AusBonsai

Good old Bougie, impossible to kill. I got this tree in 2013. It has made little progress and has spent sometime not thriving as I’ve continued to learn and make mistakes on it. I like it but I find the triple fork where the deadwood and two main branches originate from distracting and ugly. I have provided a progression of what I’ve done to it since 2013 but I’m after suggestions as to how to get a better tree from what I’ve got to work with here.

When purchased, looked ok but the majority of the foliage came from the first branch which was a back branch that grew straight upward:


Trying to grow a crown from new top branches:


Today, after clip and grow and some wiring. It has been hard trying to get a more horizontal branch on the left side of the front image:





Is there a better tree here? Virts welcome. Here are some I’ve done myself:

I would be tilting it to one side. And remove the centre spike.
Use one of the shoots as the trunk line with movement. The other then becomes a horizontal branch

If the base looks funny with roots in the wrong places then layer some new ones there

Ken

I know the centre spike either needs to go or be used better, but if I cut it out and tilt the tree to use one branch as horizontal, it still will look weird as each branch comes from the opposite side of the deadwood crack.

Or this - it nearly always pops a bud near the deadwood fork, you can see the current one in the pics. I could cut the left branch off and have a nicer trunkline and recreate a new left branch from the bud:

Beano,
Personally at this stage, I would be concentrating my efforts on the trunk rather than the top of the tree. If the tree responds well to carving (which I think bougy's do) then I would just grow the be-jesus out of it, & then work the foliage mass & branch placements much much later, with whatever the tree proceeds to give you (I'm talking years here...not months.)

This tree will never be considered an "ideal" bonsai for some....but it does have chance of displaying some nice "dynamics"....if your brave.

In summery, stop trying to polish a turd & start carving.

That is cool. I’m probably not that brave. I always though of carving as the last thing done to “finish” off a tree? I suppose you wouldn’t want to “finish it” by carving after years of work then have it die. Do you not think my last virt could put it in the “ideal for bonsai” category?


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Right! Thank you for your suggestions. The possum has forced my hand by knocking it out of its pot and I’ve now chopped it and changed the planting angle. It already looks like a way better tree.

Maybe possums are good for something?

The possum has forced my hand by knocking it out of its pot and I’ve now chopped it and changed the planting angle. It already looks like a way better tree.

Sometimes that's all it takes. Yes, it's definitely looking like it's on the way now.

Good luck!