I responded to a friend of mine that asked me about one of his Mugo Pines. Sometimes I don't always know when I might get inspired to share something that I think is significant and appropriate. Just trying to keep some of what I think is the good stuff in one place.
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Your Mugo looks really happy and vigorous. It is about time to open the tree up a little so light can get into the interior of the tree. I would at this time go through and eliminate all of the downward facing needles. I would also remove all needles that are three seasons or older. Cut them don't pull them out, you do not want to destroy any latent bud hiding in the bark below the needles. Seeing these trees at this stage make me happy knowing that the tree is about two years away from being a really nice looking bonsai. We have to open it up and expose the branching and expose the tree hiding within the growth.
Unless we can see the branches and the trunk and contemplate how these two elements go together to make a tree it is only an accident that a bonsai emerges while growing outside the parameters of our mistakes and tendency to ignore the tree in frustration. Sometimes the tree will tell you what it wants to be as it ages, if you have a heart for it and your eyes are open.
Being aware of how trees grow and how bonsai are made sometimes, the grand plan reveals itself immediately, and sometimes only one element at a time. Many trees I have were developed after identifying one thing about a tree, usually the trunk. Sometimes the movement and harmony between the trunk and one or more branches will strike a tone telling you this is something to build on. What you see now may only be a shadow of what is to come but remember you too are growing and your vision is improving and your skill should be improving. I really like this little Mugo and I would be very happy to have it on my bench waiting for me to have a go at it.
I have begun to see that most of the problems in designing a Mugo is impatience. We are too quick to want results. The Mugo gives us so many options in the beginning that it is often a problem in choosing the wrong ones. Usually; when we are new we think in terms of standard styles and designs and attempt to make the tree into one of these designs. This is not bad, it is after all normal to have a plan, but is often less than fruitful in the long haul. If we try to push, cut, hack and force a tree into a mold it will show. If indeed bonsai is a reflection of nature we should approach our trees in much the same way nature does, nature does not set out to make an informal upright or a cascade or a windswept, it is the interaction between the forces of nature and the survivability and tenacity of the tree adapting to what nature wants to do that produces the beauty we have come to covet in our bonsai.
I do not mean to be preaching to you, I believe you know far more than where the above essay seems to assume less, and suggest more. I did go here because it is not often that the development of one of these Mugos seems to be going along the lines of things I can identify with as my own. I think this had to be said so I said it here and thank you for providing the opportunity to write it.
The earliest picture I have of this little guy goes back to 2012. I started the tree probably five years before that and as of now I cannot find that photo.
