Hello my name is Stuart, I am a rank senior[80] beginner . I have started 2 nursery trees and have started working on them. I realize how rough they look,but any help or critique would help me to go forward,because I really enjoy doing this and would like to continue on this very beautiful way of expressing my self in my later years. Thank you.

Hello ,aren’t you hearing my pleads for help

I think people are more found of helping beginnerd before the work is done than telling them what they did wrong afterwards. I did spend some time guidning you before the work was started. You may benefit from reading that post again a few times better than reading this post once. But you asked for it.

The biggest misstake done here was proboably in the nurcery selecting suitable materials. From there you had the odds against you.

For the uprights, generally, to transfer a tree from nurcery stock to a miniature of a mature tree in the initial styling involves reducing hight and heavy branches. In these attempts it looked like you kept the hight and heavy branches which actually reduced your chanse of creating something nice in a resonable time. Most beginners do that, me 7 years ago included. Some of my first styled tree are not ready for final pot and design yet while some much later atempts are. The most important proportions to consider in initial styling is about hight vs thickness, branch thickness vs trunk thickness and hight vs width.

For the cascading trees on top of that you made another very comon misstake in using the trunk as cascading. Nice mature cascades have a small wind exposed apex and a cascading branch. Not that it is impossible to create a nice cascading trunk, just that it is so much harder and takes a lot more time.

I understand that your age makes you want to hurry. But I think taking your time in selecting the right starter materials and plan the work better will take you to a better tree faster. I call it hurry slowly. Spending more time when doing the work and plan better for the future. Development happens inbetween your work sessions, not during them.

For now, do not take my post as you should go back and continue working on them. These trees needs to recover for a few years. Instead my suggestion is to study how to select materials in the garden center, get some new trees and try again.

There is a small youtube creator that focus on your target group. Tom from grow and clip bonsai for seniors. Get yourself a nice cup of tea and sit down and browse his content, you may find some inspirations and ideas.

Good luck

Thanks for getting back to me,I appreciate your criticism. I will leave the upright tree ( beyond help). I would like to think I could do something with the cascading tree. When I look at it I don’t think I should just let it go,maybe let it grow and fill out. And then seek your help again. Thanks again Stuart.

I do not think you should let any of the trees go and I do not think they are beyond help. If there is life there is potential still.

I agree that the cascading one have more potential. It can be saved next year by reducing the trunk at the small green growth and use one of the low branches as a new cascade. But please, do not do it now. It may kill it. Grow it for a year and do it after recovery.