I am interested in suggestions for styling this ponderosa. It was collected June 2018. The first picture is what I see as the front. The root mass does extend to the left of the trunk and pretty much fills the pot.
The branch that extends up and to the left takes off of the downward trunk. See the second picture. Originally I was thinking of removing this branch and leaving the foliage mass inside the curve of the truck. Now I am thinking of taking it off after the second side branch, second picture because I like the sharp angle.
The third picture gives a different view from the back.
Comments appreciated.
I don't have a nice illustration, but I wonder if there isn't a middle ground rotating the tree between photo 1 and 2 to get some movement from both angles..... and tilting the tree even further to lean the trunk out to the left.
I think you could still remove that long ungainly branch, but then perhaps bring the smaller branches and foliage back more towards the trunk to the right, rather than out and away.
A nice lacerock with some heft to it to balance how far you could lean the tree out from it could be fun to plant it in someday.
I thought of grafting too, but I don't have experience with it either. If you were feeling brave, grafting as a club demo/experience/meeting could be pretty awesome and powerful.
I like your tree. :)
Ha! my drawing can't afford a Benda!
Andy, Is that a Tom Benda in your drawing?
Agree with Mike's sentiment. View two has great trunk movement and more interest. View one is ok, and a bunjin ascendant style would be easy (keep the curlycue in the middle for interest. He're a quick sketch of my take on view 2. Harder to get into a pot, but overall better. Jin that long leggy branch which is the current leader. Drop one branch way down to mimic trunk movement and keep with bunjin feel. That doesn't leave you much branching left. Run one out to make it the primary branch and establish the flow. Tuck the others into the "triangle." Pray for back budding, but pondo's don't back bud on old wood. A small container in the future and judicious watering can reduce needle length some. Cool tree! Andy
2nd photo is the front, loose the top big branch or jin it and then wire it into a better spot on the tree, might consider keeping 2 lowest branches to be used latter. Move 4 lowest branches off the left side of side. 2nd photo shows off the trunk best with large sharp downward bend in the trunk which is the main feature of the tree. Might consider bringing the branch closer to the trunk to make it an even better feature of the tree. Might consider keeping large branch for a year or two for health of the tree should you decide to kill it off.
great trunk line. i want this tree. do you know how to graft? black pine on this would be amazing. get the needles down to ~1" for such a slender tree. it would be worth putting the time in.