She is a pre-bonsai, I believe they just cut everything to fit her easily in the box. I want to train the branches down a bit.

Here is what I have done so far, now I will leave her grow for 3 months. She is only 5.5 inches tall, so I have room to work.

I edited my last post instead of adding a new one.

Anyway - I added new photos of the trim and wire I did yesterday. No major pruning -- just a bit of defoliating.

Photos are in the previous post

Great work. You should be happy with the progress so far.

Ya its looking a lot better now

She is growing pretty steady now. I have been pinching off the growth I don't want.

Hey Angie,
This is just my opinion but I think you are trying to do too much to this tree, too soon.defoliation and wiring at the same time is very stressful. I would let it rest now. let it grow and regain strength.
It's looking good though

I agree with pinkham. Its always good to let a tree recover after some stress. I've been reading through some bonsai books and came across a great tip for a tree with leggy trunks, (long straight trunks without branches) you can add some character to the lower section of the tree.

This can be done by ring barking the base of the trunk and applying rooting hormone and then you would ensure that soil is surrounding the area for root growth. This can be done by using a small plastic pot. You need to cut a side through to the center and put the pot upside down around the trunk, all you need to do then is full the pot with soil and keep it moist to ensure root growth.

Im not sure if you so keen on this idea but i put this post up here so that other people can take note too. Think of it as an airlayer, but you not cutting any branch off, all you do is wash away the surrounding soil.

I'm doing that right now with my privet. I have a thread here about it somewhere. That might be an option, but I think she's on the right track by wiring the branches down.
Pot layering this tree would take a while to do. I started the privet last spring, and will separate it from the trunk this spring. The suspense is killing me. haha

I hope your privet has grown nice roots, are you going to slowly wash away the soil with water? You must defiantly post pics of the process on bonsai empire

I have only pinched 3-4 leaves off in the last 3 weeks. I wired her a month ago. This is my first successful Bonsai so I plan on letting her grow without too much experimentation.

I think I actually see a red bud growing toward the top. I will post a pic if it gets bigger.

All your ideas are excellent and I will try many of them once I am settled in Missouri next month. I will most likely wash the roots on this tree then. I didn't do much to the roots whn I got her in the mail the beginning of January. Just replanted her.

The tree was root bound in the previous pot.