Well three and a half years later I was able to reduce and improve the root ball for an upgrade in the pot for this tree! It took several hours today for the final positioning. Several stronger key roots required some adjusting to fit the contours of this round pot by Sarah Rayner. The color matches the live vein perfectly when polished. I like the shape and size for this design and amount and shape of deadwood. The texture to the pot evokes a more natural setting but does not comp[ete with the tree. Pot size is 10 1/2 inch diameter at rim with 7 1/2 inch diameter in the bottom inside. Depth overall inside is 3 1/4 inches, matching closely the trunk width in the frontal view. The pot rests on a thin cedar slab.
At this point in time the apex is 14 1/2 inches above the rim and the tree is roughly the same width. It varies with the deadwood shape. This pot was one of the most favoured options, with the biggest drawback being the difficulty of adjusting the root ball to make it work. That was solved by two progressive repotting sessions. Some further compaction each time with time between for strengthening and new additional feeder roots to develop.
Once the tree has recovered from repotting, I will continue to clean and work with the deadwood and rewire, prune and rewire the foliage. At this point the structural wiring is finished and only detail wiring is used with the new foliage after pruning. Basically #20 and #22 gauge copper at this stage.
The tree is still in winter color with the brownish tinge to the tips. Within the next few weeks that will turn darker green and lighter green with new growth at the tips.