Thanks Matt,
It looks good in the pot you chose. That picture is a couple of years old. Now that I found your site I need to scan some more recent photos of that Shimpaku. The last couple of years I have thinned it out quite a bit. It's a slow process with the Itowigawa. It's so much different than the regular Shimpaku's. If it's pruned to much at one time it reponds quite dramatically by throwing out all kinds of juvenile foliage.
This afternoon I worked on thinning it some more and got a little carried away. Just a little though. It's had too many inside branches so I cut some off and thinned the the rest. After some fine wiring it looks a whole lot better.
I have 2 Ito's that are about the same size (26"
tall. The roots inside the rootball are like heavy wire and I need to thin them too. Any suggestions on cleaning out those heavy roots? I don't want to take to many out but the center of the rootball needs some air!
Here's a photo of the other one. It needs the same root treatment.