Dwarf Ligustrum – first styling

Remember the ‘Before and After Shots’ of the Dwarf Ligustrum? If not visit the blog post pix from July 19, 2013.  But here is the picture after it’s first styling last year.

Thought you might like to see a pix of it today — see below.  It was trimmed a couple of weeks ago after some long summer growth and here it is now.

 

For a little guy, it puts out a lot of new growth so it must be controlled if you want to have a good bonsai but isn’t it sweet.  Of course, there is still more work to be done with the growth of the tree, the shortening and styling of the top. After that, the next step will be to put it in a bonsai pot. That’s always fun.  Choosing the right pot is rewarding and makes all the difference but I guess that’s the subject of another blog post for a rainy day.

 

Enjoy bonsai and life.
Sandy R

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If you have read my blog for any amount of time, you probably realize I don’t do small trees.  So I found myself with a bit of a problem as the Tokonama competition draws near.  This means that I better do a small tree, and I better do it fast.  I found that small pre-bonsai material is CHEAP.  I picked up a small Procumbens Nana today at Home Depot (of all places) foronly $4.oo.  It was so dense I couldn’t see the trunk, but I knew I only needed a small tree.  So no matter what trunk I had in there it would be fine.

Just look how dense that foliage is.  It took me a few minutes just to figure out where to start. 

I was surprized to see such a large trunk when I started to remove the branches. I had really wanted something a little smaller, and I was hoping to do a cascade.  There were many options in there, but I needed to find something that looks like an established tree.

This is how it turned out.  Not the cascade I was hoping for, but I’m pretty happy with it.  The picture was taken right after I watered it, so it has a shine to it.  I’m going to hold off on the pictures of the tree in the Tokonama until after the competition.  However the funny thing about it is that this tree, even though it is very small, looks big in the Tokonama.  Fun stuff.  I may get used to doing little trees after all.  Who knows?

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Today I defoliated the tree today to find a mess of crossing branches and undefined branch structure. The tree is very healthy however and was full of thorns. June 2008

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Guy Guidry suggested to style the tree like this.

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