any advice on how to design my tree

greetings jun and everyone! i'm a newbie. i'm a novice bonsai enthusiast and i am very grateful that i have found this site hoping for enlightenment.

can someone help me design my tree (Casuarina equisetifolia), if possible virtual design please.

i have some questions:
all my bonsai are (yamadori),collected from the wild. after planting my materials into the training pot, how long would it take before i do pruning and wiring? also, how to shorten the needles of the casuarina?
thank you all in advance.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4154/5441410766_69fa6b28f0_s.jpg

It would be very helpful if you could post a larger picture that the one currently showing as it's quite difficult to see and this might make it impossible for people to create virtuals.

Hope you get good responses.

Hi.
definitely needs bigger picture.
try to post again please.

regards,
jun

Where is "Bicol?" I assume it to be the one in the Philippines?

At any rate, one usually gives a collected tree tree at least a year to recuperate. It could be less, I suppose in the tropics.

Casuarina have leaves ("needles") that are segmented. If you look closely you should see the segmentation. Thy break cleanly at the segments (just pull on them). I've been told that breaking them apart is better than cutting them.

JimLewis wrote:Where is "Bicol?" I assume it to be the one in the Philippines?

At any rate, one usually gives a collected tree tree at least a year to recuperate. It could be less, I suppose in the tropics.

Casuarina have leaves ("needles") that are segmented. If you look closely you should see the segmentation. Thy break cleanly at the segments (just pull on them). I've been told that breaking them apart is better than cutting them.

Bicol is in the southern part of the philippines.
Definitely no "leaves" cutting, they will turn ugly brown if cut. pinch them.

you can wire the tree in just 5 months otherwise the branches will turn too stiff to be wired. but do not cut the tips of the branch to gain good size of branch easily, after 8 to twelve months you can cut the the branch based on your design. While under going this process you can style the secondary branches by selecting the small branches along the the primary branches, and let it grow long too. remove the other leaves growing on the primary branches as this will turn into smaller branches too when neglected and will affect the growth of the main branch.

As for the design,,,,post a bigger picture.
regards,
jun

greetings, this photograph is the larger version of the casuarina i sent before.

the softdrink bottle is a 1-liter

thank you jim
jun is correct, bicol is in the southern part of the philippines. region 5. where in the infamous mayon volcano is a tourist attraction.

regards,

to jun,
we are having difficulty uploading the pictures

thanks for viewing

What a fantastic base! I wold have to spend a lot of time with this tree before deciding where to go with it. My first thought is to mimic the dynamic curve (jin), in the base, with the growing branch. I am sure you will be able to get some good suggestions on this forum. Perhaps someone will be able to create virtuals to assist you.
Best, Todd

A couple of choices open to you are to design those long side branches into a weeping style, or to shorten them all considerably and wire it into a more standard Casuarina shape. Both would make nice bonsai.

There may well be many other choices, too. We'd need to see the tree from all sides first.

Enjoy working on this one -- and don't pay too much attention to what we say. It's your tree.