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With the basic trunklines now established, I decided to spend the next couple of years concentrating on thickening the trunks with the use of sacrifice branches and starting the process of building the branch structure.
During the growing seasons of 2006 and 2007 several long sacrifice shoots were grown from each of the five trunks to help thicken each of the them. Each of these sacrifice shoots eventually reached approx a metre in length before being removed.
August 2007: The bonsai has taken several major leaps forward; 18 months after the previous image was taken and I have just removed the sacrifice shoots and rewired the branches.
During the Winter of 2006 I had also gone back over my initial carving and further refined my work. The differences in the carved areas are subtle but bring a little more delicacy to the overall design.
For the following years I intend to continue improving the branch structure while thickening some of the trunks with the use of further sacrifice branches. The height of the tree is now 19"/48cm
This image shows how I have 'carved taper' into the stump that the largest tree grows from.
During the Winter of 2008/2009 the smallest 'trunk' died leaving 4 remaining trunks. As with the rules that govern group plantings, an even number of trunks create too symmetry in the design. So during I decided to reduce the total number of trunks to just 3 and allow the foliage of each remaining trunk to fill out.
On reflection I am pleased with the result despite the decision being forced by the death of one of the trunks.
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The back-right corner of the bonsai in detail
Detail image of the centre of the tree
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The Privet bonsai as seen from the back........
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.........and the left hand side