First Real Material

[PKRK]

I caught the bonsai bug a couple months ago when I picked up a little juniper and a mass produced Chinese Elm and Tea Tree. I started reading articles and watching videos on how to keep them alive and just didn’t stop. My plan had been to properly get into the hobby in the spring doing air layers and digging invasive species for practice before trying to get any promising material. But then I found out that my local bonsai club was having a show/sale. One thing led to another and I walk out with a trident and a bald cypress. I’m posting here to see if anyone has any suggestions or thought about the trees and also just to have a personal progress thread.

The trident has some definite issues but it seems like a good fixer-upper to my untrained eye. It’s had a few chops to a new leader so there is taper and movement in the trunk and it has the start of a radial root system. I think the main things that I need to do are reduce the unsightly knobs from the chop sites and select which branches I want for the actual structure of the tree. I’ve got plenty of time to sit with the tree and get a plan since I don’t think I should do any pruning until the tree is dormant.

The bald cypress trunk is a little over 3” at the base and around 2” at the chop. I didn’t have any sort of plan when I bought it I just liked the trunk. I‘ve started watching videos on BCs, mostly Billsbayou, to get styling ideas.

 

[BunjaeKorea]

One thing led to another and I walk out with a trident and a bald cypress.

This has to be the funniest sentence I have read in a long time.

Anyway. To your point. Try mocking up some sketches of what you want.
Newbies need to know:
What does the tree want to be?
What do I want the end result to be?
What do I need to keep to do that?
What do I need to remove to do that?
Can the tree handle that and remain healthy at this time, season, current condition, humidity etc?
Slow wins the game in bonsai so keep doing your homework and welcome to the most incurable addiction in the world.