BartelBe's A.p. KiyoHime yamadori

[BartelBe]

My first ever Yamadori (gardendori in fact) of a A.p. KiyoHime that I planted in te garden ten years ago with a foot of 7 cm and a stem about 3cm, alongside a A.p.Seiryu, which has a 8 cm foot.

Now that I potted op this lovely thingy, I'm unsure how to progress. The stem forks at about 30 cm (11 inch)
First things first, I'm letting the tree recover a full year before I start working on it.
I already saw it leafing out well and it has 10+ tiny sprout spots of new foliage popping up.
Any recommendations on what you would do with it are very welcome.

 

[Shibui]

First step is definitely letting the roots recover. It will need to be strong and healthy to cope with the next steps.

What does nebari look like? I prefer to start with the roots and work up whenever possible. If nebari needs work that would be a first step. Either layer to get a good, lateral root system or, try to graft in extra roots to enhance what is already there.

At some stage the long branches will need to be reduced - by quite a lot. It is usually a mistake to try to build branches from fast grown parts of JM because they almost always have long internodes which means branches that develop from those will be too far apart. I'm looking particularly at the younger, left side branch where nodes are a long way apart. In many cases, the best strategy is to chop all branches close to the trunk and then build new branching from the shoots that sprout after the hard prune but they will need to be restrained or you only get more long internodes.

I see that you have elected to keep a vertical lower trunk. Vertical does not usually produce the most interesting bonsai but may be the best option with collected garden trunks.

 

[BartelBe]

Thank you for the valuable input. This novice has lots to learn.