shimpaku styling

EPM

Mame
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Bought these two Shimpaku's recently. One is much larger than the other.

The smaller one is probably a 1/2 inch trunk at most. I know it's too small to really do much with but I'd like to wire/prune it with the goal of growing it out and letting it develop into good pre-bonsai. With that end in mind what would you do to this plant? (I'm planning to give it some space to grow so don't waste your keystrokes on that).

The larger plant I bought because I didn't have a shimpaku at the time, the price was good, and thought at the very least I could take some cuttings from the plant or stick it in the ground and let it grow some more. Looking at this plant, is there enough there to make something reasonable out of it now? If so, what would you do to it? Being a beginner, the trouble I'm having with this one is that the trunk comes up a couple inches and then splits into many branches that fan out (though not necessarily in a true whorl/spoke&hub fashion, just that within a 6 inch diameter volume there are a lot of somewhat thick branches coming off the main short trunk, so it's hard to identify a longer trunk if there is one . I'm just having trouble seeing what I can make of it. I hope the pictures convey what I'm talking about.

I appreciate your thoughts and comments. Thanks.

image1-1.JPG image2-1.JPG image3-1.JPG image1-2.JPG image2-2.JPG image3-2.JPG
 

WyldStallyn

Seedling
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The first thing you need to do with the big guy is clean it up. Get rid of any dead or weak foliage, anything growing straight downward. Then you'll have a much better opportunity to look INTO the tree to see if a style pops out at you. If not, put it back on the bench and wait until it does. At the very least it'd be good for scions for grafting.

I'd raffia and wire the trunk of the little one and twist the tar out of it and let it grow. Smoke has a thread on here somewhere about twisting up small shimps like this to turn them into yamadori-ish looking trees in the future. Just search for it.

Good luck!
 

EPM

Mame
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The first thing you need to do with the big guy is clean it up. Get rid of any dead or weak foliage, anything growing straight downward. Then you'll have a much better opportunity to look INTO the tree to see if a style pops out at you. If not, put it back on the bench and wait until it does. At the very least it'd be good for scions for grafting.

I'd raffia and wire the trunk of the little one and twist the tar out of it and let it grow. Smoke has a thread on here somewhere about twisting up small shimps like this to turn them into yamadori-ish looking trees in the future. Just search for it.

Good luck!
Thanks for the advice and info!
 

sorce

Nonsense Rascal
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Same month counts!

Welcome to Crazy!

Nice!

Sorce
 
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