This was a garden centre shrub that was bought in January 2012. I’d heard of the variety before and knew of someone else who had a Fuji Cherry bonsai. After having a poke around the based of the trunk at the centre decided that it would be a suitable subject for bonsai training. I wanted to repot before flowering, so I immediately reduced the rootball by approximately half and put it into an Ian Bailie pot that I had spare and really liked.  Unfortunately I failed to take a ‘before’ photo so this first photo shows the foliage reduced significantly too.

Spring 2012 Oversized Ian Bailie pot to accomodate large root mass.

To me the tree looked great but to other more experienced members of the Northern Ireland Bonsai Society pointed out that it looked very much like a shrub and that the tree would need to be significantly reduced…