Japanese Maple Kiyo Hime

[tyroneslothrop]

Hi everyone,

I received this tree a few days ago. I have a general idea of how I'd like to style it, but I was wondering if anyone had suggestions without knowing what I had planned for it.

The first branches appear to be bar branches, but I'm wondering how long it takes for the tree to actually start a reverse taper -- if I leave it for another year, will be greatly affect the tree? I was told this species is very slow-growing.

Let me know what you think

[Kyushu Danji]

apparently this species of japanese maple works well in a broom style. You would have to cut alot back to achieve that though, and I'm not sure how it would respond. Haven't seen one of these in australia before, nice find

EDIT: oh thats why, because you are from Michigan! That explains why the leaves weren't as autumnal as I thought they might have been

[tyroneslothrop]

Haha, I forgot to include that little bit of info

Yeah, Spring is just upon us here, so all of my trees are waking up. This one actually came from California, so I'll be taking special care of it for a long time to acclimate it to our weather as much as possible.

Someone on another forum said it perfectly: it has that "poodle look." Over the next few years I'll be cutting it back to get some buds closer to the center. Until then I'm trying to decide on a nice trunk line. I've been working with bonsai for almost four years with no club, so I'm trying to figure everything out on my own through books and forums. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

[Gerard]

I would definitely remove both bar branches ASAP and much of the thicker branches higher up. This would encourage some new buds, I feel that it is a good trunk but branches need to start at the beginning.

[tyroneslothrop]

Hi Garard,

I was thinking I could incorporate the thick branch at the bottom to start a nice first branch. I was thinking of cutting it back to only a few nodes and make a new lead for it. This could develop some nice taper for the first branch.

[kcpoole]

I like the trunk, but would cut back to the trunk and rebuild the branching as they are too big already for the trunk size and would only get bigger

See My little virt
As you are coming into spring now, you could start now and develop the new branching over the summer and next few years

Ken