AusBonsai

This is something I picked up from a garden nursery some time mid 2021. I'm not going to sugar coat it and I'll be perfectly frank. It was not a good piece of material at all. Straight trunk, lots of bar branches shooting straight up as is the habit of this species. It was declining in health due to taking a long time to be sold and sitting in heavy nursery mix. For some reason I'm still not sure I wanted to try it for bonsai and bought it.

Got it out of the heavy mix and into a well draining one, which helped it get back to health. Also got a good fertilise. Cut it right back to expose all the dead interior that had been shaded, and proceeded to do my best to start wiring some movement into the tree.

It's been a real challenge for me to figure out how to get the best out of what's there and I'm actually starting to enjoy the tree now. It's a little unconventional but I think it's getting some character. Has a long way to go but I think I'd like to hang onto it and keep it going.

I've got some branches still wired up in there to be future jin. Also needs a repot but I think I'll leave that for another time as I've worked it quite hard today.
The best picture I could find as it was from nursery 2021
First work September 2021
Gaining strength again November 2021
After work November 2022
After a clean out but before work September 2023
After work September 2023. I decided the whole top had to go it was just straight and boring with little taper.

Something from nothing! Good work, please keep posting it.

Gavin

Got stuck into this again the weekend just gone. A foliage clean out, and spreading everything back out again with wire to open the tree back up.

I have it left very busy as I want to incorporate a lot more jin into the design, but I want it to be twisted and interesting. So I'm just wiring all the branches up at this stage only removing things that absolutely need to go.

I want to create a shari on the trunk connecting to the lower dead snag to create more interest, and help swell the lower trunk.
Before
After
Intended shari

I’m very interested in your project because I bought the same tree species THUJA ORIENTALIS
AUREA NANA marked down from $120 to $15 at one of my favourite nurseries. I thought I’d use it as a bonsai experiment. Your photos give me hope that it’s not a lost cause

Gave this a quick prune yesterday.