AusBonsai

whereswally007 wrote:Nice job

have you wired it up yet or not

Thanks.

No, no wiring yet. The only thing I've done is defoliate.

Nic wrote:Ah, okay.

For now I'll just take off the leaves. It's not really to make the foliage any fuller, just to see the branch structure. Then I can decide whether it needs drastic surgery .

Nic

Hi Nic,

What did you decide?

I have a preference for smaller trees (hence the above suggestion), what size tree do you want?

A good amount of small branches to make use of though.

Nice to see it nekkid

Unlike Scott, I like to see maples as taller elegant trees so woudl actually leave it the full height and just concetrate on grownig the branch Structure

Maybe use "landscape 4" and turn a little to the right. This will get the ist 2 major branches in the correct posit, (the 2 lowest branches are the thickest ones there, and assuming you can get the RH one bent down more like the left one).
Pic out the rest of the branches up the tree and develop the apex more to the left to get it above the base

In only a short time you will have a real nice Tree

Ken

Scott Roxburgh wrote:

Nic wrote:Ah, okay.

For now I'll just take off the leaves. It's not really to make the foliage any fuller, just to see the branch structure. Then I can decide whether it needs drastic surgery .

Nic

Hi Nic,

What did you decide?

I have a preference for smaller trees (hence the above suggestion), what size tree do you want?

A good amount of small branches to make use of though.

Hi Scott,

It's 40cm from the rim to the top. I really like this shape. And now I can focus on developing branch structure, which is a skill of mine that definitely needs some work.

kcpoole wrote:Nice to see it nekkid

Unlike Scott, I like to see maples as taller elegant trees so woudl actually leave it the full height and just concetrate on grownig the branch Structure

Maybe use "landscape 4" and turn a little to the right. This will get the ist 2 major branches in the correct posit, (the 2 lowest branches are the thickest ones there, and assuming you can get the RH one bent down more like the left one).
Pic out the rest of the branches up the tree and develop the apex more to the left to get it above the base

In only a short time you will have a real nice Tree

Ken

I'm in a pretty similar mind to you, Ken. I'll have a think about it some more before doing any work.

Nic

That is Fantastic stock Nic heaps of branch options, lots of people will tell you to shorten it for taper if I were you I would find some pics of old Japanese palmatums and copy one of them this is a great way to learn design. It may need to be shortened a little but not too much as Ken stated extreme taper is not usually a feature of palmatum bonsai (that is the realm of tridents). Don't remove too many branches just some where you have multiples growing from one point and leave far more branches than you will eventually need, easy to remove them down the track but your tree is young and its important to develop it slowly rather than to race into a finished product.
Just take it easy and don't let anyone rush you into anything you have a potentially lovely tree there better to develop it slowly and carefully
Craigw

Hi Nick , thats a good start ,now you can see what you have to work with .Craigw has given the the goods on this one .Now sit back , contemplate and research some trees and styles suited to the J.Maples.Look forward to seeing this tree again .Cheers Alpineart

Thanks, Craigw. Really good advice.

Speaking of older maples, if anyone owns "Bonsai A Care Manual" by Colin Lewis, there's one I really like on page 78. I could aim for something similar to that. Would anyone be able to suggest a tree picture to aim towards?

Nic

Maybe something along these lines (not twin trunk of course)...
or this...

Very nice, Scott. I'd be happy if I could achieve something like those.