Originally Posted by thedavidzoo

I guess my question is: am I being too anal? We have all seen trees in nature that break all the rules we could ever come up with, and they are awesome. I have seen Japanese bonsai that follow all the rules and are just georgoeous, whereas those that seem to be more loosely styled just don't have the wow factor for me. I just fear, that without specific guidelines, my "wilder" trees, the ones that don't seem to fit any one style will still look like they do now in 10 years. They may all look like some new style I invented, and I'm no Chinese scholar.
Sorry this is so long...Will someone hit me over the head with a chopstick and clarify this for me?