Old Timey Cedar

[Saddler]

There is a tree I have seen pictures of in Yellow Stone National Park or some other famous US Park that is probably six feet across, the top is broken off and it's pretty weather beaten. I wish I could find a picture of it. That is the tree I am going for here.


The front from different angles



The back



Top



The left


The right



Yellow rectangle: should I bring the top down or the bottom up? I think the top should come down.

Red square: Its a real cool secondary branch that mimics the primary branch that it is on, but I think it needs to go.

Red Circle: somebody please tell me I need to get rid of it. It bothers me, yet I can't bring myself to cut it off.

I plan on doing a but of dremel work on the trunk. I wish I had cut the top off higher in hindsight. The base seems to have some flair but only repotting it next spring will tell me.

If anyone has a suggestion on ways to improve this tree, I would love to hear it.

This is one of the few trees I have picked up because I knew exactly what I was going to go for with it. Now, how do I get it there...

 

[Rambles]

My response is aesthetic and in more about old trees than good bonsai. That said, i think you are right on all three counts. Especially getting rid of red circle.

All that said, depending on where you plan to take this design in the future, it feels like there is too much foliage.

 

[sorce]

Top down..

Cut it...

And I love that little branch.
Can't it be bent down?

What's effed up for me is that little branch is seemingly perfect for the big trunk...
Until the other "retrunks" come into play...
Then it seems a little big.
As the other trunks would have smaller branches...

But then it seems you can grow it out to be the only branch on the tree that remained a branch and didn't try to become a dominant leader.

Keep it certain.
Could be a good storyteller.

Love this project too.
My FVG'S are tuned into it well.

Sorce

 

[sorce]

If you can bend that little branch down to the same downward angle you get your first branches off those secondary trunks to come down to...

It's gonna work.

See it as a branch from the big trunk...
The remnant.

Golden.

That's raw...I really like this one.

Sorce

 

[sorce]

Sorry....
Love it.

Imagine that tree before the lightning.
All its branches were that size.

Those other three trunks only got so thick after they reached for the sky.

You gotta throw conventional teaching out the window here lest you remove the coolest piece of interest IMO.

Bloody love it.

Ceptin Fer the extra jins on the secondary trunks.
One trauma on the main trunk is enough.
In 300 bonsai years those may need Jin..
But they are still vigorous new trunks IMO.
I would work to keep em Scarless for now.

Main trunk Jin is to even.
I'd cut one off bit it is a tough decision which.

Sorce

 

[Wilson]

Good start! I wouldn't cut that little branch, or any branch. Feed and trim, and wire if needed. Candelabra cedars are some of my favourite wilderness trees!

 

[Saddler]

@sorce Those secondary jins are not high on my list of things I love on this tree, but when I cut the tops off I thought it would be better to have the jins and lose them later then not have that option. I'm kinda hoping they rot down to stubs that you only notice if you look closely.

Good start! I wouldn't cut that little branch, or any branch. Feed and trim, and wire if needed. Candelabra cedars are some of my favourite wilderness trees!View attachment 157064

I am feeding heavily. It has responded well. I am not sure where I should trim. Your use of the word 'candelabra' is the perfect place to restart using my google-fu. I have looked at a lot of pictures but I have been getting so much chaff with the wheat, it is tiring.