in a century or so. To her it had prime position under the clothesline so she could look at it while hanging out the wash and from every other corner of the yard. I must admit it was very well placed, full sun except on laundry day and positioned so as not to catch on anything hanging down.It grew happily in that spot and she took great care of this tree, then 2 years ago my parents went to the UK to visit family. A friend who was looking after everything thought not watering was part of how you made a bonsai small. So 6wks later a very sad mum and tree arrived on my doorstep. "Can you do Anything for it?" ...... I promised I would try, it did have a few live buds in close and the worst looking straw coloured needles scattered about (all the extremities had been shed first as it had slowly died of dehydration).
After they had headed home I began the grim procedure, while still slender in girth, the frame was there to fill out & plenty of short dense growth right back to the trunk (one of the bonuses that helped saved it). A lithe young tree just getting into its stride of life, it stood almost 75cm high & about the same spread. Reduced to a bare frame with the odd tuft of straw yellow needles. Only one branch was dead, a sacrifice branch
I cut all the dead wood off while avoiding creating any new scars for the already weak tree to heal then went to work on the roots. Whats dead? Whats alive? By the time I was finished removing all the dead roots I didnt think this would live. I soaked it in a bucket of plain rain water overnight, the next day I planted it in a recently prepared garden bed, watered & hoped for a surprise 
Well it not only lived it thrived, it has had to contend with a no water garden (apart from 3 waterings over the establishment stage). In the first year i trimmed the long shoots twice then left it to grow out. Late winter all the long shoots were shortened. Over the last growing season I kept trimming the shoots thruout the season, about 8times. Late autumn I set a ringbark layer on the apex , mid winter shortened most of the upper branchs by half, late winter made a few spade cuts around the tree to start bringing the roots back in.
It is now thumping away with new growth & has already had its first trim of the year. Scarring from sunburn & the sacrifice branch that died 'naturally' are healing over well, the trunk has doubled in girth in 2 years, while still slender it has made far more growth than in a pot. It started life with 2 long semi bar branchs and the central trunk. Both branchs were allowed to remain, one for girth adding & the other to create either an oversized first branch, semi or full cascade at some stage in the future. The branch that survived & shown in the pics had always attracted me in its own right. I could sit up close & ignore the towering trunk, focusing on this one branch & its multiple 'trunks'. There are 2 secondary branches near the bottom of this first branch so removing the raft section wouldnt necessarily mean a restyling of the tree, just regrowing a full branch. Would love to hear any other ideas for this one as everything is a bonus and I can experiment till I kill it or otherwise and given its past I dont think I could kill it if I tried.
Matt
When you cut the ring-barked did you use a wire tornaque in conjuction with the ringbark , With the Spagnum moss was it sealed 
