To choose a style for my hinoki

stromy

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I got this hinoki (Chirimen) earlier this year and would like to decide on its styling. I’d appreciate any ideas/suggestions to help me with it. Thank you all in advance.
 

stromy

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Picture added now, sorry :)
 

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BrianBay9

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Looks like it needs a few growth seasons to develop some trunk character. I'd take out the leader and the termini of the limbs and see how it goes. Have a look at Jonas' blog:

 

stromy

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Looks like it needs a few growth seasons to develop some trunk character. I'd take out the leader and the termini of the limbs and see how it goes. Have a look at Jonas' blog:

Thank you. However, the tree needed to be and thus has been repotted. As far as its styling, would you do any wiring/bending on it? I'd hesitate to wait too long as the trunk is getting pretty stiff.
 

ShimpakuBonsai

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At this point I think you should just let it grow and create more branches.

Start with pruning unnecessary foliage on the branches at their starting point at the trunk and the underside of the branches.
If you don't prune this kind of foliage it will grow into a really dense ball shape and you have to create your branches at an early state.

This year I started with Chirimen and Sekka hinoki myself.
I've watched a lot of youtube videos about Sekka hinoki (looks the same as Chirimen hinoki) to get to know this species because I couldn't find that much info about it on this forum and the internet in general.
I can recomment you to watch some videos of this youtube channel: Asao Koide`s BONSAI ch
 
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stromy

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ShimpakuBonsai, thank you for your thoughts as well as for the link (helpful channel).
 

Kanorin

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I agree that it's too young to "style it" as people commonly use that term around here. Usually that lingo refers to a point in the tree's progression where the trunk thickness is at or close to it's final desired size and you start to make decisions on the final trunk line and at least the primary branches (which to keep, which to bend, angles to bend, etc).

BUT, you can start to add some interest to the trunk line to set the tree up to be an interesting tree. It's probably too late to do major trunk bends (it's also very tough to do major trunk bends with hinoki in any case), but you could apply some guy wires to start working in some gentle bends in the trunk.
 

stromy

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I agree that it's too young to "style it" as people commonly use that term around here. Usually that lingo refers to a point in the tree's progression where the trunk thickness is at or close to it's final desired size and you start to make decisions on the final trunk line and at least the primary branches (which to keep, which to bend, angles to bend, etc).

BUT, you can start to add some interest to the trunk line to set the tree up to be an interesting tree. It's probably too late to do major trunk bends (it's also very tough to do major trunk bends with hinoki in any case), but you could apply some guy wires to start working in some gentle bends in the trunk.
Thank you for your comments, Kanorin.
I see styling as a process, which, depending on the tree species, particularly its wood flexibility or hardness, desired final style, and stage of the starting material, takes some years to accomplish (definitely NOT a one time matter), but which is better to start in young stage of the tree in order not to miss suitable time for certain steps. As we all know hinoki wood is hard... I can't go back to do something, which possibly has been missed but I can try not to miss things/steps since I have the tree, as you've suggested for its trunk. However, in my experience with any tree, it's good to be more or less clear about what is my final goal to avoid doing things, which might eventually contradict each other.
I guess I'd ask my question somehow differently: Seeing picture of my hinoki, what final style/design would you all suggest for it? Some pictures of accomplished hinoki bonsais would be a great and highly appreciated addition.
 

Kanorin

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There are a couple of sekka hinoki threads on this site and lots of images on the internet.

At the moment, it's a bit like taking a blank canvas with a few lines on it and asking dozens of artists how they would finish the painting. You'll get dozens of different answers.
Or you'll get people who are interested in helping out, but would rather not spend 15 minutes typing a response and working on a virtual design if we have no idea what direction YOU would like it to go.

I think you'll get the best response if you do a bit of the work and give people some kind of direction you'd like to head in or perhaps some images of hinoki that you find on the web that you would like to use for inspiration. Then people can give you more directional advice about steps to take to keep going further in that direction.
 
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