To cut or not to cut, that is my question. (syzygium smithii)

[CommonCalluna]

Well really my question is to cut now, or to cut later (and how much later).

I found myself again at the good ol' green shed. I'm keeping my eye out for an Acacia howitti. No luck on the acacia, but I have a love for lilypilly's and this one caught my eye.

Saw it at the nursery buried up to here


Was thrilled when I dug around after getting home and found this stunning trunk.



I'm in love with the plaited look of the left two roots coming off the trunk.

After its first 'styling' I have what I think will be the base of a fantastic little tree in a few years.


The bit that has me uhmming and arrring at the moment is that dead-straight long vertical branch on the left. I want to cut it but I don't know whether to do that now, or to wait.

I've already reduced the foliage by about half of what was originally on the plant. The roots did not need a lot of work, just some untangling. I will reduce them by maybe 30% when I do my natives repotting early summer (trying to get a week without a forecast of heavy rain is a fools dream at the moment living on the east coast).

This is my beautiful artists render of what I imagine as a good alternative branch here.


I'm concerned about just chopping the branch in question right off for a couple of reasons.

Firstly because I've already reduced the tree by a bunch, there was a 'knuckle' of 5 branches creating reverse taper, so I lopped off all but 2 of those already. And I don't want to leave the tree without enough foliage to recover.

Secondly because summer is harsh, and I'm wary of only leaving branches on one branch, as that means if that branch starts dying off due to heat stress or whatever other reason, the tree has no other healthy branches to fall back on/recover with.

And thirdly, I'm hoping maybe I can get some back budding on the branch so I can reduce it to be shorter but not necessarily lop off the whole thing. My thought is that maybe it's more likely to back bud down the remaining branches, rather than lopping it off and hoping I get a branch sprouting in a similar spot. The branch isn't necessarily too thick for where it is, it's the base branch so it's good to be a little bit thick. It's the thick and bolt upright that I don't like.

I wonder what a more experienced bonsaists opinion would be?

I really need to join a club, I have to stop buying more plants so I can pay a membership to a club and ask them my silly questions instead of the forums. But not buying plants is a challenge I don't know if I'm ready yet to succeed. Hahaha.

Thankyou,
Common Calluna

[shibui]

Lily pilly responds really well to chopping. I would not hesitate to cut back to wherever you want the new branches to start.
Chances of either of the branches dying is slim and it won't be pruning that kills it if something does die.

By all means wait a while to see what happens after the first trim but if you don't get the desired outcome you can chop again later in summer or next year if you root prune later this spring.

[dansai]

As shibui says, Lilly Pillys can handle a hard cut back and will produce lots of buds, usually close to the cut. It probably won't produce a back bud spontaneously down low on its own, but definitely will if cut back there. If you cut that branch back to the trunk, you will likely get a bunch of shoots from around the cut site. If you want a small tree along the lines of your dirt then cutting back to a few cms should give you the option to grow new shoots then wire early to give it the shape you want.

If you want the trunk to thicken more then just leave it grow for a year and cut back next spring. The more growth, length and leaves you have the quicker it will thicken. Either way, repotting in the next few months would still be fine. Ive done plenty of hard cut backs of the top and removed 80% of the roots on Lilly pills at the same time, and they have all been fine.

[CommonCalluna]

Thankyou both for your encouragement!

I have made the chop! Now I wait, look for new buds each day, and pray

I'll be sure to update if/when I get some development I'm happy with. Really excited for this tree to grow and show me what it wants to become