FlyBri wrote:If it isn't too late to buy into the thread, I'd like to side with Brettles and Paul in that the overall image (in leaf) doesn't work that well.
Gday folks!
Having seen the giant Prunus at the BNW Show yesterday, I humbly retract my original assessment of the tree.

Antonio's photos do the tree no justice, and - as is so often the case on Forums such as this - it is necessary to see the thing in person to get a true sense of its presence.
If we look at this tree as 'traditional' Bonsai, there are probably a lot of broken rules, but now that I've poked my nose into that foliage, I tend to look at it as more of a landscape planting, not unlike the Vietnamese form (Hon Non Bo). The trunk is less like a tree than it is a weathered pinnacle of stone, and the branches could be considered to be individual trees clinging to its uppermost reaches (although it was nigh on impossible to distinguish the branches amongst the foliage). I would love to see the tree in Winter to confirm my new assessment of it.
So, while it is still not a masterpiece (yet), it is a very significant tree. There is still a lot of carving to be done (believe it or not

), and I still have issues with the pot, but I will be very interested to see how this tree progresses over the next few years.
Thanks for indulging me in my U-turn.
Fly.