Ryan's procumbens series inspired my first literati procumbens nana

Design
1

Would love to get some feedback from the community on my most recent styling on this nursery stock procumbens I picked up a few weeks back. Here is a photo of it on display in my room (dont worry it lives outside). This is my first legitament tree that I have done after nearly 2 months of being a student of mirai live and nearly 6 months of practicing bonsai. For context this tree was nearly a complete puff ball on a single stem when I got it from my local garden center, but thought it had potential. Would love some critique and some encouragement maybe haha

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9 Likes
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Well done! for a first time effort, you’re applying what you’ve studied well

3

I really like what you did here. I think you will eventually remove more ‘weight’ from the top but you have removed a lot already so best let it recover now.

4

great job! looks like youre going for a tension design. When the tree is ready, go ahead and continue the theme to the apex. A literati’s apex must be thin, sparse, and full of sweet dramatic movement

5

Oooh lovely - nice job for a first go! Definitely agree with the other comment, if that came out of a much bigger nursery stock and you’ve given it a “thrashing” (!), the it’s maybe best to let it recover for a year, especially if you’ve reduced the roots. Speaking a “five years in but still a beginnner” myself, one thing it took me a while to get my head around is that cutting foliage and root can be massively stressful to the plant - killed a few that way. So leave it be pretty for a year!

I think that top left branch is coming back to the left / front, to create tension? Or possibly the idea is to continue the trunk (kind of) upward in the same direction? Either way, I’d let that recover, grow and extend for the rest of this year, and see where the extension / new branches take it. Maybe the ones visible now become only the first layer of branches of a much taller tree?

Anyways, nice one!

Mark Heritage

6

Very nice work. You are way ahead of where I was after my first 6 months of bonsai. I agree pretty much with the earlier comments. Let the tree rest for at least six months before you do anything more to it.