As you probably know, I have a two foot pine in a 10-inch bulb pan. It has a
very skinny trunk, which I wired last year, but still has a couple of 1-degree
s-curves. It is intended as a more or less formal upright. It has 4 long skinny
branches. It is budding back a little, but will take at least another year to
look like anything. Since it is already budding back on the trunk, I hope to
get it down to 18" with a few more branches. The branches should bud back & get
a little shorter. Would it be appropriate to put s-curves in the branches to
make them shorter & bulkier? What is the minimum number of branches I will need
to make it look like a tree (albeit a symbolic one)? I am trying to get more of
a very understated Chinese effect, rather than a lush Japanese type. If the
tree winds up at 18" tall, how long should the bottom branch be? Since it is 6"
up the trunk & I don't expect any back budding below that, I have the branches
in an exaggerated downsweep.
This is intended as the Great Tree of Peace of the Iroquois, which is usually
depicted in a very stylized way.
Iris,
Central NY, Zone 5a, Sunset Zone 40
"If we see light at the end of the tunnel, It's the light of the oncoming
train."
Robert Lowell (1917-1977)