treebeard55
Chumono
Back in March our club obtained some field-grown shimpakus at a very reasonable price. I ended up (by choice) with one that had some interesting trunk movement, but also a potential problem: there were several places where two or more branches were emerging from the trunk at the same point. Reverse taper, enough to notice, was starting to develop already at two of those points.
I repotted the same day (we received the trees, dug the day before, in field soil.) Wherever two or more branches arose at the same spot, I removed all but one. By the time I finished that and chased back the longest shoots a little, I had taken off enough that I stopped pruning for this year.
Nothing more will be done for at least a year, possibly two, but it's not too early to consider design options. I plan to make this tree a bunjin, because the trunk movement is one of its best features, and bunjin style will highlight that. (Bearing in mind Susumu Nakamura's observation: "To make a bunjin is easy. To make a bunjin masterpiece is difficult." )
Here's a picture of the tree as it is now, and virts of five possible future options that I see. Right now I lean toward Option 4 myself. Comments and suggestions are welcome. One of you may see something I don't see yet.
I repotted the same day (we received the trees, dug the day before, in field soil.) Wherever two or more branches arose at the same spot, I removed all but one. By the time I finished that and chased back the longest shoots a little, I had taken off enough that I stopped pruning for this year.
Nothing more will be done for at least a year, possibly two, but it's not too early to consider design options. I plan to make this tree a bunjin, because the trunk movement is one of its best features, and bunjin style will highlight that. (Bearing in mind Susumu Nakamura's observation: "To make a bunjin is easy. To make a bunjin masterpiece is difficult." )
Here's a picture of the tree as it is now, and virts of five possible future options that I see. Right now I lean toward Option 4 myself. Comments and suggestions are welcome. One of you may see something I don't see yet.