Flow. In bonsai we need it, and we need it early. We have to decide ‘Right’ or ‘Left’ at the very beginning when crafting our trees, or we could land in a real aesthetic pickle. Flow is the direction the asymmetry of the tree moves, and is essential when it comes to linking the future bonsai to other elements, not just in display, but the interrelationships on your benches or posts, too.

This White Pine had some very long lower branches, and so the first part of this adventure was removing them so that the smaller, more promising upper branches could be used in the new design.