Mugo Pine with potential?

mkonig

I thought it is about time to get some comments and suggestions for this potential bonsai.
I obtained it two years ago from an old lady down the road when she had her front garden paved. The tree was sitting in a half broken plastic tub, with what can be best described as soggy peat dust for soil, looking very sorry for itself. It was destined to go on to the skip (dumpster) and the lady was happy to let me have it in return for a little help with clearing the front garden ready for the paving.

Due to the poor condition of the soil, I immediately repotted it in to a mix of composted bark, grit and akadama. The roots were a soggy mess with loads of rot and I had to bare root the poor thing to be able to salvage what was there and hoped for the best.

Not much doing for a few months, but then it recovered and started to get a more acceptable colour. Some new buds started to apear on the tips of the branches. Feeding comenced with rape seed pellets followed by a good dose of Blood fish and Bone in the Atumn. I overwintered it in the cold greenhouse to protect any new roots and to keep the worst of the rain off.

Last year it started to really push some growth and I felt it safe to start with some training. What you see is what I saw as the best option given the shape of the tree. Please ignore the pot for now as I am planning to have one of those half moon pots made specifically for this tree when the time comes.

I would love to hear your comments and suggestions.

First Picture shows suggested front, the second one the side view.

Mike

Attached Images

	Mugo001post.jpg (32.0 KB, 159 views)
	Mugo002post.jpg (31.1 KB, 95 views)

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mkonig

Two further pcis showing the back and the kink in the trunk.

BTW, the moss below the main trunk in front of the kink is to protect some roots where the tree has ground layered itself (without prompting or assistance!).

For size comparison, the pot it is in is 45cm wide.

Attached Images

	Mugo003post.jpg (27.6 KB, 88 views)
	Mugo004post.jpg (37.5 KB, 69 views)

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jarrydbonsai

wow
thats an excelent peice of material and it was free!!!! i cant wait to see it in its new pot hope all gows well with the ground layer

cheers jarryd

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the collections always growing!!!!

DavidN

Mike,
Its always great to find potential bonsai material for free and bring it back to life. Good job making the tree healthy. Providing photos of all angle of the tree gave me a good view of the branch structure.

Please remember that this is my personal opinion. In terms of styling the tree I personally believe you have too many main branches or trunks. From the angles pictured I find the branch towards the front, pointing to the viewer, detracts from the rest of the tree. I would remove this. Now you have two main trunks. The lowest trunk that moves horizontally adjacent to the pot forks into three branches at the end. The middle branch in the fork you have jinned which is good. The top branch in the fork is very heavy and moves almost at right angles to the main branch. To me it detracts from the flow and movement of the trunk. I would jin this too.

Sorry about the crudeness of the virtual but I just wanted to show you the outline of what I would do to your tree and how I would develop it. You are left with two main trunks in a semi-cascade form. I have jinned the two fork branches and now you can see the better flow and movement of you tree. I couldn't find a moon crescent pot to use in the virtual so just used a semi-cascade pot.

With your tree I believe in "less" is "more" in terms of trunks and thick branches. Again please remember this is just my opnion.

David

Attached Images

Mugo001postb.jpg (42.1 KB, 53 views)