Hinoki in Alabama

This is not the deep blue green variety but I have been told that this strain of Hinoki will survive down here.
Just a simple long tall sally that has some changes coming.

I has a back trunk (wrapped in a pillow case) that will leave next year and all that dead wood down low has
got to go as soon as it dries.

Just some quick notes

Step one for next year or so work.

And sorta the way I want it to turn out eventually.

Like the slenderness a lot! Gunna be a good looking tree. I would zap that lowest proposed branch, just a thought. Think might balance a bit, and why not go full on literatti huh?(a joke) Please keep us posted...

Once you remove all the foliage down below you will not get anymore, these do not backbud very readily if at all.

Maybe keep the foliage while tree is in training to keep it a little stronger?

augustine wrote:Maybe keep the foliage while tree is in training to keep it a little stronger?

solid advice regardless of back-budding...

Was just referring to the future. Let er grow for now

appalachianOwl wrote:Like the slenderness a lot! Gunna be a good looking tree. I would zap that lowest proposed branch, just a thought. Think might balance a bit, and why not go full on literatti huh?(a joke) Please keep us posted...

I had played with this idea for a few but thought it looked too "delicate" this way.

I do think that one is a bit "delicate". Try one with the low left one still in the design. I meant only the lowest on right be removed. See what that does for ya.

I would like to offer a couple of options but I find I am no longer able to download photos.  Anyone have an idea what the problem is?

It would seem I have discovered the solution.  Things have changed and I have not kept up. This is the same tree in 2016 right before our club show.

 

The point being that you should reduce the height of this tree and start working on developing a bigger trunk.

Excellent point Vance - and excellent tree as well. I wouldn't have dreamed one could trunk chop a Hinoki. I assume that you always had a branch with foliage below the chops. I've had a Hinoki for 7 years and still don't feel confident caring for it.

Thanks for posting.

steveb wrote:Excellent point Vance -  and excellent tree as well.  I wouldn't have dreamed one could trunk chop a Hinoki.  I assume that you always had a branch with foliage below the chops.  I've had a Hinoki for 7 years and still don't feel confident caring for it.

Thanks for posting.

They tend you make you feel that way even after more than twenty years.  They just seem so fragile.  I started working on another one this year.  I picked up this one at the show in New York this summer.  I just realized that the picture is too large so I will have to resize it and post later.

Vance Wood wrote:The point being that you should reduce the height of this tree and start working on developing a bigger trunk.

no thanks

armetisius wrote:

Vance Wood wrote:The point being that you should reduce the height of this tree and start working on developing a bigger trunk.

no thanks

You're right on this tree, all of the lower growth has been cut and removed or jined.  There is nothing to chop to.  With all trees that are conifers you need to chop to active growth, chopping to a bare trunk will only make a dead tree especially with a Hinoki.  But this is what happens when one jumps the gun and tries to style a pleasing bonsai out of something that is more an object of raw material needing the kind of process I described.

If the original poster still has growth at the bottom the possibility is still there. If a current photo could be posted it would be helpful.

Vance you are so right.
That is the way it should have been developed.
However, I have NO growth closer down to work from
except the halo of small shoots around the bottom that
can be seen in the 1st and 2nd pics. All the branches
that were bundled up in the pillow cases have either
had an air-layer applied or been cut, without mercy,
for cuttings to start some more plants.
Why?
When pulled up into an upright position they were
either even, or even higher up, than the foliage levels
that I left on the tree. Bought it more to have for a
mother plant than to use but given the bad shape it
was in it was the only way this POS could go. I know
Hinoki are NOT good candidates for literati but it was
cheap and see #5 & 6 below. (Mainly 6)
Perhaps some particulars.
1) Above the halo will be layered off in a few years separating this tree off to itself.
2)The real tree I wanted, the back trunk [above a horrible problem with the trunk] already has its layer on.
3)That is a three gallon not a one. That tree is over 4 feet tall.
4)It will end up a very poor mockery of a literati in my front yard.
4b)Got a nine foot Southern Indica azalea [becoming a 3 foot tall x 5 foot wide windswept] for the same reasons listed below.
5)It is over 200 ft to the road and anything out front is easy game.
5b)There are about 60 bored high schoolers in my general vicinity
5c)If one of them steals something from the front yard to "impress" some skirt I have lost nothing anyway.
6)It was fun and satisfied my "clipper itch" at the time.

This being posted at all can only be blamed on good Bourbon.

Having assumed all of that if I might; you ought to consider putting a few bends in the trunk and some movement in the branches. Hinoki make very good Literati bonsai, the only problem is that the style in itself is one of the most difficult to pull off. Many people head down that road and find that they can't seem to get there from here. You need to study every example of the style you can locate until you see them in your sleep then you might be able to pull this one off. You really can do this with this tree.

armetisius wrote:This being posted at all can only be blamed on good Bourbon.

and theres nothing wrong with that !

My first priority would be to discourage those 60 kids from coming near my trees.
Eat one or two and the rest will surely stay away.
A nasty reputation and a German Shepherd keeps everyone out of my yard.

M. Frary wrote:  My first priority . . . kids . . .

Can't even use them for target practice anymore.

M. Frary wrote: . . . Eat one or two and the rest will surely stay away. . .

Tried to clean one of these recently?

M. Frary wrote: . . . A nasty reputation and a German Shepherd keeps everyone out of my yard.

Has for me for years too. But they won't let me shoot at them outside anymore.

I don't clean them anymore. Just eat them raw.
But seriously. It's too late once the trees leave the yard.
Need to be proactive. Motion sensor lights and a German Shepherd work well in unison.
Lights come on let the dog out. It's deer that try to get my trees and set off the lights.