Cedrus Deodara (Himalayan Cedar) progression

[Patmet]

This is a Himalayan Cedar I purchased from a garden nursery in 2020. Being very new to bonsai still and completely clueless to Cedars I proceeded to bare root the poor thing in the middle of autumn.

It went into a large but shallower container. Unsurprisingly it dropped pretty much all of it's needles shortly after and took the best part of two years to slowly recover. I think the only reason it managed to recover is due to how young it was and maybe just sheer luck.

At the end of winter 2022 I started to work the trunk and branches. The heavily drooping branches I know are not characteristic of these cedars in nature, having more horizontal branches, but that is the direction I chose to go with this one so I'm rolling with it.

I have a group of sacrifice branches covered by the cloth in the photos to help keep the trunk thickening. I think it's on a good path to be a nice literati/bunjin bonsai eventually.

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April 2020 from nursery

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April 2020 after bare rooting (do not recommend)

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August 2022 tree had recovered enough to start working

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August 2022 after first wiring/styling

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June 2023 second round of work

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[Ryceman3]

The tree seems to be kicking on despite your best efforts to kill it!
Love a progression thread, keep updating as things progress. I think it looks like a pretty decent start and will only get better from here.

[Trimmy]

Looks good. I bought one recently. Still deciding on what style to use. All the pictures I've seen were formal upright apart from yours. Not sure if I should get more creative than that. Mine has a slightly thinner trunk so I could probably get more bendy if I wanted to.

[Daluke]

Good work nursing back to health.

They take many many years to set branches to the position you want with wire. The branches spring back.

[Patmet]

Good work nursing back to health.

They take many many years to set branches to the position you want with wire. The branches spring back.

Yes I definitely found that out when I took the first round of wire off they sprung back a lot. Tony Bebb recently showed me a method for helping with that. You stab the tips of your scissors into the branch on top of the bend and make a series of little cuts in the area. The principle being the tree will make little bits of scar tissue that will result in the branch becoming more rigid. I’ve done it this time so I will find out and update with how it goes.

[Patmet]

Looks good. I bought one recently. Still deciding on what style to use. All the pictures I've seen were formal upright apart from yours. Not sure if I should get more creative than that. Mine has a slightly thinner trunk so I could probably get more bendy if I wanted to.

That would be people imitating how they grow in nature. They naturally grow as tall straight upright trees with horizontal branches. Really just depends what takes your fancy. My personal philosophy with bonsai is that I don’t limit myself to only styling trees to how the species would grow in nature. I definitely take inspiration from the natural form, and it’s very important to work with and not against the growth habit of the species. But I put most of my focus on the particular tree in front of me and how to get the best out of its features.

[Akhi]

You have done super well with that, cedars I have found to be pretty hardy, the tris is to get trunk thickness is to wait forever. Love the style you have adopted with this and in time should look really attractive. One thing to keep in mind is that their bark gets cut into very quickly and then it takes forever to bark up so you will have to live with that for a long time. Keep us posted on your progress.

[Patmet]

Just brought this one inside and did some trimming, and most importantly cut off most of the wire I applied earlier in the year. It was starting to bite in a bit.

The branches did still spring back a bit so my strategy now is using cable ties as guy wires with smooth rubber to protect the trunk and branches. I've pulled all the main branches into the trunk pretty hard so we'll see how long I can get away with leaving these on there. Should be able to a lot longer than wire.

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Before work

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After trim and cable ties

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[Patmet]

Before and after prune and wire. Sacrifice branches jinned off recently. They were getting too big and strong. They served their purpose well getting lower thickening and more taper to the trunk.

Going to repot this year into a smaller pot. After 5 years recovery it's looking healthy enough.

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[The Specimen]

Have come along way from the very first pic

Nice progression and looking after 5 years!

[TimS]

Fantastic progress from that first photo indeed! Super impressive!