Beginner Dogwood Advice

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Hi all!
I discovered bonsai few months ago pretty much by chance. I immediately fell in love with the artform through resources like Peter Chan on youtube. As I will be moving from my childhood home down the line I decided that a great project would be to make a bonsai from each of the sentimental tree types I grew up with so they can live on now I am in adulthood.
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I guess my questions would be some advice and thoughts for the design direction of the tree and tips for working with dogwood or what I can do better in general. I think it has an interesting base and a clear front but besides that, I don't have a plan. the trunk and branches are way too long and strait but that's all sacrificial to me. It will probably be a few years before the trunk thickens enough to use but hey its nice to have a goal to work towards.
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The tree is a dogwood of some description. At first, I thought it was a native pacific dogwood but it flowers pink which likely makes it a typical flowering dogwood. The mother tree is likely 30 years old but has been stunted by poor light access and storm damage making it a nice garden tee in its own right. But the actual subject at hand was actually a sucker from said main tree. I dug it up roughly 2 months ago when I was fortunate that it had its own roots besides its feeder from the mothership. They wholly consist of two long roots which are visible on the surface. I accidentally bare-rooted it where I was sure I killed it when I thought it had too few roots. To lessen the strain on the roots I even cut off the top half of the tree (it was 5ft tall) and sealed the wound with mud (yes you read that correctly). Later I found out that it had more than enough and much bigger trees have been transplanted with less. I then "potted" it up with the same soil from whence it came (mulch-like with some rocks) into a water bucket with holes drilled and drainage pebbles added.

A month of nervous daily watering later the buds started to open and I was relieved that it had survived the operation. Now today it has nice green leaves and I assume its fairly healthy. I think its 6 weeks behind the main tree in terms of the growth going by the small size of the leaves.

Since potting, I am just watering and keeping it in the sun to strengthen as much as possible.
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Thanks for your time! I hope you got a kick out of my janky inexperienced methods.

-Thomas
 

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MMJNICE

Mame
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Hey tracks.. I wish I had some real good advice for you on your dogwood but I just Acquired my first dogwood bonsai myself. I had to do a trunk Chop of sorts because it had twin trunks and not the good kind I cut the thicker or the twins and by doing that has created a nice little tapering effect. My dogwood is an cornus kousa.. I think that your off to a good start.. maybe get some wire on it and continue the movement in the further up the tree. And next spring you'll definitely need to repot it in a nice bonsai soil instead of garden mud like Peter calls it.. yup I like his YouTube videos too. Tho he is pretty Brutal with his styling and potting. Sometimes I totally don't like his styling but other times he nails it!
 
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sorce

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Welcome to Crazy!

Sorce
 
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