Amur Maple Virtual

Peering out at the grey sky, I'm becoming anxious for spring. Here in Wisconsin, it will be quite awhile before the change of the season. With this in mind, I'm posting one of my Acer ginnalas (Amur Maple). I did this "virtual" of my proposed future for the tree. I bought the tree late fall at a nursery when all the end of season sales happen. I first began digging in the nursery pot to remove about an inch and a half of soil to see the most important part, the roots and basal flare where the taper between trunk and roots occur. Analysis of this region helps dictate the future design of the tree. Pleasing taper of trunk and strong, well arranged radial roots on the surface help to sell the image of a tree that is aged as this arrangement makes the tree appear that it is gripping the earth with a solid footing. The tree was grown as a shrub with multiple trunks(as this species often is). It stands about 5 feet tall but 90% of it is useless in my design. Early spring I will trunk chop at or near the black lines and regrow a single trunk. The new potting angle will probably be rotated 10 or 15 degrees clockwise as seen and will help "open" up some of the angles of the trunk. Since the time at which these shots were taken, I have potted up to a 5 gallon nursery pot from the 3 gallon seen here to help encourage rapid growth and more trunk girth. This tree will not see a bonsai pot for many years and will probably take about 10 years to reach the virtual shown. Hopefully during the course the bark will develop a patina which will help make it look like an aged maple. In the meantime my focus will be growing a trunk. Once that is achieved, then I will focus on branches, refinement, and ramification.