AusBonsai

I got this Shimpaku from Mike / treeman the other day. I really like Shimpaku, and I enjoy collecting the different varieties.

As it was when i received it, some decent movement already set in place:


Foliage difference compared to Itoigawa:


I wanted to wire down the branches to let sun into the inner buds and progress the styling. Still had a lot of juvenile foliage, so I didn't want to prune it much - I only removed crotch growth.

Initial wiring, setting the first directional branch down to the right:


Bit more (sloppy) wiring to get the top branches down:


Top view:


Next step will be to repot in a month or so and let it grow out a bit more. I think I've left myself plenty of options by spreading the branches out fairly evenly (though more towards the right than left).

Fairly leggy branches, so hopefully it backbuds on those branches after growing on for a while. I'll let the lower branches grow out long to build more taper as well.

I think it will grow into a rather nice shohin.

Looks nice. I wish I knew what type my Shimpakus are. I seem to have two varieties. A couple of them have foliage than is a bit more green and sparse. Those ones seem to be changing colour more in the cold weather. The others are still blue and fluffy.

Blue and fluffy would be Kishu, the other a standard Shimpaku, at least that's what I call them.