"Make That a Four Year Progression", and Other Changes
Here's a fun tree, IMO. These guys grow great up here, the foliage so vigorous it's hard to keep up with. Pest free, at least here.
I bought this tree 4 years ago from Dan Robinson. It had been field grown for 40 years before he acquired it, I forget who from. I liked the trunk and the overall ungainly quality of the thing, and I loved the unruly nebari. The top seemed hopeless, and I initially had no idea what I would do to correct that, but I thought it would be fun to try to make something out of it.
The first photo was taken that season, transplanted into a training pot, although I still had no clue how I might train it. I sat with it over a long period of time trying to get a sense of it's growth habits and how it might want to go. The down hanging back bud, and the smaller back bud further down were all I had to work with short of something like a graft or some radical solution. I protected those two back buds, and it paid off nicely. They back bud rarely onto really old wood - I was quite fortunate.
I also piled some sphagnum moss over the flat, almost concave base at the rear after scarring and applying growth hormone in a number of areas. It cannot be seen well in subsequent photos, but many small roots developed, and are thickening nicely - next year or two I may repeat the process to create a more viable base in the back, and I've even thought of making that the front since the trunk, though lacking the uro, has an overall more pleasing shape from that side.
In 2007 I transfered it into a slightly smaller drum, and gave it it's initial styling.
Third is an HDR photo from 2008 that shows it in an Erin pot, with some wild summer foliage bursting at the seams after a mere year. The growth on this guy is extremely impressive, making the styling fascinating - it's like a whole new tree with lots of new possibilities every year if I want it to be.