Well its a busy time for me at the moment .I have taken on a little too much with renovations and transplanting Maples by the hundreds .I took some time out for the love of a challenge .This was purchased a couple of years ago and required an excavator to load it into my utility .Now after taking air layers off it 
for 2 years it time to root prune and pre-style the remaining trunk. I have removed the top layer of timber from around the box to aid the release of the root mass.
With such a heavy trunk i had to use a tripod and cable winch to lift the tree from the training box .Heavy duty motorbike tie downs were used to attach the winch to the tripod and tree trunk .The blue fork converted to a root rake used for Bonsai wasn’t up to the job , so the Wifes garden hand tools were used to remove the soil and substrate originally planted in .With the tree hoisted into the air i removed 95 % of the soil with the rake
and then with a garden hose simply washed the remaining soil off leaving a clean root mass to sort and trim.
With the soil gone the trunk now weighs less than 30 kgms, considering it was approx’150 – 200 kgms collected that a big reduction over 2 years .Yes i can lift the beast and man handle it quite easy , the aircon unit is 900mmx900mm to give an idea of the size of the tree.From memory i think it was 2.4m high on collection .I would like to say a quick trim but it took quite a good effort to root prune and trim the stubs as i had no power equipment on hand so a Bonsai branch cutter and bow saw was used , the Sthil didn’t get a look in .I removed the larger stub 
prior to potting up to give the best angle for planting . With the tree potted i began to remove the other stubs I managed to find an angle grinder with a saw blade fitted , 
this was used for the initial carving . For now its got some very good movement and taper , unfortunately the rain is back so it will have to wait until i get some spare time to fine tune the monster. Finished size for now is 250 x 300mm base and 1200mm high , a little more tilt approx’ 10 degree’s on the next repot and its done and dusted .Cheers and Happy Bonsai .Alpineart
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This was a root cutting taken from a large elm years ago when i decided to remove a landscape tree .The root in question had grown up against a solid rock and fused like a club .I dug the tree and collected the root as a root cutting .It has had different top originally i cut a series of v’s around to top and grew 7 new leaders . unfortunately they created a reverse taper so 4 were removed. It has been slow to redevelop into the tree it is 
. Now is the time to rip into it and make it worthy of the past effort . I removed it from the pot , raked the roots 
and trimmed them back hard . 
.Next i drilled a hole up from the bottom 
and another down from the top using a clean cutting spade bit .
A series of pilot holes were drilled into the side to aid carving and hollowing of the trunk .The with a dremel i simply carved out the sides and center until a desireable finish was obtained . 
.With the carving done 
i simply re-potted the tree back into the original pot . 
Today i needed an RDO from work so i decided to wrap the trunks/leaders with raffia and apply some wire to style the canopy .I firsts compressed the carved stump to improve the taper then set about wiring the trunk’s ready for rotating around This took some serious time and with the wiring complete i bent and twisted the trunks around about 90 degree’s .
then i simply wiring of the branchlet’s and all done and dusted .
It will go back to the benches and grow on and recover , well maybe just a little more persuasion is required then it can retire to the bench .There was a couple of OH BUGGER moments as i heard a little crack however these elms appear to heal themselves quite well .Cheers Alpineart
This was to be a Phoenix Grafted Trident Maple , unfortunately it didn’t work out the way i anticipated , none the less it will be reworked and allowed to grow on .
After it was removed from the ground a close look found numerous stater bugs and a Red Back Spider had made a home in the lower trunk .
I decided to remove the stump and to add 30 extra whips to the whole lower trunk , some of which were used to cover the original holes left for a natural hollow section.Whilst it fused well the sisal string rotted due to the wet summer period , however the wired that was overlaid held it together .I did managed to split it in several places removing the stump but this was not in the plan . With the stump removed ,
then a trim of the unwanted side shoots , the whips were added i basically stitched and threaded wire through the lower trunk to compress the base back tighter together . I then wound 2 wires up the length of the trunk to secure the whole construction . 
With some basic wires i have utilized some of the original side shoots to begin the branch structure , then re-potted it into a large plastic dish .
This will be easier to monitor than placing it back into the grow bed . At the end of the day i’m happy with the progress , however this season i will try another method of fusing whips , now its into some serious trimming and training of the rest of the Maples .Cheers Alpineart