For the record... If there isn't actually any deadwood on the front of
that trunk, I wouldn't DARE carve into a Bougie !!!
I have a whole yard full of Bougies that their day as a bonsai will be
very short live !!! Because of the rotting and falling apart deadwood...
Quite a few of these have actually required intervention in the form of
drilling and adding screws to hold them actually together !!!
Wood preserver only slightly prolongs this. With Bougies they will
actually wick up moisture as well from within the trunk, which there
is no way to apply preserver too... So, the outside will be hard, and
just behind it will be mush...
There is a difference when one collects a tree that already has problems,
and tree that doesn't ... that you just created them...
Just my nickel, 2 dimes and 15 pennies...