Kiyohime happiness

[tanlu]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to post photos of my first potted tree. This Kiyohime has gone under tremendous changes in a very short period of time, and is responding beautifully. It's been a fun learning process. Here are some photos of its progression.


Tree as purchased last summer.


Tree after chopping off most of the branches in Nov and repotting in early March. The pot isn't great, but it was free


Tree leafing out. It doesn't look great in the photo, but when viewed in person the branch structure is actually visually pleasing. I'm working on bringing the two branches with the wire closer together each year. This was already pushing the limit since Kiyohime are so damn brittle!

Constructive input is most welcome.

T

 

[tanlu]

Also, I wanted to know if putting moss over the top of some of the soil would aid in surface root development?

 

[discusmike]

Kiyohime do better in a deeper pot,hard to tell from the photo,but it looks a bit shallow,nice start.

 

[Dan W.]

Beautiful tree It looks like it has a very bright future!

 

[Concorde]

Nice looking kiyohime. I also love kiyohime as well as kotohime maples. Keep us posted with future pics.

Art

 

[JudyB]

It's very nice, but I like the way the branches move away from each other, it holds my eye with more interest than if they were close. And the area between will fill in time...

I have read that chopped spagnum can help to keep the top of the soil moist which will aid in root development, but I've not tried this...

 

[iant]

Very nice tree. On the left trunk you have 4 branches coming out of the same spot. It's starting to cause some inverse taper there which you can see in the 2nd photo. You may want to consider removing a couple of those branches and filling in the space from branching a little higher up.
(I'm still fairly new to bonsai so you should take my advice with a grain of salt!)
Ian