Shohin Mugo Pine

Here is a little mugo pine that I got in on a trade. At first I was a little excited about it...did some minor pruning then lost interest in it. It was very root bound so last summer I repotted it and put it in good soil, pumice/lava mix. It has almost been 2 yrs since I got it and figured now was the time to do something with it or trash it.

I brought it in to give it a once over and see if I found a renewed interest in it. Once I put it on my turn table and started looking at it from all angles I thought it was possible to salvage a bonsai out of it.

At the base the trunk is 2 1/4" thick and is 11" tall.

Before any work. Front.

Back

Needle prunned and jin work done.

Here every branch gets wired. Through all this normal work I make the old "back" of the tree the new "front". The new front has a more dynamic trunk and while it leans away near the top I was able to fix that with guy wires.

Here is the tree after the 1st styling. It is now under 12" tall from the rim of the pot so it should be a shohin. In 2 years I will reduce the pot size and make it even smaller. For now though it didn't turn out too bad. Not a bad way to spend an hour or so... :)

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