AusBonsai

I dont know why i like this tree but i do. It is such a basket case and i have been playing with it for quite a few years. It has more faults than the ring of fire but it has come a long way. The reverse taper is awful and the foliage is difficult but it has made significant progress in the past couple of years. I use it to play with and have stubbornly refused to bin it. The foliage in summer, as the name suggests, is a stunning blue and blue is my favourite colour. I have wired it and turned it around and moulded a bit of driftwood to the reverse taper and it has improved it no end. I will refine the jin soon but i need to look at it for a while to see if it suits the tree or not. Let me know what you think.

I think you'll agree that it's not your best specimen Bodhi.
Having said this you've still taken this "testing" subject to new heights.

Be very interested to see it continue this progression over time.
Thanks for sharing as always.

Speaks to me the story of a tree on the edge of a river bank, fighting years of washing floods, struggling to stay vertical above the water ...

just a thought -the nebari looks nice so how about three or four ' threadgrafts' ? through the taper to help fatten it-----or a ground layer above the taper---after a ground layer and removal ,would the remaining nebari of this species reshoot? --it would be a shame to kill that nice base

I like it Bodhi, but I would remove the branch right at the apex. ( or jin it)
Sticks up like a sore thumb to me

Ken

Wow, interesting specimen you have there bodhi. It appears that the hand of a zombie is squeezing a beautiful bonsai from out of the ground. There is something lovely about it

You've certainly made something out of nothing much - it shows very creative thinking.

I think that the focus of the tree is the tension between the deadwood at the base, and the jin - the rest of the tree doesn't need to say much more. Certainly the upper trunk will thicken with the years, as we all do.

Thanks for posting,

Gavin