I was asked by one of my bonsai friends to post few update pictures of this little birch write few words about development. It was collected back in spring 2012. With such material development is usually slow, in my opinion.
You have to grow completely new branches from scratch and even more importantly you have to grow new apex of the yamadori tree. Growing new apex is obviously not easy task with fat collected trees. Creating convincing transition between original trunk and new leader is lengthy process. You can do it with growing massive sacrifice branches on selected leader. This takes a lot of foliage to generate enough energy to thicken leader to desirable width. If you decide to stop growing sacrifice branches too early you will fail to create decent transition. You can find too many such trees on various forums or exhibitions. This mistake is hardly possible to repair later.
Similar approach has to be applied when you want to build nicely tapering branches on the tree. This method requires rater big root ball and is not possible to do it quickly and effectively in small bonsai pot. You have to accept that tree looks bushy most of the time, with huge leaves and long shoots. It is hard to resist the temptation of cutting crown back to nice shape. Obviously there is long way ahead of us in development if this tree.
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| Summer 2015, tree in current stage of development. |
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| Trunk chop without final dead wood work. Excess wood was removed this spring. Further hollowing of the trunk will be done later. |
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| Current leader thickness, far from needed thickness to create natural appearance. |
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| Bark detail |
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| In Summer 2012 with fresh branches. |
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| In Spring 2012 on beginning of its journey in my garden. |
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