Hey guys! I have bought an alberta spruce recently that I pruned and wired just to get the impression of shape. And to be honest, I'm not fan of what I have so far. It's my first tree of that kind and size and kind of lost on what to do and I'm scared to doing anything ugly or harmful.

How it looks so far



Here are sketches of ideas I had



I like A but I'm not sure that the left leader will be as bendable as I want it to.

For B and C, I'm not sure how my spruce wil behave and grow new branches, I never attempted that.

Any recommandations?

P.S. I know it goes outside, I brought it inside temporarly

To be honest its a little too late to think about design after removing more than half of the foliage. I cannot help to think what it could have been with a more careful approach.

All you can do right now is to care for it as good as possible and hope it makes it. If it does, in 2-3 years you can take the next step. Then remember this thread. Make a plan first, then start working.

What is good to know about spruce is that its virtually impossible to set the branches with wire. As soon as you take the wire away they go back to original location. Because of that they are best grown as formal upright trees. The best approach is to select branches for direction rather than placement. Selectivly pruning branches that are pointing upwards or are too far from the trunk. It is really hard to know from a wellgrown tree where you will end up with. So most das dont really make beautiful trees. But they are fun to play with.

That's good to know, even cutting off the trunk like in the A sketch wouldn't do it? Like, isn't it suppose to grow new braches from there?

I'm new to bonsai, some concepts are still blurry in my head.

I think you allready cut too much. Plant health must allways go first. Any design is second. Let it recover.

With that beeing said. Design wise judging from a two dimensional picture I would concider cutting the left leader. Just not now. And you havent choosen first defining branch yet. That should be the first concideration. But now is too late. Again, recover and get back to full health should be the priority now.

I did more or less the same thing as you two years ago with my first das. I still look at the tree with some regrets. It is still not ready for any corrective actions. But it is a good learning and I tend to keep all my early trees despite all misstakes, just as a reminder. I might have to get rid of some sooner or later as benches start to fill up.

I understand thank you, that makes sense and it doesn't make me mad to be honest, I'm ready to face similar disappointment with almost all of my tree as part as my learning steps.

I do believe that bonsai caring will help improve my patience and reduce the stress from unrevertable decision taking. So I guess it's a first lesson here.

I removed the wires from it and I will try to keep alive. This is already a challenge on it's own for someone who isn't experience in horticulture as I am.

Yes, patience is the key!

I wrote no more work on the tree. That means nothing at all besides watering. I did not wrote take the wire off, which would be considered working on the tree. I am sorry if my non native english is not clear enough. Now let the tree recover. No more work. Do not put the wire back

I am working on a spruce for almost 5 years now, slowly reducing height and width. To become a trustworthy bonsai the foliage needs to be close to the trunk , so the ratio trunk/branches/height feels right in our head. If you look outside you can immediately tell if it’s an old or a young tree. Ask yourself why and look at the branches, trunks and the way they are placed.
A spruce backbuds easily so it’s possible to get the needles closer tot the trunk. But that means years of carefull pruning on the exact right moment.
And please don’t place it inside..

Edit: I leave the wire on almost the entire year, if I take it off the next day ( literally) all the branches will be back to their original position. Horticulturally speaking , any idea why? ( not trying to be a wise nose, but if you understand why trees do what they to you are already one step further )

lucR wrote:

Edit: I leave the wire on almost the entire year, if I take it off the next day ( literally) all the branches will be back to their original position. Horticulturally speaking , any idea why? ( not trying to be a wise nose, but if you understand why trees do what they to you are already one step further )

Spruces are very stubborn. And flexible. Horticulturally speaking, this is a feature of spruce trees. Spruces thrive in climates with cold winters and lots of snow. In the winter, snow bends the branches down, the branches bend a lot, but don't break. Come spring, the branches spring back, reaching for the sun. Pine branches break under heavy snow loads.