatively vertical. Then you look at it from the side and WHAM! I’m sure you’ll do it justice whichever front you choose. Very cool tree.

 

[Poink88]

This side is a possible front after tilting up and maybe rotating it a few degrees clockwise.

 

[Vance Wood]

So now that you've chosen your front I think there needs to be some decisions about extensions and negative space.

Extension is the lifelong job of bonsai, growth always wanders away from the trunk, design and horticulture pushes it back toward the trunk.

Negative space... You have foliage everywhere. A key design element is to define where foliage isn't. This is where the virts can help a little. All the foliage makes it look like a big lollipop on a stick.

The irony is that the trunk will look thicker if the branches aren't so long. Whenever I am done at a master workshop, so much foliage is taken off to reveal the trunk in a significant way.

Very good and accurate description of the living experience of growing a bonsai. Almost the entire bonsai adventure can be summed up between lines on your little assessment. Wonderful, every body should hang that on their walls.

 

[drew33998]

Just took a closer look at this one. It appears that your lower branches are thinner than your upper branches. This is problematic as the lower branches should always be the thickest since in nature they are the first to emerge and longest to be growing. The top branches may be a little too large for the trunk as a whole as well. You could either remove the smaller ones and use the larger ones to style the tree. Grow out the lower ones very long to try and get them larger, who knows how long that would take. Or do something else. Either way I think something needs to be done to resolve the branching size as it does not work to tell the story.

 

[drew33998]

This side is a possible front after tilting up and maybe rotating it a few degrees clockwise.

Reverse taper with this front Dario. If I use this front I will air layer and have two trees. Also fixes the problem that the higher branches are stronger than the lower ones. My .02 cents

 

[drew33998]

This is what I would think about. Air layer

 

[Poink88]

This is what I would think about. Air layer

I had the same virt actually prepared 2 days ago but decided against suggesting it. Don't know why.

Re: reverse taper...very easy to fix with juni. One word...shari. If he goes with the taller version, all the lower foliage will go (as I envision it).

 

[drew33998]

I had the same virt actually prepared 2 days ago but decided against suggesting it. Don't know why.

Re: reverse taper...very easy to fix with juni. One word...shari. If he goes with the taller version, all the lower foliage will go (as I envision it).

That is correct Shari would do. Interested to see what the plan wil be.