I don't know much about bonsai (yet), but I do have a 90 year old Magnolia
in my front yard. It's been pruned over the years to keep the branches about
10 ft above ground. it has been watered and cared for. It's about 50 ft high
with a canopy of about 40 ft.

It has "knots" and "woody spots" and a few squirrel nests, too. We love it;
people actually slow their cars to get a look.

4 (almost 5 generations) and one tree.
camo




"April1201" wrote in message
...
I took the leaves off my little tree (magnolia, 12 years old) yesterday
and had
a long look at the bare tree. It has more knots and woody spots than I
thought. It started to upset me, thinking I hadn't done a very good job,
then
I realized "what does it matter?" It's my tree, with my vision, and it
looks
good to me.

It has a main trunk, with nice roots if I may say so myself. The trunk
branches
into two main branches, with one (the taller of the two) branching into
two.
From those branches are smaller branches. The back is full and rounded
and
I've made the front sort of flat.

It truly does look like a miniature tree. Not a bonsai following bonsai
rules,
but a smaller version of a tree. I look at that tree and think that by
now it
should tower over my head and the leaves should be four times the size and
look
at it's present size and think "wow, I did it."

I like my tree, knots and all. My teenage son helped me with the leaves
and
some light pruning. He asked how I kept it small was interested. I'm
going to
teach him more so he can have the tree and the two to three others I'm
going to
start on when I leave this earth.