Mel. Revolution styling/general advice please

[TheNumber13]

Hi All,

Picked this up for $10 today for a couple of reasons. It has more trunk shape than any others of similar thickness I have found. Also, it was in the 'bonsai' section of my nursery, and has been quite mistreated (to my amateur eye). Branches snipped near trunk and just left there, foliage trimmed like you would a hedge, etc. So I am hoping I will learn some about recovering from mistakes whilst handling this tree.

It is a Mel. Bracteata 'Revolution Gold' (so the label said), standing about 45cm above the pot. All I have done so far is try and clean up their dodgy trimming, and put him in the biggest pot I have (which isn't as big as I hoped).

So here it is:

Mel.Rev.f.jpg

Mel.Rev.r.jpg

Mel.Rev.b.jpg

Mel.Rev.l.jpg

At the moment I am thinking of keeping any foliage up near the top, in two joining crowns, with the crown from the left branch slightly lower than the main. Literati-esque, with branch?

Styling:
So there is decent movement left to right, but none back and forth. Can anyone suggest some angles to work in? (trunk below the for
After the fork there is little movement, so again, any recomendations for movement?
Any branch selections advise?

General: (I am going away for a month over our wet season, will have proper tools early next year)
How much more pruning should I do now (if any), before it is left for a month? Trim off much more foliage and dead branches/twigs? How much can I take off, immediately strip it off all shoots and branches I dont want?
Should I wait to do branch selection and removal, and removal of the branch stumps the shop left on there, until I have the proper tools? I assume there wont be much harm in leaving them on a month.

Mel.Rev.foliage.jpg

Mel.Rev.trunk.jpg

Thankyou for looking.
If you have any advice, or have an idea of what you would do to this tree, or would be kind enough to do a related virt/edit, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanking you !

[rayfam5]

I can give you some ideas to consider, I have a few

The height of the bonsai should not increase so trimming is needed. they do bud fairly well from hard wood which I believe you need. I think the shaping of the trunk and branches is good. to encourage more roundness of branches you need to face the sides of the plant towards most of the days sun light. It has not been rotated from where it has been growing.
I would cut back the top foliage down to a point where you leave a handful of leaves. You must feed it correctly; DO NOT let it dry out and place it in not too hot of the days sun, morning till 1ish direct sunlight. (where are you by the way, this info is based on me in Melbourne) as you notice new shoots coming about 1 inch down the from the top allow to grow out a bit and then trim back the hand full of growth you left earlier. allow to grow out and harden. Once again NEVER allow to dry out. Depending on how long you have re potted it is to stay in that pot for quite a number of years. Feed 2 weekly with both seasol and power feed; dip feed only.


from the fork up you may/will get some new growth particularly from below any old dead branches there where before, allow to grow and face it towards the sun to encourage directive growth. A lot of people for get to rotate the plants on a regular basis.
I would not remove any branches yet. but keep in mind the bottom branch of your top pic. which is in direct line of the fork may need to be removed or at most wired down slightly.
when did you re-pot? have you allowed lots of room to grow or is it fairly tight?
would like to know what you did with the root ball. If not next time when re-potting spread the root ball out which will encourage the root system to spread out which in turn will give you a spreading trunk at the base. If you just trim roots and keep it a tightish ball than spreading out takes a lot longer. pic of the pot would have been helpful.
anyway a few ideas for you. they are hardy. they enjoy hair cuts otherwise will tend to grow spindly.
cheers