hello all

New to bonzai and trying to modify some plants destined for the bin in a garden shake up at my new home.

I have this bush which I dug up and pruned back the roots. Its trunk has been warped due to the difficult spot it was placed in (hence also the strange lop-sided foliage). I love the shape of the trunk and the curves and I like the way the foliage drops low on the left side but the rest of it seems out of kilter. I dont want to over prune and kill it. Please can someone advise what is the best way to approach this? (ie what branches shall I cut away?)

the bush is feet high and 3 feet across. It is a pieris japonica and very healthy considering its has been mostly neglected.

I love it!
Plenty of potential to be a good bonsai.
I would chop the whole right part of the tree, at the junction .
The right first branch/trunk looks grafted, is it so?

Hi! No it isnt a graft but I can see how it looks that way. It grew funny apparently because of its poor location.
When you say cut of the right at the junction do you mean the right-hand "trunk" (sorry for being so clueless)

I would focus on getting this healthy in the pot. Howlong has it been in this pot?
Only after it gets established do you know what part lives and what part survives. So you could thin out the foliage all over the plant, removing some of the longer branches. I am not sure how well pieris responds to pruning. So in my situation I would go slow and give the plant plenty of time before i did any real work on it. And when I say slow, wait till next year early summer.

a new pot is a definate so yes lets focus on getting it healthy Shall I just prune off all the foliage then as we approach autumn.

jersey steve wrote: Shall I just prune off all the foliage then as we approach autumn.

No let it get healthy first. You could reduce the foliage a bit. But leave it alone for the most part.