Vance Wood

A couple of points about Blues. If you don't or didn't have a lot of feeder roots be a bit cautious about doing too much until you are certian the root formations are enough to take to stress. As to the idea of rebar. This is a possibility but you had better make plans for leaving the rebar in place for up to ten years. The reason you do not see too many Blues as bonsai is because they are bloody difficult to train. You can put wire on a branch and leave it in place even till it cuts into the bark. You then remove it and over the period of several weeks the branch will go back to where it was before you touched it. They have to be constantly rewired year after year, some branches may take five or more years to set into position. In my opinion it is this annoying little trait of this tree that would rule out the rebar. All of that being said and you don't mind dealing with a tree with foliage like barbed wire they make wonderful bonsai over time----a lot of time. I have had one in training for about twenty plus years and it still has to be wired.