Early in December, I decided to swing by Evergreen to grab another honeysuckle. I really loved how mine was turning out and was impressed by the rapid growth. This is bad boy I brought home.

I really like that right trunk, and I thought I might be able to separate that left trunk and get a 2 for 1!

Goodness, those are some dense roots. It took a good amount of time to detangle them and gently pry the two trunks apart. This is how you get exercise through gardening.

And my prizes! You can see that the left guy, the smaller trunk, has far less roots. But, he still lived through the winter.

I wasn’t ready to work on these guys quite yet. I wanted to let them rest from the stress of repotting, and I didn’t quite see what I should do with them yet.

But now it is nearly a month later. They have both survived trauma of travel! With a new burst of inspiration, I got to work on them.

 

See how you can barely see that other branch from the left photo? That’s why I decided to go with the right photo front. That furthest left branch is bad right now- it is too low to be the first branch for a bonsai, so chop chop. I also used a brass brush to help clean up the bark.

 

That left branch is far too angular, so I will try to smooth out the curve. The main trunk (on the right) already has a good curve, so I will let that be for now. I will thin out the top foliage and branches. Hopefully, new branches and foliage will push out further down on the main trunk. This will help with the proportions of the tree.

In my valiant effort to smooth out the left branch, it snapped beyond hope of repair. Oh well. It happens.

Because this guy is still in a plastic pot, I was able to cut a small hole in it to poke the remaining wire down, like a guy wire. This will give that branch some nice curve. The top is okay, but I am mainly relying on lower foliage to push through. Looks pretty good compared to the initial mess, though!

Now for the other guy.

This guy isn’t nearly as exciting. But hey, I kinda got him for free.

Even though that left branch is silly and will not make the final cut (tee hee hee), I will leave it for now. This is called a sacrifice branch- when you leave a branch that will not end up in the final tree, but that you leave in the training process in order to help thicken up the trunk.

There wasn’t a whole lot to do with the other side except for thin out the wacky branches. I am also hoping for some foliage to push through lower on this trunk too.

Here he is after a good haircut. Still don’t have a huge plan in mind, but let’s see how he grows out. Also, I don’t really have a front picked out.