Hi. I am presenting my Two Trunk Formal Upright Dwarf Alberta Spruce. I bought it last fall (pic1) at which point I popped it out of it’s pot to check the roots, and to scrape the surface down to the nebari.
Next I started pruning branches and wiring those I was keeping into position. It was difficult (for me) making those decisions and I did a lot of trials temporarily wiring 2 or 3 branches into rough positions before deciding to go with them, or to try with other branches.
It got really difficult when I got to building the apex. This is the one area of styling/design that I still don’t understand well, even after watching Mirai videos, and other information sources on the web and books that I have. It took me 2 days to build the apex. I think it, and the whole tree came out pretty good. There may be too many branches, but I prefer a fuller looking tree. Pic 3.
I think you’ve done a really good first styling of the tree. I don’t think at this moment in time there is too many branches. It will help the recovery and once they’re getting in the way of each other you can reduce and start to add jins and shari if you wish.
Great transformation, turning that little guy from a Christmas tree to a bonsai. As Keith said, really good first styling. It is good at this point to leave more branches-- it’s a whole lot easier to take them off later than to try put new ones on. My contribution to the critique would be, as you refine the number and position of the branches in future stylings, go for a little more asymmetry.
I think it came out great! I don’t think you took off too many branches at all, and I’m an expert at taking too many branches off lol. I can’t wait to see this tree mature. Good luck! Cheers from Utah.
Really cool design. Well done!
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Just my opinion… the two apecies should be in harmony. The shorter trunk top goes go the right (It would look strange to the left…)… I would adjust the taller top to the right. Maybe lighten up the top left branch, too.
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Bonsai On.
Thanks guys for the feedback. This tree wasn’t the model I styled my tree to, but it matches what I wanted to accomplish. I found this tree in a golf course I played the other day.
Here’s a picture I took today. I removed the wire earlier in the summer because it was cutting in a lot. Now it needs to be rewired because a lot of the branches are bending back upwards to get the sunlight.
The plan is to repot it in spring 2023. I bought the tree in the fall of 2020. In Feb 2021 I sprayed it with Daconil (fungicide) which turned out to be a mistake because the surfactant used with Daconil is poisonous to spruce. I had a lot of growth die off. Ryan recommended letting it grow out and recover, and maybe repot it in 2023. It had grown well through 2021 so I wired it in the fall. This year has just been a growth/recovery season.
