Assuming the photos are current shots to show regrowth after the chops?
Now you need to select the best new leader for the next stage of your trunk. That will involve considering the roots to pick the best nebari and the lower trunk to pick the best trunk line. It may also involve checking the new shoots on the lower trunk as possible branches. When you've assessed all that and found the best possible front you can pick the best placed new shoot to continue the trunk. Now chop back any extra trunk above the new leader. Cut at an angle so the new chop helps the old trunk taper to the new skinny shoot and so that the new chop is at the back and unobtrusive from the chosen front.
You may be able to wire and bend chosen branches outwards but if they are already too stiff to bend just cut back near the base. New, smaller ones will grow which can be wired out to for the start of branches. Any potential branches you do manage to bend out should have short internodes, at least close to the trunk. Further out doesn't matter because you will, almost certainly, be chopping those branches a few times like the trunk to get better taper and bends in the branches as they grow. Often new shoots grown after a trunk chop all have very long internodes so not good as a base for branching. I regularly cut all those shoots off and start again. Second time round the shoots more likely to have shorter internodes so much better base for branch. Seems to be going backward instead of forward but please believe me that branches (and trunks) with long internodes make terrible bonsai and you will look back and regret the decision to use them in 10 or 15 years and by then it's often way too late to start over. Now is the best time to start good.
cently trunk choppied this Elm anid Maple. It is now th
e end of May in NC. Any feedback on what to do next?
