Help me style this mugo

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I picked this feller up this summer for $5 at a nursery sale. I gave it a rudimentary cleaning, identified a front, and did bud selection in the fall, but I'm still developing my eye, so my first styling attempt was a little haphazard. Who has thoughts about what style this tree lends itself to? Should I form a trunk line using the large branch on the left, or just remove it and use the existing trunk? (Or keep it for a while to thicken the trunk?)

I don't have grand ideas that this will be an impressive bonsai one day -- for now I'm trying to learn about the species, work on my design vision, and improve my skills.

(Please ignore the structural wire on the trunk. It's not doing anything at the moment).

 

[0soyoung]

In bonsai we expect to see foliage in a scalene triangle. It doesn't have to be that way in actual fact, just to appear to be. Faking things is a lot of bonsai design, IMHO. We want thin branches with little foliage in back, for example, because it makes the tree seem deeper or more 3D, though it is just creating an optical illusion. Bending branches back and forth in the plane of the view makes branches appear shorter and moves foliage closer to the trunk. This is called 'foreshortening' and is fundamental to bonsai design, IMHO.

Years ago I had a mugo similar to yours with which I learned a bit about some of these aspects. You might do some similar stylistic fiddling.

There is also some horticultural playing you can do over the next few years as mugos will bud on old/leafless wood, but they need to be growing vigorously first. If you get relatively long new shoots next spring, you can cut them back to 5 rows of fascicles (needle bundles) say, sometime around August after the new needles have been dark green for a while. As it gets rev'd up, you can even go so far as to remove all the seasons new growth but for a bit of green left at the branch tip, just like decanding a JBP. Mugos won't give you another flush that season, but will bud 'like crazy' on leafless wood. Possibly it will be a problem because there's really no telling where these new buds will show up, but you'll have a lot to choose from. Learn about this bit of horticulture with this tree and you'll get a lot farther faster with your next mugo, and the one after that, etc.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Mugos won't give you another flush that season, but will bud 'like crazy' on leafless wood.

Two things that I've found as a noob with mugo pines is that 1) they will continuously flush juvenile needles if they're stressed, even throughout winter. And 2) the budding can take a year or two (with no work done) to happen.
Especially number 2 can be a real game changer; I was going for a cascade on a leggy mugo and I'll have ten different options presented to me next year due to vigorous backbudding.

Take it slow, and by that I mean use whole years instead of seasons unless Vance tells you otherwise. It will be more rewarding in the end, but it's going to be darn boring in the meantime. Honestly, apart from my longeava pines, mugo's are the most boring ones to work with if they show no obvious direction from the start. They just sit there all year, like some kind of plant in a pot.. Sickening.
I have 10 of them. Luckily they're as cheaper than a gas station sandwich over here.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Did you repot the mugo this summer? If so, don't do any more pruning until about a year after when it was repotted. Got to give the tree time to grow.

I suggest getting half a dozen more mugo, so that you won't be tempted to over work the mugo you got.

Your tree looks "Flat" or 2 dimensional in that all the branches go to the 2 sides, with nothing coming forward or out backward.

I'm not great at "designing" from photos. Rather than style from photos, I'd rather see it in person, to make suggestions.

Right now it is winter in the CHicago area. This tree should be outside, in cold storage, enjoying its winter nap. Mugo pines have a definite need for at least 3 months of cold dormancy. Growth will decline if this tree is deprived of its cold winter nap. My mugo is sitting, its pot on the ground in my back yard garden, with a few leaves piled around the pot. No other protection from the cold. Your tree should be out there too. If it has been indoors for more than a few hours, don't put it out tonight, we are supposed to get quite cold. Wait until the weekend when the daytime high will hit 40 F. Then put the tree outside, and let it stay out.

IT takes about 2 months to fully acclimate a tree to cold weather, where each night the temperature gets colder and colder. Bringing a tree indoors for more than 24 hours can undo much of the acquisition of cold hardiness. In winter it is important if you bring a tree in to work on, that you get it back out in the cold withing a few hours, or risk the tree being damaged by cold that it normally would have no trouble with.

The greater Chicago area has a very active bonsai scene. Attend a few bonsai club meetings, you don't have to join right away, see if you like the mix of people first. I think you would learn a bunch bringing this tree with you to visit someone. The options are the Midwest Bonsai Society meeting at the Chicago Botanic Garden, first Monday evening of the month, February thru November. There is also the Prairie State Bonsai Society that meets out at the Morton Arboretum in Lyle Illinois. There is Hidden Gardens Nursery in Willowbrook, IL. Jeff at Hidden Gardens offers classes and study groups, the the group classes and study groups are modestly priced, the individual classes are a little more expensive.

In addition there are at least 10 BNuts living in the Chicagoland area. I encourage them to reach out to you via the PM system that is part of BNut. I live in the Zion area, north of Gurnee, if that is geographically compatible with where you are at. I would not mind meeting sometime in the future to lend you some in person help with this tree. PM me for contact info if you are interested.

Midwest Bonsai Society

The Midwest Bonsai Society, based at the Chicago Botanic Garden, promotes public awareness, cultivation, and the living art of bonsai.

www.midwestbonsai.org

Front Page - Prairie State Bonsai Society

Winter Sihouette Exhibit Feburary 12, 2022 The 2nd annual PSBS Winter Silhouette Bonsai Exhibit is at Cantigny Park in Wheaton, IL. A Silhouette exhibit displays the bonsai without leaves and […]

prairiestatebonsai.com

The Hidden Gardens in Willowbrook, IL

 

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Thanks @Leo in N E Illinois

Great notes and suggestions, much appreciated.