Chamaecyparis pisifers -- clump style - update

This is a rescue -- from a dried out potted plant left at a property we own. It had been planted in almost pure peat and didn't appear to have been watered for weeks. Pic 1 is from 2009, shortly after it was put into its new pot.



It looked like this yesterday:



I did some thinning, removed a branch or two, and here it is today:



I'm no fan of clump style bonsai, but there seems to be no other choice with his one.

Suggestions welcomed. Does it need to lose any more branches?

I don't know the species, but it seems to bud back very poorly, so I can't really shorten it much, can I?

Thanks for any assistance.

Jim

This is crude, but I was thinking go for a multi-trunk rather than a clump and thin out the clutter let me see through the tree 'less is more' kind of thing-but yeah this is a tough one to be sure! But there is potential there I'm sure of it. Good on you for the rescue!

Well, I'd thought of that, but it doesn't ring my chimes, either. Chances are if I don't start liking it a bit better than I do currently it will end up "rescued" to the yard somewhere.

Hi Jim
If Chamaecyparis pisifera, not with the growing problem. You need to constantly light between the branches and new buds will grow back in the old wood. But I look more as the Thuja occidentalis Rheingold. It would be a bigger problem with growing.

Gretings Pavel

Hi gang, I was thinking the same Pavel, but I'm a bit shy about crossing Jim, he's a real sharpshooter. I kept looking at the tree with question, my C. pisifera are blue. This Thuja looks more like Jims tree, it's an occidentalis 'Rheingold'. Beautiful recovery on the tree, Jim, and I do like clumps even though they're out of favor.

Well, my ID was just a guess. It could well be C.o. 'Rheingold'. It is one of the horticultural colored sports -- which I usually avoid.

I'll look more carefully at this one and see if I can find a two-trunk design in there somewhere, but I really doubt I can get backbudding down the trunks to look like anything.

I let it grow out some more, then trimmed and wired again. After creating several virtuals, I decided on a narrower shape by eliminating several small lower branches, leaving short jins in some cases. I wired and repositioned several trunks, lowered branches, and plucked and trimmed the foliage.

A definite improvement, Jim! It now looks more like a clump of trees, and less like a landscape shrub. I like it.
Oliver