Fukinaoshi - Wax Myrtle Style

In my mack yard I have a huge Wax Myrtle.  These evergreen shrubs are very common in southeast Texas.    I've been battling with the idea that I need to do something with it.  It was leaning against my fence, and with every gust of wind, slowly destroying it.  So after some thought, I went to Fukinaoshi town on it.  For those that don't know, Fukinaoshi is the Japanese term to "re-do."  I cut this shrub back hard with the exception of one branch which I've been training to grow horizontal for about a year.

Wax Myrtle cut back hard

With the brown wood back ground the post-fukinaoshi shrub is hardly visible.  If you look to the left of the picture you can see the branch that's being trained.  You might want to also notice the off shoots which I'm training as well.

Wax Myrtle Japanese Garden Tree

To the right is what I hope to create.  It shouldn't be a huge leap seeing as how these shrubs are fast growers.  As each new sprout shoots up, I'll clip them in just the right spot creating more and more off shoots.  I hope that within a year, this shrub has a mature interesting look.

Project $5 Chinese Loropetalum / UPDATE: 6/11/12

UPDATE: This guy is going into shock pretty hard - hope it survives. Any advice?
Cheap nursery stock is about all I can afford.  Even if I could afford more I doubt I would.  I'm very new at creating bonsai trees so I'd hate to purchase a specimen at full price, only to shock it to death through my amateur hands.  So what do I do?  I troll local nurseries waiting for sales, and this brings us to my Chinese Loropetalum.  Normally this 10-gallon plant would have sold for at least $40 but I bought it for $5.

Cheap Nursery Stock - Chinese Loropetalum

I have a couple large Loropetalum in my front yard.  They are pretty much out of control, but my wife really loves them because they are a purple island in a sea of green plants and grass.  This evergreen shrub has purple leaves most of the year, and pink spider leg like flowers throughout the spring and fall.  

Now to be sure, the nursery didn't just give this away - it was somewhat in bad shape plus they needed to make room.  But when I look for trees or shrubs I look for interesting characteristics.  This guy had a great trunk/stem.  It was distorted and kinked, and with a little training and lots of time, it has the potential to be a great bonsai...eventually.  So here we go...

With time...comes a little progress

Once this bush drew my distain.  But after cutting it back hard last fall, allowing it to grow and train, it has become one of my favorite.  With the background being mostly green, I highlighted the edges to show the

tree's true shape.  I don't know the name of this shrub, but it grows very fast, and easy to train.  Just to the left, there is another one but it's shape is lacking.  I'll have to cut it back soon.

Front Yard - Japanese Garden

I finally got around to the canvas that is my front yard.  Yes, I've done a few things to it here and there with regards to Japanese Garden style.  For example, I have a couple bushes, unsure of the type, in a portion of my front yard.  They were here when my wife and I bought the house.  I hated them, even removed three out of five.  But once I started really getting interested in the Japanese Gardens i thought I'd try and give them a chance.  So I conducted a little Fukinaoshi, and hacked them back pretty hard.  Additionally, I started pruning a couple trees with my garden style in mind.  

Committing Fukinaoshi!

Ok.  The past weekend, after the holidays and my son's birthday, I started on my trees.  Living in The Woodlands, there are plenty of trees on my property.  None of them can be described as a Japanese Garden tree, although several are being trained.  The picture below is of a young juvenile pine tree, possibly a Slash or Loblolly pine.

I will continue with the pruning and training. I've conducted a little Fukinaoshi on this pine. For those of you that don't know, Fukinaoshi is the Japanese practice and mean's to "re-do."  I have taken off a large portion of this pine's vertical branches. This is a before picture - more picture to come.  Any suggestions would be helpful.

The Bonsai Attempt

Ok so as I stated in a previous post, I purchased a relatively small Juniper plant for around pennies on the dollar - a common theme around my house.  As I perused the plant collection at a local garden center, I was searching for a specimen that stood out.  One that had a thick interesting distorted trunk, and long arching limbs so that I can start my "cascading" Bonsai.

It doesn't look like much but through my untrained western eye I believe it has potential.  I took a gander at the trunk, one of the thinker ones in the collection.  It had a couple of offshoots that bent up and down, twisted to and fro.  A couple of the limbs, as you can see in the picture above, are fairly long and have already started their descent.  To me, this was a blank slat.  First things first, I had to get it out of the plastic container, and into something a little more appealing - something that would also show off the tree.

Bonsai - Attempt

Ok, yesterday I purchased a cheap Juniper from a local garden center.  At $8.99 I think it was a steal.  What I am going to attempt to do is train it into a Bonsai, this will of course take time.  Now the difference between a Bonsai tree, and Japanese garden tree is that one is in the ground, one is in the pot.

I will be reviewing some guidelines and techniques via http://www.bonsaiempire.com/ so wish me luck.  Below is a wonderful example of the "cascade" style of Bonsai using a Juniper.