murraya, not sure how to style.

[arabicabonsai]

i need some help with how to style my murraya that i found growing under a frangapani, looks like it's a few years old, should be an interesting bonsai. dunno what to keep and what to get rid of.

[arabicabonsai]

i need some sugestions, i've trimmed it a bit more and there's just no style shouting at me.

[gr8bookworm]

Hi,

You have some nice movement at the base of this tree and plenty of options with the trunk line, whilst I dont have the experience of many here, if it was mine I would be using first picture as the front and have the branch on the left as the new truck and try to develop some branches from this?

The second Branch on the left could also be used and you could try to grow a larger tree with almost a "twin tunk" look?

I will be interested to see what others have to say.

Mark

[NathanM]

G'day mate,
First things first you need to get it into a grow pot much bigger than that one. It’ll never be 100% happy in a pot that small. Not with it the size it is.
You also need to shorten it alot. From my experience with murraya, they grow quite fast in Qld. Cut it back hard and let it shoot. They do harden off pretty quickly, so wire up while they are young. You could use either the first or last pics as a decent front.
I’ve got a fairly large Murraya I’ve done a bit of styling on. And a few smaller ones. I love their flwers

[kcpoole]

I would be cutting this back real hard too, the trunks are far too long.

They shoot back from bare wood, love the water and fert
cut back bigger pot and let go mad so you can then choose what to keep.

Ken

[arabicabonsai]

thanks everyone, i have cut it back heaps more and it does look better. the trunks are sooo solid, gonna be hard to shape, but should be a good tree when done. i'll update once it gets some growth.